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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'"><span style="font-size: 11pt">Illiterate school-leavers and workless households are destabilising UK economy, says European Commission</span></span>
By HUGO DUNCAN
PUBLISHED: 15:12 GMT, 30 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:57 GMT, 30 May 2012
Illiterate school leavers and workless households are causing long-term damage to the British economy, a hard-hitting report warned yesterday.
Poor educational standards and a benefits culture in the UK pose one of the biggest threats to the recovery in the UK, according to the European Commission.
The report found that the failure to make work pay for single mothers and those on benefits meant nearly two million children were growing up in idle households where no one has a job - making it less likely that they will ever work.
It raised particular concerns over ‘weak work incentives’ which deter the unemployed from moving off benefits into low-paid jobs.
Brussels said it posed a major risk to the health of the British economy as the country - reeling from the first double-dip recession since 1975 - struggles to compete on a global stage.
The Commission warned that ‘UK economic activity is expected to remain subdued’ and that the main risks in the short-term include the eurozone and high oil prices.
But some of the biggest challenges facing Britain in the long-term were around education, unemployment and welfare.
‘There is a persistently large number of functionally illiterate and innumerate adults in the UK, usually with no qualifications,’ the report said.
‘The UK continues to have to have too many people with low skills. The economic costs of this problem are likely to increase over time if it is not effectively addressed.’
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of low-skilled jobs in Britain is expected to fall by 51 per cent while medium and high-skilled jobs will increase by 16 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
‘The UK has an oversupply of low-skilled workers for whom demand is falling and a shortage of workers with high-quality vocational and technical skills,’ said the report.
‘The UK also continues to have a relatively high number of adults with very poor basic literacy and numeracy skills, who are not well placed to benefit from vocational training.’
It added that Britain ‘has higher levels of early school leavers than the EU average’ - up 3.3 percentage points to 14.9 per cent since 2005.
Unemployment is expected to rise from the current level of 8.2 per cent to 8.5 per cent this year, according to forecasters in Brussels.
‘A cap on the total amount of benefit that can be claimed could boost incentives to work,’ it added.
There are now 1.9 million children living in households where no one works, or 17.9 per cent of children, the second highest rate in Europe and almost twice the European average and that in France and Germany.
‘The lack of high quality and affordable childcare also contributes to the high proportion of workless households,’ said the report.
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<span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">When he was merely Tory leader, David Cameron was 'shot in the back' by a teenage thug as he visited a crime-ridden council estate in Manchester. Illiterate school-leavers and the workshy remain a serious problem</span></span>
By HUGO DUNCAN
PUBLISHED: 15:12 GMT, 30 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:57 GMT, 30 May 2012
Illiterate school leavers and workless households are causing long-term damage to the British economy, a hard-hitting report warned yesterday.
Poor educational standards and a benefits culture in the UK pose one of the biggest threats to the recovery in the UK, according to the European Commission.
The report found that the failure to make work pay for single mothers and those on benefits meant nearly two million children were growing up in idle households where no one has a job - making it less likely that they will ever work.
It raised particular concerns over ‘weak work incentives’ which deter the unemployed from moving off benefits into low-paid jobs.
Brussels said it posed a major risk to the health of the British economy as the country - reeling from the first double-dip recession since 1975 - struggles to compete on a global stage.
The Commission warned that ‘UK economic activity is expected to remain subdued’ and that the main risks in the short-term include the eurozone and high oil prices.
But some of the biggest challenges facing Britain in the long-term were around education, unemployment and welfare.
‘There is a persistently large number of functionally illiterate and innumerate adults in the UK, usually with no qualifications,’ the report said.
‘The UK continues to have to have too many people with low skills. The economic costs of this problem are likely to increase over time if it is not effectively addressed.’
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of low-skilled jobs in Britain is expected to fall by 51 per cent while medium and high-skilled jobs will increase by 16 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
‘The UK has an oversupply of low-skilled workers for whom demand is falling and a shortage of workers with high-quality vocational and technical skills,’ said the report.
‘The UK also continues to have a relatively high number of adults with very poor basic literacy and numeracy skills, who are not well placed to benefit from vocational training.’
It added that Britain ‘has higher levels of early school leavers than the EU average’ - up 3.3 percentage points to 14.9 per cent since 2005.
Unemployment is expected to rise from the current level of 8.2 per cent to 8.5 per cent this year, according to forecasters in Brussels.
‘A cap on the total amount of benefit that can be claimed could boost incentives to work,’ it added.
There are now 1.9 million children living in households where no one works, or 17.9 per cent of children, the second highest rate in Europe and almost twice the European average and that in France and Germany.
‘The lack of high quality and affordable childcare also contributes to the high proportion of workless households,’ said the report.
Source
<span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">When he was merely Tory leader, David Cameron was 'shot in the back' by a teenage thug as he visited a crime-ridden council estate in Manchester. Illiterate school-leavers and the workshy remain a serious problem</span></span>
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