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The low-pay, no-pay cycle: Understanding recurrent poverty
Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published a report looking at how and why people become trapped in a long-term cycle of low-paid jobs and unemployment.
The key points found were
* Despite moving in and out of unemployment and low-paid jobs over years, people in the study expressed great and enduring commitment to work.
* Repeated engagement in jobs failed to provide routes away from poverty, largely because of few opportunities being available in the local job market.
* The insecurity of low-paid and low-quality work was the main reason why shuttling between benefits and jobs had been interviewees’ predominant experience of working life.
* This cycling in and out of low-paid work extended to middle-aged and not just younger workers. Thus, these jobs are not necessarily stepping stones to better employment.
* Caring for children and other family members limited labour market participation, as did health problems. Ill-health was sometimes the result of ‘poor work’ and unemployment. Wider aspects of disadvantage beyond the labour market led interviewees to lose and leave jobs.
* Financial necessity, their desire to work and the lack of better opportunities led people to take poor quality jobs that trapped them in long-term insecurity and poverty.