City scheme helps 11,000 find a job in Scotland

 

© Evening Times Originally published: 20/10/2005

A DRIVE to get Glasgow back to work has led to 11,000 people coming off benefits.

The total is much higher than the target set by the Welfare to Work Forum launched two years ago to tackle the city's chronic unemployment problem.

The scheme, aimed at finding jobs for 30,000 people by 2010, was hailed as a success by forum chairman Jim McColl.

The original target was to get 15,000 back to work by 2007 but Mr McColl said the forum was on course to exceed that target.

It is thought many of the 11,000 who have found jobs over the past two years were long-term unemployed.

Around 15-per cent of Glasgow's working-age population are claiming Incapacity Benefit - twice the national average.

Glasgow was named the benefits capital of Scotland by a report out last month. It said more workers in the city were claiming Incapacity Benefit - one in seven people - than anywhere else in Scotland.

Glasgow also had the fourth highest percentage of workers in the UK claiming the payment.

A separate report showed Glasgow people received a total of GBP316million a year in Incapacity Benefit - more than in any other UK city - and accounted for 2-per cent of all Britons signed on the sick.

As revealed by the Evening Times on Monday, European officials visited a project in Roystonhill aimed at getting more than 110,000 working-age adults out of poverty.

The Full Employment Areas Initiative, launched in 2002, has helped 300 people find work or training in three pilot areas:

Rosehill, parts of Roystonhill, and Wellhouse, Greater Easterhouse.

It is run by Glasgow community development group CEiS and funded by the city council, the Executive and the EU. Copycat projects have sprung up all over Britain.

The latest statistics come in the wake of warnings of a skills shortage in Scotland, especially in the construction industry.