Long-term jobless worse off in UK

Long-term unemployed people in Britain are worse off than their German or Swedish counterparts, leaving them less able to afford basic necessities such as food, a study shows today.

Many of those who have been out of work for more than a year in Britain are in serious debt, saying they cannot afford to pay household bills. And many have also turned to undeclared working for cash in hand to top up their benefit payments to survive.

The report - Long-term Unemployment and the Threat of Social Exclusion - said long-term unemployed people in the three European countries felt "lonely, isolated and stigmatised" compared with the rest of society, and had lost their self-respect. But the situation in Britain is even worse than that in Germany or Sweden, the study published by the Policy Press, in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, concluded. "While there is some evidence of `social exclusion' in Sweden and Germany, it is more visible and more widespread in Britain," the report said.

Britons are also more worried about the stigmatising effect them being out of work will have on their children. In Britain, lower benefits are paid for shorter periods of time and so unemployed people suffer more than their European counterparts, whose benefit payments are income-related and based on insurance principles, the study found.