Danczuk says benefits statistics are wake up call

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, has reacted to news that Rochdale has been reported as having the area with the highest number of benefits claimants in Britain - according to a league table launched at the weekend by the Conservative Party.

The report shows that within the Central and Falinge area of Rochdale, 76 per cent of working age adults are receiving out-of-work benefits.

Mr Danczuk said the figures were a wake-up call for local politicians of all parties and that “an enormous push” was required to tackle a culture of hopelessness by raising aspirations, equipping people with skills for the workplace and making them feel supported and ready to return to work.

“I am concerned that sections of our town have drifted into a benefits culture, with generations of people seeing unemployment as the norm,” he said. “I will be pressing community groups, support services and local people for reasons why these figures are so high.”

He added that plans to raise the school leaving age to 18 by 2013, coupled with a major expansion in apprenticeships was vital to tackle a skills deficit that was holding too many people back from joining the workforce.

“There has to be a strong emphasis on work,” he argued. “Not only does it reduce taxes spent on benefits but it also provides people with a purpose. Work helps structure people’s lives, provides social networks and helps improve their wellbeing. It’s crucial to helping build stronger communities, reducing anti-social behaviour and knitting families and residents together.”

Central Ward Councillor, Ibrar Khan, added that an elderly generation of textile workers had been left behind following the closure of mills and that more support was needed to help them return to work.

“It’s true that a lot of the elderly population feel left on the scrapheap,” he said. “Every single one of these people had a skill and it is not right that they’ve drifted into long-term unemployment as a result of mill closures. It’s an enormous challenge to support and guide people back into the workforce but it’s one that no politician in our town can ignore.”

Mr Danczuk also argued that Rochdale Council’s target of reducing unemployment by 20 per cent by 2013 was too low.

Promising to make job creation and better support to help people back into work a key priority in his campaign to be elected as the town’s MP, Mr Danczuk urged the Liberal Democrats to join him in the challenge to improve people’s lives.

“This issue isn’t just about statistics,” he said. “It’s about real people’s lives and we need to do all we can to enable people to reach their potential – for many on benefits in Rochdale at the moment this just isn’t happening. The Liberal Democrats in Rochdale need to start providing political leadership on this issue by retaining jobs and challenging the senior officers in the town and at Rochdale Development Agency to deliver on what they’re paid to do, which is create a thriving local economy.”

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen said: “There is a direct link between morbidity rates and benefit claims. Successive Labour and Conservative Governments have used incapacity benefits as a means of masking unemployment figures. This is a deep rooted problem and it is clear that people need help and support to get back to work.

"As a Lib Dem Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, I am currently lobbying for a change in the benefit’s system to make it more attractive for people to work and receive positive help and support to get back to work.

"I am keen to ensure that local people take advantage of opportunities like Kingsway Business Park to find work.

"These headlines are not helpful though and it is only by tackling the problems I have identified that we can make a difference.”

Date article online: 17/03/2008