Study into the composition of the live register as at the end of January 2012

51% of those on the Live Register do not receive the full personal rate of 188

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Introduction

Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study was to establish detailed statistics and information about the composition of the live register, who (in terms of demographic) is getting what and whether the unemployment rate of 188 is in fact too generous in the context of how many are actually receiving the full 188 and in the content of the unemployed securing employment given the media often refer to people returning to work as part of the focus on unemployment rates per week being too generous. It was intended that this information, depending on the results, would then be used as a basis for developing a tax policy around the problem of unemployment with the view to kick starting employment growth. Its important to kill the myth that people have such a fantastic lifestyle while in receipt of unemployment benefits that they dont seek employment. Key findings (based on the live register as at the end of January 2012) 1. 51% of those on the live register receive less than the full personal rate of 188 per week with 19% (82,800 people) of the live register receiving nothing. This should not be taken to mean these people are not unemployed. 2. 72% (132,900) of the total long term unemployed figure (183,849) were males with 51% (93,985) of the long term unemployed total aged 25-44. 53% or 70,693 of the long term unemployed males fall into the 25-44 age group. The statistics around males should not be taken to mean all are ex construction workers as there is an excessive focus on that sector to the detriment of people from other work backgrounds. 3. 16,859 individuals were claiming mortgage supplement with 89,435 claiming rent supplement. 4. There was 92,080 long term unemployed single people (for social welfare purposes, i.e. not married, not in a civil partnership and not cohabiting) on the live register with only 78,190 receiving the full personal rate of 188. However, there was 112,928 legally single people on the live register who were long term unemployed.

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Yes, the title of this page is true. Less than half of the live register receives the full personal rate of 188 per week. On the 24th January 2012 I commenced a study of the live register in order to ascertain the true extent to which people on it are receiving the full personal rate of 188 per week that the coalition make alot of play out of and which our bailout providers say is too generous. I asked a series of questions as follows: 1. 2. Total number of people on the live register who are long term unemployed. I can get this number from publicly available information but perhaps you might confirm it nevertheless. Of the number at 1 what I wanted to try and establish was the following: a. The number of those who are single (as opposed to cohabiting/married) b. Of the number at (a) how many of those are in receipt of rent or mortgage supplement. c. The number of cohabiting/married individuals who are long term unemployed and how many couples (with both unemployed) are comprised in the number people in this total. d. Of the cohabitees/married people who are unemployed and on the live register how many are NOT in receipt of a payment due to a partner/spouses income being deemed too high? e. Of the number at (c) how many are in receipt of rent supplement and mortgage supplement. Please analyse separately. How does rent supplement work? Is it a percentage of the rent payment (excluding the de-minimus) or how does it work? f. An unemployed adult (single) will be in receipt of 188 and the QAD (in a married/cohabiting couple) payment is 124.80 (maximum). How many single people who are long term unemployed are receiving the 188 and how many married/cohabiting are receiving the 124.80 or less? Are there additional payments, and if yes how much, to a couple/single person who is long term unemployed and a parent.

The Statistical Unit of the Department of Social Protection provided a series of email replies between the 2nd February 2012 and the 12th April 2012 which included some very interesting results truth be told. The picture for the live register as a whole as at the end of January 2012 is shown in table 1 as follows:

Essentially a long term unemployed person is a person who is unemployed and who has been on the live register for 12 months or more. With this in mind I was advised that, as of the end of January 2012, there was a total of 183,849 individuals (male & female) on the live register who are regarded as long term unemployed. Of this total there were 93,985 individuals aged 25 to 44. This represented 51% of the total

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long term unemployed. This age group is often the engine room of the economy and often those in the mortgage holder category.

I was also provided with a gender breakdown of the live register and this information is shown at tables 2 & 3 below. Table 2 Males on the live register @ Jan 2012 Table 3 Females on the live register @ Jan 2012

The gender breakdown again shows that the hardest hit age groups on the live register are aged between 25-44 in both cases with 70,693 (53.2%) males & 23,292 (45.7%) females aged 25-44 classified as long term unemployed. Males represented 72.2% of the long term unemployed meaning that 38.4% (70,693) the long term unemployed total of 183,849 were men aged 25-44. It cant be that hard to conduct an educational survey of 93,985 individuals (males & females) in the hardest hit age group in order to develop a coherent strategy for developing an action plan to deal with long term unemployment. Getting back to the questions at 2 above Single as opposed to married/cohabiting As of 22nd January 2012 there were 178,520 individuals with 92,080 classified as long term unemployed. This was stated to mean those not married, not cohabiting, not in a civil partnership etc. This contrasts however with the data supplied in a spreadsheet by Social welfare which states that 94,658 single individuals were long term unemployed. Legally single (not married, widowed or not in a civil partnership) However, if we consider legally single to mean people who are not married, not in a civil partnership, or who are widowed (because a cohabitee is a single person under the law), then, as at the end of January 2012, there was 112,928 legally single (unmarried) people on the live register who were long term unemployed. This contrasts with the social welfare stated figure of 92,080 as they regard cohabitees as not single. This is comprised of common law/cohabiting, divorced, legally separated, single & widowed. With separated added in there was 117,814 people single in Ireland who were on the live register.

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Of the figure of 92,080 that Social Welfare regard as single and who are long term unemployed only 78,190 are in receipt of the full amount of 188 per week. This works out at 764,385,440 in a calendar year. In order words only a little over 0.75bn is paid out to long term unemployed single people. This is separate to single people who are cohabiting but who are actually legally single also. More information on that as part of the response to part 2(f) of my query above is shown below. Of those that are single (i.e. not married, not cohabiting, not in a civil partnership etc and also not legally separated) and NOT receiving the full 188 per week (i.e. 13,890 of the 92,080 that social welfare classify as single, although on a separate table they show single people that are long term unemployed to be 94,658 so this is a discrepancy of 2,578 people) the following was the response provided: 7,190 receive a reduced rate which includes rates for under 25s, penalty rates etc., 4,290 do not receive the full personal rate as they are means tested, 2,350 receive no payment (87% of these are claiming Jobseekers credits only), and 60 receive a graduated rate, these are people claiming Jobseekers benefit but do not have sufficient contributions to claim the full rate.

There was 112,928 non-married long term unemployed individuals on the live register at the end of January 2012. This included 13,428 cohabiting individuals. Therefore, the figure of 13,890 individuals covered by the bullet points immediately preceding this does not include any of these cohabiting individuals even though they are single and long term unemployed. These people may not have any income or savings whatsoever. Mortgage Supplement & Rent Supplement I had asked how many of the legally single people on the live register who were long term unemployed were in receipt of either mortgage or rent supplement. It was confirmed that there was 16,859 individuals on the live register in receipt of mortgage supplement with 89,435 in receipt of rent supplement. Of the individuals receiving rent or mortgage supplement 13,540 were single (not married or not cohabiting as per the social welfare definitions) and long term unemployed. This means that 92,754 married individuals on the live register were in receipt of either mortgage or rent supplement. What this also means is that of the 92,080 people that Social Welfare regard as single and long term unemployed i.e. not married, not in a civil partnership or not cohabiting, 78,540 single people are NOT in receipt of either rent or mortgage supplement. However if we regard the number of long term unemployed single people (not married, widowed or not in a civil partnership but including cohabitees as they are single) to be 112,928 as referred to above then 99,388 of this individuals are not in receipt of either rent or mortgage supplement. And remember these are individuals classified as long term unemployed for a year or more. Married/Cohabiting There was 75,368 married or cohabiting individuals on the live register who are long term unemployed. The question was how many individuals was there and how many of these individuals were comprised in households where both were unemployed long term. This latter aspect of the question was no answered. How many married/cohabiting individuals on the live register were/are NOT in receipt of ANY payment due to spouse/cohabitees income being deemed too high? o The information provided by way of answer was not clear enough to answer this question.

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How many couples (married or cohabiting) as opposed to individuals, where both in the couple were unemployed, were in receipt of rent or mortgage supplement? o Again, the information provided was not sufficiently clear to answer this question.

Part F of my query above is reproduced as follows: An unemployed adult (single) will be in receipt of 188 and the QAD (in a married/cohabiting couple) payment is 124.80 (maximum). How many single people who are long term unemployed are receiving the 188 and how many married/cohabiting are receiving the 124.80 or less? Are there additional payments, and if yes how much, to a couple/single person who is long term unemployed and a parent. We know about the lone parent allowance but the following information was supplied to me on the 6th February 2012 and it related to the live register as at the 20th January 2012:

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So, does this piece disprove this withdrawn report from the ESRI (downloadable here: http://bit.ly/OeC5Zu) which issued in May 2012? Given this information would have been easily obtainable by the ESRI from the Department of Social Protection why was the ESRI working paper even issued? In fact, the statistics received from the Department of Social Protection raise more questions about the reasons why people qualified for jobs dont have them given they are receiving so little in Social Welfare. Society needs to face up to this and deal with it in a just manner. At this particular point Id like to invite you to read this piece (link: http://bit.ly/Lv4Dy7)written by Michael Taft, Economist, on Unemployment Blackspots in Ireland. Particular attention should be paid to Limerick in the rankings and my understanding is the data underpinning this piece is from Census 2011 where the people fill in the forms themselves.

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