Third of British employees 'remain worried about redundancy' - St Mungo's survey

Nearly a third of British employees are concerned about being made redundant in the next 12 months, an Ipsos MORI survey for the homelessness charity St Mungo’s revealed today.

The result (29%) shows no improvement since the same question was asked last year and there's also been no decrease in the proportion of British adults who are concerned about being forced to leave their home during the next 12 months due to falling behind on their mortgage or rent payments (14% - one in seven).

This is despite a fall in the proportion saying they are concerned about their financial situation (from 52% in 2008 to 37% this year).
 
Of those Londoners who responded, one in six (17%) are concerned about being forced to leave their homes during the next 12 months due to falling behind on their mortgage or rent payments. 45% of Londoners are concerned about their current financial situation - compared to the national average of 37%.
 
Getting into debt, especially mortgage or rent arrears, is a recognised ‘trigger’ that can lead to homelessness. Around two thirds of St Mungo’s residents in St Mungo’s own poll said losing their job had contributed either directly or indirectly to their becoming homeless.
 
With up to 96% of its current clients not working, St Mungo’s welcomed the Ipsos MORI research finding that almost three quarters (72%) of the British public believe the Government should give special help to homeless people to get them into employment.

Such support is vital as it can take years for someone who has never worked or has been long term unemployed to find a job.
 
Charles Fraser, St Mungo’s Chief Executive, said: “Losing your job, and falling behind on home payments, remains the spectre at the feast for many this Christmas and into 2010. While this survey highlights continuing general concern, it also shows overwhelming public recognition that homeless people need specialist support to get back into employment – we want this acted on by the Government.
 
“Homeless people are those already at the bottom of the employment ladder. From our own annual survey of around 1,400 St Mungo’s residents, only 4% of those in our hostels have paid jobs. That compares to 86% 25 years ago.
 
“Of our clients, 15% have never worked at all and 68% have not worked in the last five years – a real indictment of the Government’s failure to address long-term unemployment, and a tragic waste of talent and potential.

"Homeless people face a future on the scrapheap unless we really concentrate action and resources and enable them to find their way back through work, with the cost of inaction itself a burden on society as well as the individual.”
 
The charity called on ministers to adopt an ‘ABC – Action, Benefits and Commitment - approach to supporting homeless people in the journey from excluded lives rough sleeping on the streets into tax-paying citizens with a decent home and paid employment.

• Action – specific Government funding is needed for vital pre-employment activities for homeless people; skills training and access to education and volunteering opportunities which are often the first step on the path to being ‘ready to work’. Currently St Mungo’s relies on fundraising income to sustain its Work and Learning programmes.
• Benefit – a flexible, incentivising benefit system is fundamental, one that allows for complex transitions. People who are long term unemployed have to see the advantages of a system that encourages, rather than penalises, them for taking steps forward towards long term sustained employment, even if first attempts might fail.
• Commitment – that Government takes a long term view and recognises that it can take much longer for homeless people to be ‘job-ready’ than the rest of the 2.47 million currently unemployed, and commissions services that reflect this.

In the last year St Mungo’s helped almost 450 people off the streets, 120 people into jobs, 700 into training and 700 into first step activities.
 
The charity’s own Apprenticeship scheme took on 16 paid apprentices this September from among its client group. For one person it was their first pay packet in six years, for another the first in 13 years, and for another their first pay packet ever.
 
Charles Fraser said: “Long term unemployed people should be challenged to think about work but in a way that gives them a chance of succeeding, rather than condemning them to failure.
 
“For some a job may not be an immediate possibility - perhaps their skills need re-sharpening, they’ve had personal knockbacks, they might have suffered a mental breakdown or face alcohol or drug issues. But our clients see work as an important long term goal in their recovery from homelessness.
 
“2010 marks the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. We urge the Government to make a commitment to use next year to find every homeless person a meaningful, ideally paid, activity that lifts them out of social exclusion and back into society.”