Jobless claims mystery to be looked into

12/08/2009

The apparent increase in the number of people who are out of work but do not claim state assistance is to be the subject of a new government investigation.

Officials are to look into the discrepancy to find out why it has occurred, the BBC reports.

Unemployment benefit data for June showed that just 4.8 per cent of people claimed the support.

However, this is a relatively low rate compared to the rising jobless total, as revealed by separate official data.

Unemployment hit 7.6 per cent over the three months to May - and rose to 7.8 per cent over the three months to June, according to new figures out today.

This means that 2.43 Million people are now out of work.

Speaking to the broadcaster, a representative for the Department of Work and Pensions commented: "It's fairly open, the key issue is establishing why there is a difference in the trends of the key figures."

He added that a possible reason for the gap was that many people who had just been laid off were living off their redundancy cheques rather than claiming state unemployment benefit.

Business groups predict that the jobless total in the UK will exceed three million people by next year.

Tags; Recent Graduate Debt, Credit Card Lifestyle, Young Family Finances, Job loss,

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