Unemployed tenants see work as 'unaffordable'

Unemployed social housing tenants see most employment as 'unaffordable' because it is low paid and insecure.

A government study has found many social housing tenants see leaving the complex benefits system as 'too risky'.

It states: 'Many [tenants] raised concerns about the potential uncertainties and delays of returning to benefits following employment. 'Interviewees also frequently highlighted a lack of communication between Jobcentre Plus, the local authority and their landlord over the payment of housing benefit which had led to technical rent arrears and the accrual of other debts.'

Finding work

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University interviewed 107 social housing tenants and 30 private tenants. They sought to explain why worklessness in social housing outstrips the national average.

They found social tenants struggled to find work because of childcare responsibilities, debt, and drug and alcohol dependence. Although these were a factor for private tenants, the extent and severity was much greater amongst residents of social housing. However social tenants were better placed to overcome these barriers than private renters, because their housing is more secure.

Respondents said that restrictions on moving housing in the social sector were not a major barrier to work. Many interviewed didn't think moving would improve their chances of work while others were loathed to move even for a definite job offer as the financial and social costs would outweigh any benefits.

They also assumed that any job would be low paid and insecure, housing would be poorer quality and it would mean the severing of important social ties, a particular factor in areas of concentrated social housing.

Community identity

Communities suffering from persistent worklessness and poverty showed a strong sense of local identity and high levels of social contact between residents, which helps then cope with poverty, the report says. Family and wider social networks provided a range of support including childcare, financial help, transport and job leads.

'This partly explains the reluctance of many to move away from "notorious" estates', it states.

Researchers also found that employment problems varied according to the type of social tenant. Young residents were caught in a 'revolving door' of low paid, insecure work. But middle-aged men were more likely to have lost manufacturing jobs suffered as a result.