THE number of households in Oxfordshire in which no people work has fallen.

The percentage of workless households was 11.3 per cent in 2013, down from 12.2 per cent the previous year.

This represented a drop of 1,000 workless households across the county to 25,000.

All of the local districts within the county recorded a drop in workless households in 2013.

The city of Oxford was the worst performer, with 16.7 per cent of total households workless, although this was down from 18.2 per cent in 2012, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

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Nicola Blackwood, Conservative MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: “I am encouraged to see Oxfordshire’s economy going from strength to strength; giving more people long-term job security and enabling them to provide for their families.”

Andrew Smith, the Labour MP for Oxford East, said: “These figures show an on the whole encouraging picture of employment in Oxfordshire, with all parts of the county having a smaller proportion of workless households than the national average.

“Great care is needed in drawing detailed conclusions from statistics like this, though.

“For example, Oxford includes quite a lot of accommodation for people for whom either illness or disability makes it difficult for them to fill the vacancies local businesses and organisations have.”

Leigh Jones, 26, knows all about being in a workless household and at one stage was depending on others to eat adequately.

“I had to rely on in-work friends to buy me food,” he said.

The philosophy graduate from Wales rents a room in a three-bedroom house in Headington that until recently was a workless household.

Mr Jones said that during his nine months out of work he found it “difficult” to become motivated.

“For the most part, I didn’t see the point in getting up in the mornings,” he said. “It gets disheartening.”

After moving to Oxford in mid- 2013, he had a brief spell stacking shelves at HMV but became unemployed shortly after Christmas last year and quickly went through his £2,500 savings.

After receiving benefits and paying £490 a month in rent and utilities, he was at least £44 a month out of pocket.

His fortunes changed, however, when Oxford City Council’s Welfare Reform Team, which helps people on benefits to find work or access training, organised a jobs fair.

At the event Mr Jones met Justin Minkah, manager of Gala Bingo at the Ozone Leisure Park in Greater Leys, Oxford, who subsequently offered him a job.

Mr Jones started three months ago.

Diane McKenna-Rhead, Jobcentre Plus employer engagement manager for Aylesbury and Oxfordshire, said the ONS regional breakdown for 2013 was slightly out of date because Oxford’s “labour market is unbelievably buoyant now”.

“It’s really picked up since March [2014],” she said. “Oxfordshire is seeing the same sort of trends but they were behind.”

As an example of the competitive local labour market, some national retail stores in the lead-up to Christmas were offering London pay rates to workers in Oxford because their national wages were too low to attract workers in Oxford, which is more expensive to live in compared to most other regional cities, she said.

The ONS defines a workless household as “a household that includes at least one person aged 16 to 64 where no-one aged 16 or over is in employment”.


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