My wife has taught dozens of kids over the years who are destined to be the third generation of their families who’ve never worked
Wasn’t the “three generations who’ve never worked” claim made during the last election campaign? And didn’t it turn out to be rubbish?
https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/are-cultures-worklessness-passed-down-generations
The idea of ‘three generations of the same family who have never worked’ appeals to many, including politicians and policy-makers, as an explanation of entrenched worklessness in the UK.
Despite strenuous efforts, the researchers were unable to locate any such families. Even two generations of complete worklessness in the same family was a very rare phenomenon, which is consistent with recent quantitative surveys of this issue.
Families experiencing long-term worklessness remained committed to the value of work and preferred to be in jobs rather than on benefits.
There was no evidence of ‘a culture of worklessness’ – values, attitudes and behaviours discouraging employment and encouraging welfare dependency – in the families.
Workless parents were keen for their children to do better than they had, and actively tried to help them find jobs. Working-age offspring remained strongly committed to conventional values about work as part of a normal transition to adulthood. They were keen to avoid the poverty, worklessness and other problems experienced by their parents.
The long-term worklessness of parents in these families was a result of the impact of complex, multiple problems associated with living in deep poverty over years.
Policy-makers and politicians need to abandon theories – and resulting policies – that see worklessness as primarily the outcome of a culture of worklessness, held in families and passed down the generations.
