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Unemployed 'must learn English' Unemployed 'must learn English'
(about 4 hours later)
Unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing benefits, the government has announced.Unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing benefits, the government has announced.
About 40,000 jobless people say their poor English is a barrier to finding employment - and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres. Up to 40,000 jobless people say their poor English is a barrier to finding employment, ministers say - and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres.
Ministers say this money would be better spent on teaching them English. This money would be better spent on teaching them English, they say.
Welfare minister Jim Murphy said the measures, to come into effect in April, would benefit Britain and individuals. But critics say proposals do not square with other plans to stop free lessons for those who are in work.
Mr Murphy told a Work Foundation seminar that it is "unacceptable" that ethnic minorities in Britain earn on average a third less than their white counterparts. Barrier to work
Redress the balance From April, new guidelines will require job centres in England to focus on encouraging the take-up of English courses.
On current rates, ethnic minority employment rates will not reach the national average until workers currently joining the labour market reach retirement age. Welfare minister Jim Murphy told a Work Foundation seminar that it was "unacceptable" that ethnic minorities in Britain earned on average a third less than their white counterparts.
"This is a social injustice in our society which is not only bad for individuals, families and their communities, but is a barrier against social cohesion and is bad for Britain," Mr Murphy said. He added that, as ethnic minorities became a larger part of the working age population, it was essential everyone could access the labour market.
"On top of that, as ethnic minorities grow to constitute a much greater proportion in the working age population in the decade to come, it is absolutely critical that everyone is able to access the labour market and can prosper within it."
We must utilise the resources we have to redress the balance Jim Murphy, Welfare ministerWe must utilise the resources we have to redress the balance Jim Murphy, Welfare minister
Some 15% of members of ethnic minorities cite language difficulties as a barrier to work, the welfare minister said.Some 15% of members of ethnic minorities cite language difficulties as a barrier to work, the welfare minister said.
"That's potentially 40,000 people being denied the opportunity to work because they do not have the language skills to get a job." "We must utilise the resources we have to redress the balance: to put the emphasis not just on translating language to claim a benefit, but to teaching language to get a job," he said.
He wants more focus put on English language tuition. But Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said it was not just language problems which stopped people from ethnic minority groups getting jobs.
He said: "We must utilise the resources we have to redress the balance: to put the emphasis not just on translating language to claim a benefit, but to teaching language to get a job." "For all migrants, difficulties with immigration status and racial discrimination, together with the state of local employment markets, may impede their ability to access services, training and the kind of jobs where they can improve their English," he said.
New guidelines And Keith Best, of the Immigration Advisory Service, said those who were eligible for employment were keen to learn English, but there were not enough teachers and courses around.
From April, new guidelines will require job centres in England to focus on encouraging the take-up of English courses. 'Unjoined-up government'
And a new programme, backed by £14m of state money, is offering 15,000 places on courses in basic skills and employability training - including language skills - with the Learning and Skills Council. More than 100 MPs have signed a Parliamentary motion criticising plans to end free entitlement to courses for English - those in work will have to pay a third of costs from this summer.
But an educational think tank which recently produced a critical report into how the government provides English classes to immigrants, attacked the proposals as risky. Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman David Laws said it was "ironic" that the government wanted the changes while reducing other English classes.
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) said the English tuition system was struggling to meet demand from migrants who wanted to learn the language.
Alastair Thomson of Niace agreed that investing in tuition was better than translation - but said there were too few classes and teachers. He criticised separate government proposals to charge for some English classes from September.
"It would be premature if changes were to be introduced before there are enough properly-qualified teachers to meet the demand and bizarre if we start teaching people while they are unemployed but then do not have affordable courses for them to progress onto once they find work.
"We urge the government to ensure that all the implications of these reforms have been considered before moving too quickly."
Benefit dependency
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman David Laws said it was "ironic" that the government was seeking to introduce the changes while it was "cutting back" classes "for those without English as a first language".
"What is happening here seems to be the perfect example of unjoined-up government," he added."What is happening here seems to be the perfect example of unjoined-up government," he added.
HAVE YOUR SAY How can you take part in society if you can't communicate properly? Viv Porteus, UK Send us your comments Meanwhile, a study by the think-tank Civitas suggests a third of households in the UK rely on benefits for their main income, according to the Daily Telegraph. HAVE YOUR SAY How can you take part in society if you can't communicate properly? Viv Porteus, UK Send us your comments
"What has been happening in the last few years is unemployment has fallen but the number of people receiving incapacity benefits has been going up a little bit," the report's author David Green told the BBC. Shadow work and pensions secretary Philip Hammond said making working migrants pay for classes may end up trapping them in low-skilled jobs, because they cannot afford more tuition.
"But there's also been a huge increase in people receiving what's now called working tax credit. So you've got a mixture of pure benefit dependency and what you might call in-work benefit dependency." "We need to help them as well to acquire the language skills that will unlock the other skills they may have and allow them to move on," he said.
Labour's former Minister for Welfare Reform, Frank Field, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that the government should go further.
He said everyone who wanted to remain in Britain permanently should be able to speak English before they arrive.
"Not to insist on being able to speak the language means it's easier for ghettos to develop and, of course, much more difficult once people are here to break out of those ghettos," he said.
Meanwhile, a study by the think-tank Civitas suggests a third of households in the UK rely on benefits for at least half of their income.