Over the past decade, UK workers have reported ever higher feelings of job-insecurity. As the credit crunch begins to bite and in light of last week’s Budget reducing growth forecasts, the Government needs to take urgent action to address Britain’s endemic insecurity. Otherwise it will be unable to weather any economic downturn.
In a new report published today, an event with Stephen Timms MP, the Social Market Foundation, a cross party think tank, argues that workers should be automatically enrolled in an unemployment insurance scheme. Angloflexicurity: A Safety Net for UK Workers, calls for the Government to collaborate with the financial sector to devise a better insurance safety net for vulnerable middle class employees.
The difference between salaries and benefits has grown larger, and rising levels of mortgage debt and loans mean that people are less able to bear the drop in income that unemployment brings. Although the labour market has been strong, the consequences of worklessness have become much greater – British workers who lose their jobs face a steeper drop in their income than Europeans and it is much more likely that their next job will be lower paid. Unemployment therefore presents a greater threat to both economic performance and well-being.
Ann Rossiter, Director of the Social Market Foundation and one of the authors of the report, said today:
“Many people argue that growing job insecurity is an inevitable consequence of economic flexibility and globalisation. This report seeks to put an end to that false trade-off, and presents a form of protection which can maintain UK competitiveness in the global market.”
David Lane of Genworth Financial, sponsors of the report, said:
“Despite putting in the longest working week in Europe, UK workers are still inadequately protected for when things go wrong.
“Borrowing the concept of Flexicurity from the Nordic countries is an innovative way of encouraging them to address the reality of unemployment”.
ENDS
Notes to Editors