11.1| Working age benefits In East Renfrewshire, 5,180 (9.2 per cent) residents claim one or more type of working age benefit.
Out of work benefit claims peaked at 5,240 in August 2009, and have been progressively reducing to 3,710 in November 2015, a reduction of more than 1,500 claims. The number of people currently claiming out of work benefits has never been as low. This is due in part to improved economic conditions since 2009; however changes to the welfare system and the roll out of Universal Credit have had a major impact on reducing these claimant figures.
More than half of benefit claimants across East Renfrewshire receive Employment Support Allowance (ESA)/Incapacity Benefit (IB) as their top most benefit with 2,810 claimants falling into this group.
Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of ESA/IB claimants have been in receipt of this benefit for more than 5 years and a further 15 per cent of these claims have been running between 2 and 5 years. ESA claimants undergo a medical assessment and are then placed into two categories; work-related activity group; and support group. People in the support group would not be expected to make a return to work as their long term illness or disability prevents them from doing so. Almost two thirds of the support group are aged 45 and over. This is in contrast to Jobseekers Allowance claimants who are work ready and seeking employment, 65 per cent are aged 18-44.
Forty-four per cent of East Renfrewshire’s out of work claimants come from Barrhead, despite this area representing just 20 per cent of the working age population. Areas with high concentrations of those people out of work are found primarily in Auchenback, Arthurlie, Dunterlie and Neilston, which corresponds to the small areas within East Renfrewshire’s that are among the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland, as identified by the SIMD 2012.
Table 14 Out of work claimants by area Area
Barrhead Busby
1,604 175
Clarkston & Williamwood 120 Eaglesham & Waterfoot Giffnock Neilston
145 228 374
Netherlee & Stamperland 129 Newton Mearns Thornliebank Uplawmoor
602 255 17
East Renfrewshire 3,650
Nos. out of work % out of work Nov 2015
Nov 2015 14% 7% 2% 5% 3%
10% 3% 4% 9% 3% 6%
Source; Department of Work and Pensions, Working Age client Group as at Nov 2015, available;
www.nomisweb.co.uk
% East Renfrewshire's % East Renfrewshire's out of work claims
44% 4.8% 3.3% 4%
6.3%
10.2% 3.5%
16.5% 7%
0.5%
population 20.3% 4.2% 9.9% 5.1%
12.3% 6.4% 8.5%
27.5% 4.8% 1%
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Planning for the Future of East Renfrewshire
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