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Welfare Reform Bill

My reason for tabling this amendment is that I have become aware of the increasing level of unemployment in areas where manufacturing industry has, until recently, played a dominant role. I know of towns which I used to visit when I was a union official where one large firm or enterprise was dominant—everyone worked in it. When that enterprise ceased to exist, large levels of unemployment resulted, much of it among people who were highly skilled. This has increasingly become the situation in parts of the country. Often, no alternative employment is readily available and this often has a devastating effect on some of the skilled workers left without work. It should be appreciated that people with skills, often acquired over many years, are proud of those skills. My father was a skilled engineering worker and, fortunately for my family, he was never out of work. However, nowadays many people like him face unemployment, possibly over a very long period. I understand that the Bill is an attempt to deal with long-term unemployment, but a skilled worker is unlikely to take kindly to work-related activity involving, for example, stacking shelves in Waitrose or Tesco. Skilled people must feel that their skills and experience count for something and that attempts will be made to ensure that they are utilised. This is important for them psychologically, and it is also important for the future of our economy because such people can be used to train others. That people’s skills are utilised wherever they possibly can be is important for all sorts of reasons, including the future economy of our country, as we cannot afford to waste skills that have been acquired over a period of time. For that reason, I have tabled this amendment and I await with interest what the Minister has to say about it. I beg to move.