Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham and Rainham

The government has been accused of inaction as local unemployment figures were branded “unacceptably high” by Jon Cruddas MP.

Although the number of Job Seekers’ Allowance claimants has declined marginally at the start of this year, the Dagenham and Rainham MP has attacked the government’s economic strategy today as he pointed to high levels of long term unemployment.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics today show that 7,536 residents (6.6 per cent of working age people) were in receipt of jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) in December. That figure had shrunk by 36 to 7,500 in January.

Long term joblessness, however, rose by more than 50 per cent in Mr Cruddas’ Dagenham and Rainham constituency, from 460 people to 695 claimants in the past year.

Figures are worse in Margaret Hodge MP’s Barking constituency, where the number of people who have been searching for jobs for at least 12 months has increased by 370, from 570 to 940 claimants.

Mr Cruddas said: “The new figures show just how badly the Conservative-led coalition government is letting down the residents of Dagenham and Rainham. They seem oblivious to the desperate needs of local families who are struggling with growing joblessness and rising costs of living.

“Whatever happens, the Government simply cannot continue as they are, unemployment is now unacceptably high.”