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Unemployed 'must learn English' Unemployed 'must learn English'
(about 3 hours later)
Unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing their benefits, under government plans.Unemployed people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or face losing their benefits, under government plans.
About 40,000 jobless people say their poor English is a barrier to them finding employment - and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres.About 40,000 jobless people say their poor English is a barrier to them finding employment - and £4.5m is spent on translators in job centres.
Ministers say this money would be better spent on teaching them English.Ministers say this money would be better spent on teaching them English.
Welfare minister Jim Murphy will announce the measures, to come into effect in April, in a speech in London.Welfare minister Jim Murphy will announce the measures, to come into effect in April, in a speech in London.
Ethnic minorities workers earn on average one-third less than other people. Mr Murphy will tell a Work Foundation seminar that it is "unacceptable" that ethnic minorities in Britain earn on average a third less than their white counterparts.
The government says that is unacceptable, and believes that bridging the language gap is a step towards redressing the balance. Redress the balance
On current rates, ethnic minority employment rates will not reach the national average until workers currently joining the labour market reach retirement age.
"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 will say.
"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."
The welfare minister wants more focus put on English language tuition.
He will say: "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."
From April, new guidelines will require job centres in England to focus on encouraging the take-up of English courses.
Benefit dependency
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.
The Guardian says the government is conducting a wide-ranging review of welfare provisions, including plans to get lone parents back to work earlier.The Guardian says the government is conducting a wide-ranging review of welfare provisions, including plans to get lone parents back to work earlier.
Meanwhile a study by think-tank Civitas suggests one-in-three households in the UK rely on benefits for their main income, according to the Daily Telegraph. 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.
"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.
"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."