£16m Stormont scheme to get economically inactive into work

Stormont has committed £16m to tackle persistently high levels of economic inactivity in Northern Ireland.

The most recent data suggests that almost 27% of people aged 16-64 in Northern Ireland are inactive, compared to a UK average of 21%.

That equates to about 317,000 people, although about 75,000 of those are in education.

Former UK health minister Alan Milburn has been appointed as chairman of the newly established Commission on Work and Wellbeing to help reduce that number.

Economic inactivity refers to people who are not in work and not looking for work, including people who are sick, disabled or have caring responsibilities.

Milburn recently completed an interim report on joblessness among young people in Great Britain.

Led by the Department for Communities, the NI scheme will have a wider remit to help adults who have dropped out of the jobs market.

It will include pilot schemes in Londonderry and Belfast, funded by money from Stormont's public services transformation fund.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said economic inactivity is one of the most pressing challenges for Northern Ireland.

"We have a huge number of people not in the workplace," he said.

"It's not good for society as a whole in Northern Ireland but it is also not good those individuals, it's not compassionate, it's limiting opportunity."

The main reason for inactivity is sickness or disability which accounts for 116,000 people.

Survey data suggests that around 24,000 people in that sick or disabled group would like to work.

The commission will focus on how to support these people to get into a job.

Milburn said thousands of disabled people everyday are disproving the notion that "they shouldn't be able to work".

"The question is can you get the right support in place for them to enable them to do that," he added.

"We've got to build a new bridge for people who are economically inactive, not looking for work - would probably like to work - and make sure the opportunities are there for them."

He said the amount of people in Northern Ireland not looking for work was a "massive loss of human potential on an industrial scale".

"Solving it is going to take a bit of time, it's a really deep problem."

NI consistently has the highest level of inactivity among the UK regions with rate staying stubbornly around 27% over the last 15 years.

In 2015 an ambitious economic inactivity strategy was launched at Stormont.

Its focus was on those with work-limiting health conditions or disabilities, lone parents and people with caring commitments.

However a budget crisis at that time meant it was never funded.