OUT-OF-WORK people in Oxford branded Government plans to help the unemployed move to find work “poor and unworkable”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he wanted to tackle “ghettos of poverty” by encouraging people without Jobs to move elsewhere.

He said there were millions of people “trapped in estates where there is no work” but who could not move because they would lose their accommodation.

His scheme would allow people to go to the top of the housing list in another area, rather than giving up their right to a council home.

But many job seekers outside Oxford’s Jobcentre Plus in George Street said they thought the idea would not work.

Kidlington resident Roy Gainsburgh told the Oxford Mail he would be unwilling to move for a job.

The 52-year-old said: “I'm not prepared to move. I have family here and it’s not possible to uproot them. I think these plans are poor and unworkable.

“The Government should create public works jobs in areas of deprivation and poverty, like they did in the post-war years.

“When you’ve got mass-unemployment you need the state to help.”

Fellow job seeker Andrew Williams, 52, from Marston, said he would also be unwilling to move because he was a single parent and had children at school. He said: “My children’s education is important. I don’t want to move them into a new school, where they don’t know anyone, in a year that could decide the rest of their life.”

He added: “All they’re doing is hiding the unemployment figures.”

Tracy Joel, from Cowley, welcomed the plan – particularly the idea to give people priority for council housing.

The 43-year-old moved from Somerset to Oxford two years ago in an attempt to get a job in catering.

She said: “I thought it was a new beginning but there were hardly any jobs and I ended up being homeless.

“I’m only just getting back on my feet.”

Mr Duncan Smith said the welfare state needed radical reform so that it was able to help people make the move from benefits to work.

He said: “Too many people are trapped in a system that doesn’t make work pay, with whole communities blighted by inter-generational poverty and worklessness.

“Too often people fear that moving into work will not only mean losing their benefits but also their home.

“We need to do everything we can to help people to move to areas where there is work and not penalise them.”

  • There were 7,780 people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in Oxford in May, down by 969 from April.