Benefits earnings limit hits jobless, campaign says
 UK unemployment stood at 2.4m in September |
The weekly amount unemployed people can earn from part-time work without losing benefits should be raised to £50, a group of charities and unions has said.
The Need Not Greed coalition says the £5 cap on Jobseekers Allowance claims discourages the building of a career.
It says the limit - in place since the 1980s - pushes many people on benefits to take undeclared cash-in-hand work.
The Department for Work and Pensions says it is investing £5bn on grants and training to help people back to work.
It added that by not declaring earnings money intended for the most vulnerable people was being given to "benefit thieves".
System an 'obstacle'
Need not Greed's members include Oxfam, End Child Poverty, the TUC and east London charity Community Links.
Its campaign argues that allowing jobseekers to keep more money from short-term or part-time work would held them build up a CV as they look for permanent employment.
One unnamed trained plumber, from the south coast, told the BBC he is forced to do short-term work cash-in-hand, which he does not declare, because he can not survive without the full Jobseekers Allowance.
He said the current system is an "obstacle" to formally starting up his own business.
"I'd much rather be legitimate but there's no system in place for me to make the transition from being unemployed to going into full-time work," he said.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show UK unemployment totalled 2.46 million in September.
