Without work and poor

People in Britain who are unemployed sign on every two weeks and claim their unemployment benefit. When people say that they are "on the dole", it means that they are receiving unemployment benefit.

Some people cannot claim this money, even though they do not go out to work. Single parents, for example, do not receive unemployment benefit, they have income support. People who are on income support receive less money than those on unemployment benefit.

Nearly seven million people are now living on income support. Many experts know that people on unemployment benefit or income support do not have enough money to live on.

Michael Vaughan-Rees, Geraldine Sweeney, Picot Cassidy: In Britain. 21st Century Edition, Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, page 41