Unemployment figures continue to rise

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 15th Aug 2008

The Office of National Statistics has reported that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose in July by the largest monthly increase since December 1992.

The total number of people claiming government assistance for unemployment rose by 20,100 nationally in July taking the total to 864,700.

Although the rise in unemployment was fairly evenly spread across the country, the biggest increase in unemployment was in London and the South East with an additional 3,200 people claiming government assistance.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Carshalton and Wallington has risen since June from 1,008 to 1,098, an increase on the previous year's figure of 1,049.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits still remains lower than it was in 1997 when Tom Brake MP for Carshalton and Wallington came to office and the Conservatives were last in power. Then the total number of claimants was 1805.

Remarking on these figures, Tom Brake said that 'Although unemployment figures have not risen too dramatically in my constituency and are lower than 1997, they are starting to creep up and the national figures show that the Government's policies to tackle the economic slow-down are not working. More needs to be done to insure that people don't lose their jobs as the economic storm clouds gather overhead.'