Work programme ‘to miss targets’

27 November 2012 Last updated at 04:11 ET

Government figures assessing the success of its welfare-to-work programme are expected to show a crucial target has been missed.

Firms and charities are paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed in the hope of helping 2.4m people.

But the first set of official figures, due out at shortly, are expected to show they are getting less than 5% of jobseekers into “sustainable” work.

Ministers argue the programme will help cut welfare payments and change lives.

But critics say only those in already economically successful areas will benefit.

The figures will show how many people are still in employment six months after joining the Work Programme, which was launched by the coalition in June last year.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says the figures are expected to show that only around 3% of jobseekers meet this criteria.

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The work programme was part of what ministers called a revolution in welfare ”

End Quote

And failing to hit the 5% target will mean “as many unemployed are getting sustainable jobs as if the work programme had never existed”, he said.

He added that the government will not accept the scheme is a failure and will claim the work programme is taking longer than expected to succeed and the next set of figures will be better.

Under the scheme – replacing the New Deal, Employment Zones and Pathways to Work – approved providers in England, Scotland and Wales, mostly private companies, try to find work for claimants on a payment-by-results basis.

‘Still early days’

People aged over 25 become eligible when they have been out of work for a year and under-25s after nine months. Some younger people in certain circumstances, like young offenders, are eligible after a shorter period of time.

Ahead of the release of the government’s figures, the Employment Related Services Association, the trade body for the welfare-to-work industry, said 20,000 jobseekers were being helped each month. More than 200,000 have found employment since the scheme’s launch, it added.

But these figures do not show how many have remained in a job for six months after being helped off long-term unemployment, unlike the official ONS figures.

Employment minister Mark Hoban said: “The Work Programme has already helped more than 200,000 of the hardest-to-help unemployed people into jobs. This is great news.

He added: “It’s still early days, but it’s a welcome sign that one year in providers are getting more and more people into sustained jobs.”

The Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion think-tank predicted that the official data would show performance targets missed as a result of the poor state of the UK’s economy.

Under the programme, providers can earn between £3,700 and £13,700 per person helped into work, depending how hard it is to give support to an individual, with an initial payment of between £400 and £600.

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Halle Berry’s ex claims he was victim in Thanksgiving brawl

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Halle Berry‘s ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry on Monday won a restraining order against the actress’s current lover, as the two men fought in the Los Angeles courts over who started their Thanksgiving Day brawl.

Releasing photos of himself with a black eye and cuts to his face, Aubry claimed that he was the victim in the November 22 punch-up with Berry’s fiancé, French actor Olivier Martinez, in the driveway of her Los Angeles house.

“I suffered numerous injuries as a result of the attack, including a fractured rib, multiple bruises on my face and a number of cuts which required stitches,” Aubry said in court papers, alleging that Martinez had threatened the day before to kill him.

“It all happened so fast and so suddenly; I did not see Mr Martinez’s actions coming and thus I was not ready for it and was not able to defend myself,” Aubry wrote.

Aubry, Martinez, and the Oscar-winning “Monster’s Ball” actress have been embroiled for months in a custody fight over Berry’s 4-year-old daughter, Nahla. Berry wants to take the daughter she had with Aubry to live with her and Martinez in France, but a Los Angeles judge denied that request earlier in November.

Aubry claimed in his request for a restraining order on Monday that Martinez told him, “You cost us $ 3 million,” while the French actor punched and kicked him on November 22.

Aubry, a Canadian model, was arrested last week for battery after the fist fight, and ordered to stay away from Berry, the child, and Martinez.

Neither man has been yet been formally charged in the case.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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UN climate talks open in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — U.N. talks on a new climate pact resumed Monday in oil and gas-rich Qatar, where negotiators from nearly 200 countries will discuss fighting global warming and helping poor nations adapt to it.

The two-decade-old talks have not fulfilled their main purpose: reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.

Attempts to create a new climate treaty failed in Copenhagen three years ago but countries agreed last year to try again, giving themselves a deadline of 2015 to adopt a new treaty.

A host of issues need to be resolved by then, including how to spread the burden of emissions cuts between rich and poor countries. That’s unlikely to be decided in the Qatari capital of Doha, where negotiators will focus on extending the Kyoto Protocol, an emissions deal for industrialized countries, and trying to raise billions of dollars to help developing countries adapt to a shifting climate.

“We all realize why we are here, why we keep coming back year and after year,” said South Africa Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who led last year’s talks in Durban, South Africa. “We owe it to our people, the global citizenry. We owe it to our children to give them a safer future than what they are currently facing.”

The U.N. process is often criticized, even ridiculed, both by climate activists who say the talks are too slow, and by those who challenge the scientific near-consensus that the global temperature rise is at least partly caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil.

The concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide has jumped 20 percent since 2000, according to a U.N. report released last week.

A recent projection by the World Bank showed temperatures are on track to increase by up to 4 degrees C (7.2 F) this century, compared with pre-industrial times, overshooting the 2-degree target that has been the goal of the U.N. talks.

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Donald preparing for surgery on sinuses

DUBAI (Reuters) – World number two Luke Donald is planning to have an operation in the off-season in an attempt to cure a lingering problem with his sinuses.

“My sinuses are all completely clogged up and every time I get a little bit run down they turn into infections,” the 34-year-old Briton told reporters after finishing in a tie for third place at the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday.

“Hopefully the surgery will fix it. It’s a pretty quick and easy operation.”

Donald said he was affected by the problem over the last two rounds in Dubai, the final event of the European Tour season.

The former world number one wanted to make it clear, however, that his disappointing one-under-par final round of 71 should not be blamed on his physical ailments.

“I don’t like to make excuses but the last couple of days I’ve had the sinus issue again,” added Donald. “I felt a little bit flat and unfortunately I couldn’t get things going on Sunday.”

The Chicago-based Englishman went into the last 18 holes sharing the lead with Ryder Cup team mate Rory McIlroy.

Donald went a remarkable 102 holes without carding a bogey in the Dubai tournament, this year and in 2011, but a dropped stroke at the third on Sunday ended that sequence and put him on the back foot for the rest of the round.

He finished five strokes adrift of world number one and tournament winner McIlroy, who birdied each of the closing five holes to shoot a six-under 66.

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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World stocks muted ahead of meeting on Greece

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets rose modestly Monday after the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S. topped expectations. But trading in Europe was subdued hours before finance ministers gathered yet again to discuss what to do about Greece.

The ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro are scheduled to meet in Brussels to try to reach an agreement on conditions that Greece must meet before the next installment of its emergency bailout loan can be disbursed. Athens faces bankruptcy without the cash.

In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent to 5,812.32. Germany‘s DAX was 0.1 percent down at 7,301.64. France‘s CAC-40 lost 0.3 percent to 3,519.75.

Wall Street, gearing up for its first full day of trading since last Wednesday, was set to fall. Dow Jones industrial futures lost 0.2 percent at 12,937 and S&P 500 futures shed 0.3 percent to 1,401.50. U.S. stocks rose on Friday after a half-day of trading.

Stocks in Asia fared better, posting some modest gains after what appeared to be a successful start to the traditional pre-Christmas U.S. shopping season.

Americans visited stores and websites in record numbers last Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that is dubbed “Black Friday” because U.S. retailers traditionally turn a profit as millions of Americans rush out to stores in search of gifts for Christmas and other celebrations.

Surveys showed a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites between Thursday and Sunday, up 9.2 percent from the year before.

Japan‘s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.2 percent to 9,388.94 while Australia‘s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3 percent to 4,424.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, India and the Philippines also rose.

But South Korea‘s Kospi shed 0.2 percent to 1,908.15. Hong Kong‘s Hang Seng was sapped of momentum by lethargic mainland Chinese markets. The index lost 0.3 percent to 21,857.77. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.5 percent to 2,017.46. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index lost 1.4 percent to 789.49.

Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong, said traders were shying away from mainland stock markets due to the failure of Chinese authorities to remove companies that fail to earn profits after three years.

A regulation exists to allow for a delisting after three years, but it is not enforced, Lun said.

“If you cannot weed out the losers, the stock market will be inundated with companies not doing anything,” he said. “The listed companies are out to grab money instead of earning a profit for shareholders.”

Among individual stocks, Japanese vehicle makers posted solid gains. Toyota Motor Corp. rose 1.7 percent. Nissan Motor Co. added 2.3 percent. Yamaha Motor Co. gained 2.1 percent.

Australia’s Sydney Airport rose 1.5 percent after announcing it has secured about $ 1.1 billion in new funds to repay existing debts and fund future spending.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 9 cents to $ 88.18 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 90 cents to finish at $ 88.28 per barrel on Friday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $ 1.2957 from $ 1.2971 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 82.01 yen from 82.40 yen. Earlier Monday, the dollar rose to 82.59 yen.

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Jose Luis Borau, Spanish Filmmaker, dies at 83

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Influential Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Borau died Friday in Madrid, the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences said. He was 83.

Borau had reportedly been suffering from throat cancer.

Though Borau, who was born in Zaragoza in 1929, only made a handful of films since his 1960 directorial debut “En el Rio,” his talents were widely respected, and he received a Goya award for Best Director in 2000 for his final film, “Leo.”

Borau was also a screenwriter and producer, and acted in some of his films. According to the Academy, his other pursuits included editing the first published biography of director-producer Samuel Bronston and short-story writing. He also “dabbled in advertising,” the Academy said.

Borau was probably best known for his 1975 drama “Furtivos” (“Poachers”), a film whose success, he later said, made him “a little sad.”

“Nobody is bitter sweet, but I’m a little sad,” the filmmaker once said. “My scale is a bit like what happened to Orson Welles, who made great films after ‘Citizen Kane,’ but just remember that title. “

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Egypt’s Mursi faces judicial revolt over decree

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country’s deep divisions.

The Judges’ Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the “downfall of the regime” – the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.

Mursi’s political opponents and supporters, representing the divide between newly empowered Islamists and their critics, called for rival demonstrations on Tuesday over a decree that has triggered concern in the West.

Issued late on Thursday, it marks an effort by Mursi to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. The decree defends from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.

It also shields the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt’s new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened the body with dissolution, and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.

Egypt’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, said the decree was an “unprecedented attack” on the independence of the judiciary. The Judges’ Club, meeting in Cairo, called on Mursi to rescind it.

That demand was echoed by prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. “There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says ‘let us split the difference’,” he said.

“I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity,” he said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.

More than 300 people were injured on Friday as protests against the decree turned violent. There were attacks on at least three offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that propelled Mursi to power.

POLARISATION

Liberal, leftist and socialist parties called a big protest for Tuesday to force Mursi to row back on a move they say has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

In a sign of the polarization in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood called its own protests that day to support the president’s decree.

Mursi also assigned himself new authority to sack the prosecutor general, who was appointed during the Mubarak era, and appoint a new one. The dismissed prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero’s welcome at the Judges’ Club.

In open defiance of Mursi, Ahmed al-Zind, head of the club, introduced Mahmoud by his old title.

The Mursi administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak’s rule to a new system of democratic government.

Analysts say it reflects the Brotherhood’s suspicion towards sections of a judiciary unreformed from Mubarak’s days.

“It aims to sideline Mursi’s enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution,” said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

“We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down.”

ADVISOR TO MURSI QUITS

Following a day of violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of tear gas hung over the capital’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and the stage for more protests on Friday.

Youths clashed sporadically with police near the square, where activists camped out for a second day on Saturday, setting up makeshift barricades to keep out traffic.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt’s most widely read dailies, hailed Friday’s protest as “The November 23 Intifada”, invoking the Arabic word for uprising.

But the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind Mursi’s decree.

The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime.

Samir Morkos, a Christian assistant to Mursi, had told the president he wanted to resign, said Yasser Ali, Mursi’s spokesman. Speaking to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Morkos said: “I refuse to continue in the shadow of republican decisions that obstruct the democratic transition”.

Mursi’s decree has been criticized by Western states that earlier this week were full of praise for his role in mediating an end to the eight-day war between Israel and Palestinians.

“The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair and Shaimaa Fayed and Reuters TV; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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First Person: Unemployed, Disabled and Hungry for Work

Five million Americans are among the long-term unemployed–those without a job for 27 weeks or longer–according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 7.3 million are looking for work, while the unemployment rate sits at 7.9 percent. Numbers aside, individual stories illustrate how America is affected. To see how joblessness hits home, Yahoo News asked unemployed workers to share their job-hunting stories. Here’s one.

FIRST PERSON | I am 40 and live in Racine, Wis. I have been unemployed since I was 33. I try to find work, but I’ve been disabled since 27, and I do not collect Social Security or other income. On job applications, when I am asked if I have any disabilities, I answer yes.

I have even tried to travel to different states for employment. I am seeking employment where I can. I have tried Lowe’s, Home Depot and other similar stores. All I get are letters saying I do not qualify for employment.

By trade, I am a tattoo artist, a job I have been very good at until I became disabled. I have shoulder impingement syndrome, which consists of some of the following: torn ligaments, torn tendons, bone spurs, bursitis and arthritis.

And constant pain. I feel the weather. I hardly sleep. I wish I could be somewhere else, as it is hard on my mind to deal with on a daily basis.

Still, I try to find work where I can in this tough economy, and I am on several lists to be called and never have been called to date.

I am too proud to try to get Social Security. I cannot even afford insurance to get my condition fixed. I even have applied for local state insurance to get the problem resolved so I can work again, always with no luck. So I have remained unemployed now for over 10 years and going.

I injured myself, and I am not able to lift more than 10 pounds at a time or stand or sit for long periods of time.

I just want a job so I can try to cover the medical expenses myself since I cannot get help. Surgery costs are around $ 18,000, which sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I am no stranger to hard work. Since 12, I cut grass, shoveled snow, painted houses and fences, swept chimneys, worked in heat treatment plants with dirt and oil, worked in the casting of hot metals, laid brick, made bathroom sinks, swept floors in factories, did drill-press work, sanding work, and worked at fast food places.

I do not lie to get jobs or hid my injury. I do want to work, but I worry now that my disability will mean I won’t be hired by companies because they’re afraid it will come back on them and their company.

I cannot afford private insurance as I do not have steady income. Now I find whatever I can do to reach my goal of paying for my own surgery.

It is a sad world when you live in pain, day in and day out, and you want and need to find work.

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Catalonia election tests Spanish unity

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – Voters in Spain’s Catalonia region go to the polls on Sunday and are likely to elect a pro-independence leader who will test Spanish unity at a time of deep economic crisis.

Opinion polls show two-thirds of voters in this region on the French border will cast ballots for parties, both rightist and leftist, that want Catalan independence from Spain.

Catalan President Artur Mas will likely win re-election since his conservative Convergence and Union party is forecast to take a majority, some 62 to 64 seats, in the 135-seat regional assembly, or Parliament.

Frustration over high unemployment and a deep recession have fueled a separatist resurgence in Catalonia, where polls show that for the first time more than half of the people want to break away from Spain.

Many Catalans believe their economy would be more prosperous on its own, complaining that a high portion of their taxes go to the central government in Madrid.

Mas, who adopted the independence cause in September after a massive street demonstration, campaigned on a promise to hold a referendum on secession.

If he carries through with the pledge, it will put him on a collision course with Madrid, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will use the constitution to block a referendum.

“Catalonia has never faced elections this important,” Mas said at a campaign rally this week. He told supporters he wanted to be the last president of Catalonia within Spain.

A strong mandate for Mas and other Catalan independence leaders from the left will undermine Rajoy’s mission to persuade investors of Spain’s fiscal and political stability.

Spain’s deep recession and high public deficit have put it at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis and the government’s borrowing costs are painfully high.

Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, the candidate for Rajoy’s People’s Party in Catalonia has campaigned on a message that leaving Spain and the European Union would lead to economic disaster. The PP is vying to be the second biggest party in the Catalan Parliament with opinion polls forecasting it will win 17 seats.

“Don’t stay at home (on election day) if you don’t want them to kick us out of Spain and out of Europe,” she said at a campaign rally this week.

Polls open at 0800 GMT and close at 1900 GMT.

IDENTITY AND ECONOMY

In the rest of Spain the Catalan secession drive is viewed with disbelief and suspicion. Many Spaniards fear that if Catalonia moves to break away, the Basques could soon follow.

Like Basques, Catalans speak their own language and have always seen themselves as distinct from the rest of Spain.

The land of surrealist painter Salvador Dali and architect Antoni Gaudi prides itself on a regional character that blends pragmatism and idealism.

Home to car factories and banks that generate one fifth of Spain’s economic wealth, Catalonia also has one of the world’s most successful football clubs, FC Barcelona.

This year at Barcelona’s famous Camp Nou stadium fans started a new tradition. They chant “independence” at every game when the clock hits 17 minutes and 14 seconds – 1714 being the last year that Catalonia was under the Crown of Aragon before the Bourbon King Philip V united most of what is now Spain into one kingdom.

Catalan independence movements have waxed and waned over the centuries. Secessionism had been politically dead since Spain returned to democracy and gave its 17 autonomous regions significant self-governing power in the 1978 Constitution.

But now there is a widespread perception among Catalans that autonomy did not go far enough and the region is treated unfairly. Most supporters of Mas’s CiU party say the tax system drains resources from their region and that Madrid has refused to negotiate improvements.

Even though the Catalan treasury is broke and Mas has had to cut spending on schools and hospitals, many people in the region still blame Madrid for their woes.

“It’s like a marriage, when things are good then everything is fine, but when things go bad then you see if there really is any love there,” said Elias Banares, the 35-year-old owner of a shop that sells prams. He plans to vote for CiU.

The political mood has driven demand for “esteladas,” a flag that symbolises the independence movement, with a lone star against the red and yellow stripes of the official Catalan banner.

The “estelada,” once too politically risky for most Catalans to fly, now waves all over the Catalan capital, the Mediterranean port city of Barcelona.

“In two weeks we’ve sold more than in the last eight years. Amazing figures,” said Margarita Bascompte, owner of a family business that makes the flags in the city of Vic, in the heart of the most pro-independence province of Catalonia.

(Additional reporting by Nigel Davies and Elena Gyldenkerne; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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“Downton Abbey” Renewed for fourth Season by ITV

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Downton Abbey” fans have something to be thankful for.

British network ITV has commissioned a fourth season of the hit historical drama, the network said Friday. The new season will consist of eight new episodes to premiere in fall 2013, with an extended episode for Christmas 2013. As with previous seasons, the opening and closing episodes will be feature-length.

“Downton Abbey” Season 4 will begin filming in February at Highclere Castle and Ealing Studios.

Noting that the upcoming season will see the inclusion of some new faces, “Downton Abbey” executive producer Gareth Neame said, “Viewers can look forward to more drama, comedy, love, hatred, jealousy, rivalry, ambition, despair and romance.”

Produced by NBC Universal’s Carnival Film & Television, the Emmy and Golden Glove-winning “Downton Abbey” airs on PBS in the U.S.

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