WELFARE changes will see 60,000 people in Wales moved off incapacity benefits, with half leaving the benefits system with no jobs to go to, a new study claims.
The Sheffield Hallam University report argues £100 million job creation scheme for 20,000 by the Welsh Government is needed to plug the gap.
The Welsh Government insists it is committed to a new employment programme for young people.
But The UK government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it would not leave anyone "trapped on benefits’’.
The report, compiled by Professor Steve Fothergill and Christina Beatty, was commissioned by the Industrial Communities Alliance. It represents councils in some of the most deprived areas in Wales.
The study said the UK government's welfare change programme will not help get more people in Wales into work unless there is a "significant increase’’ in the number of job opportunities.
It cited official figures stating that 300,000 men and women of working age are out-of-work on benefits and more than 180,000 of these are on incapacity benefits.
It also said the root cause of worklessness in Wales was a shortage of jobs - and to bring the employment rate in the principality up to the level in the best parts of Britain an extra 170,000 residents in work would be needed.
The report - entitled Tackling Worklessness in Wales - urged the Welsh Government to establish a programme directly targeted at those who stand to lose their benefits.
"There is a powerful case for a job creation scheme,’’ its authors wrote. "What we're talking about here is not just temporary programmes for long-term Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants, but sustained job opportunities for a much larger group of men and women, especially incapacity claimants who otherwise stand little chance of gainful employment.’’ It also countered Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's assertion that those out-of-work in Merthyr should get on a bus to Cardiff.
The report added: "Worklessness in the valleys is unlikely to be reduced much by job growth in Cardiff.’’
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