A MAN in Glasgow was unemployed for 46 years, MSPs have been told.

He was one of thousands of long-term jobless in the city who attended a programme to help get people prepared for finding work.

The example was given to the Scottish Parliament local Government committee to illustrate the Working Matters pilot project, part of the Glasgow City Deal.

Kevin Rush, City Deal Director of Regional Economic Growth, said that the project was aimed at the hardest to reach people who were the furthest away from being able to get into work.

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Mr Rush said the project has spent £9m of City Deal cash for a target of 600 jobs, a sum that the councils couldn’t have afforded on their own.

He said: “The average period of unemployment of that cohort that we worked with was 13 years and we had someone who had been unemployed for 46 years, which barely seems possible. And they are assessed as fit for work.

He was speaking about the opportunity the City Deal afforded councils to try new ideas and methods.

Mr Rush added: “The working matters programme, a £9m programme jointly funded by the DWP and the local authorities is working to reach some of the hardest to reach client groups.

“These are people very far from the labour market, Its quite expensive.

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“So £9m for a target of 600 jobs is not something we would be able to invest in ourselves, so that gave us the flexibility to try new things, to work a client group who had now been assessed as fit to work because of the benefit changes.”

He said the principle behind the City Deal taking on employability programmes was to invest in things that are expensive and go beyond what local authorities would usually be able to invest in themselves.

The project takes on clients who have been long term unemployed, many with other issues that prevent them finding or keeping a job.

Many have physical and mental health issues and other have a history of addictions to drugs or alcohol.

The programme assigns a personal adviser to clients to help them with their barriers to work and also give assistance with job hunting, CVs , application forms and preparing for interviews.

Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of the Glasgow City Region City Deal Cabinet, said: “Working Matters has already helped thousands of Glasgow City Region residents in receipt of health related benefits to begin the journey into sustainable employment.

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“We’ve exceeded our target in terms of the number of people who have joined the programme and of those we’ve worked with, some 330 have successfully moved into employment, which brings with it many positive outcomes.”

The council said the three year project is due to end at the end of March and is on track to meet targets.

Once it has completed a formal, independent evaluation will then be carried out and considered at a later meeting of the City Region Cabinet.