Workless households

SIR – Robert Jenrick is right that an over-generous and under-regulated welfare system poses a threat to our economy and society (Comment, February 23). Worryingly, the high number of parents staying away from work can also have a damaging impact on their children.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are described as events or situations that occur during childhood that are traumatic. They can be a one-off, or longer-term occurrences that compromise the young person’s feelings of safety, security or trust.

Last year, Bangor University conducted worldwide research into the links between ACEs and parental unemployment, discovering that in households where a parent was unemployed, children were at a 54 per cent increased risk of neglect, a 60 per cent increased risk of physical abuse, and there was a 90 per cent increased risk of child maltreatment. Additionally, children exposed to ACEs are at a higher risk of being unemployed as adults.

Increasing numbers of children are being raised in households where the distribution of taxpayer-funded benefits to healthy, employable adults is referred to as “being paid”. If these children accept this as normal behaviour, then the pattern will be repeated, and the longer it continues, the harder it will be to overcome.

Children will only develop a productive work ethic if they see it in action at home. The process of going to work in order to enjoy everyday essentials and occasional luxuries must be seen as normal behaviour, rather than the exception. Stuart Harrington Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset