Wow.... they just noticed, I know cynical but longterm unemployment has been going on for years (pardon the pun). Maybe next they could come up with just how many of us "FROZE TO DEATH" during this winter?

No Christmas cheer for the long-term unemployed, says TUC

Commenting on the figures, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Across the country thousands and thousands of people have been struggling to find work - some of them for several years now - and for their families there won't be much to celebrate this Christmas.

'While many families with working adults may be tightening their belts a little this Christmas, the thousands of long-term unemployed households will be anxiously juggling their family budgets, knowing only too well that their JSA of £65.45 isn't going to buy much Christmas cheer this year.

Read full article here; TUC

The kind people at my local Job Centre decided to change my signing and payment days a week or so before Christmas last year. They told me this had to be done because of something to do with my National Insurance number, and I couldn't even get a crisis loan to cover living expenses for this period...

So I ended up having to use my rent money to cover that week, and now thanks to this change, I will have to use my next JSA payment in full to get out of this debt. Leaving me with nothing to live on for the next two weeks