A CHARITY which is being forced to close next month says the stigma surrounding unemployed people needs to change.

Scout Enterprises, in Ridgefield Road, Cowley, has helped thousands of people gain qualifications and find work over the past 15 years.

But the national charity has not won the contract to provide Government services in the Oxford area and will close its local branch for good on July 29.

Branch manager Alison Wilson said: “We have always helped as many people as we could.

“We help a lot of people with learning difficulties like Asperger’s syndrome, to people with alcohol and drug issues and mental health problems.

“We wanted to show it does not matter what your background is, you can still move forward and find work.”

The charity was set up nationally in 1983, aiming to help people who were unemployed or disadvantaged through disability, ill health or circumstances.

They helped jobseekers improve their CV writing and interview skills and gain qualifications in literacy and numeracy.

Mrs Wilson said: “There is this stigma that unemployed people are spongers and do not want to work.

“But we get people coming in day after day, just job searching all day and working their socks off because they want to work. We were a place where people came voluntarily and at any one point, we had over 100 people on our books.

“People would walk in off the street because they wanted to find a job.”

The closure will affect three full-time employees.

Mrs Wilson said: “I think it will cause a gap. People have been quite shocked that we are going. We have been part of the community here for such a long time.

“There just is not as much work out there at the moment. My advice would always be to anyone trying to find work to go to the job centre and just keep at it.”

Similar offices in Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Reading will also close.

The Department for Work and Pensions said people who required help after the charity closes would be referred to its new ‘work programme’ through the Job Centre.

Department spokesman Daniel Barnes said: “The programme is designed for people who need extra help, people who have been unemployed for 12 months or have particular needs.”

  • For information about the programme, visit jobseekers.direct.gov.uk