A YEAR-LONG study in Oxford has concluded that taking away people's benefits actually made them less likely to find work.

In October 2014 the city council began a project with 230 people across the city affected by the Benefit Cap and Bedroom Tax.

Working alongside Jobcentre Plus, and local charities including Aspire, officers explored the best way to find struggling people sustainable employment.

Analysis of the data collected during the project was carried out by a researcher at Oxford University, which was summarised in a final report for the council.

It said: "Her most statistically significant findings were that the more income a person lost from changes to their benefit, the less likely they were to move into work.

"This contradicts existing government thinking in relation to reductions in benefit payments."

By the end of the year current government plans to lower the benefit cap from £26,000 to £20,000 are expected to have come into effect.

At a meeting of the council's executive board meeting Mike Rowley said the report had "enabled Oxford to be significantly better-prepared than the rest of the UK".

He added: "The foundations for our year of work on this suggest that government welfare changes are driving that group of people further away from the world of work, rather than closer to it, and that can only be further exacerbated by more cuts.

"Many thanks to the team for the work they have done to prepare themselves."

It was resolved that the findings would be flagged up to Oxfordshire County Council and other authorities ahead of further benefit cuts.

City council leader Bob Price added: "What we have learned from this is that the group that will be affected by the benefit cap, bedroom tax and other forms of welfare cuts find it quite difficult to improve their position without a lot of resources going into it.

"There will inevitably be reduced capacity to deal with these kinds of cases as the bill moves forward.

"We are dealing with a big problem which is going to hit the city very badly in the next year or so.

"We can't just sit back passively; we need to try to bring parties together."

A Department for Work and Pensions report published in 2014 stated the previous benefit cap was "having a positive impact on people’s lives, compelling them to find work".