Working Links, the public private voluntary partnership founded in 2000 to help tackle the problem of Britain’s long-term unemployed,  announced that it has placed its 80,000th UK employee in London. Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions will meet Mohammed Danesh, the 80,000th employee, a 41-year-old from East London who has recently begun work as an NCP Traffic Attendant.

Hain and Mohammed Danesh, who had been unemployed for two and a half years, were joined by Working Links' managing director Keith Faulkner just a day after the announcement of the Welfare to Work Green Paper which addresses the issue of the UK’s long term unemployed.

“Today’s event is both a landmark achievement and an endorsement of Working Links' belief that sustained employment is a way out of poverty and key to the wider development of communities,” said Faulkner.

“Our work has positively affected many thousands of people and there is now a great opportunity for Working Links' employability programmes to support the Government’s wider social purpose.”

By helping the long term unemployed from all backgrounds, including those on disability benefits and ex-offenders, Working Links supports individuals such as Mohammed Danesh through every stage of the job-seeking process from CV writing to training and job placement.

In light of the Green Paper and following the Freud Report published earlier this year, public-private-voluntary bodies like Working Links may be set to play an increasing role in tackling unemployment and its effects such as child poverty.