Unemployment can be devastating for those whose lives it touches, while its effects on communities can be just as far-reaching.

Sadly it is a situation that could soon be affecting more and more people with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development saying a third of employers expect to cut jobs in the next three months.

Trying to minimise these losses and maximise help for those who are made redundant must be a priority.

But what of those who have never worked – and are less likely to get a job because they are trapped in a cycle of worklessness?

According to the Prince’s Trust, one-in-five Bradford children grows up in a home where no-one works, and young people from such families can struggle to find work themselves compared to those whose parents have a job.

Unless this chain is broken, families will be blighted for generations to come – a tragic and expensive waste of their potential.

The Trust is working with Bradford Council and businesses to tackle this issue, and not without success.

But it can only help around 3,500 youngsters across the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside while there are 23,000 children in Bradford alone from households where no-one works.

Such a major problem also requires Government action, which is why its aim to move long-term claimants off benefits and back into work makes sense.

If it can get that right, the gains will be considerable.