NEARLY three-quarters of a million long-term unemployed are spending their second Christmas without work — 450,000 more than ministers’ official figure.

The jobs misery is despite the Tory government’s repeated boasts that their economic prowess should be judged on their “success” in getting people into work.

Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O’Grady said the huge numbers involved exposed the reality hidden by ministers’ claims.

“If the government’s work programme for long-term unemployed people had performed as well as the ministers said it was going to, there would be far fewer people facing a second Christmas on the dole,” she said.

A TUC study reveals that 250,000 people paid jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) will spend their second successive Christmas on the dole.

But the jobless total rises to 700,000 when internationally recognised standards are applied.

The TUC analysis shows big gaps between the two measures in every nation and region.

In London alone 107,000 people are jobless for the second Christmas running — far higher than the 36,780 claimant count.

In south-west England the 9,375 official JSA figure masks a whopping 37,264 without a job for the second December in a row, while in the West Midlands the figures stood at 31,175 and 87,828 respectively.

The gap is largely because of tough thresholds for income-related jobseekers’ benefit, which leaves thousands unable to qualify once their initial six months of contribution-related payments ends.

Ms O’Grady said the figures reflected a “worrying rise in the proportion of long-term unemployed people not receiving any help at all.”