Work companies in an attempt to help those out of work a long time to find jobs.  Despite this long term unemployment has risen month on month consistently since the scheme was introduced. Today's unemployment figures represent July -- September and so are still likely to be affected by the Olympics.  The figures will also be distorted by the growing number of claimants who have had benefits sanctioned -- meaning money is stopped due to not meeting the endless and ever changing job seeking requirements imposed by Jobcentres.  Over half a million claims were sanctioned last year and the number is expected to rise. Sanctioned claimants may or may not appear as unemployed, depending on whether they are able to maintain their claim during a sanction and answers they give should they be questioned by the Labour Force Survey.  Many more claimants are 'disallowed' Job Seekers Allowance due to not meeting the stringent benefit eligibility. With the claimant count on the rise and workfare behind much of the fall in unemployment over the last year, the true picture of the employment market is far from rosy.  Plans for a huge extension of workfare, which the DWP are now trialling in Derbyshire , will see thousands more people forced to work unpaid. Many of the new workfare workers will be doing jobs which would previously have come with wages attached -  an increasingly outdated concept for many major retailers.  Earlier in the year Corporate Watch reported on the situation in one