A little good news

BRITAIN: A British tour operator is offering unemployed people 10 per cent off the price of adventure holidays. Dragoman , which is based in Suffolk, specializes in trips to Africa, Asia and South America.

Customers have to prove that they have been made redundant by showing the tour company their P45, the popular name for a tax form. Employers give the P45 (or “Details of employee leaving work”) to employees when they leave a job or are made redundant. Dragoman says it is also now in talks with companies in London’s financial district to provide holiday discounts to bankers and others who are about to lose their jobs.

"We want to help unemployed people make the most of their new freedom," says a tour company representative.

“In the past, it’s been hard for people to believe that it’s their job that’s redundant and not them,” explains managing director Adam Dixon-Smith. “That viewpoint seems to be changing, so through this offer, we want to help people make the best of their newfound freedom,” Dixon-Smith told The Daily Telegraph.

He added that losing one’s job, though painful, is not entirely negative. "Redundancy, if viewed and used properly, can completely rejuvenate someone’s career or entire life — and that’s what our holidays have always been about.”

More than 1.8 million people in Britain are currently unemployed, according to the Office of National Statistics .