One in four people on the dole for more than a year have been forced to beg on the streets and six in 10 have approached a charity for help, a grim new academic study into life on unemployment benefits has found.

The scale of deprivation for those on the Newstart allowance was so serious the researchers concluded the employment prospects of recipients had been seriously ''scarred'''.

Illustration: Matt Golding

''Instead of spending their energy looking for a job these people are worried all the time by the very basics of survival,'' said the co-author Dr Alan Morris from the University of Technology in Sydney.

The survey of people receiving Newstart in Sydney's inner-west found most had gone without basics such as heating and good-quality food. About 80 per cent could not afford dental care, half could not buy new clothes and more than 40 per cent could not afford medicines.