Workfare - Long-term jobless 'made to work'

[discodown]

Lets do a little maths for a while shall we?

 

JSA = £65.45 per week (a)

Hours required to work = 30 per week (b)

Weeks required to work = 4 ©

 

a X c = £261.8

b x c = 120

 

261.8/120= £2.18 per hour which looks bad

 

But if you don't do the 4 week placement you lose 12 weeks of benefit so really what you are doing is working 4 weeks for 16 weeks money

 

65.45 X 16 = £1047.2

 

1047.20 / 120 = £8.72 per hour

 

hardly slave wages. i would argue that £8.72 is a pretty decent wage, its certainly above NMW

 

Lets not have these ridiculous assertions of slave labour and working for less than £2 an hour because its just not true.

[INTERVIEWER]

It will give people on long term benefits a reference and prove that they are still able to work 9-5 responsibly....unless they fail to do it.

 

It could work well.

 

I guess if they do work well depending on what the job is, it might be an "in" to a company.

 

As the New Deal has shown, most potential employers don't have any respect for a reference from non-voluntary labour. If a person has had to be threatened with absolute poverty to gain their involvement, then a work reference is worthless. This is the real world, not the lunatic world of Ian Duncan Smith MP.

[Fishcake]

people, please stop name calling and making personal attacks or I will be forced to close the thread...........what?.............oh hang on, it seems I don't have that power. Well I will just repeat myself till you agree

[walkertelecoms]

Which works out at what per hour?

 

If the job is there to be done then the person doing it should be paid at least the min wage.

 

If someone is working then they are not normally on benefits.

 

How are they going to force someone to work for below the min wage, would that not be against the law?

 

They make it up as they go along, like the no redundancy policy for Nurses, colour it as they see fit

[Mr Prime]

I don't think INTERVIEWER is reading anything but his own rhetoric, and repeating the fallacious mantra of £2 per hour!

 

Strange behaviour for an interviewer, who is actually only supposed to do one third of the talking and two thirds of the listening! Has he actually ever had an interview, do you suppose?

 

Check out his contributions the the BBC debates, endless inaccurate statements and downright lies repeated over and over and over. People kept asking him similar questions on there which he cheerfully ignored as he's far too clever to answer. Here's the classic which people in the know including those in the USA refuted in an instant:

 

"UK BBC tv licence fee payers - forced to give cash to the BBC so people in America don't have to"

 

Interviewer: 032 - come back BBC all is forgiven

 

Now it's IDS and the coalition in a moustache twirling top hatted conspiracy to get the poor and vulnerable to work for 2 quid an hour

[INTERVIEWER]

Potential employer: "This reference is from 'The Work' programme. Litter picking for the local Tory council."

 

Job applicant: "I'm an out of work computer software analyst. I only did the litter picking because the Tories would make it so that I couldn't afford to eat if I didn't."

 

Potential employer: "Next applicant!" (So many to choose from thanks to the ConDem government!).

[Tony]

An adult over the age of 25 gets £65.45 Job Seekers Allowance per week. Forced labour for 30 hours per week means that they receive just £2.18 per hour.

Is that all they get? Don't they get their rent and CT paid as well? Those of us working have to pay those out of our wages? Won't that improve their hourly rate?

If anyone can manage to live for any length of time on just £65.45 p/w they should be be showing us where the magic money tree grows.

[llamatron]

Potential employer: "This reference is from 'The Work' programme. Litter picking for the local Tory council."

 

Job applicant: "I'm an out of work computer software analyst. I only did the litter picking because the Tories would make it so that I couldn't afford to eat if I didn't."

 

Potential employer: "Next applicant!" (So many to choose from thanks to the ConDem government!).

 

alternatively

 

applicant: I have never had a job and have always been on the dole. However I have a reference here that states that I showed up on time and worked responsibly for 4 weeks.

 

Potential employer: They have shown they are willing and able to do a job. Maybe I will give them a chance.

 

This scheme clearly isn't aimed at software analysts!!

[jabarker]

It is good for a man to work! it is against the law to be paid below minimum wage, however you are paid.

 

The Benefits system is such that for some it really doesn't encourage them to get back to work. For others, benefits are so low that it is very difficult to search for jobs properly when receiving so little.

 

I resigned from my work a week ago. Still plenty of jobs out there (don't let the media say otherwise) but i agree it is tough and a lot of competition.

[Mecky]

It may breach several Articles under the ECHR