Workfare - Long-term jobless 'made to work'

[Guest]

Would you welcome this opportunity for the unemployed to be given help in improving their employment prospects if labour had introduced it ?

 

This scheme will do nothing to improve their employment prospects - it's simply a Con-Dem con to pretend that they are doing something about the situation.

 

I asked earlier, what happens after the 4 weeks?

Back on the JSA again so how did that help?

[harvey19]

My last employer went bust, as did the previous 2.

Fortunately, I am now retired so it no longer matters to me but, I remember what a struggle things were at the time and would not have relished anyone kicking me whilst I was down.

 

I'm sincerely hoping that some of the "holier than thou" types on here, will end up in this situation - I guarantee that they will soon change their views

 

As said earlier in the thread none of the comments refer to those who have fallen on hard times or the sick. I know myself what it was like getting a job when I came out of the army and had to get anything I could to bring in a wage.

[Guest]

Why will it be a futile exercise if it shows people there is a different lifestyle to the one they have at the moment ?

 

They already know there is a different lifestyle but need REAL jobs so that they can partake.

[harvey19]

This scheme will do nothing to improve their employment prospects - it's simply a Con-Dem con to pretend that they are doing something about the situation.

 

I asked earlier, what happens after the 4 weeks?

Back on the JSA again so how did that help?

 

It shows them there is a different way and gives them some experience of work and what is expected of them. If an opening occurs in the area they have been employed maybe they will be given the opportunity of filling it.

Surely it is better than not trying to improve matters.

[harvey19]

They already know there is a different lifestyle but need REAL jobs so that they can partake.

 

Obviously we all want real jobs for everyone.

[BettyBooHoo!]

My last employer went bust, as did the previous 2.

Fortunately, I am now retired so it no longer matters to me but, I remember what a struggle things were at the time and would not have relished anyone kicking me whilst I was down.

 

I'm sincerely hoping that some of the "holier than thou" types on here, will end up in this situation - I guarantee that they will soon change their views

 

How nice of you.

Been there, done that, worn the t-shirt, still think the system needs a shake up. As some have pointed out,the system should be for those who fall on hard times as a short term measure but it's being abused by the lazy.

 

I've been made redundant twice over the last 6 years and my husband once. On my two occasions, first time I lived off of my redundancy money until I found a new job and on the second I had to take state maternity pay as I got made redundant at 3 month pregnant and lost all my maternity benefits along with my job. Up until the birth I joined an agency and did temp work. When my husband got made redundant, ironically when I was 8 months pregnant, he tried to sign on but was refused as his previous employer had not paid his tax & NI contributions, despite deducting it from his wages (and despite my husband working and paying tax and NI for 11 year prior to this!). He knew he needed a job so went out and took the first job he got offered which was pitance until something more suitable came along.

It all boils down to just how much you are willing to get off your can and work and if we holier than thou types end up in this situation as you put it, we won't change our views as we're not lazy.

[sharrowman]

"It shows them there is a different way and gives them some experience of work and what is expected of them"

 

It is my experience of work and knowing what is expected of me that leads me to shirk at every possible opportunity. Perhaps our estemable doleites feel the same way?

[Lady Star]

But many people just end up going on endless training courses or work schemes that do little to further any chance of work.

Hopefully this carrot and stick approach will be more successful.

Lets hope so.

 

Yes, some do NVQs and adult literacy and numeracy, but they all do volutary work too - They are also supposed to get their benefits stopped if they refuse to work voluntarily, but in practice this never happens, cos if you are a professional claimant, you find all the loop holes... The ones who really want work either find it themselves after taking these programmes, or they are placed in a paid post by the company the job centre sent them too... There is no difference in what is being suggested now to what has been done for the last 20+ years - That's why it's a joke for the tories to pretend they have just thought of this, as it was started after Thatcher ransacked the country just to show she was more powerful than the trade unions...

[INTERVIEWER]

£1 an hour to clear rubbish... new IDS blitz on the workshy

 

The feckless unemployed will be forced to take part in a punishing U.S.-style ‘workfare’ scheme involving gardening, clearing litter and other menial tasks for just £1 an hour in a new crackdown on scroungers.

 

And if they fail to turn up on time or work hard they will be stripped of their dole for three months.

 

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith will tomorrow unveil ‘compulsory community placements’ in an attempt to stop people living on benefits for years without bothering to look for work.

 

The ‘Workfare UK’ project will be targeted at tens of thousands of people suspected of sabotaging attempts to make them work.

 

The measure is a key part of David Cameron’s drive to slash Britain’s annual £192 billion welfare budget.

 

But Labour MPs condemned the scheme. One said: ‘This sounds like slave labour.’

 

The scheme is also likely to run into fierce opposition from some Liberal Democrat MPs.

 

Under Mr Duncan Smith’s anti-scroungers blueprint, employment office chiefs will be given the power to order the long-term jobless to take part in four-week mandatory work schemes.

 

Instead of receiving their usual £65-a-week Jobseeker’s Allowance for sitting at home doing nothing, they will get substantially less – and will have to clock on and off on time and work flat out.

 

The Government has not decided how much people on ‘community placements’ will be paid but it is understood the figure will be between £30 and £40 a week – the equivalent to £1 an hour, one sixth of the minimum wage.

 

They will also be expected to look for a ‘proper job’ for when they complete the scheme. Each participant will be expected to spend at least 30 hours a week on their specified ‘work activity placement’.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327385/WELFARE-REFORMS--1-hour-clear-rubbish--new-IDS-blitz-workshy.html

 

So, not only being forced into manual labour, but the unemployed will have their benefits reduced as well. Anybody else get the feeling that this is really about punishing the poor for being poor?

[INTERVIEWER]

Just at a time when super rich Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and the Tories/Lib Dems want to cut prison places, and send less people to prison in order to save money, with their new workfare programme they need to build super large new prisons to contain all of the people who resort to crime to feed themsleves because they can't survive on £30 a week...