Should our unemployed be forced to pick fruit?

[dangerousedd]

how would most of the unemployed get there? would they be required to move to take up this 'work'

[Jeffrey Shaw]

It would do the unemployed no harm to do a little work for their money.

Whether fruit-picking or otherwise, yes.

Benefit payments are funded by taxpayers. It's easy for claimants to forget that.

[Guest]

Well, of course, work is better than unemployment for everybody.

[the_bloke]

how would most of the unemployed get there? would they be required to move to take up this 'work'

 

The same way they always did before the explosion of migrant workers who live on the farms they work on.

 

A little minibus supplied by an agency collects farm workers from suitable meeting points first thing in the morning and drives them to their place of work. At the end of the day it takes them home again.

[Gamston]

This is about them taking full time temporary jobs. Do you think those people should be paid the going rate for the job or benefits instead?

That's because he was bored at home after his wife died not because he needed the money.

Nothing has changed yet so farms who employ EU workers to pick fruit, can still do so. The fruit farms will have to plan ahead to recruit their labour in the future after the UK has left the EU. No I don't think privately owned farms, should benefit from unemployed people picking fruit. I don't have a problem with long term unemployed people having their benefit stopped, because they refuse to work on a fruit farm.

 

The elderly gentleman isn't lazy and that was the reason, why I mentioned him.

[tinfoilhat]

If there is work available and they don't take it then they lose benefits.

 

Work paid at whatever rate it's offered at, it'll be minimum wage at least you'd expect.

 

Of course this is what we do already - if you turn down work you will get sanctioned or whatever it's called.

 

So, they work for say 3 weeks (at minimum wage) it takes the agency two weeks to pay them and the jobcentre 4 weeks to process their claim once they've finished.

 

Would you take that on?

[Cyclone]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/16/brexit-vote-brings-uncertainty-for-fruit-pickers-and-farmers

 

Just heard a report on radio 4. Due to the fall in the pound, there are now less seasonal fruit & veg pickers in the UK. I wonder if this will result in the government forcing our unemployed to be seasonal workers in payment for their benefit?

 

No, there have been lots of similar suggestions in the past and there are lots of reasons why the unemployed (who are generally in that state for only a short length of time) shouldn't be forced to work.

 

---------- Post added 01-12-2016 at 18:01 ----------

 

Why do you advocate them doing seasonal work in exchange for benefits rather than for the going rate for that work? If you'd asked "Should our unemployed be forced to take jobs picking fruit or face losing their benefits?" you might have had a point. The way you've phrased it it sounds like you are advocating a lower than minimum wage labour/workfare scheme.

 

A more reasonable suggestion, but only if the work is appropriate of course.

I wouldn't expect a newly unemployed brain surgeon to be told to apply for a job picking fruit.

[Blackbeard]

Nothing has changed yet so farms who employ EU workers to pick fruit, can still do so. The fruit farms will have to plan ahead to recruit their labour in the future after the UK has left the EU. No I don't think privately owned farms, should benefit from unemployed people picking fruit. I don't have a problem with long term unemployed people having their benefit stopped, because they refuse to work on a fruit farm.

 

The elderly gentleman isn't lazy and that was the reason, why I mentioned him.

 

While it is true that EU workers can still come to the UK to pick fruit the fall in the value of the £ makes it not worth while.

“The depreciation in the pound is making the UK far less attractive. Workers from Romania or Bulgaria can go to Germany to pick asparagus or strawberries. It is a better alternative for them.”

https://www.ft.com/content/fffd7f8c-4456-11e6-b22f-79eb4891c97d

[Funky_Gibbon]

If there is work available and they don't take it then they lose benefits.

 

Work paid at whatever rate it's offered at, it'll be minimum wage at least you'd expect.

 

Of course this is what we do already - if you turn down work you will get sanctioned or whatever it's called.

 

And as the National Audit Office revealed yesterday in their official report on sanctioning benefit recipients, it's a policy that costs the taxpayer more money than it would cost to simply pay the benefits. The DWP couldn't provide any figures at all about any benefit of sanctioning people or indeed any about the extra cost it puts on other public services

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cyhlt05WEAAmz46.jpg

 

Punitive is the word you were looking for.

[Gamston]

While it is true that EU workers can still come to the UK to pick fruit the fall in the value of the £ makes it not worth while.

“The depreciation in the pound is making the UK far less attractive. Workers from Romania or Bulgaria can go to Germany to pick asparagus or strawberries. It is a better alternative for them.”

https://www.ft.com/content/fffd7f8c-4456-11e6-b22f-79eb4891c97d

On the news today it has said immigration has reached a record high. Unemployment is about 1.7 million . There is plenty of labour force available in the UK for people to pick fruit. Some of these fruit farms have their own agenda and changes in Government policy towards the unemployed, wouldn't hurt if there are genuine vacancies, which are not being filled for whatever reasons.