I STILL think Tesco should fucking well PAY THEIR STAFF. Workfare is wrong!!!!

In the Guardian yesterday, it talks of Tescos changing the scheme to offer the people the 'choice' of EITHER working for their benefits OR taking a 4-week PAID work placement WITH the gurantee of a job at the end IF their work placement is completed satisfactorily.

Just one GLARING problem with this - they are STILL BEING FORCED TO DO IT UNPAID FOR THEIR BENEFITS.

While the Guardian MIGHT be lauding this new statement as a success story - IT BLOODY WELL ISN'T.

Because Tescos and the DWP have neglected to mention one HUGE omission. If you take a 4-week work experience placement PAID - you will be INELIGIBLE to claim Tax Credits - because the work can only be guaranteed if you complete the Work experience programme to Tescos satisfaction.

You will also have your Housing Benefits affected, and have to cover your rent so as not to lose your home - as you will have had a 'change in circumstances', which takes a MINIMUM of 6 weeks to reassess. Ditto your Council Tax benefits.

IF they did the PAID placements for just ONE WEEK LONGER, they would be eligible to claim Tax Credits. The reason they have chosen a 4-week PAID placement as the replacement for this Workfare scheme is because they KNOW that no-one can risk losing their home, and trying to survive on NMW WITHOUT Tax Credits - and therefore they WILL BE FORCED TO DO THE PLACEMENT UNPAID IN RETURN FOR THEIR BENEFITS. To be able to cover their basic living costs.

This is just a sop to the masses, to make people shut up. Because they expect hardly anyone to be ABLE to take up the 4-week paid placement - because the job isn't guaranteed for 5 weeks, thus meaning the inability to claim Tax Credits...

THEY THINK WE ARE ALL STUPID AND WILL SHUT UP AND GO AWAY BECAUSE THEY HAVE 'FIXED' THE WORK 'EXPERIENCE AND 'MANDATORY WORK-RELATED ACTIVITY PROBLEM.

(C&P from the first thread for those that CBA to read it.)

A lot of these companies try to use the "get out of jail free card" of "hey its not a company issue" but no one is holding them hostage to pay these rates OR to participate in workfare so with all due respect thats bollocks.

So who is holding a gun to these companies heads saying that they musnt pay much above NMW then? Who is holding a gun to their heads saying they must accept people on workfare for weeks or months on end.

TapselteerieO of course I know what you mean by Workfare but the point I was trying to make is that if companies or DWP are approached and you call it Workfare you will get the answer that there is no such thing or at they aren't taking part. Call it whatever you like on here but for contacting or campaigning don't use Workfare.

I was trying to help but had imbibed so my post may not have come across that way. I just don't want them wriggling out of it on technicalities!

Emma Harrison of A4e is stepping down as families minister Radio 4 now.

mini thats terrible. So the DWP is causing bad PR for these companies and saying theyve agreed to something they havent
I can smell a BIG court case unless they buck their ideas up.

It might be worth while bearing in mind that some of these companies may never have actually signed up to workfare.

I have just contacted the Mr Gleam cleaning company from list and it would seem that they were added to the DWP list of participating companies and they have never agreed to be part of it, I actually believe them.

Joseph Mason 17:15:12
A mistake from the DWP through Avanta which is being dealt with as a matter of urgency. The DWP have taken us off the list as a result as we have never been involved in the workfare scheme.

Mini 17:17:06
So somewhere along the line someone is trying to make it look as though there is more support for this scheme than there is?
Joseph Mason 17:18:13
If you wish to speak about this matter please feel free to contact myself via telephone.

So why are some companies signed up without their consent

Companies know enough about the benefits/tax system to know that tax credits will top up the low wages that they pay when they are actually paying a wage so you cant tell me that they dont know the rest of it i.e. the full facts about workfare because any company that says they dont is talking BULLSHIT.

Four quarters thats like saying that tax credits have nothing to do with low wages.

Are Boots being purposefully vague or are they just disingenuous because if that's the statement meant to allay our concerns, I find myself confused and totally disbelieving.

They need to say emphatically and clearly whether they use people on workfare or they don't.

I contacted and was told they do but only at a local level but Mr Grayling suggests by his comments that there is national agreement.

Basically they are hiding behind Graylings insistence that it's voluntary.

Some Tory politician is talking to Osborne about temporarily suspending all employment legislation. It was on Radio 4 this morning but again on my way out for school run didn't catch all of it.

Boots are talking CRAP. I took part in a radio phone in last Sunday (19th) on the Stephen Nolan show on Radio 5 Live at 10pm and the lady who phoned in before me was 38 years old and had done a placement ar Boots cleaning shelves so when they say young people they are lying.
I come on about 2.16 in and i used the name Jenny.
The lady who did the placement in Boots comes on about half an hour to forty minutes before me and is called Maria.

tesco et al know damn well that not many claimants are going to be willing to sign off for 4 weeks to do a "placement" because like Glitter says you need to be signed off and working for a MINIMUM of FIVE weeks to claim tax credits and its the same rule for the housing benefit run on and the council tax benefit run on.
Tesco Boots etc KNOW this so therefore they know many claimants will have no choice but to carry on as before and still be coerced into doing it for their JSA. Because there is also the fact that they could have to wait 6 weeks for all benefits to be reinstated.

TapselteerieO

Off to do School run, did Wilkinsons or Boots actually issue a statement yesterday?

Found the guidance notes for doctors working on Atos assessments, don't know if it's of any interest, if it is, I'll find it and put link here later.

Strange that. The original thread stayed in AIBU