To be purple with rage over workfare

[HoneyandHaycorns]

Sorry, I know there are loads of related threads on here, but I am getting really, really really upset and angry about the fucking workfare programme. It's an absolute outrage that my taxes are funding slave labour to line the pockets of huge tax-avoiding corporations, while the most vulnerable in our society are having their lifelines snatched away from them one by one.

I want to voice my protest, but apart from writing to my MP (which I have done) what is the best way of fighting this crap?

I simply can't believe that anyone in a civilised society could possibly think this was a good idea. Why on earth would a private company ever create any new jobs if they can have government-funded slave labour for free?

Will someone please come and tell me why the fuck anybody other than the boss of tescos would conceivably think this was a good idea?

And if you can't tell me why it is a good idea, please tell me the best way to protest.

Who are these lazy shirkers that you speak of?
People earning £67 per week for their role as a workfare slave?
Oh they get HB and CTB so its actually higher.

Could you actually live off that paltry amount of money?
With no savings, fuck all in your house, hardly any clothes.

They are all just lazy bastards that sit on their arses all day
yada yada yada

Heard it all before in The Daily Mail. Even they have changed the record though.

marriedinwhite, if you were a decent employer offering a decent salary in exchange for a person's labour, you would have your pick of candidates. if you are offering shit money and poor work and working conditions, you deserve the candidates you get.

most unemployed people are the tax payers, they are just temporarily out of work. most people have worked so know how to get out of bed at 6am to get to work on time. most benefits have been paid for by the unemployed, that is what national insurance is i.e. if you fall on hard times, the insurance policy you have paid for will support you while you look for work.

do you really think that workfare is about training for employment? how much training does basic shop work need?

don't talk to people as if you are doing them a favour by letting them sit on their settees instead of working.

do you really think the unemployed are having a great time claiming £67.50 a week when they used to take home £200 a week or £500 a week? most people would rather be out earning a decent wage rather than sitting at home having to watch every penny they spend.

your taxes, don't you mean my taxes?

your ignorance is showing.

I'm 26 and on JSA. I have a 2.1 from a well respected arts and humanities uni in London that is part of the Russell Group. I'm stuck in the north west with my parents. I recieve £67 per week and have 3 volunteer jobs (with Phab, a charity shop, and a family contact centre) and will soon be starting at a women's shelter, with young offenders and with women in crisis.
Is that constructive enough for you? I would do more but local charitable organisations have lost gov funding and can't afford volunteers.

Stacking shelves will not help me in my future career.

i am clearly not an economist

however it seems to me that the economy is in the toilet

this means that jobs are fewer

anything else is really just PR bollocks to make people think that the toilet bowl is full of shirking benefit claiming people

POOR PEOPLE KILLING THE COUNTRY

PUTTING UP THE NATIONAL DEBT

yadda bullshit yadda

really it is

RICH PEOPLE KILLING THE COUNTRY AT THE EXPENSE OF EVERY ONE ELSE

YOU TORY FUCKING CUNTS

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2102484/This-wartime-Nazi-Germany-Camerons-attacks-vulnerable-needy-stopped.html

no BookFairy, the supporters of workfare need to see you have your face rubbed in shit for a profit making company rather than you trying to do good works for charity. it will teach you the discipline you clearly lack and make you grateful for the pennies that the 'taxpayers' like marriedinwhite begrudgingly give you.

Hypothetical situation, but one that could happen...

A manager at Tescos is made redundant. They start claiming JSA whilst looking for a job, but they're not having any success. They get sent back to the Tesco they worked at to stack shelves to get their JSA.

And they're learning new skills, are they? They're learning a work ethic that they never had, and this is really going to make them a more desirable candidate for job interviews?

YANBU, I'm all for voluntary work but only for charities not for companies making large profits.

I am a decent employer and I do offer decent wages actually. Even in this climate I have two vacancies worth about £22,000 for rather boring admin jobs that require good spreadsheet skills. We have now advertised three times for these posts.

In the last year we have also employed numerous apprentices. Only one of two have been punctual and reliable and there would have been jobs at the end for far more than those one or two had performance and reliability been a little higher. It is sad, very very sad that there are so many who feel so entitled but who are not prepared to meet their side of the bargain. Admittedly we are in a Royal Borough and so there are other jobs around - a few - not the hordes of a few years ago. I also have a very dear friend whose husband has been unemployed now for 27 months. He was on 50k+ and refuses to lower his standards. I have offered one of those jobs to help them get back on their feet and have been refused because it is below his dignity. He is about to lose his marriage, has a gaping hole in his CV and to my mind 22k is a great deal more than £0. No, he can't claim benefits because his wife works. They have spent all their savings and have had a very bad few years - their house went up for sale last week - that 22k would have prevented that.

should have read one or two not one of two. Out of about 8-10 only 1 or 2 were reliable and they got jobs.

YANBU at all.

YOU TORY FUCKING CUNTS

We see threads on MN (rightly) lambasting the use of other disriminatory language, but yet it's ok to speak about some groups of people like that?

I think not.

My fear is that typical MW jobs will disappear altogether, replaced by workfare.

its just too tempting for Tesco and the like.

But MIW, you haven't answered my question. What incentive is there for big corporations to create new jobs if they can get free labour through the workfare programme?

And in the meantime, taxpayers are still paying out-of-work benefits to people who are working for less than NMW. How is that good for anyone but the fat cat business owners who are exploiting us all?

I could possibly get on board with this if we were talking about asking JSA claimants to 'work' for 10 hours a week for these companies in exchange for their benefits, but that's clearly not what we're talking about. I don't know how stupid Call Me Dave and co think we are.

the only way that workfare actually works is if the participants are doing a job of work that isn't being done by anyone

i like the principle of workfare

if you are perfectly able to work for money and you want some tax money - then do some work

that is a sound principle

however

this is only making rich companies richer, it isn't helping to grown the economy,

some bullshit about learning skills

no skills learned.

work for a charity if you want your dole money - put in genuine voluntary hours

in my version - there would be skills learned

you want my tax money - work for it

but NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ORDINARY PERSONS JOB

as an employer with teh bottom line being at the forefront of my mind - i would not hire someone at £6. when i can hire them for £2

but the govt should be looking at the greater picture - by retaining existing jobs, you give people money, they spend the money - business thrives and the economy gets stronger

so what the fuck are they doing

nothing apart from making rich people richer

TORY FUCKERS

married your jobs sound like they pay alright (depending on where one lives of course)

But...will the Government be sending workfare candidates to learn how to make spreadsheets? That sounds a useful skill... I'd do it.

The government are sending WF candidates to do jobs that have no chance of development...

and perpetuating the myth that somehow its poor people and benefit claimants that have the country in the mess its in

RATHER THAN FAT CUNT BANKERS

Btw, I meant 10 hours because that roughly equals getting NMW for your 'work' then.

custardo you are so right.

Bully for you marriedinwhite but that doesn't help the millions of us who live miles and miles away from your Royal Borough.

Yes creighton, good point. Those for workfare have never found themselves in this situation and believe everything the Daily Fail tells them about lazy scroungers. Perhaps I should start wearing a badge saying "Thanks for your taxes, I'm off to buy a huge telly"?!

custardo, the unemployed did pay tax, they are getting their own taxes back, not yours! they have paid into an insurance policy, the benefits they get were produced through their taxes, why should they have to work twice for the same money?

I manage a charity shop and aften have people working for me who are on JSA and boy are they resentful most of them just dont want to work (mind you I am comparing them with a 65 yo volunteer who yesterday cleared, sorted ticketed and priced over 90 donation bags ON HER OWN even I would be hard pressed to do that)

However I had a lovely girl on a work programme really liked the job and worked hard, so much so that when her programme finished she still volunteered for me.

Just recently I had a vacancy for an Assistant Manager I had 360 applications some of them from very experienced retail people - guess who got the job? the girl from the programme, she had had no retail experience before she joined me but showed energy and enthusiasm and a willingness to learn.

If that girl had not joined the programme and had just applied for the position I wouldnt have even have offered a her an interview - so yes in some cases
a work programme can lead to full time employment but I would agree that some of the larger employers are taking the piss, I always tell my work programme people that I will give them training and I am prepared to do just thay but sadly most are not interested.

Thank you creighton! Contrary to popular opinion, I haven't always been a drain on society. I have actually contributed financially in my time. Fancy that!

Dps work are the bloody kings of not replacing anyone who leaves and getting volunteers to do the work and also lots of those on temp contracts were laid off year before last and offered their old jobs as volunteers! meanwhile the head of another museum where jobs wee going on 150k a year was brought in to their place to finish the months she needed to get her pension although she knew nothing about said museum and prob had no interest in it as she was there just to pass time. Dp and co will find out thursday whether they still have a job and they are all seriously scared as they have files full of graduates willing to work for 0