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.

Really though, hats off to the Tories for managing to dress up this horrendous scheme as something that is actually supposed to help people. Some people are clearly buying the rhetoric.

Same old Tories, out to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, but dressed up to look as if they are actually doing something positive for the people they are screwing. Very clever.

Oh you reckon mingo? What will workfare teach me?

I'm trained and qualified in Admin, not very glam but there you go. I've worked in Admin since 1996. I have a level 3 nvq in business and admin which is supervisory. (still shit admittedly, a rocket scientist i'm not).

But what will shelf stacking teach me?

Bloody hell.

That link's .

Tesco's efforts to keep a lid on their FB aren't going well, btw. They just posted a thread reminding everyone of their posting rules - then had to delete their own thread because of the responses they got...

Hey glitter, gotta get what you can out of them before they pop off. These terminally ill people have probably cost the the NHS a fortune. Why should the hardworking taxpayer have to fund their sickness? Quite right to make them pay their way before they move on.

Some people are just so entitled!

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! If this is true then are actually breaking the law, so I doubt if it is.

No-one in the last months of their lives are going to be forced to work. Thats just scaremongering and you should know better Glitter.

Last years maybe. But as with all of these setups, the rules always end up being unofficially twisted on an individual level to add compassion to the equation.

Dis-abled doesn't mean cant work in many many cases, and I'm surprised that people are pushing for exclusions after so many years of fighting to be treated equally in the workplace.

Do employers like Tescos still get money if they dont actually take the person on at the end? Or the middleman who arranges the whole thing still get a cut? If so thats pretty bad.

Have you ever been in a jobcentre mingo?

sairycamp - that has happened to my son. He has disabilities but nonetheless worked in a full time job for nearly five years. It's a job he has loved and given his heart and soul to. Last month he was told he would but cut from FT to PT hours, because his employer can now get half a dozen people on workschemes to do his job for nothing. My son is good but can't possibly do the job of 6 people, so he loses out. He is not the only one and one of his colleagues who was laid off completely is now back doing the same job but on a workscheme.

Unfortunately for my son and others in his situation, almost all of the low paid/basic jobs in our area are no more and done by 'volunteers', and as he has a disability he would not be able to study or train for anything other than one of those jobs.

:( cornishsue, I'm so sorry.

So there's no way someone who gets told they have ten months to live due to cancer could end up on workfare because its more than six months, then die sooner than expected mingo? Glad you've categorically ruled that one out for us.

The only person I can see twisting things is you, mong.

Dis-abled means some loss of functionality. Rather obviously, one's ability to work is related to how much and what functionality, and the job one is attempting to do. It's always case by case.

I think you're confusing disability rights with, say, race equality. Skin colour rarely has an impact one's ability to any given job (unless you're an actor). Disability has a profound impact on how much and what work one can do. David Blunkett, for example, could be in the Cabinet but cannot stack shelves at Tescos.

And actually, it is hoped to roll this out to people with terminal illnesses. Since no one can say for sure how long a person will actually survive - or how much labouring might shorten their lives - this will inevitably mean some people spend the last months of their lives working.

God knows some have died within weeks of being found fully Fit to Work and not even eligible for ESA.

If you think mingo, that the jc abide by "the rules" you have a lot to learn. They dont. Your can read about it on dwp website, but it is so far removed from reality...and the government dont know about it? My arse.

cornishsue what I'm saying is that it is totally illegal for a company to offer a 'job', as in the exact same hours, duties etc as a paid worker had been getting to someone as a 'volunteer role'.

As a matter of fact, the House of Lords flagged up precisely the issue that JobCentre staff are extremely likely to make poor decisions regarding mandating workfare for sick or disabled people.

This is because JobCentre staff have neither access to people's full medical records (quite rightly) nor the expertise to understand it if they had.

They're simply not equipped to make that sort of decision.

Thats ok FlangelinaBallerina. Just trying to bring a little reality back to the argument. It seems that the Tories eat babies and will do whatever they can to ensure they are never elected again. Ever

If that's true cornishsue then its bang out of line. Are you sure its workfare? I've heard many similar stories, but its usually Inter Company Transfers where they bring in cheap labour from abroad. The 6 workers for 1 thing sounds very familiar.

gives up.

Oh dear mingo, I didn't realise that's what you were attempting. Alas, you failed.

You didn't answer my questions mingo, is that because i'm too much of an uneducated poor twunt that you cant speak to me?

Btw, there used to be a non-compulsory disability job service, I think also called Pathways to Work.

It had a fairly high success rate (so was cost-effective), because it was used by people who judged themselves able to work, and attempted to fill in genuine gaps (guaranteed interviews, workplace adjustments, etc).

That's completely different from a coercive system, applied across the board, which starts from the presumption that a disabled person is lying if they say they can't do X.

No scaremongering here.
If you have more than 6 months to live you can be put in the Work Related ESA group.

Therefore you have to do Workfare.
So you could have seven months to live for example and you'd have to do 6 weeks' workfare.

So that is working in your last months, thank you very much.

Oh mingo do bugger off back to MSE theres a dear.

mingofmong - to be honest I do not know it is actual workfare, it maybe some other similiar scheme. All I know is most FT workers have been laid off to be replaced by 6 others (each) doing the job for free. I also know that the employer as well as benefitting for so much free labour, also receives an amount of money to collect the people from the nearest town and to drop them off at the end of the day. He openly admits how much he is making/saving because of this...but then he's a real bastard.

I also know when one ex employee went to the job centre after being told he was no longer needed, was straight away told their experience would make them perfect for the scheme and he really was expected to go and do the same job he had been doing FT, for his £67 JSA. Same person/same job!?!?

ATOS kills

cornishsue

[email protected] is looking for stories of workfare. Between your son and his colleague this sounds an important one to be told - even just as background, if you'd rather not be on the record (although do you think one of his sacked colleagues would be interested in going on the record?).