I haven't committed any crime like this woman has, so why do I have to do 120 hours of unpaid work?

[DeadWomanWalking]

Woman sentenced to 215 hours of unpaid work for committing benefit fraud. I'm currently having to do 120 hours of unpaid work (30 hours a week for 4 weeks) or I'll lose my benefits. So what's my crime? Being unemployed? Being poor? Completely baffled by this governments policies.

sorry OP, see that you ahve said that you are willing to do anything. Just i find it so frustrating when i cant get staff yet there are loads claiming JSA locally

Ad I haven't managed to get into uni as planned, and will be joining the world of the job seeker when college finishes, I'm worried! :(

OP is this the only placement you've had in 8 months? Or have you had to do a previous workfare placement?

It is incredibly difficult to get a supermarket job. Over 200 people applied for a few jobs when tesco opened a store near me. Many retail jobs are short hour contracts.many hotel jobs are done by agency workers on zero hour contracts. I don't think you know what you are talking about.

Serious question, not just knocking the situation.

How is long someone on JSA before being asked to do this?

Once you have done your 120 hrs over 4 weeks, do you carry on getting the JSA and are not asked to do this again?

"entitlement" - yawn

OP - just look for the positives, seriously, if its AgeUK and you are working weith the old folk you are at least interacting with people, gaining skills - yes, i'd feel taken the piss out of, but i'd rather be working for a charity like this than tesco or the likes, THAT indeed does take the piss.

I feel your pain with the loads of job interviews, it sounds like you are doing what i did and applying online for everything and anything - it really does pay to taylor CVs, but to be honest, its a bloody lottery. DP has just got work as a carpenter for an agency - he was called out of the blue because it was a "social housing" contract - He happened to have the words "social housing" on his CV that he had registered with a jobsite probably over a year ago and forgot about - they probably did a keyword search. Its worth printing out the person spec and matching keywords - i have done this in the past, sometime it work sometimes it doesn't. Ive also done the apply for everything thing too - its disheartenning, i hope you or you DH find something soon.

I'd rather be on short hour contracts than benefits. How about you op....

And back to the ops original point

You claim benefits fraudulently. If, if, you get caught, you have to work for free for a bit. If you don't get caught, you have to work for free for a bit.

You claim benefits legitimately. You have to work for free for a bit

I'm not seeing the 'punishment' aspect of the benefit fraud. It kind of looks the same as what would have happened anyway.

Two totally different scenarios OP. You are expected to take part in the work scheme as you have been claiming for x number of weeks. Given you have been a SAHM for 10 years then you need the experience for your CV. If you are submitting 100 applications and getting nowhere then you need all the extra help you can get.

Am surprised you actually qualify for JSA as you have not been pying tax for some years but presumably its a joint income based claim. Be thankful that we have a system in place, other countries have it far worse.

If neither of you are working then its not just JSA you will be claiming so not quite as low a rate per hour as you make out.

I'd rather the OP got paid a wage for doing a job and the companies didn't get free labour.

How about you..

With MWP they can send you on as many as they wish they can also send you to courses and the private companies that run the have the power to sanction someone with very limited recourse.

I would suggest that if she has to work to earn her benefit the. She should get her NI contributions to date refunded. No? Well what are those for then?

Eight months out of work. Months, not years.
Mandatory slavery Work Experience erodes the employment market why big business is involved. Retail is loving it, what with automated tills and free staff their shareholders can really rake it in! Kerching!

Having MWP on a cv does not help. It can hinder future employment

AgeUK are staffed by volunteers (apart from management) though, so in this instance a company are not getting free labour where they would have normally employed someone.

Totally agree that Tesco, Homebase etc shouldn't be allowed to use free workers.

My DS did workfare over Xmas for poundland. They didn't have to employ any temp Xmas staff.

Win win for them.

do you get housing benefit op? Is this why you won't take a short hour contract??

Convert - if you are offering NMW for chef, that might be why you are struggling to fill the job. My Ex earns £17k+ working as a sous chef on the NHS. He certainly wouldn't apply for a NMW job, no matter how much he wants to get out if the job he's in!

NMW is not an appropriate wage for a chef with any sort of experience. So that will be why you are struggling to find decent applicants.

The only chefs that would be willing to work for NMW are those fresh out of Catering college or those that have been sacked from previous places for poor timekeeping or other stuff. Or are just rubbish at their jobs.

If you want to attract decent staff, offer a decent wage!

Having spent many years as a hotel manager & now working in a large industrial site employing everyone from scientists to drain clearers, chefs, & toliet attendants I completely know what I am talking about.
We also contract out many services so have many people working on site who are on unequal terms and conditions.

We had 60 applicants for one Very well paid, Semi skilled, perm position employed directly by our organisation. Many did not meet the minimum requirements, application form not completed properly etc.
However they would perhaps of been suitable for one of 8 fixed term contract positions we had, lower paid (but still well over the min wage) & with some of the standard company benifits, unskilled, early start, hard graft.
We had 13 applications, of these 3 had been force to attend by the jobcentre (one was pissed).
One had such lengthy convictions he was not employable on our site
In the end we successfully recruited 5 & have re advertised.

One has left because & i quote "its fcking hard graft & cold, & I've got to pay my own fckign rent & got nothing left for meself"

Some people's attitudes are so disgusting it is unreal.

There are more unemployed people at the moment because of the state of the economy. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore, it makes no sense whatsoever to put people into vacancies for no money, just for the sake of "experience" and to appease the Daily Fail readers.

If this ridiculous scheme was scrapped, companies would all of a sudden have job vacancies again. People would be employed, paying taxes instead of claiming benefits.

I, also, don't want big companies like Tesco, Homebase and Poundland to be able to increase their profits further by using free workers.

Wanna did you miss the bit were I said I was applying for 6 hour a week cleaning jobs?

usualsuspect are you talking about me not knowing what I'm talking about? I don't understand that part of your post.

HappyMummy you're right we should be grateful for what we get being feckless workshy scroungers. (Even though DH was a respectable taxpayer for 22 years).

NorthernLurker - the problem with that is the fact that someone like the OP, who already has a family to support, including a DC with Autism, cannot 'do a year as an apprentice' as they won't be able to survive on an apprentice's wages.

Because loads of employers ( the type who pay low wages) have no idea who gets sent on MWP they think it means either criminal or very long term bum.

Wait a sec. The op is a Carer,

She should be protected from MWP looks like the dwp have fucked up her claim.