I would reform the system, by getting rid of pointless expenditure like unnecessary ATOS assessments.
Thee money saved on that bureaucracy could be spent elsewhere. YThe job centre could actually set up workplace training courses for the unemployed. For example, I see adverts for warehouse forklift drivers locally. Now, due to my dodgy reflexes, that itself isn't suitable for me, even after training, but for other people it is.
Does my job centre provide forklift-training, or even tell you where you can find it? No. I looked for someone else, and I couldn't find even find any courses locally.
I would refuse to allow the benefits system to completely subsidise companies' labour costs. There was a little nugget of truth that people with gaps on their CVs could often do with work experience to demonstrate to employers that they're worth employing.
So I would severely limit and alter the workfare thing until it's almost unrecognisable. Employers would:
-
have severe limits on how many workfare placements they could do, (none of this "another 25 workers every four weeks", with none of them getting jobs")
-
They would be obliged to top up the benefits the person got until it reached minimum wage for the hours worked. I'd need some people to check through the loopholes to make sure there weren't exceptions where people could lose out, but it can be done.
It just needs the people in charge to think it's worth doing. The company would still be getting a cheap worker, so it would still be in their interest to offer placements. They just wouldn't be taking the piss at an individual's expense.
3) People on placements would have the same health and safety rights as contracted workers- this could be dealt with by, erm, contracts.
4) Companies who wanted JSA-claimants as cheap workers would be obliged to provide references, just like they do to previous paid employees. That would mean that people on a placement would actually have improved employment chances afterwards.
There's more, but I didn't make notes on all of it, so I can't remember what the details were, apart from one thing.
People whinge like mad about single parents getting back to work, and not even going on courses, etc. If you're a single-parent of young child(ren), and you don't have childcare, how can you attend evening courses, etc? There should be proper crèches, to enable the demonised single parents to train.
I have been working heavily on courses for my CV, in the absence of a job, and it's paying off, in that I'm getting more interviews to stutter my way through. That has only been possible, because my husband is willing and able to co-parent.