Workfare scheme for loan parents of children as young as 3, as of next month.

[WaterLoadaCack]

kept that quiet didnt they

They aren't hypothetical unfortunately. I know of one couple who treated their ds as an accessory they felt they should have. He went to nursery in his pyjamas, had he breakfast and was dressed there, he was then collected at the end of the day after being bathed, fed and put back in his pyjamas at the request of his parents Mon-Fri. I don't imagine for one second that either of his parents would have liked to stay at home and look after him.

Utterly & completely bonkers.

I say this as a lone parent who went back to work when her babe was 6 weeks old. I was lucky in that I was in the earning bracket that made this a worthwhile endevour. Many women are not in this position at all, and never will be (the average wage really isn't that high).

What about commute/travel time? Does that get taken out of the 3 hours per day?

drop child at nursery - commute to work - do one hour's hard labour - commute to nursery - collect child.

Does the above daily routine make any sense to anyone with half a brain REALLY? Certainly doesn't to me!

(Joke was on me, cos turned out my kid had undiagnosed SN's that blew all my working plans out the water when he went to school & that mean I am now stuck on the social for good it seems. There is a horrid correlation between disability in the family & long term poverty ).

As a general rule - if a lone parent can make working economically viable then he or she will. It's been that way for as long as I can remember as most people want a better life for their kids than the one that benefits provide. Being in poverty for years on end is just grim for parent and child. Lone parents tend to want the adult company that even a part time job provides too, so have incentives to work that go beyond money, that perhaps those happily coupled up may not experience to quite the same extent.

The 60% of kids the CSA won't chase maintenance for are at real risk under this measure - then again adoptions are due to only take 6 months to process now. This is like stepping back in time 100 years, and is coming on top of a series of punative measures this government has instituted against women and children. It's beginning to frighten me tbh as to what sort of world our grandkids will endure.

Stomps off muttering about how politicians have no clue as to what is needed to improve the lives of real people living in the real world . . . .. . .

Darkest thank you for that link. That's a great resource.

EatShitDerek the difference is that you want to come off benefits and are using them as a helping hand in the mean time. Other people use them as a lifestyle choice.

I have a friend who is now giving up her 4 hour a week job as it is too much for her, we both have children of the same age, are lone parents and I work 20 hours a week but to her her life is so much more difficult as she wants to spend more time alone with her new bf. Her dc will be attending nursery and a cm for no other reason than so they can have time together alone. That to me is not what IS should be paying for.

I'd love to know how the government would have made this work for me. I have 2 children (now grown up) with asd, one very severe. When he was in nursery I had to be there with him to support him because there was no way he or the nursery staff could have coped with him without 1:1 support.

Would they have counted my 15 hours a week in nursery, supporting my son for no pay as being sufficient? Doubtful.

Workfare is the stupidest idea. It does nothing but take jobs away.

No probs Maureen

From the link.

Its a long time, 30 years on, but we knew this would happen they shut our industry down. Theyre importing coal and theres thousands and thousands of tonnes of coal beneath our feet and here we are going into this dangerous nuclear power. This is our society in 2014, where we should be going forward, and we knew in 1984 this was going to come thats why we fought so hard. And we did fight hard. The women were very, very brave. - See more at: www.feministtimes.com/anne-scargill-theres-no-jobs-theres-nothing-in-1984-we-knew-this-would-happen/#sthash.dxSXx99P.dpuf

It fills me with absolute despair. Makes me want to cry.

Cat yes I'd be VERY interested to know how they plan to make this work for parents of children with SN. I seriously doubt they CAN and it worries me hugely.

I know a woman...single...with a son who has cerebral palsy and autism and she has NO help apart from that which she receives from charity. She dedicates ALL her days to him...working on his body and his mind to bring him to the best place that she can before he begins school. She's excersising with him and playing with him...are they going to make her piss off to poundland three hours plus two travel a day and pay someone else to look after her son!???

It is completely obviously a punitive measure.

I recently read a book about the history of the workhouse. It is uncannily similar what was said at the time of the workhouse and what is spouted out now by this hateful government about the undeserving poor and punishing them.

Derek don't let those idiots posting about Jezza get to you. They're beneath contempt.

Here's the million dollar question...what are we going to DO about it? What is ANYONE going to DO about it??

We need a skilled educated workforce and children do better in school if parents are better educated so if the desire is to legislate for lone parents on benefits to be gainfully employed why not make it benefits related courses? Short courses and some longer ones leading to qualifications.

Compulsory literacy, numeracy, IT skills, customer care, parenting courses, health care, etc etc with a pass mark or some sort of attendance and progress check? Then by the time DC start school you have people ready to join work again but no one has been displaced on the jobs market or been used as cheap labour for exploitative corporations.

If we had more respect for each other as people and we weren't so bitter about giving tiny amounts to help each other along we'd probably all be better off. So long as we keep humiliating and degrading each other our communities keep getting nastier and nastier.

What next - bikes in sheds that pensioners have to peddle to generate electricity back to the national grid in return for their pension... But sold by politicians as 'helping them to maintain fitness so that they're not a drain on the national health and at the same time give something back by lowering the utility bills of hardworking families in return for their age related benefits'! Tsk!

I disagree with workfare. It's just a way for the government to massage employment figures and for their corporate buddies to make bigger profits at the taxpayer's expense.

I see no reason why parents with children who are 3 years old shouldn't work if there are no additional needs and if they can find a job. Millions of children survive full-time child care from an early age and go on to be perfectly well adjusted adults. No-one needs to stay home just to care for a NT young child.

However, the availability of suitable jobs and the provision of training/education is another story. And so is the provision of usable,affordable, good quality childcare if they're going to expect people to work for less than a living wage when nursery costs are usually over and above the MNW per hour.

Mostly though, this whole idea that people need to be forced into work is what gets my goat - the assumption is that the default position is people not wanting to work. FFS, make jobs available, make training available, increase the NMW and make good quality state-sponsored childcare available and I think the government might actually find, to their amazement, that people would go out to work. You can't get a job that isn't there, you can't put a child in the fridge for the day while you're at work and you can't get jobs without the relevant training.

OhMerGerd well...what about those who don't NEED literacy courses? Those who have degrees? What about them?

It is a shit attitude that people have and like you say it doesn't take much to be in the same situation as us. All it took for me was finding a few txts on dp's phone and suddenly I am a lone parent who luckily had returned to work but only part-time as we could afford it this time last year but on my own it is a.massive struggle.

I just feel a bit funny about those who are happy to receive their benefits but don't make any effort to do any work for them, whether thats voluntary or paid. Workfare will never be fair especially when there are so many variables out there such as volunteers, disabled or sn dc etc.

Workfare is nothing more than a way of the Government massaging statistics to make unemployment look lower than it is. It is set up to help no one other than them and the greedy corporations that take part.

It will not help women find work, if anything it will have a negative effect. Why the fuck people jump to such ridiculous conclusions about people who claim benefits is beyond me. I just hope none of you find yourselves being forced to go and work in Poundland for less than minimum wage just to be allowed enough money to feed yourself and your children.

Well, I'm frightened now. I have my nice shiny degree and my nice shiny years of work experience but oh yay a giant mental health problem. So the jobs I could apply for with that degree are unobtainable. Retraining is not an option. There's no retail/unqualified jobs here. So I'm sentenced to a life of workfare etc. My only silver lining was waiting a couple more years before I get to work as slave labour but nope, now it's months.

Why don't they concentrate on making jobs rather than schemes that take them away?

And, as ever, nice to see the usual names of those in ivory towers popping up on this thread to relish the fact that other people struggle.

AwfulMaureen how about something that'd help them on in the next stage if their career. If they have a law degree - a short refresher on current case law ... If they have a maths degree and they wanted to do accountancy or set up their own business something related to that.

I have academic qualifications and lots of work related qualifications and donkeys years of experience but if I was out of the workplace for 9 months or three years I'd be desperate for some free refreshers and possibly some transferable skill related employment courses.

But I just suggested some basic quals for a for instance.

"Why don't they concentrate on making jobs rather than schemes that take them away?"

That just sums up the whole problem, doesn't it?

zero hours contracts - this is new but very worrying development for lone parents.

No work - no pay - no eat is fine for healthy adults with no dependents, but this is an unacceptable risk to many low paid lone parents no matter how desperate they are to work. A natural consequence of being a lone parents is becoming very risk averse in order to secure at least the basics for your child, like a hot meal every day, shoes and a roof over your head. Zero hours contracts potentially put all of this at risk.

Absolutely Bochead Zero hour contracts sum up everything that is wrong with the current labour market. Looking employed without earning any actual money or being able to claim any benefits. Employer has you by the balls knowing you'll be desperate for any hours they'll throw your way ensuring you'll work unsociable hours. Government wins as unemployment looks low. The only person who doesn't win is you, the poor bastard just trying to get by.

I said the above about zero hours contract as I have an interview for a part time role coming up that I am not sure if i can take because of this.

Married Mums can often risk self-employment, zero hours contracts, free lancing etc in a way that lone mothers can't. Personally I've love to see a way to make taking risks become more viable for lone parents, as I've met so many with great entrepreneurial ideas that under the current system can go nowhere without risking making their children homeless.