I´m a lone parent who receives absolutely no maintenence from my son´s father and he is also no contact (his choice). I have always worked.
I currently work 23 hours per week. My local nursery is too expensive so I have to take a bus to the next town to be able to afford nursery at all. My the job that I have is a further 2 buses away. I work 4 hours per day Mon-Thurs and 7 hours on a Friday. I love my job, as it happens, but it should be noted that I am not making this massive commute to earn megabucks, I am a receptionist. There just aren´t many jobs out there for a trilingual graduate of Birmingham University with over 10 years work experience if that person also happens to be a single mother who needs to work within the hours of 9-5). And I live in a large northern city, so goodness knows what it is like for people in rural areas or smaller towns.
My daily commute is 3 hours. If I was doing my current job for free t a similar distribution of hours (lets say 3 hours per day) for the 15 hours on this genius scheme I would have to be paying to cover the 2 hours of that commute which takes place between nursery and work. You can´t pay by the hour, you have to pay either morning or afternoon session or both. That is full time nursery at 650 pounds per month (that, by the way is AFTER the 15 hours free have been taken off, not before).
The monthly income of a lone parent on income support and child tax credits with one child is around 533 pounds. SO if the above scenario were to occur, the family would be on -117 pounds before eating, paying the gas and electric, or travelling or indeed anything other than childcare. Unless the state will be providing free wraparound care? Offering more than 15 hours to account for the fact that people have to TRAVEL to work/ their unpaid slave labour !?
The government had better make sure they find workfare placements close to nursery schools. That´s going to be a challenge in itself, surely?
To all those smugly saying what a fabulous idea it is to force single parents who are on income support and have a preschool age child to take part in pointless unpaid work (by the way, the only other unpaid work in the UK that is non optional tends to be given to people who have been convicted of a crime) shame on you.
I wanted to continue to be polite about this, but sometimes bluntness is better. Anyone who supports this kind of programme is a complete and utter cunt who should take a long hard look in the mirror, and maybe have a scout around to see what happened to your soul.
Because this scheme, as it has been so clearly illustrated by other posters on this thread, will NOT improve people´s chances of employment. It will remove paid work from the job market, it will line the pockets of big business and it will potentially cause untold amounts of poverty and suffering for an already struggling working class.