'The purpose of Welfare is to help people into work

[AnnieMaybe]

This is what David Cameron just said at the end of the BBC benefit programme

Does he not know what welfare is? Has he forgotten the ethos of where it has evolved from

You're missing the point Fay. How can there be miraculous places for workfare clients? But not any spaces to put those on workfare in paid positions. I know I've said this loads of times before so sorry for the repitition but I have Employer friends who won't touch Applicants with a barge pole if they have workfare references on their CVs. Take a a look at the Boycott workfare site and then tell me you genuinely believe all the people on that list are doing it out of pure altruistic reasons.

I've just looked at an article about that Cait Reilly. There was a quote on it saying "Those two weeks were a complete waste of my time as the experience did not help me get a job". Well the YEAR's experience working at the museum didn't help her get a job either. And she now has a job in a supermarket which indicates the experience at poundland did help her.

Because no-one would employ long-term unemployed people when there are people with recent experience looking for work. Would you hire a LTU people to work in your business knowing that they likely had a really negative attitude towards work and employers? The government has to do something to prevent people ending up as unemployed for years and becoming effectively unemployable for the rest of their life.

Because no one would employ a LTU when there are people with recent experience looking for work < but they are happy to to take these LTU on as free labour and for the 3k fee? Okay then.

Well yes. The £3000 makes it worthwhile. Maybe less money would, at least for some employers. But they wouldn't do it for free, obviously.

The Government can. Stop Multi - million pound companies having their free labour subsidised for one.

What size is the company that you run, Misspixietrix?

What would be your idea to deal with the problem of long term unemployment? Just accept is as a fact of life in post industrial Britain?

How on earth does the 3k fee make it worthwhile? So you are happy to subsidise both the benefits of the workfare client and the workfare contractor then? There are many many companies who don't need 'Incentives' to take on more staff. I'm not quite sure where the Incentive is anyway. Given that next to none actually offer their workfare client a job afterwards and also employers won't touch you. Mainly because they're made to do placements that aren't relevant to their Job field.

People who do workfare have been unemployed and receiving benefits for some time, they don't make yo do a mandatory placement the moment you sign on for JSA.

I can see the benefits of doing unpaid work experience like in the example given of the lady in the museum, but I can't see what more she would have got from continuing to do this voluntary work indefinitely that she wouldn't have already had from the first couple of months when she was on JSA and not required to do any work placements.

She could also have continued to do the voluntary work around the work placements, or if she was in employment. Life doesn't make people choose between voluntary work or paid work, plenty of people do both.

I don't like the idea of taxes subsidising big companies to have good quality workers that they could be paying for themselves, but not everyone who does these placements is a good quality worker. Sometimes they are people who have no work ethic, no experience of even getting up at a regular time each day, let alone to go to work, and I don't think companies should be expected to try and manage and train those people when there's no benefit to them.

There are situations where workfare is appropriate, and a good use of taxpayers money, and there are times when it isn't, but clearly, expecting a little common sense to be applied seems to be too much to ask for.

I don't run a company anymore. I used to run a cleaning company with my ex in my early days and always paid our staff the above average (gosh I feel old! ). I've told you what my Idea would be. Stop these corporations leaching off free labour and get those poor workfare clients into paid secure jobs.

"get those poor workfare clients into paid secure jobs"

How?

WooWoo The placements are 30hours a week. They are required to still actively be looking for Employment around those times. At what time are they meant to squeeze in another volunteering job too?

By making the companies take a % of their placementers on to their payroll at the end of it? At least we know the £3,000 of taxpayers money would start to have been well spent.

30 hours a week still leaves three full working days a week, plus evenings. I appreciate that might not work out well of shift work is involved with unsociable hours, but it's not going to be impossible for someone who should be putting all their efforts into finding paid work.

And like I said, there is nothing that is going to be added to a CV from working indefinitely in a voluntary position that wouldn't already be there from the time spent on JSA doing voluntary work before the claimant was asked to do workfare.

"By making the companies take a % of their placementers on to their payroll at the end of it? At least we know the £3,000 of taxpayers money would start to have been well spent."

What if they're all crap?

what if they are all Crap that's why I said a %. Funny how none of them have been Crap so far whilst on workfare placements though. If they were good enough for the six months free placement then they should be made to take some on. After all why should they get to choose any more than the clients do? woowoo you spread that 30hours across the week oh and on the day (s) you don't go in you spend a whole day at the training courses they provide.

That still leaves plenty of time to job search, and again, someone will have still had the time on JSA before they were asked to do workfare doing any voluntary work they choose.

Plenty of people do voluntary work alongside working full time.

Indeed woowoo but not all those voluntary placements that aren't registered with the Jobcentre get £3,000 taxpayer funded fee for their troubles.

3K per unpaid worker?!! £3K?!!

Right. That's it. I can replace my carer with people I don't pay and get myself an income of >£12K pa into the bargain. I could set up a company as the vehicle, if need be.

Thus transforming myself from disabled scrounging scum to neighbourhood benefactor in the eyes of fayraes of this world and well more than doubling my income.

The only people not benefiting would be the unpaid workers and the taxpayer. What's not to like?

Not unpaid remember partial - they're just being paid in benefits remember

Would you trust long term unemployed people with no training to be your carer? With new people starting every few weeks?

Excellent! No bad conscience for me then!

I shall get them to make cups of tea and consider myself generous for teaching them. After all, they're unemployed so obviously won't have basic skills like that.

We can move on to tying shoelaces in week two.

Who do you think are my carers now, fayrae?

The difference being I pay them. And it didn't occur to me to think, "long-term unemployed, you must be shit".

fayrae was that last question to me? Because of course not and is exactly why I take umbridge to workfare.

BTW, if I were still very ill then I would be too vulnerable to have different people in and out of the house and needing details explained every time.

Which is why I have never used a carer agency, because that's exactly what many disabled people get from paid carers.