To ask for a view on this ? If someone gets benefits and are not a carer / single parent etc .. then they should contribute to society in order to receive benefits ?

[Ooola]

I think in society we should all support orhers.
The taxpayers contribute by paying taxes .
Vulnerable people such as disabled , carers etc should be supported by others .
Those who can’t find work and get benefits .. should be required to give something back for the money they get ...not be forced to work for a big co operation but to contribute . Things like park maintenance , listening services , support to the struggling public services . There could be matching service so that they could chose to gain experience or use the skills they have to benefit others .
Any police checks , as are required in other jobs , would be funded . Does this sound fair ? If we all give what we can then it may be of benefit to all , including the claimant who could use this to build c v , etc . Surely it’s win win in principle ? If someone gets benefits say at a level of 10 k , 13 k , 20 k
.. it feels fair that they give something for that especially as it is comparable to someone working and getting minimum wage ?
Clearly time would need to be given off for job interviews etc .

The idea that the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and other vulnerable people's care should be dealt with by an army of unwilling underpaid volunteered rather than trained, appropriate professionals makes my blood boil.

Absolute nonsense for all of the reasons above.
Op - Pausing for a moment’s practical thought (putting aside any political ideology behind the suggestion) about exactly what you are envisaging - how it would be administered and regulated (and the costs) the impact on others’ jobs and on the recipients of enforced labour, how assessment criteria would be identified and applied (I Hope Capita wouldn’t be involved given their abysmal life endangering methodology) etc etc kind of puts it in a YANBU light ?

Don’t underestimate the qualities needed to look after the elderly, they often have complex needs. People working in social care need to have an enormous amount of empathy, energy and patience. They get paid a pittance so how anyone can suggest that this job can be done by anyone is beyond me. Before anyone ask I am not a carer but have great admiration for them.

People who are claiming benefits because they are looking for work are spending their time looking for work, applying for jobs/training courses etc -
if there are areas that need to be addressed - eg park maintenance surely we should be paying people to do this - ie creating more jobs, not expecting benefit recipients to work for free.
The whole point of the welfare state is to support people when they need it - those that are claiming now have contributed in the past by paying taxes and will contribute again in the future - no need for enforced labour.

Oh Oola you've swallowed too much of the scrounger propaganda
You aren't alone though, plenty of others are busy staring at the poor and deciding if they are deserving or not.
Meanwhile in Westminster and corporate offices across the country the very wealthy bet against us and brexit yet we still look at the poorest.

I'm not sure this is workable but something needs to be done about long term unemployment in families. My dd has former classmates who haven't worked since not bothering to turn up for their GCSEs (now 21) and their parents have never worked, in some cases grandparents too. Actually not strictly true because cash in hand work is common around here, it can be hard to get a traded person to take cheque / bacs! Knowing something is going on doesn't mean it's easy to solve - 2 of DD's former friends have kids and council houses now, never worked, they have more money than most of their former classmates (who are students and apprentices). Solving the problem at a youth level is key so this lifestyle choice is not entrenched

What would people who already have full time jobs have to do to earn the benefits they claim?

You haven’t answered this, OP. I receive Tax Credits as a single mum. I also teach full time, mark exams and tutor. How do you envisage I pay back my benefits?

Carers are a certain breed imv. Not anyone can do that.
There are many retired people who have time on their hands but nowadays they childmind, volunteer, travel, docs appointments, travel to care for DGCs. People aren't sitting at home doing nothing all day so it is v hard to fit the volunteering around people who are coming and going. There one day not the next. That's where arranging regular work falls down.

What would happen is the people who always work hard and pay taxes, who suddenly need benefits, would do this, but people who dont and are always on benefits would be too sick.

I'm not sure this is workable but something needs to be done about long term unemployment in families.

My dd has former classmates who haven't worked since not bothering to turn up for their GCSEs (now 21) and their parents have never worked, in some cases grandparents too.

Research suggests that the idea of two/three generations of families claiming benefits and never bothering to find work because of a culture of worklessness is a smear against poorer communities. JR foundation found that:

Even two generations of complete worklessness in the same family was very rare.

There was no evidence of 'a culture of worklessness' – values, attitudes and behaviours discouraging employment and encouraging welfare dependency – in the families taking part in the research.

Working-age offspring remained strongly committed to conventional values about work and were keen to avoid the poverty and worklessness experienced by their parents.

www.jrf.org.uk/report/are-cultures-worklessness-passed-down-generations

Screwtheclockchange odd isn't it?

The government started youth opportunity programs in the early 80's, basically loads of companies signed up for it and used the essentially free labour as a way of reducing their wages bill, back then as a 16 year old young person on a YOP earning £16 a week as a 'trainee' I had to work 40 hours a week, on top of that I was expected to work 20 hours overtime for which I was paid 50p an hour, there was no chance of a job at the end of the 6 months (why would there be when the employer had no incentive to keep youngsters on? They would just apply for another trainee ) So it was back to the 'careers office' to be placed on another YOP. By the time you were 18 you were either in full-time work or you were transferred to unemployment benefit and the requirements to work for your 'dole' money were removed. The government did it again a few years ago with "workfare" and what happened?

There was an endless supply of 'free' labour, so companies could reduce their wage bill etc.

If the tasks that would be done by the unemployed for less than minimum wage need doing then they should be advertised as proper jobs and paid as such.

Maybe we should just be honest about it and rebuild the work houses? At least then we would be calling a spade a spade

Unemployed people following people around at a job they’re not going to qualify in or ‘learn on the job of’ is pointless.

Why would someone take up an opportunity to shadow someone in a job they weren't qualified or had no prospect of being qualified to do?

If someone is unemployed for a long period, offering training (yes I know this already happens) and shadowing opportunities could make a significant difference to their ability to find work or succeed in work when they find it.

I wouldn't in a million years suggest it was forced or required in any way.

I also agree that most people on benefits are already working or caring. I was one until very recently and not out of touch at all.

Oh and park maintenance comes under the remit of the local authorities, so what would happen to the groundsmen/women currently employed by them?

As someone who has run volunteering at a few different charities and can I say no thanks. Willing and interested volunteers are hard enough to organise and coordinate, people being forced to do it in order to be able to feed their children or pay their rent would be almost impossible for a small or medium sized charity or community group. Even if they could get over the the morality of it.

UC is a shambles.

I remember getting YTS and over 20 years later UC isn’t much more.
How can it be possible that a teen who was supported could get a couple of quid less a week than an adult who has to support themselves?

If there’s all these various areas that need people, then how about investing and creating jobs. Far better than using free labour.
This gives those on benefits a better way to get a job rather than doing it voluntarily until it’s time for the next person.

And like fuck do I want some untrained person coming to tend to me.

And where is all this extra money going to come from? Not as simple as CRB, health and safety, child protection, manual handling, e-safety, and others that I have forgotten about.

Why not just I don’t know, invest the money in the areas that need it? rather than reduce further to the point of mass redundancy. Then we wouldn’t need all these unskilled/untrained people to work for nothing.

Much easier isn’t it @Ooola to blame the people for being on UC instead of looking at the why.

I'm more concerned about Corporate Fraud than Benefit Fraud.

So we have stories week after week of terminally ill and severely disabled people being sanctioned or having to reapply and 'prove' their conditions in order to receive their pittance to live on.

And yet people still believe that you just 'go on the sick' in order to have thousands given to you.

doublehelix Housing in halls of residence type buildings where all heating, water, furniture, laundry room, canteen style meals etc can be provided with economy of scale.

Yes, and during the daytime they could hang out in the front yard picking oakum or breaking stones, or whatever the modern day equivalent is.

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Bring back the workhouse. Immediately! Skiving work shy layabouts having the effrontery to be poor in front of us. Whatever next?

You've made yourself look a bit of a tit here @Ooola.

You've basically suggested that unemployed people get offered jobs.

And then some stuff about how much benefit claimants receive, which in the main is nonsense.

Hopefully you've learned something about the benefits system, how flawed it is, and how little support the unemployed actually receive.

Katie Hopkins, is that you OP? Take your nastiness back across the water where you have to 'earn' a living these days.