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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect the UK's 1 million unemployed to get a job as a Care Worker?

636 replies

SquireOfGreenway · 19/02/2020 07:21

The number of people unemployed in the UK is just over 1 million - the lowest it's been since the early 1970s. However, we should still surely expect that figure to be even lower.

From next year, it may be much harder for care-providing organisations to recruit European migrants to fill their Care Worker vacancies.

Surely, it is reasonable to expect any UK resident who is unemployed, claiming job-seekers allowance and so far unable to get a job to be required to get a job as a Care Worker? If they don't then they should be sanctioned and lose their state benefits.

I am not just talking about Care Work. I am talking about all minimum-wage and minimum-wage plus jobs that we have been relying on European migrants to fill.

Why not? There will always be maybe a few 100,000s unemployed, as people move from one job to another, etc. But why should there be a million unemployed people if there is a shortage of workers in any industry that does not require any great level of pre-entry qualifications?

OP posts:
GEEpEe · 19/02/2020 15:57

I really do think the Tories are in here sounding out some new policies.

user1471439240 · 19/02/2020 15:58

Around 1 in 4 of working age adults aged 16 to 64 are not in any form of paid employment.
Source
www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/february2020

Governoress86 · 19/02/2020 15:58

I agree Tomselleckhadkindeyes. It's not just about training and qualifications, it's about kindness and empathy and wanting to better people's life's by supporting them through what they are going through and being there for them. Some people just don't have the patience or mentality to deal with that.

TellMeWhoTheVilliansAre · 19/02/2020 16:03

Yes. You are being very unreasonable.

EbbandTheWanderingHearts · 19/02/2020 16:04

YABVU! I work as a care worker and the amount of people who apply to work as a care worker with no idea about the role is staggering! I think a lot of people think it's all about making cups of tea for sweet little old ladies. One group, during training, seemed shocked that they would actually have to deal with poo! They never made it to shadowing.

I wake people up, shower them, toilet them, I empty catheters, I hoist people, make sure they've eaten and drunk, administer/prompt medication, I keep an eye on those bruises on their legs to make sure they don't turn into ulcers, I observe changes in behaviour and notify the correct people if I suspect UTI's or illness, I reassure those with chronic anxiety or dementia who can't remember that person in their home is their spouse, I support families as much as I can, I listen to the same stories over and over again, I deal with every bodily function, I clean some really filthy houses, I offer companionship to those who may not see another soul all day, I calm situations where family members are struggling to cope, dementia sucks, I sit with people as they're life slowly draws to an end and then I support the families with their loss. I care. It's not just a job and certainly not something anybody can do.

DioneTheDiabolist · 19/02/2020 16:07

YABVU OP.

I would say that caring for such vulnerable & needy people is a profoundly dignified and worthwhile way to earn a living. I would invite you to reflect on how dismissive you have just been to such fine & valuable people as our Care Workers.

Do you recognise the statement above @SquireOfGreenway?Hmm How do you reconcile those words written by you, with your ridiculous, ill thought out OP?Confused

FishCanFly · 19/02/2020 16:14

I think the long term idea from the tories is to off the vulnerable and elderly (alongside eugenics). Needing and paying carers will become a non-issue.

ArnoldBee · 19/02/2020 16:21

So of those 1 million unemployed have you considered their background? Many are sex offenders, some have other criminal backgrounds which would not be suitable. Others have learning difficulties and other challenges which would make them unsuitable. Also caring is a profession and our people requiring care should be treated with dignity.

EuroMillionsWinner · 19/02/2020 16:26

Around 1 in 4 of working age adults aged 16 to 64 are not in any form of paid employment.

And? Conscription is not paid employment. Community service is used as a punishment for crime, so applying this to people because they are unemployed or 'economically inactive' (which generally needs they are not in receipt of benefits) is criminalising them. Who on Earth finds this a good idea? I can tell you who has in the past. Have we really learned nothing from our own human history? FUBAR.

EuroMillionsWinner · 19/02/2020 16:27

I think the long term idea from the tories is to off the vulnerable and elderly (alongside eugenics). Needing and paying carers will become a non-issue.

Nail hitting head there.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 19/02/2020 16:27

What were you expecting from this thread op. For everyone to be like nodding dogs and start picking on and slating the poor.
Got your eye wiped, didn’t you

Sockwomble · 19/02/2020 16:29

Most of the 1 in 4 are economically inactive not unemployed.

jasjas1973 · 19/02/2020 16:30

Around 1 in 4 of working age adults aged 16 to 64 are not in any form of paid employment

Its 20.5% so 1 in 5.

Early retired/people in jobs where retirement age is low/ women able to retire at 60... the sick, students (an awful lot of them) in between jobs but not claiming, stay at home parents, carers to children/elderly parents etc

Doesn't leave too many to pick fruit, hospitality or to be care workers.

Bella2020 · 19/02/2020 16:32

This is exactly what the government will force through after the transition period and probably is what they will have wanted all along. And it will be a disaster. Caring is a vocation; it shouldn't be seen as a 'minimum wage, force the scroungers to work' job.

dairyfairies · 19/02/2020 16:32

Around 1 in 4 of working age adults aged 16 to 64 are not in any form of paid employment.

so? there are students, sahms, carers, disabled... does not mean they are all available for work - and those who do may not want to work in care

I had to give up work due to caring responsiblities because there is no childcare for children with complex needs?

are you suggesting I should 'work' as a carer then? Well, if there was childcare or support I would not have been forced out of work in the first place. Confused so how am I gonna find childcare when working e.g. in a carehome?

oh well, maybe some of the unsuccessful jobseekers could be put in charge of my disabled child then!?!

EuroMillionsWinner · 19/02/2020 16:32

And yet, Patel herself mentions such people directly: the retired, students and those with caring responsibilities who will be encouraged into these jobs. How does this work? Has anyone even considered that? Because that's how fucking detached from reality the Tories are.

TwentyViginti · 19/02/2020 16:34

I agree with you @FishCanFly that's why so many vulnerable, ill, and disabled people have been deemed 'fit for work' by private companies on the government payroll.

NurseButtercup · 19/02/2020 16:38

This is exactly what the government will force through after the transition period and probably is what they will have wanted all along. And it will be a disaster. Caring is a vocation; it shouldn't be seen as a 'minimum wage, force the scroungers to work' job.

This...

PerkingFaintly · 19/02/2020 16:42

Sooo...

No. 8 and No. 9 Acacia Avenue both have someone at home caring for an elderly or disabled relative and therefore designated "economically inactive".

They swap duties, and each cares for each the other's' relative. They pay each other the same amount of money.

Are they now economically active?

Or is "economically in/active" a shit way to measure who is doing the necessary work of the country?

(Clearly it has some use as a term, but it also has limitations. This area is precisely such a limitation.)

cavabiensepasser · 19/02/2020 16:48

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Figmentofmyimagination · 19/02/2020 17:08

‘The heart stops last’ by Margaret Atwood.

OP your idea has already been fictionalised.

Take a look if you can bear it.

okiedokieme · 19/02/2020 17:14

You need to pass a dbs check to work in a care setting, this excludes many

Willow2017 · 19/02/2020 17:14

Around 1 in 4 of working age adults aged 16 to 64 are not in any form of paid employment.

I would love to know how many of them have longterm illnesses or are disabled but were pronounced fit to work by some long out of touch Dr/nurse who was paid to tick boxes to get people off disability benefits?
How many are carers because the government expects relatives and children to spend their time caring for family members who should be supported by professional home carers?
Its all a huge cover up and juggling figures to suit whoever is spouting the crap about unemployment.
It was a damm disgrace (and still is) how they treated people.

Yamihere · 19/02/2020 17:15

YABVVU. This 'system' of yours is far too simplistic. People in the caring profession need to have certain personality traits to be able to both cope with, and do a good, job. And who would want a carer who was forced to be a carer? The resentment and power those forced carers would have over vulnerable people is a recipe for abuse in a profession that already has trouble with this.

PeninsulaPanic · 19/02/2020 17:15

Great recommendation, @Figmentofmyimagination

Tragically, the OP has no heart, so won't understand a single word of the book Wink