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

[SquireOfGreenway]

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?

"No, they choose to come to the UK and these jobs are the only ones, apart from cleaning, that are available to them [EU27 citizens], especially for women."

Are you being disingenuous or perhaps do you live under a rock?

Have you not seen how many EU citizens work in the UK in every strata of society: cleaning and caring and hospitality as well as law enforcement, teaching, research, arts and culture, IT, investment bankers... we have degrees and world-class qualifications, and we are often sought after in many fields. A person with a degree in Finance from the Italian university Bocconi won't be looking for a care job, I guarantee you that.

And regarding the 'ripping off':

do not point the finger at the 'foreign' people who pick the fruit - fight the system that makes these jobs a rip off!

Make sure that people are paid a fair wage and workers are treated with respect and fair rights regardless of their nationality.

The poorly paid person from another nationality is not the 'enemy', the culprit is the person who pays a desperate wage, attracting only desperate people. They are the ones who deserve out contempt.

I'm currently "economically inactive". I'm waiting for 3 different operations, and even after those I will be limited to desk work only. I can't claim any benefits at all because I have a very small pension coming in, I'm single with no dependents, and I have my own (mortgaged) house. There is no way I would be physically able to carry out ANY of these jobs suggested by Priti. Equally I will not be able to draw any form of disability long term, because each of my various conditions seems to be just below the threshold when taken in isolation despite when added together they make life very hard.

Yes but surely a training course and the right attitude will immediately fit you for a full time care work or agricultural job!

I don't see why we should assume that other people want to do jobs that Brits think they're too good for.

WRT care, it can't be an assumption when it's based on the fact that people who had the option of other EU countries actually have come here and worked in care. It's a comment on existing reality.

Well, that makes two of us, converse.

So maybe it's a good thing that people who come to Britain will have proper jobs to come to rather than being ripped off doing fruit picking, washing cars etc.

Actually, there will be visas for agricultural workers. They'll still be 'ripped off doing fruit picking'. Probably a good idea to appraise yourself of the basic facts before wading in.

Yes but surely a training course and the right attitude will immediately fit you for a full time care work or agricultural job!

Maybe it won’t, but there was a comment early in the thread about how much better Romanians are at that type of work and how they only need minimal training. Because they already know what they are doing.

Maybe it won’t, but there was a comment early in the thread about how much better Romanians are at that type of work and how they only need minimal training. Because they already know what they are doing.

What's your point?

It takes certain kind of people to be care workers it’s not just menial work that can be doled out to whoever .

monna I agree with you.
^
Make sure that people are paid a fair wage and workers are treated with respect and fair rights regardless of their nationality
^
march I don't want anybody ripped off. On the contrary pay people properly. Whatever their nationality.

Yes Converse - a lot of truth in what you say.

My point?

I wonder why it ok to assume they are all well versed in the art of fruit picking and so don’t need training. Many of the young people who came here to pick fruit are actually students.

Making assumptions about groups of foreign workers is not ok.

march I think British people make comments about Romanians being 'better' at whatever sort of work. It's a bit bizarre. Why can't British people learn these skills?!

This 'policy' is this government all over. Lazy reductive thinking about a complex problem. We have really low productivity and large sections of the workforce in low wage "low skilled" jobs. The cabinet believe that cutting off the flow of EU workers will make companies magically raise pay, increase investment and training and all low paid workers and the economy will benefit (oh and lower benefits because all those economically inactive types will become carers and baristas). I despair, .... The care system (and a low wage low skilled economy with poor productivity) is a massive structural and systemic problem. Pulling a simple lever will not fix it.....

Sure chardonnay, but that doesn't tell us why you think this has any relevance to the post of mine you quoted.

Converse, I suspect you're going to be disappointed then. Visas for certain types of 'low skilled' work will still exist and there's no reason to think the agricultural workers will suddenly be better paid. The description you give of the new policies isn't accurate.

Op,I will kindly assume you are naive.

Do you include in that people with criminal records for violence, elder abuse, stealing etc.

Would you be happy for a thief to come into your home?

What about someone with an aversion to poo or vomit, to the extent they do not clean your loved one properly?

I actually have reservations about some of the people who do have care jobs, I taught international students who carried out care work and some of their attitudes, well they were not the most sympathetic, particularly when it came to motability.

The people I want to see in care roles are those who looked after my grandmothers, they didn't just do a job, one received a nail kit for Xmas so brought it in to do the ladies (and gents if they wanted) nails.

They came to the funerals.

They knew how every resident liked their tea / coffee, lots of little things that made them fantastic at their job.

(sorry, got to page 15 but this kept nagging at me)
Some comments are calling on care assistants to be paid £25k - that’s more than a newly qualified nurse earns! Where is the money coming from to give care assistants a £10k pay rise?

We all know from basic supply and demand that when something is in short supply, the price goes up. That is normal. And indeed that is how high pay for senior executives is justified - there are few executives who can run huge companies so we have to throw a shit ton of money or they'll leave and we'll have to pay even more to replace them.

But when it comes to care workers? Let's get the unemployed (or retired or sick) to do it, they're nice and cheap. Lovely.

No. There are a lot of people who couldn't be trusted to be care workers, or meet the requirements. Can't just stick them all in to care for vulnerable people.

I don't want anybody ripped off. On the contrary pay people properly. Whatever their nationality

The British aren't prepared to pay the taxes required for this, we ve just had 10 years of a virtual nhs pay freeze and we've just voted for more of it.

But what some on here do not understand is that we are an aging population, there isn't the workforce available to do all the jobs in the economy we need doing.

The care system (and a low wage low skilled economy with poor productivity) is a massive structural and systemic problem. Pulling a simple lever will not fix it

Yes agree, needs some serious systematic thinking about. Care work is our responsibility to sort out, and gone are the days of assuming folks from abroad will or should do the work - on the cheap.

The Daily Mail comments on this are very predictable.

I'm sick of hearing that girls need to do more STEM subjects as those are the only ones that have a value. How about we value higher care and so called "girly" care based roles?

I'm a woman in STEM and I totally agree. Seems the only highly-paid and valued jobs are the ones in offices with old white men sat around a boardroom. Anything that women traditionally went into in the past, like teaching/caring/fashion/retail, pays peanuts and treats you like shit. I would actually have liked a job in one of these areas, but why would I work 50+ hours a week for 25k when I can work 37.5 hours a week for 35k with WFH and subsidised travel? Why is only STEM "worthy" and those other jobs means you're a failure?

If caring is to fill all the vacancies, they need to improve the conditions and remove the image that it's a shit job for thick people. Of course if carers are paid 30k+ then either the cost of care or taxes will go up, which people should be willing to pay if they value their relatives being cared for properly.

ItIsWhatItIsInnit but by how much should caring go up by.

We are already paying £1200 per week for Dmil and her care home is by no means the most expensive.

Would £2000 or £3000 per week be sustainable

Dmil could last we are told another 5 years. The money will run out before she does.

Will the government be able to afford the amounts needed

The UK has always been short of registered nurses. Think by around 40,000. It it’s a case of supply and demand, why do newly qualified nurses not earn more than £24k? They simply recruit from abroad, India and the Philippines in particular and this will continue.

Where I live, shops and cafes are always looking for staff but they don’t pay more than minimum wage.

I certainly think that nurses and care workers deserve more money. As do teachers, teaching assistants, civil servants etc. Taxes will need to ride massively to accommodate this and private companies will need to raise their charges.

A better solution would be to take back in house social and residential care, so non profit.
Monies saved would pay staff more, i just do not see why private shareholders and directors should make money out of our health.

But that would require a Labour govt (unlikely) and one that stops talking about nationalising Mail or Broadband and starts focusing on what really concerns the country.