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?

The unemployment rate always be at least a couple of % points above zero, please see here for an explanation, although US based the a similar situation occurs in the UK.
theconversation.com/why-the-unemployment-rate-will-never-get-to-zero-percent-but-it-could-still-go-a-lot-lower-103665

Maybe not the care industry but certainly picking crops, warehouse work and in the hospitality sector which also relies on foreign unskilled labour.

Care work should be paid similar to nursing and not minimum wage.

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?

what a ridiculous suggestion. Are you really suggesting that every Dick and Tracey, independent of skillset, should be entrusted to look and care for the most vulnerable in society?

Boris/Priti/RM - is that you?

Seriously, sit down and read what you've wrote.

Would you happy for a member of your family to be cared for by someone who wasn't really interested or bothered and was only there so their money wasn't stopped.

IMO care workers wages should be on par with nurses wages.

I have/had family members who both work in the care sector and have been looked after by the care sector.

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?

Absolutely stupid idea for many reasons. Don’t even think I have the energy to try and explain (DD has had me awake since 3am).
In a nutshell, forcing people who aren’t caring into care jobs, for minimum wage and crappy conditions, will pretty much guarantee that the most vulnerable members of society will suffer.

I’ve worked as a community carer before and I’ll never do it again. You get treated like dirt by the agency, you don’t get paid for travel time, you have too much responsibility to be getting minimum wage, you have no support, etc etc. Which is a damn shame as I loved my clients and was good at my job.
I now work in a private nursing home and it’s SO much better. Better money and conditions.

But nobody should be made to work in care unless they actually have a passion for it!

Yes. This plan seem flawless. Let's put anybody in charge of our country's most vulnerable.

You should get a knighthood or something

Or alternatively campaign for the government to pay care contracts at a more fitting higher rate, so that intelligent, skilled and compassionate people who actually might be good at the job are able to do it, leaving jobs such as supermarket shelf stacking, to the 'unemployed' who only want the money.

Jesus.

There is so much wrong with your idea I don’t know where to start, but the fact you think care work is a job that just requires a warm body to show up is deluded. Would you want your loved one looked after by a random person forced into the job?

I think you are being terribly naive. Health and social care is best carried out by committed, skilled and compassionate people. Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen when providers do invest and we end up with abusive closed cultures such as Whorlton Hall or Winterborn View.

I think there are other jobs that some could take but choose not to. I think the idea you shouldn’t have to take a lower skilled job because you have qualifications and experience unreasonable, for example. I’d rather work in a supermarket than claim benefits.
I do think it’s difficult for those with significant caring responsibility and perhaps the package for those people should change to recognise that. Rearing children under school age and caring for those with significant disabilities should be recognised as of benefit to society and be better supported.

Definitely not! People should only work in the care industry if they have a genuine passion for it otherwise care standards will drop even lower and abuse cases rise

i was going to saying yanbu until i read the first few very reasonable responses

Wise up. Let's force people who aren't interested in or suited to a profession to do that profession? That would be bad enough anywhere but in caring where vulnerable people are involved who need physical and emotion help it would be a disaster. There's already lots of cases of people being abused and taken advantage of by carers who lack some basic empathy and skill. I don't think we should be adding to that.

If your post had said factory work and other similar jobs you would have a point

The state should certainly be helping people who want to work and are capable of it to find suitable jobs. Doing this in a way that works for workers and employers is not cheap, hence why it isn't done very well, if at all, at the moment. It would need (at a minimum):

1. Investment in training, including improving basic literacy and numeracy for those who didn't get that grounding at school (e.g. those with dyslexia)
2. In depth, sympathetic interviews with all claimants to establish what they have to offer and what limitations they have on when and where they could work - then looking for work in the area that's a good fit and getting them onto suitable training
3. Support for employers (this means money at the very least but training recruiters and managers would be important too) to take on employees who can't work full-time, need flexibility/hours to fit around school times, might not be able to work at short notice because of caring responsibilities or their own health problems, need extra support because of disabilities etc etc
4. Improve public transport and think of imaginative ways to help people get to work safely and reliably in less populated areas
5. Invest in childcare and support for carers to free up familial carers to get out to work or just get some respite
6. Government support for start up businesses, expansion of existing businesses, relocation of some government departments to areas of high unemployment and so on, with a view to create more jobs
7. Government legislation, properly enforced, that all employers have to pay a decent living wage to all employees so people will genuinely be better off in work than out of it and the state won't subsidise the tax dodging multinationals whose staff need top up benefits to survive at present.

Not holding my breath that Cummings Johnson and his merry crew will cough up the substantial amount of money needed to do any of the above. More likely they'll just force people to take the first job offered or starve. How long before they find it convenient to accept that sex work is work, I wonder?

Unemployment is a lot higher. The figures have been massaged. You are still bu.

I have no qualifications and my personal skills are not suitable for this position and isn't care something where continuity and CPD are critical for quality? So if I'm forced to work in Local Home Tm but then finally get a job offer for say, Tenure Track STEM position I would leave in a heartbeat - not good for the care clients or the employers.

Plus doesn't this already undermine a critical industry where most people are underpaid and undervalues yet there are some people who have coniptions about paying carers for travel?!?!

Why not actually make being unemployed less horrible. Like not sanctioning people for making constructive uses of time other than jobseeking, e.g learning to cook, coding, other languages, physical fitness etc - all are critical components of jobseeking since the acto of jobseeking does not help your physical and mental health, is not creative and soon reaches a limit when it comes to skills upgrades.

Obviously you are being completely ridiculous about the care work.

I share your concerns about the difficulty filling roles which would otherwise have been taken by European workers.

There is a disgracefully Tory part of me (at odds with my lefty liberal leanings - I wouldn’t vote) which thinks getting and particularly staying on benefits should be a lot harder than it is. I exclude from that those who need benefits as they are disabled, carers etc.

Whether you agree with it or not (and I don't), it raises a good question. Who is going to fill all these carer, cleaner and factory jobs?

Maybe not the care industry but certainly picking crops, warehouse work and in the hospitality sector which also relies on foreign unskilled labour

People who don't want to/can't work are absolutely useless to a business, they require constant supervision, work slowly and of poor quality.

I once was once involved in group of the long term unemployed to clean up an old graveyard under a govt scheme, it was a disaster.

None of the sectors you listed are really unskilled, warehouse work requires the ability to be able to organise/drive a forklift, picking crops with machinery is dangerous and needs physical fitness and hospitality sector requires excellent customer, numeracy & literacy skills, few jobs are really unskilled now a days.

I work in social care and canbot stress how worried I am about the future of social care in this country. Yes wages need to be higher but who is going to pay them? The private agencies have small profit margins as it is. There would need to be very significant government investment by a Tory government and tax payers. I cant see that happening any time soon so just better to all kill ourselves before we get old and need care. Sorry but the situation is dire already.

Part of the reason the unemployment rate is so low is because of the amount of people in low paid, part time work supplemented by in-work benefits. Fewer 'real' jobs exist in fewer industries than ever before and we have far more people needing employment of some sort.

I agree with you that while we have able bodied (so called) job seekers they should fill the voids for low paid work before we look elsewhere to recruit. That should be a no brainer. But not everyone is suitable for caring roles.

Having seen the shit care given to my mother: dehydrated, possessions stolen by those who apparently chose this badly-paid job, I would never have a vulnerable person "cared for" by the coerced.

While you're there, OP, force anyone with degree into teaching.

Oh hang on. The OP hasn't been back

There's a surprise.

OP in principle yes, but practicalities suggest otherwise.

Hav a little thought as to who is / why people are unemployed.

You also said other roles, seasonal agricultural work often uses unskilled EU migrants because no one else will do it. Who can afford on minimum wage to run their own property and temporary housing near the farm they working, transport around area and 24/7 childcare while they are away.

And agree everything @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g (excellent username) has to say about those who DO want to work.