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?

Having used care services for an elderly frail relative YABVU. Care work is challenging and under valued as your ridiculous suggestion that any unemployed person should do it demonstrates!

It is a sad fact of life that some people are unemployable, I genuinely don’t know what the answer is ... I work in the voluntary sector and quite frankly, despite endless training, coaching etc etc there are some people that will just never be suitable for paid work.

Yup. The OP is obviously either trolling or trying to file her copy, but there's a general reluctance to accept that there are some people whose labour is never going to cover the costs of extracting it from them. And that we as a society don't necessarily require the wage labour of all our able bodied adults anyway.

Yabu...fruit picking on the other hand anyone can do!

Yeah, the issue with fruit picking and a lot of the jobs we struggle to fill in the agricultural sector is more location.

Headachesbythedozen, PPs assume the unemployed don’t want to work because they’ve seen documentaries making this point.
I recall a farmer who only employed East Europeans. When the programme asked him to take unemployed Brits for a month, he did so and showed the problem- the Brits were idle and useless. They could only harvest a quarter of the crop that the Poles did in the same time.
As they were paid piece work rates, this meant the Brits would get less than minimum wage per day - so the farmer had to top up their wages himself, leaving him running at a loss.
The same programme asked an Indian restaurant to take on unemployed Brits as waiters. Out of six, only one bothered to turn up, and he didn’t even know how to knot his tie - the rest were in bed with hangovers or decided after one day that the job was too tiring and boring.
Now imagine those people as carers! Their poor clients would neglected for days, unfed or washed, while their “carers” smoked joints or lay in bed.

Ah. Another 'OP throws in goady hand grenade & disappears' benefit bashing thread. How terribly unique

YABU for the reasons already stated but in addition, it is often not viable for someone on JSA to take any minimum or just above minimum wage work. The housing benefit they lose means they are worse off working and this is the situation that the government have created. Some people are unemployed by choice. I certainly don’t agree with it, but a family member is in this position and whilst they have gone for and been offered jobs, the DWP have told them not to bother taking them as they will be worse off. Situation is ridiculous.

I'm a little concerned that at this point 19% of voters (around 63-64 peopl) think this IS a reasonable idea!

OP has vanished. How unexpected.

The idea would never work for all the reasons stated and because benefit claimants are not indentured servants there to do the scutt-work that no one else wants to do. If a role exists then it should be properly advertised and recruited for and then properly paid with all of the appropriate employment rights.

Also add in the fact that when unemployed you are supposed to spend 35hrs each week looking for work, how would that fit around carrying out slave labour for caring services?

There are already plenty of people who work in care that are not really suitable to it ,when I was a nurse worked with plenty of people who whilst not exactly abusive ,lacked empathy and understanding ,I can think of plenty of staff members who despite working in that environment for years still couldn't understand the basics of challenging behaviour ,I imagine it's even worse in places that are less regulated than the NHS and as the parent of a severely disabled child who one day might need 24 hr care 're terrifying to think he might be at the mercy of carers that couldn't care less .

One of the worst takes I’ve seen on here.
There are a shortage of care workers because it’s hard work for shit pay.
Would you want your relative cared for by ‘the unemployed’ who ate put there due to shortages and not because they want to care for vulnerable people? I know I wouldn’t.

Sadly a lot of people in the care industry are already not there from choice - just look at the stream of exposed vile abuse of the vulnerable by badly paid and resentful staff

What everyone else has said. What a stupid idea!

There's a nasty delusion that unemployed people are lazy, feckless scroungers who will never work in their lives. The reality is the vast majority (almost all) are only temporarily unemployed and will find a job reasonably quickly after claiming on the insurance system they pay into for that eventuality. It's not very nice for eg Mothercare staff who haven't found a new job yet to see themselves thought of as workshy. If you want a workshy, feckless scrounger you'll find more employed in a large office (and in the houses of parliament frankly) than in a dole queue ime.

Babdoc's point about tv documentaries - the British people on the farm weren't idle or useless, they just didn't know the job. I'd have thought it was obvious someone who's never been on a farm would be a lot slower to begin with than someone who's done that work for years, but maybe that's just me. How to work the machines, the best way to pull up potatoes, telling the difference between plants and knowing when they're ready - all these need training and time and to see not knowing described as laziness is just ridiculous.

@SquireOfGreenway I’m assuming you’re some lowly government oik gauging attitudes towards unemployment.
Either that or you lack critical thinking.

The people who care for my mum now, in a care home, and those who cared for her in her own home before she became too ill are saints. I would trust them with my life. They deal with truculent people every day. My mum has to be persuaded to eat 'just a bit more' at every meal now. Some of the residents in her home will ask for a cuppa, fall asleep, wake up and moan that it's cold and the carer will go off to get them another cup. No moaning, no whinging.

They clear up explosive poo accidents (and I mean everywhere, not just on the resident as the residents decide to use their hands to clear up...)

They get people back on their feet after falls - helping them walk and, in some cases, using wheelable stand up trolleys to get people around. They dress, undress, shower and shave residents. In my mum's home they do manicures for the women because it makes them feel nice. They arrange visits to stimulate the residents (who usually moan about being kept awake so they can't win). They deal with family, often having to break difficult news if their loved one is ill and has had the doctor in to see them. We've just had to put an 'end of life' plan in place for my mum with the help of her senior carer as she has been unwell on and off for a long time and antibiotics don't cut it anymore.

They have reams of paperwork every day and deal with GPs, social services, district nurses etc., Quite apart from the constant bell ringing for those who are too ill to sit in the main living room. Even then they make sure everyone who can get out of bed does so and those who can walk has a walk around every day. Over forty residents.

And you want the unemployed to do this? Some of whom may be shopworkers, teachers, builders - i.e. no background in the wok at all. Would you trust your kids to a teacher who had no experience? Or your new extension to just anyone off the street? So why would you trust your elderly relative to someone who has no experience and no aptitude.

Quite apart from the fact that the money has to come from somewhere. Why should anyone have a low wage just because, in the past, people from other countries have been prepared to accept that? If the jobs need filling, the money has to be found. Not forced labour from people who still need benefits to 'top up' for a bloody hard job that I wouldn't want to do.

And, of course, some of the unemployed are high wage earners who've been made redundant. Sometimes it can take them a while to get back into work. When my husband was out of work a couple of years ago, it took 3 months to find a job, another month of humming and ha-ing before they decided to call for interview (internal politics), three interviews (up to board level) which took another 4 -5 weeks. So in all it was 6 months out of work. At what point does he get told - leave that potential high paid job application and go and work for this care home in your utopia world? Do you wait 6 months, a year? Some roles take a lot of organising - relocating family, retraining etc. So who would be put forward for all these fictitious jobs OP?

Most people are not long term unemployed. It’s not the same million people month after month. The average time on JSA is three months. During that time, these workers are seeking employment which takes time and interviews. How will they look for work in their field if they have to report to a care home?

Plus who can guarantee that there will be exactly the number of unemployed local to a care home with vacancies?

You’re over simplfying things.

Care work is so undervalued by society. It’s hard emotionally and physically. It’s disgustingly low paid as it’s seen as women’s work, and the staff are often expected to work far more than there hours for no extra pay.

It’s time for change, but that would be by paying their staff far better, not forcing any old Dave to do the job when they don’t want to.

If you'd said litter picking or something I'd maybe have agreed, but not working with vulnerable elderly people.

Yes, it's that simple. Really!! FFS OP get out of your ivory tower. The Government are fudging the figures for 'unemployment' anyway...

Also, if you were unemployed would you be a care worker? I bloody wouldn't.

What a stupid suggestion!

How do you suggest all these people pay for care for their own children and dependants from a care worker’s wage.

The OP does, kind of, have a point. 12 months from now, we won't get getting care workers coming in from the EU, so who will be doing this work? We either need to be training more care workers in the country, which will probably be from the pool of the unemployed because no-one's going to leave jobs for something as badly paid, and with such unsocial hours, as care work, or we accept that we don't have the capacity to provide such care to the elderly, and presumably leave them to manage alone. There does need to be a conversation about where the adult social care needs are going to be met.

My MIL was in a care home almost exclusively staffed by Spanish nursing staff. It was a rural area and there just wasn't the staffing locally to staff a reasonably sized care home.

Quite right, OP.

The bloody cheek of these feckless layabouts. They absolutely SHOUOD be caring for vulnerable people, no matter how much they resent doing it. ‘Bout time is naice middle class well-to-dos stopped paying for the lazy scrounges.

not a good idea!