Why aren't people on benefits be asked to pick fruit? Why bring in immigrants?

[quietandcomplex]

Can someone explain to me why, when there are so many unemployed and on benefits, they aren't picking fruit for the farmers? Why bring immigrants into the country to do the job? This is not a political or racist or anything other post, it does not make sense to me, what am I missing?

I see ops not been back. She probably thought everyone would sit here and down the cry the poor. The words "eye" and "wiped" come to mind , can't for the life of me figure out why

Fruit picking is particularly back breaking hard work and very few people are physically up to it.
im all for people on benefits having to work or contribute (unlike many on mumsnet) but fruit picking is tough

There were around 803,000 people in the United Kingdom who had been unemployed for less than six months, compared with 129,000 unemployed for between 6 and 12 months, and 353,000 who were unemployed for more than a year

from www.statista.com/statistics/284187/uk-unemployment-figures-by-length/

Of those 350k which is a tiny number not a sizeable amount, some will not be able to get and keep a job, for reasons like education, actually disabled but unable to access help claiming disability Benefits. Very few will be able to either pick fruit should they live near a fruit farm or fill in potholes should they live near b and q.
Frankly if you think living on £77 a week is such a good time, you try it and let me know how that goes.

So what's your idea of contributing? And to be clear you stated people on benefits so you mean all those working, all those claiming child benefit and all retired on state pension plus those on disability. As well as jobseekers

Because these are jobs the British don't wanna do.

I do so love seeing facts and figures that destroy the misguided and poorly informed biased beliefs of idiots.

Of course, they'll just hand wave the truth away and continue typing with clenched first like a teenager that's raging after they lost at COD.

Its normally the councils jobs to take care of public spaces and gardening though? Even litter picking is done by the council so they would be stopping people that have jobs from working. Job centres do let people volunteer places but they are only allowed for 6 weeks then they cannot go back to that place ever, even if they so wished too. I’m sure is got to be a different volunteering sector like 6 weeks office, 6 weeks in a school, 6 weeks in hairdressing ect

It's kind of the councils job so in my area we have people who volunteer and litter pick especially after the recycling vans have been around the gardening again technically councils job but usually people do it themselves there is an overgrown pathway they are supposed to maintain every year we have the same argument path gets reported for being impassable council say not our job thats housing association job housing association say no our job is the allotment path on the other side that part is your part, are you sure? Yes we are sure here is paperwork to prove it, ahh well we will get someone out to it but are you really sure its us not you? YES! this has been the conversation for TWENTY FUCKING YEARS this year the allotment owners (who have gates that pop out onto the path also) have started clearing it just on that side so they can get through we are all fed up with it

It doesn't matter whose job it is to do litter picking, path clearing etc. If it's a job of work that genuinely needs doing (and I accept that it is), then the people doing it need to be paid NMW. None of this bullshit of making them do it for their crappy £77 a week because that's exploitation.

And if you want to complain about why councils aren't funding this work, Westminster is >>> that way.

@Lochroy · Yesterday 06:38

How is fruit picking below NMW? Surely that's the point of NMW?

(Not being goady, I've just seen quite a few pp mention it)

As said by PP, fruit picking is like childcare by an aupair- in lieu for accommodation and basic food and travel, fruit pickers from abroad are allowed to be paid pocket money rather than minimum wage. They are booked by agencies, all pretty similar to au pai agencies. Brits under a certain age can apply to fruit pick abroad, like Australia, in return for a visa, accommodation and pocket money. Once fruitpicking would cost minimum wage, farmers could not afford it or customers could no longer afford to buy fruit.