Voluntary work or lose benefits

[Marjoriew]

Government intend to cut benefits of claimants on JSA who refuse to do voluntary work of 30 hours a week over a 4-week period.
Benefits could be stopped for up to 3 months if claimants refuse to comply.

Having been out of work for almost 2 years, I'm probably classed as long-term unemployed and honestly don't understand how being coerced into doing this 30 hours of voluntary work for 4 weeks is actually going to help me or make me unemployable.

Presently, any employer who decides to hire me will receive a cash bonus from the government but that hasn't made me any more employable much like I suspect this scheme won't either.

As part of my JSA contract, I have to apply for job through the job centre and have never even had a single response for any of my applications during the time I have been signing on. It's a similar story when I apply for stuff I've found myself, no response, no courtesy "we're not interested" email, no nothing. And when I do get an interview, most of the time they're either i wanting to talk to me about two of my past positions, or they ask me about future pregnancies, something I know is illegal yet still they ask..

I'm 35 and I feel on the scrap heap. A lot of employers know they can hire someone younger and pay them less, indeed, the pay has dropped massively for what I do and with the influx of more redundancies, it's often my kind of roles that are first to go and this has led to an increase of super-qualified people who are also desperately in need of work and thus I'm squeeze out from the other side too.

I do volunteer work and I'm also halfway through a second degree that I do part-time at Birkbeck but I've been advised by my "advisor" at Working Links to take this information off my CV as "employers aren't interested in this kind of stuff, they want experience.."

It's a huge mess and I don't think this will fix anything. For a lot of people, being on benefits isn't a lifestyle choice it's a nightmare. I've worked since I was 19, and for 14 years was never out of work. I'm really worried about my future.

grannieonabike How exactly do you propose to fund the "real jobs"? Who should create these "real jobs"?

When you take more than 60% of an entrepreneur's salary in various taxes, before all the indirect consumption taxes, why should they bother creating jobs? Indeed, the weight of red tape means it just isn't worth trying out a new employee.

But grannieonabike that wouldn't help with the cuts in public sector spending.

Three birds with one stone, thats all it is.

sack the working class public sector workers who vote for labour or are members of labour supporting unions, give the jobs to slaves, so you make savings and look like you are punishing the unemployed for having the audacity to be poor.

jobs a good-en

LFN: are you joking? There are many young, bright, keen hardworking recent graduates now on JSA, this would be a windfall for employers (esp those with no morals).

grannieonabike good point about the HB. I know a landlord who bought a house ridiculously cheap (he had loads of money - it was actually his fathers, who had died) and then rented it back through HB at market rates!

Georgimama, it is correct that there was some confusion over who I was talking about, however, you did say in response to the post where I mentioned breast cancer

"Your scenario is not unusual and this is not intended to be a personal attack in any way, but there are plenty of people in those circumstances and worse who do move across the country for work. We moved the length and breadth of the country for my father's work.

If everyone took the same attitude then, well it's not hard to see why people say there are "no jobs"."

Which does imply that you don't think cancer is any obstacle to moving towns to seek work or that there is something lacking in my attitude. Perhaps it just came across badly?

Either way, I didn't take it personally, life's too short.

lifeinlimbo This scheme, as I understand it, is targeted especially at the long-term lazy and workshy.

The government is creating some of the conditions to facilitate job creation - cutting corporation tax, cutting the deficit and thereby keeping gilt yields low, NI holidays for startups, etc.

However, they have not done the biggest thing to encourage job creation - get rid of the 50% top rate of income tax.

It just isn't worth the while of many entrepreneurs to take intelligent risks in hiring people these days - any reward will be taxed to oblivion.

Ryoko: Yes, they're clever, aren't they?

Did I hear someone say 'Social engineering'?

Oh - and what they are doing is partly working. The private sector is growing, and quite fast. It could do so much more though.

Britain still has big advantages against most other EU countries - mainly, the flexible labour market and tough union laws brought in under Thatcher. We are better placed than France, Spain, Italy.

However, we are not really competing with the big European welfare states. We are competing with America, Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and the emerging economies. Many of them are more welcoming to the people who create jobs.

Just because Riven and I won't be directly affected by these changes, does that mean that we can't see how remarkably nasty they are? But for a wish and a prayer, Riven and I would be in that situation. (Apols Riven if not the case). If DP lost his job for whatever reason, while he can (and has in the past) done crappy low-skill, low pay jobs in the past (packing onions/ carrots in a factory for min wage anyone) if they are filling these posts with JSA claimants, he would be forced to do so for £65 a week instead of the min wage he got when he did it before.

And when DP was packing onions and carrots in a factory (on a zero-hrs contract through an agency as no other work available), the immigrants that were working alongside him weren't even being paid min wage, and they were leaving and going back to their original countries because £3/hr wasn't enough. Hence DP being employed by them on min wage, they needed someone to do the job. If they can get someone to do it for free, why would they pay someone £11,500 a year to do it?

Does not currently being in that position mean Riven and I are not allowed an opinion on how wrong this is?

And none of the leftists has come up with a satisfactory answer as to why most of the boomtime jobs went to immigrants.

The best attempt has been "Brits demand more wages, and a higher standard of living". Well, I demand a unicorn.

I'm not sure we're competing with anyone, LFN. If the public sector is growing, then clearly they're not missing the 50% tax they have to pay.

Yeah, I imagine we'd be able to create a whole host of jobs if we more 'competitive'. Imagine the money 'we' could make if we could still send little 'uns down the mines, why it would make coal profitable again....

grannieonabike I take it you meant private sector?

Yes, the private sector is growing - but it could grow a lot faster if red tape (mostly coming from the EU) was slashed, and if the 50% top rate of tax was eliminated.

Meant private sector. Obv.

There's a difference between 'demanding MORE wages' and demanding a living wage. If people were paid a living wage then there would be no need for the extortionate benefits bill for Tax Credits, that basically subsidise Employers paying a wage that doesn't cover living costs. There is a reason that the national AVERAGE wage is £25K. Because there are many many people on MUCH LESS than that. If a shop manager in my town can only earn £14-£17K, how the hell are even shop managers supposed to cover their living costs, let alone anyone unskilled?

Longfingernails - You may well demand a Unicorn, but I bet you/your DP/DH don't do a FT job for £16K or less PA before tax. Nice to see someone being so facetious about what real life is like for those at the low paid end of society.

Sansucre good post, explains the real situation that many people are facing.

All of you posting about how "lazy" and "workshy" people who've been on JSA for a long time are clearly read the Mail too much

Most people are stuck on JSA for three reasons:

1. They are young (as in 16-24) and have little to no experience. Because nobody will employ them. Because they have no experience.
   /facepalm

2. They are older (maybe 45-50ish) and have heaps of experience, but nobody wants to employ them as they are that much closer to retirement, AND will most likely need to be paid more than younger candidates.

3. They have no means of transport (and no help in getting a driving license etc.), or children, or some sort of mental health issue ...

It saddens me to read some of the posts on here from people who are obviously employed and have been lucky enough to not have to claim anything.
I'd be willing to bet that 99% of JSA claimants aren't "scroungers". Hell, you could be one of us, come tomorrow, so take off your judgy-pants and see this for the vote-grabbing-among-the-converted that this really is, FFS.

And it's not a 'higher standard of living' that we are demanding, just not to be crowded 10 to a single room, and to be able to cover rent, utilities and food on our wages. Which is physically impossible on £16K. That's not a 'higher standard of living', just a reasonable standard of living for the 21st century.

Or should we shuffle towards you on our knees saying "thank you for our gruel, oh rich master" and be thankful for that? Or all go back to the days of the workhouse?

wubbly - yes and some of those little 'uns havent worked for over 10 years! send those children to 'volunteer' down the mines, that'll teach em.

and just think of how many employers we'll attract!

Loudlass I have been unemployed, and I have had a variety of quite low-paid jobs over the year, sometimes more than one at a time. I have worked as a postwoman and as a shop assistant.

My very working-class parents drilled the dignity of work into me. When I was growing up we lived in a poky cold flat, above a noisy A road. I shared a room with my sister until well into my teens. My parents didn't complain - they worked their socks off.

My dp works for an agency only work he could get..I would be ecstatic if he earnt 16k a year...but you know what, when all the scroungers are doing his job for fuck all he can just go and do it for his jsa and do the same job for £65 a week

Those who think that starving the poor is the way to go will no doubt change their mind when the poor come and take their food by force.

It strikes me that many, many people claiming benefits don't WANT to be claiming them, don't WANT massive amounts of money to live on...they would be pretty happy on an absolute pittance.

What upsets these people the most is to be made to feel like they are wrong, that they are lesser people for being poor, for being unable to work for whatever reason...even for leaving a relationship which was abusive, in order to bring up their child/ren away from violence and then not particularly wanting to put those children into before school AND after school care AND holiday care during the school holidays in order to go to work when their children's father pays them ten pounds a week towards their care.

It's not the doing it, even - it's the being made to feel like a BAD person for being in this situation in the first place.

loftylorrie

You missed out a middle one the people who started out as "1" and still haven't got anything to write on the CV years past 24.

My work have a company policy of not giving anyone a reference, so if I end up out of work I'll have a big fat 4 years with no work reference isn't that great, can't wait to start filling out application forms with no work reference only personal ones, how many bets they will believe me when I explain that it's company policy in interviews