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.

But of course, I'm allowed to volunteer to do these things...but due to my disability, I am not allowed to take a paid job doing these things because it breaches H&S regs.

Riven, yes they did fund my crb. I've also done relief work in another nursery and they fund crb checks for all staff.

Oh yes, Riven, it's always these threads that seem to bring out the bridge-dwellers!

The benefits system should be a safety net for those that need it, not a career option.

We all know that there are millions of 'genuine job seekers' who are desperately seeking work. Equally there are also large numbers of claimants that decide work is not for them and choose a life on benefits. I think the plan rightly addresses those on 'long term' job seekers allowance, which hopefully affects the latter.

If the job is there to be done why is it not being done already?....watch employers stop recruiting enough paid employees while the work is done for free....therefore unemployment rises
This will be very appealling to the middle classes until they are made redundant and can't get work.
Plenty of people are on benefits due to lack of jobs rather than bloody mindedness.

I think if its managed correctly, its a great idea. Hundreds of charities could benefit from additional help and there are always jobs in the community that need doing so its not necessarily taking away paid jobs. It will give them confidence, get them used to getting up for work, recent work experience etc.

As for it being less than min wage and "slave labour", if you work out how much a person gets in benefits over 12 months then its way over min wage for being expected to work just 30 days. Why should people expect something for nothing?

People have grown to expect the state to pay for their lifestyle choices and either dont want to work full stop, wont work for the same money as benefits pay or are holding out for their "dream" job and wont look at anything else. Its these people that need to be looked at, those who genuinely are on JSA as a short term measure wont be affected as they will find work and not be fussy.

It is a voluntary scheme, if people dont want to do so then they know the sanctions involved. We cant go on allowing people to claim for years with no contribution back to society, there simply isnt enough money. Those who moan are the ones with the sense of entitlement, those grateful that we have a welfare system won't have a problem in giving something back.

It will cost more than benefits to organise

i see MASSES od young men who do NOTHIGN all day and their stupid MOTHERS sub them

I just wish it was easier to do voluntary work whilst claiming JSA than it is now.

I do voluntary work with new parents and a rather high proportion have found themselves redundant just after or during maternity leave (don't jump on me I know the legalalities from my former paid work but who has £100,000 to fight a case at Tribunal?) and they all report huge problems with trying to do voluntary work to keep themselves sane with job centre staff unwilling to condone it because it might mean "you can't go to an interview" "when would you apply for jobs?" despite it being permitted for less than 16 hrs a week.

The whole system's a bollocks.

May I just point out that it wasn't people on benefits who brought the world economy to within a hair's breadth of complete collapse? It was people on multi-million pound bonuses.

Neither this government nor the last one have done much at all to A. hold them to account and B. sort out the culture in the City that cost us taxpayers something like £185bn (last time I saw a figure for the bank bailout). Oh and C. make sure it doesn't happen again.

Personally I think it makes more sense to sort that out rather than divert attention into the old fashioned 'it's the poor that are to blame' rhetoric. Especially in the middle of a recession caused by the City and their mates abroad and when there are no jobs for many people, and the government is throwing even more people on the scrapheap. The more the government tries to distract us, the less opportunity we have to sort out the what went wrong.

oh, and btw, agree with those who think sumthingnew is a troll ? and IMO barmyarmy under a new name.

Riven - at the jaw-dropping stupidity involved in having to have a CRB check to talk to other adults with a disability just because you are advisors!

Haven't read the whole thread, but who is going to pay for childcare while these 'volounteers' are out working?

Riven - someone else on workfare, untrained, no CRB, not wanting to be there, nt knowing what your DD's specific needs are, probably!

Riven I'm sure that an exception would be made in these circumstances for people who have disabilites/family with disabilities.

I just can't get over the fact they want to not actually pay people a wage for work

It is very cunning indeed.

And taxpayers have to shell out for bankers' bonuses, bail out greedy companies so the rich can get richer. And what kind of job is that important that someone deserves to earn millions???
No job. Especially when the millions they earn are off the backs of the people they exploit or the poor people they have lent money to and whose interest they're living off. WHy do all these legal crooks get off scot free just because they're male and rich?

Yummy - I highly doubt that! Think about the push to get people off Incapacity Benefit - while the theory is good, to root out people playing the system, how many genuinely ill/disabled people are going to get caught up in that and put back on JSA? LOTS. Carers are only exempt from anythinglike this if they are in receipt of carers allowance - which if you rely on WTC to survive, you can't claim. . So officially, you can be a carer without being classed as a carer!

OH and it's almost imposible to get Carer's allowance in respect of an SN dc if you claim some form of disability benefits yourself, as according to the DWP, you have to fit into one of their neat little tick boxes or their computer says no. So a disabled parent of a disabled child is a situation that never happens according to the DWP!

Sakura said "I just can't get over the fact they want to not actually pay people a wage for work".

£100 a week rent benefit, £65 JSA, £25 Council Tax benefit. That equates to £7.16 per hour over a 30 hour week. That is a lot more than my son gets on minimum wage !!!

and what if, like your son i presume, they dont claim housing benefit?

most social housing is under that sum.

so, if they are not renting from a greedy buy to let landlord, your son would be better paid, no?

be pissed off at the buy to let scrounging landlords, they are the ones with the real benefits.
not the exploited who just want a roof over their head.
they dont get the hundred/s a week.

Well lowercase if there were no buy to let 'scroungers' nobody would be able to rent, so people who couldn't afford to buy would have no option but social housing, which would create even more of a deficit!