As Founder of the Big Issue, John Bird knows more about poverty and employment than most. That is why it is well worth reading his Times Article about workfare and dealing with youth unemployment. He vigorously knocks down a few left-wing sanctimonious Aunt Sallys in the process. Food for Thought.
Below are some extracts:
"Middle-class liberals should try a spell of unemployment before they criticise workfare
One of the worst places to be is on social security. From above you your paymasters, Her Majesty's Government, seem ill-disposed to continue with the arrangement for a moment longer than they have to. From above you too, it would appear, vast supermarket-type businesses are desperate to suck the living blood out of you and pay you nothing in return....
....I tend to take a worm's eye view of the situation that benefit recipients are stuck in. By a worm's-eye view I mean what it's like being down at the jobless ground level while these big people circulate above you, all full of advice and supposedly looking out for your best interests.
So what would I do if I were to join the ranks of the unemployed again? I would take the flimsiest offer of work even if the advantage was greater for the company that was using my labour than for unpaid me. I would take a punt at this work placement scheme, however impure or contradictory are the reasons why the Government or business want me to do it.
Why? Because life on benefit stinks. And any half-cocked exit plan is better than no exit plan at all. Maybe the work will not lead immediately to a job, but getting up and going to work in the morning must be a step nearer proper work than a step away from it.
Let me give you a few reasons why I would want out of the institutional state-sponsored poverty of social security. First, benefits are a Bastille, a life sentence for too many people. They not only imprison you, limiting your chances of liberating yourself from unemployed life, but they also cage your children, who are less likely to do well in school and get into higher education.
You will die younger and your health will be worse than that of an inhabitant of mainstream society; you will be more drawn to the stimulants of drink, drugs and tobacco; you will be more likely to suffer from mental health problems or end up in prison or excluded from school.
Being on benefits stigmatises you — and whole communities — because your neighbourhood is likely to have many other people in the same boat as you. In other words, despite many "caring" governments over the past 30 years, you will have been ghettoised. In short, your life will be on the line, along with your health and your sanity.
Much of the controversy about work placements has been absurd and naive. Tesco was started by Jack Cohen. He worked off a barrow in the East End nearly a century ago. He started his business to make money and Tesco has never erred from that concern ever since. So, of course, there should be no surprise that when Tesco entered the scheme — before getting cold feet and withdrawing — it wanted to maximise the benefits that free labour brings them.
Nor should anyone be surprised that the State is reluctant to hand over unearned income to people or that the Government is keen to get benefit recipients to do some work.
To those who are constantly vigilant about the poor being exploited I would suggest they tried a period of no work and "no exploitation" for a period of time. It is mind-rotting and degrading. And if the vigilant were less ethereal and more grounded they might be suggesting ways of improving the work experience scheme to make it less open to abuse.
I am sure there are countless pieces of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the current system has been exploited by some employers. But the longer we leave people marooned on benefits, without even a faint chance of getting off, the more we condemn them to a life sentence.
I suggest that the jobless ignore the advice of the outraged and well-intentioned and get stuck in, stacking shelves or washing vans. Getting a bit of work under the belt may well lead to saying goodbye to the hellhole of a lifetime on benefits..."
The full article is also available here.
Give people work experience by all means but pay them a wage for doing so. Why do all you lot think getting people to work for no wages is such a fantastic idea? Given the choice I will direct my custom to shops and businesses that will take that extra demand and use it to create real jobs instead of rolling over unpaid staff every 8 weeks. This is a scheme that accounts for 60 million work hours, you can't tell me that doesn't have an impact on the jobs market and I for one won't be supporting any business that participates.
ReplyDeleteIt's now clear, based on information from The Levenson Inquiry combined with the reports from Operation Wheeting wide spread endemic corruption forms a chain of contacts across very many members of The Government benches, News International, The Police, many Banking Concerns and Private Companies.
ReplyDeleteWorkfare, when combined with other Coalition Policies, and recent Bills passed into Law, has been developed for a specific purpose as is now becoming clear. It should be viewed in a bigger picture along with other Coalition Political Ideologies for the future of the UK.
What also should be considered is that the Coalition Government has removed very many requirements for Public Oversight of State Funded outsourced contracts from the Statues. It has also severely limited the scope of Public Oversight Organisations over much of the Welfare State and Private companies. The Coalition Government has now removed so much of Public Safety and Protection requirements from the Statues that Britain now Breaches International Human Rights.
Channel 4's investigative journalists 'FactChecked' claims that Official DWP Documents Relating to Service Providers instigating the Workfare schemes were changed without due process or approval. It found evidence that changes had been made but DWP could not explain why they were made.
It's becoming ever clearer that the Coalition Government is linked to serious fraud and falsification of Official Documents.
The Coalition Government is operating without electoral mandate and instigating policies that were not mentioned in either of their individual manifestos when they were elected.
Indications are now becoming clear that The Coalition Government are highly corrupted and investigations are continuing.
The Coalition Government should now be considered corrupted and operating with no regard to law or public safety or accountability concerns.
As more information is unearthed it is highly likely the Coalition Government are Extremely Right Wing in Political philosophy.
David Cameron's Government has a vision for our future highly damaging to the safety of the British public and economy of the nation.
Workfare, along with the recently passed Welfare Reform Bill, along with other bills currently being reviewed by Parliament such as the privatization of the National Health Service indicates a future for Britain of mass poverty for very much of the public and vastly reduced access to Health Care and no protection from employer exploitation.
Workfare, in conjunction with Welfare Reform Bill and Health Care privatization has been described as the framework for a Fascist Controlled State.
It's always best to cut past the fog and research facts.
The trouble is for many families on benefits life isn't a hellhole. Because of the numbers of children they have they live in a big house, and can afford consumer items decent working people can't.
ReplyDeleteAt the other end of the scale if your are young and single living with mum and dad who subsidise your living costs why go to work to be bossed about by somebody doing a sh~t job when you could be loafing about at home watching the telly and spending your benefits at the pub with your mates?
For certain people there is no incentive to work because they are not only not ashamed to be out of work they think the rest of us are mugs to be working supporting them and somehow think it is their RIGHT to be on benefits for life.
Of course not everyone is like this and there are lots of unemployed people searching desperately for work - I have been one of them more than once. The system doesn't help by being inflexible. For example if I wanted to do a course (at my own expense) to improve my qualifications I had to keep quiet about it or risk losing my benefits. If I wanted to do real work experience in a voluntary role in a particular field I kept quiet about it because I risked losing my benefits. MADNESS - yes but that's the system for you.
NB I would have like to have read the whole of John Bird's article but these days you have to pay for it