That's the slogan for this year's Conservative Party Conference - although they're all forgetting and referring to "hardworking families". So they're not for the single, the pensioner, the sick, the disabled, etc., etc. We already know that the latest kicking of welfare claimants is that all those who are long-term unemployed will be subjected to a form of workfare. They know that they're onto a winner with the electorate. But it's doubtful whether they will elaborate on exactly how it's to be done. Remember that the government currently refuses to disclose which firms and organisations take free labour from MWA and the like. If lots more people are to be offered for free labour there will need to be more companies involved. Will we be allowed to know which ones? (Short answer - no.)
The media continue to ignore the fact that the government refuses to publish the numbers of those who have been "sanctioned". I found this link (in a comment on the Conservative Home website); "A Selection of Especially Stupid Benefit Sanctions". All of them are sourced, and a lot come from MPs. Essential reading for Iain Duncan Smith, one would have thought.
For many churches, today is Harvest Festival; and many of them will be donating the produce to their local food banks.
It's not just churches, some primary schools do as well. And my local church newsletter which is distributed to every single house in the town has recently started including the contact details for the local food bank.
ReplyDeleteThis in David Cameron's constituency.
You may recall that in a previous post a few weeks ago I said it would be premature to assume that the Community Action Programme (CAP) had gone away simply because it had gone quiet. The workfare / work for your dole scheme that will be launched at the conference will be CAP rebadged as Mandatory Intervention Regime, and will probably be relatively small scale - the evaluation (link below) found that generally it wasn't much use, and no use at all when it came to actually getting people into paid work, but it's a bit of red meat for the public who've been told for years (including, to a lesser extent, by the previous government) that there are legions of idle and feckless scroungers living a life of luxury and laughing at the gullible wage slaves.
ReplyDeleteFor me, CAP / MIR has a number of problematic aspects - more than I have time to list - but amongst them are that this will (like sanctions) probably be targeted at those least able to comply with or in some cases understand or remember what's expected of them, and will itself become a sanction production line. The top level complaint is that it's yet another supply side intervention that might work if the conditions for high or full employment existed, which they clearly don't.
I'd keep my eyes peeled for at least one other Daily Mail-friendly social security announcement at conference too...
Evaluation of CAP here, for anyone who hasn't seen it: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-support-for-the-very-long-term-unemployed-trailblazer-rr824
Thanks for that link, Badger. Just had a quick look through the report and two things really stand out for me. The first is to do with the circumstances of a large number of people who are long term unemployed- almost half are men over the age of 40, whilst about a third have a disability or long term illness. Surely this should send alarm bells ringing about possible age and disability discrimination amongst employers, in which case sending people like this on unpaid placements will do nothing to improve their chances of getting paid employment. In fact, the report itself admits that a minimum percentage of people who took part in CAP then went on to paid employment. The second thing that stood out is that basically all the placements offered provide low skill work- it speaks volumes that the biggest percentage by far (41%) took place in charity shops. I'm really scratching my head as to how sorting clothes etc in a charity shop is supposed to improve the self esteem of a 40+ year old man or someone with a long term illness or disability?!
DeleteThere is not enough capacity in the so-called voluntary sector to take all the people on MWA now, let alone when thousands more are shoved onto it. The placements will be with private companies. There will, no doubt, be contracts with the likes of A4e to organise it.
DeleteSo, why shouldn't a4e, Serco, G4S provide work experience that leads to work.Something like Job Trials from some years ago - a job at the end?
DeleteFirstly, because the jobs aren't there, and secondly, look at the evaluation I posted above: this isn't about helping people to find work, it's about using public money to punish the unemployed for being unemployed.
DeleteI have said many, many times on this blog over the past two years that Workfare WILL be introduced post the May 2015 General Election when the Tories win. It is interesting that the debate has started to shift away from whether it is a good idea but HOW it will work.
ReplyDeleteI am a 42yr old male and therefore a prime candidate for any Workfare scheme. It CAN only work if jobs are created in the private sector and that is the paradox - to create a job on Workfare a PAID job will have to be lost. It is a crazy scheme that cannot work but that hasn't stopped the Tories over Help To Buy despite widespread criticism.
Update... I have just watched C4 news were the presenter asked Philip Hammond (Defence Sec.) whether Help To Buy would force house prices up. He asked this question at least three times and on each occasion Hammond refused to answer. The presenter then pointed out that as someone who had a First in economics he (Hammond) should be aware that if you increase the demand for a product you will also increase its price. Hammond refused to acknowledge the statement.
It was embarrasing. A leading politican in one of the most responsible jobs in govt refusing to answer a simpe question that even he admitted a person with GCSE economics should know !
Hammond's rudeness and deliberate obsfuscation tells you everything you need to know about the Tories - ignorant and intellectuallly immature.
This shows me that the Tories will go ahead with Workfare whatever its effects on jobs because they do not listen and cannot accept criticism or advice. Childish.
The JCP are struggling with the amount of post WP returnees as it is. how they will deal with a MWA type programme is beyond me,unless the WP will be drafted in,but then again the WP did not do so well trying to find employers to offer placements due to all the rules and regulations that they had to comply with.
ReplyDeleteAfter my last visit to the JCP I enquired about the 35 hour job search and was informed that it will be enforced,I asked what facilities would be made available in order to comply and I can only hope that the information given is incorrect "You will do your job search at the following locations (Libraries,Charities and the YMCA) due to the demand,you may have to use several locations" after looking at the list some facilities were well over an hour away I asked about this and travel "You are required to travel up to 90 minutes each way,travel expenses will not be covered" I questioned how will I pay for this? "JSA should or walk" I have looked through the DWP website and can find no directives covering this,has anybody got a clue?
I'd look in the UC regs, plus any guidance that's published. They're making much of this up on the hoof (as in writing it now, when it's due to be implemented in 4 weeks, in theory). I wouldn't hold out too much hope though - the UC regs are already through, and the guidance isn't subject to scrutiny, so the best one can hope for is either legislative change (at some point) or frontline JCP staff exercising some common sense.
DeleteHave a look at stuff online about the new 'Claimant Commitment'. Fundamentally rebalances the relationship between the state and the individual. Pity it didn't receive much media scrutiny at the time.
There's some excellent guidance on the "claimant commitment" on the CPAG site (http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/escalating-conditionality) and the CAB site (http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/benefits_w/benefits_welfare_benefits_reform_e/benefits_uc_universal_credit_new/benefits_uc_claiming_universal_credit/uc95_uc_the_claimant_commitment.htm). You're right about the relationship with the state.
DeleteLooks like I managed to delete my previous post before submitting. The CAP 'pathfinder' was outsourced, and I'd assume that MIR (or whatever it turns out to be called) will be too.
ReplyDeleteCapacity is interesting. The original idea behind the CAP/OCM pathfinders was to road test interventions for all WP leavers. Even this government weren't so economically illiterate that they didn't eventually realise that you can't introduce 2m coerced workers into the labour force without some undesirable effects. Hence the new, smaller version, which will be targeted at the 'hardest to help'.
Destinations for placements - I haven't looked at CAP for a while and I'm not sure that MIR will be identical, but the stipulation was that they would be with charities, social enterprises, local authorities, or in some role that delivered a (fairly loosely defined) community benefit. I'd hope that most charities wouldn't sign up to it as it'd be reputationally toxic, as well as morally distasteful.
Incidentally, as far as placements go, the money on offer (for MWA and CAP in the pathfinder areas) is so low as to be insulting, so I have to assume that the charities that have taken people on are doing it because they feel it's right, rather than for the couple or so tens of pounds per week they've been offered.
Finally, you may or may not have seen 'Work Fair', a paper by Policy Exchange that by happy coincidence was released last week. It's notable in several respects: not only for its overall flimsiness, but also for putting opinion polls at the top of the report. It's a parallel with the child poverty consultation (effectively written by IDS's Centre for Social Justice) that sought to replace evidence and expertise with an opinion poll.
The public is justifiably suspicious of experts (justifiably), but to seek to justify policies that will harm (potentially) hundreds of thousands of people or more through polling is a step too far. Ultimately, politics is a retail business and all parties will go to election with whatever they think people will vote for, but to to make significant policy changes on the hoof, to disregard UK and international evidence, to ignore pilots and to ignore expertise and experience is reprehensible.
Name and shame any company involved in work for benifits.
ReplyDeleteSpelling!
DeleteAbsolutely. It's the only weapon we have really. Withhold any custom that you have discretion about.
DeleteI'd hope that 6 months full-time coerced labour will be appalling enough to put most potential hosts off anyway, although there are some large employers who clearly aren't bothered, and some VCS organisations who seem to have lost sight of their objectives and gone native.
Assuming any "work for your dole" scheme lasts for six months and means undertaking 40 hours work per week that will amount to 1040 hours' worth of unpaid labour for the unemployed. The maximum number of hours of work a convicted criminal can be sentenced to under the community payback scheme is 300. So this government will be treating the unemployed worse than criminals. That tells me everything I need to know about the government we have at the moment...
ReplyDeleteOn the News this morning,the continued attack on the long term unemployed(actually all the unemployed) "Work for your Dole" taking care of the elderly? this is already an area where people working are paid the bare minimum,providing labour at minimal cost will erode their incomes. Attending the JCP daily? they can barely deal with the amount of post WP returnees as it is,travel I assume(?) will be covered,with the first 54000 now off the WP and the average weekly bus ticket costing £20 this will cost over £1 Million a week and will rise on a Monthly basis.I can see the WP Providers being contracted (WP 2.0?) to provide the staff and facilities as JCP will not be able too,but they have already had 2 years and failed,yet their is no mention of this. Forced labour? will all the providers of placements be vetted? Will Health and Safety gear be provided..Is this merely Political headlining as a lot of these "Ideas" seem to of been recycled.
ReplyDeleteIt's here - Workfare, sooner than I expected but here, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteA quite appalling policy that will both humilate the unemployed (see Simon M) and completely undermine jobs in this country.
A terrible day for this country.
It might be that the stars are in the right alignment(sic) but their was no news on the WP for Months,UC is known to have major problems and the WP results were less than stellar,but rather than address these issues,their is now an outright attack on the unemployed,have they addressed the lack of available jobs,the failure off the WP Providers to perform to contracts that they actually helped designed.upon release of the WP figures,the DWP stated that overall the WP was performing well,considering the economic climate,which had been difficult,should not this same line of thinking apply to the unemployed?
ReplyDeletePerhaps there is some truth in Ancona’s gossipy new book? In it, he has claimed that Gideon despises IDS. IDS is due to be the keynote speaker tomoz, so why has Gideon stolen his wind & p*ss?
ReplyDeleteClearly, Gideon is only interested wooing potential Tory voters. (It seems to me that there is very little point in this year’s Tory conference, given that the Tories have already told the media all the details of their vote-grabbing hopes as far as I can see, all of which seem feeble to me. However, their media pre-briefing “strategy” will turn their conference into a flaccid flop, won’t it?)
Gideon has no interest in the unemployed. I suspect that the Treasury are fully aware that Gideon despises IDS and so the Treasury have decided to nick one of the Tories’ most popular policies. It is much too popular to risk leaving IDS to continue to bodge & bungle the whole thing and Mark Hoban was parachuted into the DWP by Gideon & the Treasury, according to the Press..
The Tories are busily & brutally bashing ALL of the most vulnerable people in the UK. Their crude savagery is not confined to the unemployed. Hospital patients, frail elderly people and the low-paid have all copped it just as much as the unemployed have.
I quite like the idea of making meals for the elderly. It is probable that the elderly would be grateful for my efforts, even though I have never had a cookery lesson, I do not possess a Food Hygiene Certificate and Elf & Safe Tea would both have a fit if I started trying to make meals for strangers. I am definitely completely illiterate about the science of food but I would like to study that subject and Gideon is even promising to give me some guinea pigs, it seems….If I were elderly, I would regard Gideon’s promise to me for what it is – a sinister threat to the elderly.
It's striking that Osborne has taken this one for himself, but IDS has some stuff left to announce tomorrow.
DeleteI don't think you can care for anyone without the appropriate bits of paper saying you have done whatever little course. You will of course be using a microwave and heating up ready meals, you're not allowed to do anything else even as a carer. And certainly you shouldn't be allowed in their houses - elderly people with memory problems temporarily misplacing their money will blame the unemployed person. This is what they do, my elderly neighbour was constantly misplacing things and accusing her daughter of stealing them. And then being the unemployed layabout you'll get into all kinds of trouble.
DeleteOsbourne just now...
ReplyDelete'The scheme will last until the person has found a job.'
So what we have then is a group of right-wing minded people scapegoating a minority of people for the economic woes of the country, criminalising them via the media and then forcing them to do unpaid work for an indefinite period at as yet undefined locations.
What period of history does that remind you of?
Indefinite Workfare.. indefinite force volunteering, Indefinite A4e/serco/ingeus etc.. how much money will be thrown at them, of course no one on this scheme will be classed as unemployed but "training"
DeleteSo that's permanent, potentially if the economy doesn't improve and suitable jobs don't appear.
DeleteThe unemployed can now be handed an indeterminate sentence of forced community service, without any income other than the paltry benefits that are not enough to live on.
Just wait for the huge increase in petty (or not so petty) crimes once this comes in as half-starved people try to find the merest bit of money or morsel of food...
Providing meals for the elderly and the associated costs of food, or actually cooking them?
ReplyDeleteWhat too if an elderly person for various reasons including safety, refuses this seemingly kind service, will they lose their State Pension? Or is that too fetched an idea, even for this callous and inept government?
The Policy Exchange just now...
ReplyDelete'By a margin of over three to one, the public would rather reform labour market policy to introduce a workfare scheme than one that guaranteed long-term benefit claimants a job at the National Minimum Wage.'
So, 75% of British people would rather see the long-term unemployed working for £70 a week rather than for the NMW?
A devastating indictment of the rationale of the British people.
More likely a devastating indictment of political thinktanks like Policy Exchange an its bogus survey methods.
DeleteWell I got on the radio, a BBC R5L phone-in on this very subject.
ReplyDeleteMy point was that this was a tacit admission of the WP's failure as those on the WP for 2 years should have been given the "intensive help" Osborne said this new scheme would be offering.
A couple of Tory MP's defended the new scheme, including one, a member of the Public Accounts Ctte I had an argument with. I put it to him the WP was a failure as it got 3.5% of clients into sustained work in the first year and by the 2nd year, just 18 out of 40 contractors hit their minimum targets, as highlighted on this blog.
I also mentioned the fact that I, people I know and thousands of others had been not seen for weeks and even months at a time and had been left to their own devices despite being promised support and despite £5bn being spent.
The Tory's response? "The WP is struggling at the moment....achieving differing results in different areas...bleh, bleh, bleh! I did notice he did not refute my figures though!
When I finally branded the WP a complete failure, all he could say is "No it's not". Amazing how some politicians live in a world of denial. Quite pathetic really!
IPPR think-tank just now...
ReplyDelete'If it is pitched as a punishment where people do menial tasks, it risks acting as a signal to employers that these are people not to employ. The government’s mandatory work activity pilot, which mirrors today’s announcement, was found to have no impact on future employment.'
Why doesn't the govt listen to this people? Ignorant.
Ok,basic maths..200,000 post WP claimants are expected to participate in this new programme at a cost of £300 Million,which equates to £1500 per year,travel will eat up about £1000 (£20 pw 50 weeks) leaving £500 for? Staff,Training,facilities? )on top of this at least 500,000 will leave the WP over the next year(based on current figures) no mention of training,qualifications or any viable skills as a result of this investment,which to my understanding is what the WP was suppose to of provided in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI am getting really fed up with my current A4E advisor, i was sent to a local agency for a job around 4 weeks ago which i didn't succeed in getting but now my advisor says i have to goto the agency every day to show how keen i am for the job even though i get rejected on a near daily basis. Surely they can't send me for the same job repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteThis is very encouraging http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24330111
DeleteI think the same can said for the idea of showing up at the JCP daily,unless their are some worthwhile courses it would seem to be a punishment,they mention work placements,the WP was not successful at this even after 2 years,I cannot see the JCP coping with this and handling the huge influx of WP graduates within the next few months,the training seems to be the same basic run of the mill junk that happened before,during and now apparently after the WP as the saying goes you get what you pay for, yet again they are trying to do this in a rushed manner in order to appear to be tackling unemployment,when in my opinion they are making it worse,yet again.
DeleteBeen sent on a 'pre-employment training course' by A4e. Just had the first day today, and it was torture. One of the women in the class had been forced to quit a college course to attend. The trainer was nice enough, but I suspect that's because he's not actually from A4e.
ReplyDeleteI really hate this stupid idea. My mum's almost 60 and has a severe heart condition and they're still expecting her to work as soon as she's recovered from her injuries. Now I'm worried they're going to have her doing workfare and it'd probably kill her.
This happens all the time on these stupid WP courses, people trying to better themselves by going into proper training quals, like colleges ABEs and NVQs, are denied the time and opportunity to do so. The whole programme is a shamble mess- just like tory policy on welfare.
DeleteThey are working on the premise if you are sent 300 times..you are bound to get one.. but in reality you will annoy the agency and then you wont get a chance.. not to mention the hundreds more people sent to the agency
ReplyDeleteI'm single, have no hope of ever earning enough to buy my own home, currently unemployed and told that I have a progressive illness, which will make me disabled. Perhaps the Conservative Party should just put me down like a sick dog. What use I'm in their BIG plans and ideas.
ReplyDeleteJust grabbed this off the BBC website -
ReplyDelete'Museums ditch staff for volunteers'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24332116
This is Tory Britain. Paid staff being sacked and then replaced by 'volunteers' and when they sign on they are harassed by the govt and FORCED to take unpaid work - probably in the same place they were sacked from! No! No! No!
IDS has just annouced at the Tory Party conference that the unemployed will be forced to attend full-time classes at job centres to 'simulate the working day'.
DeleteHere is the link,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24346929
So the unemployed are now going to be locked away in a room for 8hrs a day staring at the walls.
Why don't they just throw away the key while their at it? The criminalistion of the unemployed continues...
35 hours attendance at a Mandatory Activity Centre for some. PS Can I have a job deciding these stupid names..?
DeleteNow the most incompetent of the lot Smith wants this:
ReplyDeleteThousands of unemployed benefit claimants will be forced to turn up at job centres for 35 hours a week to prove they are looking for work.
Iain Duncan Smith wants to make sure people claiming jobless benefits are not ‘cheating the system; by secretly working cash-in-hand.
The Work and Pensions Secretary will warn that people who fail to turn up to special classrooms in job centres without good reason will lose their benefits.
More here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2439942/Unemployed-forced-turn-jobcentres-35-hours-week-stop-cheating-secretly-working.html
Not only does this suppose that all those claiming JSA are working on the sly, it is yet a further admission that Smiths 'brain'child the WP is a failure.
This proposal sounds like the old New / Flex New Deal. You know, the schemes the Tories attacked and replaced with their 'superior' WP? If as one suspects jobseekers are sat in a room for 35 hrs. a week, just what will they be doing? Things that they presumably should've done on the WP? Or more likely bugger all!
What gets me is that Chris Greyling as the Employment Secretary, when attacking Labour's New Deal said "We will not have people stuck in a room doing nothing for 30 hrs a week". Oh no? So what is this then?
And of course this begs the obvious questions:
Just who will be administering these extra sessions? JCP or dodgy private providers?
Where exactly in Jobcentres will these classes be held? Most are unable to provide extra computers, let alone chairs, desks etc.
Just how much extra is this all going to cost the taxpayer? I suspect that any savings made by stopping someone working on the side, cash in hand will be more than swallowed up in order of magnitude by the sheer cost of yet another pointless government initiative such as this.
These are yet more policies drawn up on the back of an envelope in a desperate attempt to cover up the failings of the previous set of disasters. The sooner this government is consigned to the trash an of history, the better.
And of course if you are stuck in a room for 8 hrs playing cards or whatever you will not actually 'be out' looking for work, networking - which is what i was mandated to do by my JCP advisor- "you're not going to find work sitting around here all day " she said. Why can't they leave the unemployed alone to find work then assist with what people actually need when they ask for help!
DeleteI would appreciate clarification.
ReplyDelete1) Does the "help-to-work scheme the next "step" after being on the work programme for two years?
2) The "help-to-work"scheme offers three options including attending job centres daily.
Yet yesterday the Conservatives seemed to issue a new directive , that every (long term?) will be required to attend job centres daily.