I think this paragraph in the Guardian this morning is quite extraordinary:
George Osborne will continue the government's push to reduce welfare spending by announcing a nationwide scheme on Monday to force 200,000 long-term unemployed benefit claimants to either undertake community work, attend a jobcentre every day or go on a full-time intensive programme to tackle the underlying reasons for their failure to find work.
I added the emphasis. Ignore for a moment the absurdity of the plan to make the unemployed undertake community work: I hope the national minimum wage will apply. And ignore the absurdity of enforced jobcentre attendance. Jonathan Portes has dealt with that. Just look at that bit I emphasised.
The unemployed are being asked to explain their reason for failing to find work. Hasn't it occurred to Osborne that this may be that there is no work? That 2.5 million people aren't all wrong? And that it's not their job to create the work; it's his?
I would love to say I'm staggered that the Guardian can publish this and yet it also shows how far things have descended that such reports can apparently be issued without much comment. It's as if the world does assume that the unemployed are indeed not working by choice - as neoclassical economists assume to be the case.
Reclaiming this narrative now is vital. Overdue and vital, I might add.
And in the meantime people will suffer. We know that: IDS is seeking to make sure they do.
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And in the same article you’ll have seen survey results that show that a very large percentage (56%) of people support “workfare”, compared to only 12% who don’t, Richard. Combine that with the findings contained in Jonathan Portes excellent summary of the mandatory work activity programme (it doesn’t work, and nor does it save the government money, but it is being expanded) and you know all you need to know about why these policies are being aggresively promoted and implemented. They discriminate and punish (as does the bedroom tax) – pure and simple – but they do so to a minority who the majority (of Tory voters, with Tory tendencies, and, if the surveys are correct, more besides) believe deserve to be discriminated against and punished. But until the true human and financial cost of these prejudices dressed up as policy are exposed – which I don’t assume will be anytime soon, and certainly not before the next election – they are vote winners and neither Tories, Lib Dems or Labour are going to attempt to ‘reclaim this narrative.’.
You are, sadly, right
If daily attendance at the JC+ is what’s really needed, why are we paying the Work Programme Providers billions of pounds at all? If getting something for nothing is such a bad thing, why aren’t Osborne and Cameron, the poster children for privilege, renouncing their respective multi-million pound inheritances, for which they’ve done nothing? Are the elderly at all keen on the idea of having the long-term unemployed do their cooking for them? Who’ll be teaching these people to cook to any standard in the first place? How are the already massively overstretched JobCentres going to even begin to cope with people coming into them on a daly basis? Why isn’t Osborne laughed off the television when he comes out with this guff?
Im afraid it is because the populace is asleep and prefers to be so -they would rather be fed utter guff so long as they are spared the torment of thinking about things with any degree of clarity -the Tories know that hammering the unemployed will get all the knee jerk they need to hide their savage levels of jaw-dropping incompetence. It’s that easy to con people! Chomsky has documented this process very well. All we can do at present is keep talking about it and watch aghast!
Richard, you many times complain that there is insufficient work and that the present Government is at least partially at fault for this. Now you complain when the Government in effect makes work. You cannot have it both ways, or you would look like you had some sort of bitter ideological hatred of the Tories. Do you?
Oh come on!
There is work and there is useless and demeaning activity
They’re not the same thing
And for the record, I do not think this is ideological. I am happy to criticise any party when appropriate and am a member of none
But this is vindictive and it’s not inappropriate to say so
Does this “attend the Job Centre every day” strike anyone else as a curious policy?
How will it be managed?
Will Job Centres have to employ lots more staff to process the unemployed? Great job creation scheme, but one wonders, given that Job Centres have been laying people off. Or will people forced onto ‘workfare’ be administrating the signing in process?
What I can imagine happening is everyone told to attend at the same time, say 9 am when the doors open. Massive queues form by 6ish. Doors open and if you manage to run in before they are slammed again, you are deemed to have attended. If not, you’re sanctioned. I can seriously see people being sanctioned if they are still in the queue at the time of their appointment – I believe this has actually happened to people already.
But also the unintended consequences. In the 80s there was much talk about why there seemed to be less activism and less apparent solidarity among the unemployed of Thatcher’s recession, compared with the unemployed of the 20s and 30s. One difference was that in the 80s people only signed on once a fortnight, whereas in the Great Depression they signed on every day, therefore meeting lots of people in the same situation daily, with plenty of time for discussion and exchange of ideas and the development of fellow feeling.
Well, that is what it is like now.
First, make sure you have your card “stamped”, otherwise you will not have proof you attended. Failure to attend means you will be sanctioned. Your case will go before a “decision maker” to decide the length of the penalty. Either way, all your benefits will end THEN. After you have served your time, you will have to apply for all of them again (ie: you have to arrange appointments….with phone calls at local rate…..and never answered).
As for ATOS[sers]…..my loathing for them exceeds my loathing for IDS…..never mind that their medical staff are not doctors or murses…..they give practically everyone 6-points, usually for something insignificant, while ignoring the actual physical ailment.
Workfare seems ok, but what is in it for the “employers”, and how does the government and its friends benefit….there has to be a backhander here somewhere.
It seems that until recently there were half a million job vacancies and 2.5 unemployed. Furthermore more than a 1. million on part time jobs wanting full time work. Is the a venn diagram there?
@ Sarah
‘.. in the Great Depression they signed on every day, therefore meeting lots of people in the same situation daily, with plenty of time for discussion and exchange of ideas and the development of fellow feeling.’
What a brilliant notion… don’t tell George. I have often thought that the power elites made the same mistake in deliberately placing many thousands of young people together for five years. Would the NHS, state education, the welfare state have been possible without WW2?
The JOb centres won’t cope with this stuff! The staff are depressed and alienated as it is! There could well be a tipping point where staff at Job Centres are so stressed they’d rather be on the dole and visiting local food banks themselves. Soon… very soon… surely, surely the fact that Cameron and Osborne are useless numpties will dawn on people……oh well, perhaps not!
Research already shows that Job Centres don’t help people back into work anymore than trying yourself, and for many people, they are not ‘Job Centres’ but ‘Sanction Centres’ — I look forward to the results of this vile attempt to galvanize the bigotry of cheesed off little England!
What an absolutely idiotic idea, getting the unemployed to attend their jobcentres every day. In towns and cities public transport would be swamped, including young mothers with babies, pushchairs etc and in many rural areas the are only suitable bus services once a week.
The points Sarah and Sue have made are very relevant. After WW2, many thousands of troops returned to the UK and they had seen first-hand what the game was all about. The first thing which happened was that Churchill was thrown out of office.
Just come accross this article detailing Duncan Smith’s attempt to make the ill jump through further hoops at the crack of his whip! I say it again – I never, in my most depressed states, though that this island could sink so low -no need to wait for the rising sea levels, we’ll be hitting magma soon.
I think that this attack by yourself is somewhat unfair. Lets look at the issues. Firstly people need to work towards work. Some people are unable to do this, for whatever reasons. Now are you suggesting that cleaning isn’t a good job. Many people in the UK do this work. If it helps the community at large out, then all the better.
I’m not for a moment saying that
I’ve been a cleaner
I am saying forcing people to do community work is demeaning
If you get a job and get paid to do it, you may not like it and the pay may be crap, but at least it’s a job and a paid one. Been there done it.
But being forced to do something is demeaning – and this idea, it puts you in the same place as petty criminals who have to do community service. What does that tell you the government thinks of you. Might as well put you in a chain gang.
I can accept that there are some people out of work by choice – no doubt of that – but my view is that’s only a small minority. It’s certainly not right that the majority are treated like … well… petty criminals.
It’s bad enough being out of work, having nothing to do, getting bored senseless everyday and demeaning enough having to go and sign on at all and explain what you’ve been doing the last two weeks to find work etc etc – do they think I’m a lazy idiot? well obviously yes in Cameron’s eyes.
But having to do it everyday and getting quizzed and/or doing community service … shameful.
I think this may cause a lot of grief for some people’s heads and I also have concerns it may be the final straw for some. Still at least more work for the Samaritans. Cheers David.
I think it rather depends on the work people are doing. Certainly any unpaid work whatsoever should count (like training for the Samaritans for example): voluntary work teaches people skills, makes them more employable, cures boredom and reduces risk of depression, plus being a genuinely worthwhile thing to do. There’s a huge amount of that kind of voluntary work available and I’d be in favour of the long term unemployed being encouraged to do it. I’m not sure picking litter is in quite the same category – plus we see at the moment that the former kind of work isn’t always valued in the way it should be by DWP. What we need is a less prescriptive attitude towards helping the unemployed and better training of Jobcentre staff.
Not forgetting that voluntary work has to be declared, and benefit may be lost as a result.
You have to affirm, on your JC attendance, that you are “available for, and actively seeking, employment”
There is nothing stopping you working while signing-on, as long as you declare both work and earnings. Although most JC staff will immediately stop your claim (which they should not do, but then if you employ monkeys…)
If people need cleaners (I’ve done this job myself) then a living wage should be payed and one that covers the elephantine rents created by the financial systems bubbles.
I don’t see what’s unfair about attacking what in some instances is slave labour, which workfare basically is! What employer wouldn’t like someone to work for gratis for several months? Many of them will be rubbing their hands in glee.
The pathetic Work Programme that they are forcing people on only finds jobs for about 4% of people, a statistic that shows you would be better off finding work off your own bat that attending one of these schemes.
If they put as much money into true work creation as they have into these various schemes, they would have made a significant dent in the unemployment figures.
None of these policies makes sense economically. They are purely ideological and vindictive, sometimes pathetically so!
The rents are high in London. But this will affect the whole of England.
There are many people who do community service every day. I don’t understand why people brand them as an underdog. http://www.csv.org.uk/?display=volunteering
Some people will get a self respect back from helping their community. I don’t under stand where the people on here get their self, self, self. Its about improving the places where people live.
Volunteer helping is great
Some do it as punishment
But forced labour is an infringement of basic human rights
Perhaps we should remind ourselves we’re encouraged, if we can call it that, to get money to live through work because having been forced off the Commons centuries ago we can’t simply mind our pastures and our business both and get on with life. There’s nothing at all natural in working to get money to live, it’s a completely artificial situation that’s only been brought about because it greatly benefits a handful at the expense of the majority. There’s nothing moral or dutiful about working whatsoever, let’s not forget that.
Would you be in favour if it paid minimum wage?
It would help – and a living wage would be better
But options i.e. choice as to what to do would also be required
Also, why does the media never comment on why Osborne rather than the minister concerned makes the big bad nasty announcements on Welfare? What the hell has this got to do with any economic state of the nation?
This is a cynical ploy to exploit “labour”. A way to subvert the minimum wage.
How long will it be after it has bedded in that it is surreptitiously extended to allow unscrupulous employers (chiefly Tory Party donors) to take advantage of low cost workers?
The Tories do absolutely nothing to help those that do real work for a living.
I am thoroughly sick of the “Rentier” class that have controlled Western economies for the last 30 plus years and throughout that time have conducted a silent war against “labour”.