Mandatory Work Activity

FleurDuLys

Sorry, yes you are quite right Yappycat. I was responding to MrsManda's post rather than the thread as a whole, but we were both off-topic.

yappycat

My point is that its possible some folk who are not fit for work and might never be able to return to work part or full time, are at risk of being swept up in this 'no-choice' scheme for which there are precious little detail on the criteria that will be used to decide who will be placed in work under it and who will not.
As for being 'sat on your backside all day feeling sorry for yourself', I for one, do not fit this sweeping statement. I was in the support group and opted to do permitted work as far as I was able to do so given health constraints. I chose to do this as I had the opportunity and am lucky enough to be able to manage 2 hours of flexible work per week for a few weeks of the year. Some people do not have this opportunity, and some cannot physically manage to even work 2 hours if they had the opportunity.
You sound like you're condemning anyone who objects to this scheme of being some lazy workshy scrounger scared that the 'good life' is going to be taken from them....some might be, fair enough, but many others are not.

AdaptiveSequence

trobert wrote: »

In my eyes, any work, paid or unpaid is a good thing.
It focuses your mind on the job in hand, something that you will need when you go back to work full time.

I cannot understand how anybody can complain about a work type activity. It's a damn site better for you than sat on your backside all day feeling sorry for yourself.

Then we have those that say that they should be paid the NMW!! Geepers, why?
They are getting an experience, a taster of work life for free!!

Of course there are those that are already working (illegally) and claiming JSA. Should I feel sorry for those if having to do the work interupts there cosy little life?

I really enjoyed that post. Please tell me more:)

martinthebandit

Sounds a good idea to me

tod123

This is a great step forward, simply getting people back in the habit of a working life will do them no end of good.

Roys post made we giggle

Leave at 7.30 am to meet a 10 am appointment. If you don't get there on time, they won't see you that day. You don't get help with fares. Sometimes I wouldn't get a bus connection, and have to take a different route, only to get home at 8pm., cold through and totally exhausted.

Thats what working people do every day! it only seems so hard to you because you are so used to doing nowt.

dark_lady

Some of you middle class benefit bashers will finally see the light when hubby or wifey comes home and says "sorry darling im being made redundant" because their employer has realised they can get rid of them and replace them with an unemployed person for free from the Job Centre.

nannytone_2

you assume that everyone that objects to the reliance on benefit that seems to have overtaken our country in the last 10 years is 'middle class'

the majority who object are normal working class people that earn circa 20 -25k,
these people are the ones that are really struggling, yet see others , who although are claiming legitimately, 'choose' to abuse the system.

it is supposed to be a 'safety net', but far too regularly, many people use benefits as 'earnings', and so limit the hours they work to maximise entitlement.

this ISN'T what the system was intended for!

dark_lady

Nannytone a lot of working class people like to believe that they are middle class and so vote accordingly which is how this Government got in.

nannytone_2

i voted 'independant', as they have no party alleigence, and if elected, are more likely to reflect the veiws of the people that elect them.

i am no Tory, but Tony Blair and Gordon Brown concocted the tax credit system.
and if i was cynical, i'd say they did it to ensure what has happened , would happen !( reliance on the state, meaning they would be elected and re elected etc etc)
the only bit they got wrong was not realising how unpoular their system was amongst normal working people.
those that got no benefit ( and i dont mean the financial type) from the system, but who slogged their guts out week after week, while the irresponsible and lazy continued to live on the proceeds!

they attempted to 'bribe' the people of tyhis country, and while it worked when there was plenty of money, we can't as a nation, afford to fund people's choices and they need to start paying for them themselves.

yappycat

What many people seem to be missing is the potential for abuse implicit in the MWAS. The whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. Private firms bidding for the right to sell work placements to the DWP, getting paid by the DWP per placement - whether that individual works for the full placement or even actually turns up on day 1.
So the taxpayer pays to keep that individual in benefit money, and also pays private firm X to give that individual a work placement with no guarantee that said individual will get a permanent job at the end of that. Private firm X thinks, 'hey we can get all of this extra labour from the DWP, we get paid for it and best of all we don't need to pay them a wage! Maybe we don't need quite so many staff on our payroll anymore?'
What happens next is fairly evident - jobs are lost and what do ya know? More people claiming benefits because they're unemployed. Does private firm X care? No, because they could potentially end up getting the staff they made redundant back for no wage and get paid for it to boot.

Why does the government believe they can save money through this scheme, fair enough there may be a minority who end up with the skills and confidence to get a job and a permanent position somewhere due to the placement. Far more likely though is that they hope to make savings via benefit sanctions. And seeing as the whistle has been blown regarding sanction 'targets' within the DWP, totally catching them with their pants embarrassingly down, this scheme just seems like a new less underhand opportunity to stop as many benefits as possible.
This will catch some scroungers out, I am not so naive that I believe everyone is genuinely entitled to benefit and could not work. But you don't have to do much searching online to find many accounts of those receiving ESA who failed the much maligned ATOS medical assessment, people who seem blatantly unfit for work who get scored zero points etc. These people will be the ones who suffer most if forced into this scheme, being unfit for the work they are assigned to they are more likely to trip up on a rule which merits a sanction of benefit, the people who 'work' the system will no doubt carry on doing so.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven imo.