The Work Programme New Thread

Androo2011

hi,

I like a few of you have been placed upon the Work Programe. I have been unemployed for about 3 years but I want to work!!!

I have previously been on new deal about 1 half years ago. Where upon i was placed on work experience, or work trial. Depending on what you want to call it, basically you work for free.
At the time I wanted to get experience of working with an electrical firm, doing rewires etc because i wanted to get placement/apprenticeship with a firm. Anyway, for 6months, I worked 7am to 6pm, monday to friday. The travel expenses werent enough as i was getting four-six buses a day. I was 20 quid a week worse off.....but I kept at it as i knew it was a good reference/higher chance of me getting an apprenticeship. ALAS when the new deal scheme finished, nothing happened, i was forced to re-sign back on ( idont know why)

Anyway, I'm now on the work programe. I've been attending for about 2 1/2 months now. The appointments are ok, they offer little help but some advise on possible employers looking for employees.
I've been almost forced into socail care work, which I know i'm not the right type of person to do that kind of work. I give all respect to those that want to do it.
I've got the impression that they are just waiting for me to qualify for the work placement, as they already said it forces people into any type of work to avoid it!!

I do want a job, but i dont know what else i can do!!! They seem to be of no help, I dont want to go back to university/or college as ive already ''wasted''' 3/4 years there going off what theyve said!! As the degree i completed was a waste of time apparently, because it didnt lead to permant employment!!!!

HELP!

Tremour-88

Me and my wife have a joint claim for JSA (we get £102 a week between us) and we've been put onto the Work Programme, last year we were forced onto the New Deal and Community Task Force both of which offered NO HELP at all.

CFT forced us to work in a charity shop for 30 hours a week (thats £1.70 an hour each) of which all we did was stand there and every time some body moved something to look at it we put it back, it was completely awful so we argued with the jobcentre who then forced us into cleaning a pub....

We were abused and treated like pieces of sh!* because the manager KNEW we had to stay to keep our money we were made to scrub out bins with bleach with our bare hands, clean up !!!!, sick and a distgusting kitchen.

At the end of it we lost around £200 because of increased petrol costs, wear n tear on the car, new clothes which we were told we had to buy, and we got NO refences at all, a complete waste of our time and could of made us ill.

Now we've been told we have to do the same thing again with the Work Programme for over a year, unlike some of the claimants we actually want to work but its insane when every local job has 50-200 people applying for them.

For the past 2 years I've been wanting to go Self-Employed which would be fine if I were 25+ for Working tax credits, but because im only 23 they will not help or even listen to me and basicly say its my fault for being under 25 or not having a kid.

I find this whole programme of slave labour sickening, they expect us to work 30 hours a week (at £1.70 an hour), drive to and from the placement at a cost of £0.20p per mile (with the cost of petrol now its actually at a loss for me) + I have to declare my car insurance as commuting which charges me an extra £50 per year they will not pay. And at the same time as working 30 hours, traveling 5 hours a week they expect us to still look & apply for countless jobs when by the time we've finished at our placements everywhere is closed

tomjonesrules

Tremour-88 wrote: »

I find this whole programme of slave labour sickening, they expect us to work 30 hours a week (at £1.70 an hour), drive to and from the placement at a cost of £0.20p per mile (with the cost of petrol now its actually at a loss for me) + I have to declare my car insurance as commuting which charges me an extra £50 per year they will not pay. And at the same time as working 30 hours, traveling 5 hours a week they expect us to still look & apply for countless jobs when by the time we've finished at our placements everywhere is closed

So you don't claim HB/ SMI, CTB, free prescription costs etc?

Tremour-88

tomjonesrules wrote: »

So you don't claim HB/ SMI, CTB, free prescription costs etc?

We only claim JSA, No housing benefit, C.tax or anything, we live with her mother atm and claim nothing besides standard JSA

tomjonesrules

Tremour-88 wrote: »

We only claim JSA, No housing benefit, C.tax or anything, we live with her mother atm and claim nothing besides standard JSA

In that case yours is not a fair comparison - most people on the WP will claim housing costs etc and so be receiving far more than £1.70 per hour.

Polyhymnia

tomjonesrules wrote: »

In that case yours is not a fair comparison - most people on the WP will claim housing costs etc and so be receiving far more than £1.70 per hour.

Evidence please?

MattLFC

I think the point he is trying to make, is a lot of people (maybe most, maybe not, does anyone have the figures lol) will be claiming HB and CTB, as well as perks such as free perscriptions and free dental care (which a working person could pay upto £200 per course of treatement for).

If you are on New Deal, as I understand it, there would be other perks such as bus passes and rail passes etc...

But if someone lives with their parents, they may not be claiming HB and CTB... but they would also not have the costs of housing and council tax, so their money is probably essentially theirs to do what they like with.

If someones rent is £350 per month, then CT at £100 per month (always get told I underestimate the costs, but I just go on the prices around the local deprived areas), then that would equate to £450 a month income (that someone who was working in a full-time job, would have to pay) - in addition to any cash benefits and other perks they may recieve. It would also mean not having to find, potentially hundreds of pounds per year for health costs. Essentially, an unemployed person could end up benefitting from as much, if not more, than a person in employment - especially if you take into account people with kids.

All the government are doing, is saying instead of getting the same amount as someone who works, for doing nothing, you have to do something. Sure, there will be some employers who abuse it, just like there are some people who abuse the welfare system, but hopefully it will lead to new chances and opportunities for those on the programme, and get the long-term unemployed (especially those who have been long-term unemployed through choice) back into the working world, back into routine, and the rest of us (including the short-term unemployed, and those who have always worked and fallen on hard times), will take some comfort that the good-for-nothing layabout scroungers who exist in todays society, will no longer be able to get, or expect an easy, free ride at the (people they see as idiots) taxpayers expense.

It's just a shame it will affect the genuine people as well as the scum.

exprog

Or alternatively we might vote for governments that run the economy to produce sufficient jobs rather than for the benefit of the 1% who get ever richer from the pauperisation of everyone else.

Clue: not the liblabcons.

MattLFC

exprog wrote: »

Or alternatively we might vote for governments that run the economy to produce sufficient jobs rather than for the benefit of the 1% who get ever richer from the pauperisation of everyone else.

Clue: not the liblabcons.

Got about as much of that happening, and than the country ever achieving "full employment" rofl!!

Caroline_a

I worked in the 1990s on the Employment Training, Training for Work and YTS schemes. The rules and regs we had to adhere to were really stringent - we looked after around 120 trainees each and were responsible for initial interviews, arranging (and often running!) off-job training, finding placements and monitoring trainees in placements, as well as any counselling, help and advice our trainees needed. No trainee was allowed to be in-house for more than 2 weeks (our company rules due to funding levels), so we had to be pretty slick in cold calling new companies as well as using companies we had used before that had proved good placement source.

I have to say that no trainee in my workload who completed the course left without a job - yes we lost some along the way, but that was for a variety of reasons including people trying to fool the JobCentre by implying they were looking for work, as well as people finding jobs for themselves. It was damn hard work for us, each trainee had to be as a matter of course monitored at least every 4 weeks (so around 30 per week, assuming no problems) and all were in placement where the area was around 40 square miles. However, it worked. People did get real jobs - we could never see the point of using placements for work experience as the trainee would just return!

I do recognise that the funding levels have gone down, plus I think I'm right in saying that it's totally biased towards job outcomes which means little money in the early period when the trainee probably needs extra support, but some of the stories of massive gaps with people sitting at home beggers belief! Any trainee in my time had to be either in placement or at our training centre - they were given either Open Learning tasks or intensive job search activities where they could use our facilities, printing, photocopying, etc.