Labour's "Job Guarantee"

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I heard Ed Balls on the radio talking about this on Saturday morning, and Harriet Harman mentioned it on Marr yesterday. Balls said something like "a guaranteed job or you lose your benefits- now that's welfare reform!".

I have a very dull, prosaic mind (eg when they show fancy glass staircases in barn conversions on property !!!!!! shows, I always think "oh dear, imagine having to wipe off all those greasy fingerprints") and I always want to know the practical details behind a plan. Leaving party politics aside, can someone explain to me exactly how a gorvenment can "guarantee" a job.

What exactly will these jobs be, and how will they be magicked out of nothing? Will local councils have to invent swathes of NMW non-jobs? Will companies be bribed/forced into taking on extra staff they have no need of- how will that affect the existing workers and UK productivity as a whole? "Guarantee" is a strong word (as LibDems have come to realise).

Does anyone know how this could possibly be implemented?

PaulF81

Isn't this no different welfare to work which Labour were slamming 12 months ago?

Idiots.

StevieJ

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Does anyone know how this could possibly be implemented?

It is not rocket science,this is one I posted earlier

tomterm8

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Does anyone know how this could possibly be implemented?

At the moment we give people £56 a month for sitting on their bottoms, instead you offer them the opportunity to do 12 hours a week work and be paid national minimum wage for it.

I don't see why it should be so difficult. It's not like it hasn't been used before: America during the great depression did exactly that.

N1AK

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I heard Ed Balls on the radio talking about this on Saturday morning, and Harriet Harman mentioned it on Marr yesterday. Balls said something like "a guaranteed job or you lose your benefits- now that's welfare reform!".

I doubt anyone, including Labour, has any real idea about how they want to implement this. Having said that I think it could be a good idea if they actually meant what they say.

JSA over 25 is £71.70. The current minimum wage is £6.19. So you could 'guarantee' 12 hours work for the equivalent of £74.28 instead of JSA for people who had been unemployed for over 12/15/18/whatever months. The work could be:

• 4 hours in a school on 3 days helping with cleaning, setting up rooms etc
• 6 hours on 2 days working in a library
• 6 hours on 2 days cleaning streets
• 6 hours on 2 days doing data entry for councils

The hours could be increased (perhaps capped at 24 hours) for people with larger benefit allowances (housing, child etc). They could be offered places on training, apprenticeships etc which count as 1/2 an hours work; this is not below NMW pay because you're giving them an allowance to get educated/trained not employing them.

Yes you'd invariably see some 'proper' jobs get replaced by this; but many of those would go on to find other work and if that is the cost of stopping people being long-term unemployed by choice then so be it. Additionally, consider that if people were going to be forced to work anyway those 'choosing' not to work would likely stop claiming benefits or find employment before they got forced into it anyway.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

tomterm8 wrote: »

At the moment we give people £56 a month for sitting on their bottoms, instead you offer them the opportunity to do 12 hours a week work and be paid national minimum wage for it.

Yes, but doing WHAT exactly?

PaulF81

Or 12 hours picking spuds in the pouring rain.

tomterm8

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Yes, but doing WHAT exactly?

We could start by reparing potholes, building flood defences, visiting old people who don't see anyone for weeks at a time, or any of the hundreds of other projects I can see in my local community.

grizzly1911

tomterm8 wrote: »

We could start by reparing potholes, building flood defences, visiting old people who don't see anyone for weeks at a time, or any of the hundreds of other projects I can see in my local community.

Certainly create a lot of supervision jobs making sure they are where they are meant to be at any given time, that they were safe to be doing the jobs, providing transport, equipment etc.

grizzly1911

StevieJ wrote: »

It is not rocket science,this is one I posted earlier

Treadmill or wheel, large generator, energy problems solved, claimants get fit.

The_White_Horse

what about their "human rights innit"? how can they be forced to do slave labour?