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Making people on the dole work
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This afternoon I met a friend of mine who used to work in one of the local job centres. We were talking about the dole for some reason or another and he said that people should work for their money.
I think it could work. It may weed out the people who just sit on their arse all day and can't be bothered to work.
1. People who get dole money and who really can't get a job would proberly appreciate getting out and doing something.
2. It might make the bums think about earning real money instead of sponging 80 quid every 2 weeks of the Gov't.
They could to something like community work.. maybe clean the streets, help the older people to do their shopping, or help non-profit orginisations like Oxfam or Scope, etc.
Obviously you would make allowances for the people who are sick/injured.
Opinions?
I think it could work. It may weed out the people who just sit on their arse all day and can't be bothered to work.
1. People who get dole money and who really can't get a job would proberly appreciate getting out and doing something.
2. It might make the bums think about earning real money instead of sponging 80 quid every 2 weeks of the Gov't.
They could to something like community work.. maybe clean the streets, help the older people to do their shopping, or help non-profit orginisations like Oxfam or Scope, etc.
Obviously you would make allowances for the people who are sick/injured.
Opinions?
0
Comments
We were discussing this in Business Studies today with the budget report being released etc
If they can earn full wages doing community work, then there would be nothing to tempt them to work in other industries, (a 'proper' job so to speak). The government probably can't afford to plough the huge sums of money required to pay upto 800,000 people the minimum wage for 40 hours a week.
The way I see it, its a chance for the unemployed to learn new skills, while keeping them active, and helping the environment and community at the same time.
In that sense I think the notion of having six months of JSA ot find a job is a good one.
Easy to say that when you're not in that situation. I know someone keen enough to work (not v. employable though) who went 18mths onto New Deal, all they could offer was a sweatshop job, queuing up up with many other casuals. Too many chasing too few crap jobs
If your skill level is high, then the likelihood of having a 'shitty' job would be lesser!
But with more and more publice services being privatised, it then becomes cheap slave labour for companies to make money. Not right IMO.
In this area at least factories seem more keen to employ immigrants than local people and a lot of factories tend to be closing down which is leaving 'less employable' unskilled people (who're often a little older) without a job or that many prospects. A lot of factories tend to be moving overseas, probably because labour is cheaper for them.
On the other side of the coin there are people who aren't willing to work and they're taking money from the government that could be used for the NHS or something. Maybe Jobseekers should be tougher, perhaps something changed in the forms to make sure these people are looking and are going to job interviews. A stamp maybe?
As for community work, good idea and I don't think they should pay wages to the people who do it. Everybody should contribute to society in my opinion, after all if we're going to pay for them to live they might as well pull their weight.
chasing the lazy will end up costing more money.
it's a few quid going to the lazy poor ...to a few.
of more concern to me are the idle rich. how come they can have the isle of man as a tax haven? whats right about it please ...
these people are making millions but put as little or nothing at all back into the system that allows them such a nice lifestyle.
those at the top are creaming off far more of your money than a few at the bottom i can assure you.
but those at the top love it when those in the middle piss on those below ...
The only caveat to making jobseekers work would be lone parents, or one parent in a couple- being a housekeeper and looking after your children should be seen as a full-time job, and parents should be looked after accordingly.
Workfare is costly, welfare to work schemes are short in duration, New Deal often doesn't work, people pass through it back to regular JSA, might be something to do with no real jobs for the older + fairly unemployable. Putting them on the streets a good idea, I wouldn't think so?
Not every body wants to do shitty jobs but someone has got to do them as some of these type of jobs can play quite a big role on economy. If you take a crap job, there is always a chance of working your way up the ladder. A friend of mine worked on a factory floor for ages, packing & unpacking containers of near enough everything you can think of and now he works in the offices planning routes for the lorry drivers. It might not sound that good but he has worked his way up to something a little more desirable and could go higher in time.
But your not going to have much of a future especially f your a young family. Everyone needs some direction in life and if you work you can at least set goals for your self and make some kind of career out of what ever you might be doing.
But if someone is unemployable because they are unwilling to get educated then I don't think that society should be giving them a free ride, however small the help is. If they are simple, and are UNABLE to get educated then that, obviously, is different, and they should be helped.
People nowadays look at the company directors, the executives, the chief inspectors, the Consultants e.t.c. and think "thats gonna be me".
They think they can walk straight into the job.
Bollocks.
Everyone of those people has worked him or herself from the bottom, but people are too lazy nowadays.
So what if you have to work in McDonalds or a shop for a few years, be glad for what you've got and WORK to get up higher.
And frankly if someone who's been working all his life in a decent job is laid off because he's reach 45 years of age or some other stupid reason you cannot really expect them to accept a McJob.
Does anybody else remember Lizzy from Wife Swap? 8 kids and she was raking in £45000 of benefits a year- her and her husband. Giving people who aren't working bugger all for doing bugger all give them the push they need to get off their backsides and do a proper job, as several people have suggested.
In my ideal Britain, only JSA for the current 6 months time period, state pensions and child and disability benefit would exist. Giro Jim should be in the charity shop helping Dora and Gladys.
And what are the people who don't do any work like then Rolly?
I don't know what to do, and frankly, I'm not going to try and pretend.
I can't sympathise with washed us middle-aged people because I have no experience of it, but I suspect (in my own little naive way) that people who lose things to the bailiff are either people who know no bounds with the overdraft and were living beyond they're means, and it's time to send them back to basics. It's not nice, but you shouldn't try and live beyond your own means.
However, a manager at a company which is declared bankrupt has lost his job and he can no longer keep the children at the private down the road, I have the deepest sympathies for. However, this is usually down to the company struggling or possibly some dodgy dealing and that is the fault of the company, not the taxpayers.
One thing I do not understand about employment is the refusal on the basis of overqualification. If a man with a masters in Business Studies loses his executive lifestyle and wants to work a simple job at the bank, why refuse him? A lot of highly qualified people are on the dole because people won't refuse them simple factory/shop jobs.
I admit this is a very naive view, but it is still my opinion, and I know there will be a lot of nit picking.
highly educated people aren't wanted on the factory floor ...when they realise whats going on they turn into highly inteligent socialy concious people ...the last thing some folks need is to employ an over qualified person.
Indeed and hey, working in a fast food resteraunt beats working in a factory hands down. But... saying that I know some people who don't mind factory work and find retail a nightmare. Some people I know in retail enjoy it and find say... waiting on a nightmare... and so on.
But at the end of the day if the jobs are there then why not take them? Or at least try them out and get the experience for his/her CV. Plus there are more choices and career paths than we are made aware of. It's simply making the effort to look for them.
You kiddin? There are chances for promotion in fast food chains. Up to supervisor, then managment of the store and possibly higher, just the same as with most jobs.
So what if it's a dead end job? It's still money, and it's still more money than you'd get sitting on your arse.
Factory work for instance, a lot of people I know who have worked in a factory at the bottom rung have been on over £7 an hour. Nearly twice the minimum wage. You can't grumble at that.
What is minimum wage at the moment for over 18s? I suspect that there is (and if there isn't, there should be) enough in it that someone on the dole for life will reap the benefits if they go and do one of these "McJobs", but not so large that if someone loses a McJob, there standard of living will not drop drastically, but just enough so they feel the need to go and find another job. It could be quite a nice cycle, but it wouldn't work in reality, sadly. If it was like this, then why would anyone care about losing their job on the factory floor. There are many unfilled positions in jobs that require similar skills/qualifications, are there not?
OK, thinking about it, 6 months is not long enough. I admit. My brother spent 6 months at home after he finished his first degree, and most new graduates end up like this. In the meantime, he went back to McDonalds and did the same job he was doing after his A Levels. He lived with his parents, contributed. He then got a proper job (proper in the way that he was using his qualifications, I am not slamming jobs at McDonald's at all) and signed off (do you sign off?). Other people did not have as much luck, but refused to go back and do the job they were doing at college, and ended up living off their parents again. Which is tough shite really.
A highly educated socially concious person? Er, what?