Do unpaid work or lose your dole money.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....enefit-crackdown.html

This scheme is to be implemented in London at first, and then if successful it will be 'rolled out' across the rest of the country.

Although I agree with this in principle, does one think it will really be successful?

Can any one see a problem?

[madmaggot]

Quite right too!
Some people have never ever had to get up in the morning to get somewhere at a set time and then spend a set number of hours there. They have never seen anyone in their family do this either. They have never had to dress appropriately for work and believe that they 'have the right' to wear the same type of clothes at work that they choose to wear in their private life.
If they have to submit to structure in their lives they might just find that they enjoy the cameraderie of the workplace and will therefore be more likely to make some effort to get paid employment and stick to it.
I spent a while this summer talking to a work party who had been sentenced to spend time doing community work. None of them had ever worked or had structure in their lives and the majority of them were very surprised how much pleasure they got from the sense of belonging they got from working with a group of people to achieve a set goal.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// All elderly men should be encouraged (or bribed) to work part time at B&Q and Homebase, thereby giving the shoppers at least a small chance of interacting with someone who knows a bit about DIY. ///

Whilst I agree that the more senior person in these establishments prove to be much better employees that some of the young, why such menial jobs?

Judging by our recent straight out of Uni/Public Schools or Private Schools politicians, a more 'older head on their shoulders' type of person would make a better job of things than these youngsters.

After all the best Prime Minister this country ever had, Sir Winston Churchill, was an 'OLD MAN'.

[anotheoldgit]

madmaggot got it in one, and that is wwhy I made it the best answer.

Most of you went off on one talking of 'slave labour' and such
without realising the real purpose of this plan, and that is to get some to experience what it would be like to get into a work ethic.

But then madmaggot explained it much better than I could.

[ummmm]

Did school not give them structure?

I'm very happy that they've raised the leaving age to 18.

[madmaggot]

The people that I was speaking to had mostly just bunked off school and 'couldn't see the point of it'. There is actually a sort of sub-class of people in Britain who are more or less written off as no-hopers from as early as 1st school, mainly because of the area they come from and the parents they have.
BTW, the workparty was working on maintenance of the canal locks around Birmingham and consisted of both genders and ages from teens through to, I guess around mid 30s and those that told me their crimes varied from taking and driving away, theft, knife crime and drug related crime. They had to stop work to assist boats through the locks and I was talking to them as our boat went through.
All of them had thought they'd 'got away with it' but found that the work was hard and demanding; they had made some friends and expressed surprise that work can be enjoyable.