I am all for the idea put forward by Osborne, work for benefits. We are all in this together, how about making the Mps work for their expenses and benefits.
so you work and then pick up JSA which i believe it applies to, how much is JSA now? someone said a while ago it was 60 odd quid a week? how does this work if you work full time for your 60 odd quid, do you get any other benefit, like housing, council tax, no idea...
They wouldn't be working for nothing- they'd be working a little bit for their benefits. And it would only only be for those claimants who are fit for work but have been out of work for more than two years. It's more about sending out a message than saving money- in fact it'll probably be quite expensive to administer and I can foresee so many problems (human rights/slavery claims, people deliberately making a mess of the job, someone has an accident picking up a piece of glass so plug has to be pulled on the idea) I don't think it will ever happen, sadly.
if you are required to go to job centre every day, how will that sit with the person who is employing you, if it's cleaning up litter, that is surely doing someone else out of a job, that person works for the council and will be full time and fully paid, as to companies getting a fee to take you on, what is to stop them taking the fee and not finding you anything, or finding you something, for that to be dropped once they have the money
emmie- contribution based JSA is around £72 a week but it's only paid for six months and isn't means tested. Otherwise it's means tested benefits JSA (IB) + other benefits such as housing benefit which will probably be worth much much more than £72 a week.
If someone has had their lifestyle paid for completely by the state for two years I think it's right they should be expected to do something in return, but as I said I don't think it will happen. It's just talk to please the delegates- it won't happen as there are too many people who will want to make sure it doesn't happen and there are practical, legal and human rights issues
>factor-fiction they would be issued with gloves and a litter picker.
Yes but I can see someone injuring themselves and then some solicitor saying they didn't get a week's training on how to put on their gloves or some other arguments.
ff, do you work for DWP? as going on my experiences the whole system is so complex that i dare anyone to actually get through half the forms you fill in for whatever type of benefit without tearing your hair out.
On paper the idea that you work for benefits looks good, that is on paper, if you get 72 quid a week and some help with housing benefit perhaps you could make it work, but that means you will still be paying everything else.
and not everyone has not worked, most people who get housing benefit, according to Chris i think? are in work..
it is a great catch all soundbite, work for the dole, however how many disabled, physically, mentally ill does it apply to, all, some, none, they have to work on this a bit better than just saying work for your money,
I think you get quite a bit more than £72 a week on income based JSA. I just went on the benefits calculator site and entered details for single person with 2 children and a small rent and it came to £16000 plus some things like free school meals.
I don't think the idea is that you'd have to sign on every day as well as doing work- it's one or the other. And I think the work would not be great. I think the idea is about changing attitudes.
But I'll bow out as I'm sure it will never happen
Another attempt to gain some support with policies that are largely unworkable, not cost efficient and punish a lot of decent people doing their best in already difficult circumstances in order to get at a minority of skivers.
Perhaps, instead of taking-out our problems on society's least resourced people, the Government should focus on engendering economic growth which will put all of these issues into perspective.
The idea's fine in principle, but these things never seem to work very well in practice.
In an effort to make sure the bone idle scroungers don't escape the net, alot of genuine cases that should be exempted from the rules will inevitably get caught in it.
picking fruit on the farms, which is not what they are likely to be doing. Then again, who knows, let us seem them roll it out and be as successful as the current bedroom tax..