WelfareNational 10h 18m left
Should those that have been out of work for a year be forced to do 20 hours community service?
UK governments have long required jobseekers on Universal Credit to meet work-related conditions including job search and training, with sanctions for non-compliance. Recent reforms under Labour include a Jobs Guarantee offering paid work to young people unemployed for 18 months and expanded support to reduce long-term economic inactivity now exceeding 9 million. Reform UK has proposed that those out of work over a year must undertake 20 hours of community work weekly in return for benefits.
16 Opinions
If this is part of meaningful training and community work not just a punishment for your circumstances. If you can emerge with a reference and use it as a means to find work, it might be useful.
But they must be paid say another £200 a week more for doing it . If not it's just slave labour
If the work is there to be done it should be fine for a proper wage. If it isn't, this is just performative cruelty.
People who are unemployed are in a never ending feeling of despair where the thought of work terrifies them. There are also way too many people who due to their crimes are not allowed to work. The biggest problem we have is people working who have to decide between food heat and or clothing never mind entertainment such as football.
Why are year? Once unemployed around 3 month is sufficient.
Yes, however forced is a wrong word, encouraged to work. Total benefits should be lower than minimal wage. And trim down every 2-3 months.
The vital issue is "how do we get more long term unemployed into work that will nourish them and benefit the economy - into real jobs?" You don't do that by forcing them to do community work.
No. Create paid job roles to do this, with decent pay and conditions, and mandate these to the long-term unemployed. That will get them off welfare and into a job. Problem solved.
Why should people be paid to do nothing for years and years? It is quite right to ask them to do a meagre 20 hours to earn their benefits. Refusing to do so, I’m afraid says more about the person on the benefits and why they’re on it. To avoid work and live the comfortable and easy life whilst everyone has to work hard for what they earn.
There is a reasonable expectation that those who are able to work should contribute something in return for continued support from the public purse. Twenty hours of useful community work after a year out of employment seems a modest expectation, particularly when the alternative is allowing prolonged inactivity to become normalised. It should be about maintaining purpose, routine and a connection to the wider community.