Workfare: piloted in a town near you from 2010

Workfare, euphemistically known as ‘Work for Your Benefit’ schemes, is going to be piloted in a town near you from 2010. The pilots will take place in Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and will run for two years from October 2010. Oh, and it will be private companies finding the placements. Yes, it will be in the vested interests of the shareholders and all about profits being the incentives….. No accountability, transparency and further fraud to maintain their profits. Greedy private companies making a fast buck off the backs of misery while NL gives the thumbs up!
 
Yvette Cooper, continuing neoliberalism and where James Purnell left off, says:
 
We are investing £5bn to help people who have lost their jobs. We are determined to give the right help and support to everyone who is unemployed. We want to make sure that short-term job losses are not allowed to turn into long-term unemployment which can scar communities for generations. The longer people are left out of work, and without recent work experience, the harder it is to get a new job.
 
So if you have been unemployed for two years then you will be required to do up to six months of ‘valuable work’…. No further explanation of what they mean by this loose touchy-feely phrase, ‘valuable work’…but methinks most of us are only too well aware of NL’s disgraceful intentions. Bullying and sanctioning people is at the core of welfare reform, along with criminalisation and humiliation. Stigmatising, soul destroying, dehumanising and degrading people by making them work for their dole.

And if they don’t they will lose their meagre benefits. How meaningful is that? How valuable is that? How many people will drop out the benefits systems as this is what happens when Workfare is imposed? More poverty, more misery! And surely this contradicts NL’s commitment to eradicating child poverty? But lets face it, NL has reneged on that promise with their usual meaningless rhetoric……

This draconian proposal will cause further distress and anxiety, and it will make people very conscious about where they are in the pecking order of life? Workfare will impact on self-esteem and self-confidence, it will increase further inequalities and power imbalances. Cooper talks about long term unemployment scarring communities, but the scars with these hideous proposals will be immense and damaging. And Workfare has severe ramifications for the trade union movement as this will drive down pay and conditions. We should all be opposing welfare reform as it impacts on us all, not just the unemployed. All of us should be out there condemning these proposals.
 
Workfare: Doesn’t work and is unfair!