The Welfare to Work conference was yesterday at the Business Design Centre in Islington. London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) paid for 3 tickets to attend the event but were refused entrance. So much for including people who are affected by this draconian measure. So much for civil liberties too:
Conference staff justified their decision to exclude all three LCAP delegates from debate by saying that LCAP had previously organised protests against welfare reforms, and that one of them was arrested whilst taking part in a protest. Disclosure of this arrest history was inappropriately shared with the conference organisers and other delegates by a Sergeant of the Metropolitan Police (NI 92), in direct contravention to the Data Protection Act. Campaigners are concerned that this threatens legitimate democratic rights of protest and public debate about welfare reforms.
I found the protest organised by Boycott Workfare had a novel way of exposing the sheer exploitation of Workfare by dressing up as a chain gang holding up pieces of paper with corporate and public sector names printed on such as ”Prisoner of Matalan”, “Prisoner of Tower Hamlets Council”. Workfare is punishment for being unemployment. It is not about choice of employment it’s about coercion. It’s sheer exploitation. I was shocked to hear that Tower Hamlets Council and Whittington Hospital are using people who have been coerced to undertake “work placements” that are now up to two years, if they don’t comply then they will lose their benefits.
So, put simply, why would an average boss pay someone qualified the going rate for a job when they can get them for free via a Workfare scheme or, euphemistically, known as a “work placement”? Saves them money and/or increases the profits! It’s not about gaining experience, knowledge or skills but about being exploited. Workfare is punitive and draconian. But with the current climate expect to see more of the public and private taking on people who can be exploited as the claimant as no other choice but to take it or lose their meagre benefit. Coupled with the demonisation, criminalisation and vilification of claimants from the media it’s gonna be a very nasty and brutal time for all.
Workfare doesn’t just impact on claimants but on ALL workers as it deskills, devalues, drives down pay and conditions. And this is where trade unions ought to be, at the forefront of fighting Workfare. And what the hell does Unison think regards to Whittington Hospital and Newham Council taking on “work placements”?
See as well this useful article.
We are going back to the days of the workhouse. In our borough the building that used to be the workhouse is now a psychiatric unit and also a ward for very frail older people. In the 1980′s I used to work in sheltered housing and one sweet old girl she used to say to me ‘ If I ever get sick don’t send to that place it used to be the workhouse I’d rather die than go there’
[...] Louise Whittle on workfare [...]
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Rather than placements for private companies, they should earn their benefits by sweeping streets, cleaning litter, scooping rubbish out of canals etc. They could also volunteer for charities etc. I don’t see a problem with people doing a bit to help society in return for their dole money.
Virgina I started work when I was 15 and I am 60 at the end of this month in all that time I have been paying tax and national insurance I even paid this when I was a student nurse. I have never been unemployed and I don’t begrudge paying because I know that a fair and equitable society is healthy society. I recommend you read an excellent book called the Spirit Level which has put together a huge amount of research that indicates that highly unequal societies breed ill health and violent crime. I would be in favour of an increase in unemployment benefit and we could afford this if those corporations such as Vodaphone and the other big companies were not hiding their profits in tax havens. The next thing the ruling classes will be asking us to wipe their bottoms for free
The Spirit Level has been debunked by a number of people. The fact checking programme on BBC Radio 4 actually had a program exposing its bad use of statistics and there’s a whole book about the fallacies of The Spirit Level.
Wot? Right-wing finktanks? Very independent, don’cha think?
The Taxpayers Alliance & Christopher Snowdon with the Democracy Institute, a rightwing finktank in Washington DC….
http://spiritleveldelusion.blogspot.com/
The right-wing hate The Spirit Level because it shows how inequality destroys lives!
reply to Virginia: In the 1980′s a UK Government dept published a report The Black Report Inequalities In Health pointing out the differences between the mortality , morbidity , chronic illness rates and child mortality rates between the rich and the poor the figures showed huge differences in favour of the better off.. Margaret Thatcher’s Government buried the report and scrapped the dept responsible for researching and presenting the report
[...] have proper jobs, this undermining of unionised labour will also make it more difficult for them to campaign to enhance their pay and conditions. Therefore those who are set to benefit from the scheme are not jobseekers, or people already in [...]
[...] Louise Whittle on workfare [...]