October 23rd, 2008
TUC calls for Government u-turn on workfare schemes
The TUC has slammed Government proposals for workfare that force unemployed people to work on community service schemes in return for their benefits in its submission to the welfare reform Green Paper today (Wednesday). TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Proposals that force unemployed people to work or lose their benefits are a mistake. There are already more than adequate sanctions to deal with benefit claimants who are cheating the system, and the majority of people on low incomes want decent work but are struggling, particularly in the current economic climate. People who lose their jobs need help in getting new skills and new paying jobs, not schemes that provide no pay, no prospects and no time to search for a new job. Workfare policies do nothing to benefit wider society. The economy needs more people in real jobs with real wages to spend, boosting the economy and creating more jobs. And workers in low paid jobs could well be replaced by workfare claimants leading them to lose their jobs in turn.’ The TUC also criticises Government plans to contract out Job Centre Plus services to the private and voluntary sectors.
22 October 2008
© TUC
December 21st, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Brendon Barber claims that the unemployed need “time to search for a new job”. No they don’t. According to a paper in the American Economic Review (1974) by J.P.Mattila, the majority of people changing jobs in the US find their new job before leaving their old job. I.e. job searching while working is perfectly feasible. ( See “Job Quitting and Frictional Unemployment”, pp.235-39.
Also the actual time the unemployed spend job searching is a very small proportion of the week (two or three hours). If this is a reason for taking the whole week off, then by the same token the need to eat lunch every day is a reason to take the whole week off.
Brendon Barber then claims that “Workfare policies do nothing to benefit wider society”. Workfare involves work, which benefits (or fails to benefit) wider society like any other job. (Though of course workfare jobs are relatively unproductive – but then there will always be productive and less productive jobs).
B.B. then claims “the economy needs more people with real jobs” – yes and we need better hospitals, roads, shops, you name it. If B.B. has some magic wand decent ideas that produce this lot, then great. If not, then his words are just hot air.
Finally, for my seminal work on workfare, see http//:www.fram.ndo.co.uk