by In Wales
Tue Jan 8th, 2008 at 08:03:51 AM EST
A lazy Quote story based on a TUC press release.
Tory ‘Workfare’ proposals will not help people back into work
Responding to the Conservative Party’s welfare reform proposals announced today (Tuesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
“The Tories’ Workfare proposals manage to combine injustice, expense and inefficiency in a single package. Experiences of Workfare schemes around the world have shown that they fail to help people into work. In Australia, Workfare has left unemployed people less likely to get a job. In New York, existing workers have lost their jobs to Workfare temps.
“Employers aren’t impressed either – who will want to recruit someone who has been forced into their last job? The Tories will have to pay for the work people are forced to do, on top of support services like childcare. So there is no chance that the Tories will find the £3 billion savings they are looking for.
“Under the Tory proposals, people will not be paid the rate for the job they are doing and there will be guarantee of a job at the end. The only beneficiaries will be dodgy employers, who will exploit unpaid Workfare temps to the detriment of existing staff.”
A little extra info...
A study of Australia's workfare programme found “a large and significant adverse effect on the likelihood of exiting unemployment payments.” See “How Does ‘Work for the Dole’ Work?”, Jeff Borland and Yi-Ping Tseng, University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute Working Paper 14/04, July 2004.
- Evidence from a study of Workfare in New York shows that workfare does not increase participants' chances of being in employment. The study also found that New York municipal workers lost their jobs when workfare was introduced and then, after months of unemployment, some found themselves doing their old jobs alongside former colleagues, but only being paid a fraction of the wage they used to receive. See “Unpaid Work Experience for Welfare Recipients: Findings and Lessons from MDRC Research”, Brock, Butler and Long, MDRC, 1993.
Although some may remember that fairly recently I
quoted a press release on Labour making proposals based on 'workfare' in their own welfare reforms, especially around forcing disabled people and those on long term sick back to work, single parents also. Fortunately they took heed of the numerous warnings and took that bit out of the proposals.
That said, Peter Hain was recently quoted as saying that the Tories were copying polcies already announced by Labour around welfare reforms. He doesnt seem to be saying that today though.
BBC Online
The long term unemployed would be forced to work for their benefits under plans outlined by the Conservatives.
People claiming Jobseekers' Allowance for more than two years would have to do 12 months community work.
Tory leader David Cameron said he wanted to help people get back into work and end the "something for nothing culture" of benefit "dependency".
But Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain said the scheme would be expensive and would not help people get jobs.
And the distinction between the two parties is??
