Conservative Party Conference is never a happy occasion for me. As the Cameronites make concessions to an increasingly dissatisfied and hurt Tory grassroots, they have turned Conference into one of the three spots on the calendar on which we are guaranteed a flood of divisive and vindictive policy proposals, of which a dangerously high number will make their way onto the statute books. One plan which is certain to be realised is a “reform” to unemployment benefit rules that will be outlined by George Osborne (curiously not Iain Duncan Smith, who, as the wefare minister, we’d expect to unveil this).
So, those who have been on Job Seekers Allowance for 3 years will now be subjected to “tough” new rules. They will be offered a choice between accepting daily Job Centre appointments, further “training” (on top of the 12 months they are supposed to have already had), or spend 30 hours a week doing “community work” until they find a job. It is difficult to see what point there is to any of these punishments other than to bash the unemployed further. Unconvinced? Let’s look at each one in turn, then.
Daily Job Centre appointments have little point to them, and the Job Centres themselves will be unable to cope. If George Osborne or IDS ventured inside your typical Job Centre on a normal day, they’d see that most advisors can scarcely find the time to manage the weekly sign-ons. Even if they do, they’ll causally leave claimants waiting for one hour, maybe two- sometimes with young children in tow- without any regard for the claimant’s time. Yet you’d need to have a death wish to be a claimant who is late for an appointment! If these centres had a few dozen people queuing up for several hours a day, what would they talk about in these appointments? The valiant job seeking done by these people in the couple hours they have left after waiting for an appointment?! Furthermore, the implication of daily appointments is that these people need closer supervision to find a job. If that is really the case, then why not closely supervise them from day one, not after three years of unemployment?
As for the idea of further training, do I have to day anything? There are only so many first aid and food hygiene certificates that will be attractive to employers. Beyond that, only proper further education (FE) will have much value. Unfortunately, a one size fits all approach has been adopted by ministers, meaning that there is only limited consideration in the proposals for the different needs of, for example, a NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) young adult and a middle aged graduate. And yes, even an intelligent, experienced.graduate can find themselves long-term unemployed. It does happen, and it doesn’t reflect on their ability.
Then there is the nastiest part of the plan. The long term unemployed will be forced to do “community work” for 30 hours a week. This means litterpicking, fencepainting, and other tasks that are used in sentences for petty criminals. Maybe the two groups will be made to work alongside each other, both in bright orange fluorescent overalls to ensure that the public know that they’re being punished for being scroungers. After all, they mustn’t pretend to be workers: workers would be paid minimum wage. By my reckoning, £72 divided by 30 hours equals just 40% of the wages that workers are entitled to by law. How dare this government blackmail people into working for less than its own statutory minimum wage?
It would be nice if we treated the unemployed with the respect that any other adult receives. It would also be nice if benefits conditions and terms were designed to help the able to find suitable employment, rather than simply grinding the unfortunate further into the ground. But then we don’t have a nice government.
