David Cameron wants young people to work 30 hours a week for benefits in new Tory plan – General Election 2015 – UK Politics – The Independent

Last Updated: May 20, 2015By

This is how the Tories intend to get around the Minimum Wage.

So Boris Johnson’s call for the Living Wage to be spread across the UK is an empty gesture.

Of course, most of the UK wouldn’t understand what this means; they would only see a drop in official unemployment figures and be fooled into thinking the Tories are doing a good job.

See how insidious this is?

And The Independent – the newspaper reporting this – supported the Tories in the election and therefore wanted this to happen!

Labour must stand up in opposition to this travesty – if it goes ahead, this means pointing out the failures of the unemployment figures for the rest of the Conservatives’ time in government.

David Cameron’s plan to force young people to work for benefits would see them working 30 hours a week for a fraction of the minimum wage, it emerged today.

The proposals would put young adults who have been out of work, education or training for six months (“neets”) into compulsory community work such as making meals for the elderly or joining local charities.

Under the scheme, Jobseekers’ Allowance would be abolished for 18 to 21-year-olds and replaced with the already announced “Youth Allowance” of the same amount – £57.35 a week, or £1.91 per hour of work.

The Prime Minister claimed that the programme would “effectively abolish long-term youth unemployment”.

Source: David Cameron wants young people to work 30 hours a week for benefits in new Tory plan – General Election 2015 – UK Politics – The Independent

9 Comments

  1. jray May 20, 2015 at 1:17 pm - Reply

    Mike CWP is already happening,they are making it a right cock up of it! One subcontractor of Working Links actually started their own “Charity” so that they can assign the unemployed that they get to their own Charity (Conflict of interest?) while collecting the Fee from the DWP,from the Provider down they either have not read the DWP Provider Guidance or really don’t give a £hit,the few placements available are not suitable for most,this was suppose to be taken into consideration,also they threaten everybody with a Sanction if you do not sign their Paperwork (they can’t get paid) but the DWP have already ruled that you are not required to sign!

  2. Steve Grant May 20, 2015 at 2:30 pm - Reply

    If your already working and not interested in politics then you won’t give a monkeys about youngsters working 30 hours for less than minimum wage…not even unions because it’s the ” Im alright Jack” attitude and the young are treated as collateral damage and politicians do not care about them thats pretty obvious now.How can we treat the young in such a dismissive manner by driving them out of this country?My advice to ALL youngsters is to get yourself out of this country as soon as you can and find your well being in a country that treats the young with more respect because as sure as night follows day…you won’t find any in the UK anymore.The young are surplus to requirements.

  3. Timro May 20, 2015 at 5:34 pm - Reply

    We all knew that the “million of apprenticeships” and “training that the unemployed need” would boil down to something like this didn’t we? Stripping Housing Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance from younger citizens was only ever about making savings not about assisting them to achieve better lives for themselves.

  4. Ian May 20, 2015 at 6:53 pm - Reply

    I think Labour had plans for something similar to this, too.

    Just think, if everyone the Tories pissed off, as well as their friends and relatives who support them, just stood up and said ‘f*** this’ and marched on Downing Street…

    • Mike Sivier May 20, 2015 at 6:59 pm - Reply

      I think you’re mistaken about Labour.
      Labour’s plan was to put people into real jobs, earning real wages, for at least a certain period of time – in the hope that the employers would keep them on afterwards.
      That’s a far cry from making people work for benefits.

  5. Pauline May 23, 2015 at 4:05 pm - Reply

    I am on ESA amd i have already lost £32pw while waiting for a medical i think its all discusting and how they got back in i will never know.

  6. hoverfrog May 24, 2015 at 9:34 am - Reply

    If there is a need for community work then it should be paid for by local councils. Proper paid work for people seeking employment. Forcing the unemployed to do this for benefits is taking them out of the job market and preventing them from actively looking for work. Furthermore it is taking paid employment away from people who need it.

    If I were an unscrupulous business owner in the care industry I would get rid of all my staff apart from a few supervisors and have the state provide me with unpaid labour. It wouldn’t bother me that they were untrained, unskilled, unvetted, and uninterested in the work. They’re slave labour and I can make them do any kind of work I’d like. If they don’t then a phone call to the job centre leaves them without benefits. It seems that nobody has considered or nobody cares how this could be abused.

    There were 963,000 in the last quarter of 2014. I sincerely doubt that there are nearly a million community jobs available to employ all of these people. If there are then why aren’t they being funded by councils? The answer has to be cost. They are either jobs that aren’t essential or they cost too much to administer and run and councils are unwilling to fund them.

    Who will fund this? Is this a ploy by central government to shift the unemployment problem to local councils or will the cost come out of the treasury?

    • Mike Sivier May 24, 2015 at 11:54 am - Reply

      Your concern about people being used as slave labour – or face loss of benefits – is right on the button as people are already being threatened in this manner.

  7. Bill Kruse May 24, 2015 at 1:25 pm - Reply

    Is this what Dave did as a lad? I assume not, so why should he presume anyone else should do it then?

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