cheap labour??

[bigpaul]

sorry folks, wrong emphasis, my post should have read : Some people seem to think that(everyone on benefits is a scrounger), i have spent enough years going through the system myself, been made redundant 3 times, now on Pension Credit. i do think there are far too many people on benefit who have NEVER worked and these are the problem ones, at one time you had to pay National Insurance for several years before you got anything out in return, but now we have all these immigrants coming in and getting benefits from the day they arrive on these shores.

[Reg]

"at one time you had to pay National Insurance for several years before you got anything out in return"

Nice quote, it really sums up whats wrong with the system up for me. How can so many draw out of a kitty that they have never put anything into? Work and pay tax and national insurance for thirty years and the day you fall ill you dont get a penny more than someone who has made a career of the benefits system.

Went to a talk a while back by a guy called Jacques Fresco aged 93. Turns out there was very little he said I had any time for but he had worked out that if everyone capable had a job then the working week would be eleven hours. Then he calculated how many 'make believe' jobs there were ( prison story tellers, cultural awareness officers etc ) took that figure away and found that the working week would be four hours!

[Tonka]

Some of these long term claimants came to work for me on the Future Jobs Fund thingy. And some of them, the ones who where any good, I gave a job at the end of it. They wanted work... most really wanted a job... particularly where I work as it's pretty good fun. That scheme was got rid of in the cuts though. I never saw it as slave labour. They got good training, and the chance of employment if they proved themselves.

In the distant past I used to do some security shifts at job centres. You can't generalise about the claimants. Every type of person comes though to claim of every class, career history, motives. Some people are trying hard and desperate others are parasites, who I would happily euthanize. The majority of people coming through did want a job... they just didn't want to be care-workers, which was what most of the vacancies were.
I think people need to have been on benefits quite a while before they are pushed into work... they used to just be pushed into training. You'd be surprised how hard some people would fight to get out of a free two week (part time) training course in IT.

I don't think I'm making much of a point to one side or the other. Just telling of my experience.

[Skean Dhude]

(12 June 2012, 23:32)Tonka Wrote: Some of these long term claimants came to work for me on the Future Jobs Fund thingy. And some of them, the ones who where any good, I gave a job at the end of it. They wanted work... most really wanted a job... particularly where I work as it's pretty good fun. That scheme was got rid of in the cuts though. I never saw it as slave labour. They got good training, and the chance of employment if they proved themselves.

Good for you. However not every firm does this. Some firms take a batch, use them for menial tasks and get rid of them at the end. Repeat until Government does another U-Turn. I would be interested in seeing the figures of who was employed by the company they went to rather than how many left the dole.

The groups picked are never the long term nor the ones with children.

The labour has little choice in the matter, they must go somewhere and if they don't they lose the benefits, most have been paying their stamp for for decades. That lack of choice makes it slavery.

[Stalker-01]

(12 June 2012, 23:32)Tonka Wrote: Some of these long term claimants came to work for me on the Future Jobs Fund thingy. And some of them, the ones who where any good, I gave a job at the end of it. They wanted work... most really wanted a job... particularly where I work as it's pretty good fun. That scheme was got rid of in the cuts though. I never saw it as slave labour. They got good training, and the chance of employment if they proved themselves.

I was on the dole queue for a while having also been made redundant. Trying to get the Job Centre to actually put your name down for any kind of relevant training was a constant uphill struggle. In the end a friend got me a job, which I've been in for the last 4 years.
The attitude I got at the job centre was appalling, considering I'd have taken any job and snapped up any training to boost my chances. But it was as though it was just too damned inconvenient to give someone some real assistance rather than have them come in - sign - back out the door.

I'd have chewed my own arm off for good training and the chance of a decent job.

[bigpaul]

i dont think i have ever been offered a job by The Job Centre, sure they advertise some vacancies but i always had to take it off the board and go to reception and ask about it, their main job is to get you to sign on every fortnight and check if you are applying for work, not to actually get you that work.

[Prep28]

I had the opposite experience (it was 1996 mind you). I needed a job (any job) straight away & the jobcentre advisor found me one within about 24 hours.

[James Jackson]

just before surgery on my spine job centre tryed to get me to work for an agency (manpower) doing road work ect..... They dont seem to be able to think past the sighn here if you havent done any work this week