Osborne announces jobseekers will work for benefits in Help to Work
1 October 2013
People who have been unemployed for three years or more will have to work in return for their benefits, Chancellor George Osborne announced yesterday (30 September) in a plan that met with a predictably mixed reaction.
Tue, 1 Oct 2013People who have been unemployed for three years or more will have to work in return for their benefits, Chancellor George Osborne announced yesterday (30 September) in a plan that met with a predictably mixed reaction.
Osborne’s ‘Help to Work’ scheme was the subject of much interest and controversy in the days and hours ahead of its release, with some details emerging in the press ahead of yesterday’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference.
Under the plans, long-term unemployed will be asked to take part in community work placements and attend daily signings at their job centre.
Participants with multiple barriers to finding work, for example literacy or numeracy problems, will be provided with intensive support to address their problems, the government says.
Claimants will be expected to be on a training scheme, community work placement or intensive work preparation – losing their benefit if they fail to comply.
The Daily Mirror calls the new plans “the meanest welfare shake-up ever”, suggesting that it “spells a return to Victorian poorhouse days”.
Osborne has defended the scheme as “very compassionate”.
Recruiter.co.uk rather enjoys the cartoon on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph from the venerable Matt.
Osborne’s ‘Help to Work’ scheme was the subject of much interest and controversy in the days and hours ahead of its release, with some details emerging in the press ahead of yesterday’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference.
Under the plans, long-term unemployed will be asked to take part in community work placements and attend daily signings at their job centre.
Participants with multiple barriers to finding work, for example literacy or numeracy problems, will be provided with intensive support to address their problems, the government says.
Claimants will be expected to be on a training scheme, community work placement or intensive work preparation – losing their benefit if they fail to comply.
The Daily Mirror calls the new plans “the meanest welfare shake-up ever”, suggesting that it “spells a return to Victorian poorhouse days”.
Osborne has defended the scheme as “very compassionate”.
Recruiter.co.uk rather enjoys the cartoon on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph from the venerable Matt.
