There’s been uproar on many of my favourite blogs regarding the governments proposals on getting people back to work.
Minister James Purnell said it would “transform lives” and said public money should not be wasted “on people who are playing the system”. Harpymarx.
You can tell what they’ve got in mind when they begin an article, as the Work and Pensions Secretary did yesterday, by insisting they have to make tough decisions. It means they’re tough enough to cut benefits for the weakest people in the country, because they’re hard. It’s like if Ricky Hatton did an interview at the start of a fight, saying “I’m going to show the world tonight just how tough I am”, then walked into the audience and smashed an old woman in the mouth. Chicken Yoghurt.
However, the BBC’s Nick Robinson sees the proposals differently.
The central proposition in today’s White Paper is that all those who once were simply on benefit will be expected to agree to the goal of entering the world of work. All those, that is, except those classified as severely disabled or parents of babies under one. The system will accept that “the goal” may take many years to reach or may never be reached at all. During that time the benefit claimant will stay on full benefits and will not be forced into community work providing they stick to a plan they agree with an adviser.
The plan may involve receiving counselling for a problem such as drug abuse or being heavily indebted. It may involve training. It will include help with job search such as advice on how to draw up a CV, money for a new suit or the cost of the ticket needed to get to an interview.
Only if someone who was on incapacity benefit doesn’t follow the plan they helped to draw up will they face sanctions. At first, they’ll be given a warning (a kind of benefits yellow card). If that doesn’t work those on ESA (the new name for those on IB deemed fit to prepare for work) will be fined £12 for a first offence, £24 for a second and then forced into compulsory work such as digging an old person’s garden. There will, in other words, be no red card which throws people out of the benefits system altogether nor any American-style time limits for claiming benefits. Source: The BBC.
I’m not to keen on the fines but apart from that, is there anything radically wrong with the proposals or am I missing something?
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