so the plan is that they are going to force people to do a months volentry work for a month at a time in order to get benefits do you agree with this?

i agree with this in principle but i am on benefitswhich is £70 a week thats fine but if i have to do this then i will have to find a nursary at £60 a day so I will get nothing to feed us with as thats what my money goes on i do all food shopping

i am probably being a drama queen about it

I do agree with it in principle. It is only for the 'long term unemployed' but I'm not sure what qualifies as 'long term' . I thought the proposal is to do 4 seperate weeks work across the year and if you refuse a week you lose 3 months benefit. In that case I think they would probably expect your partner/husband/ex (depending on circumstances) to take their work holidays to cover childcare in your week of working which I'm sure wouldn't please a lot of people but then again if you are serious about getting yourself back to work then I suppose you would make this adjustment and if you're not serious about it then you shouldn't be claiming JSA.

I do however think the government should do more to help with childcare costs to allow mothers to get back to work. I would absolutely love to get back into work in the new year. However if I were to go back into a similar role to that I was made redundant from last year then I have worked out that after two lots of childcare costs I will be £100 a month better off which I don't feel makes up for the fact that I will miss my children. I don't claim benefits (other than basic rate CTC and CB) and wouldn't go on JSA unless I was actually seeking work.

xx

I think it's a good idea for the blatant lazy arses who have absolutely no intention of finding a job but I think it is going to put strain on people that it shouldn't do.

They will never find a good way of benefits as there are just far too many people who do need help and far too many people who have the nerve to take the mickey... you know the ones "Ive got a bad back I can't work oh except tomorrow im playing a rugby match" kinda people.
If the government had the time to actually interview every single benfit claimer and assess them on their individual situations then that would be the only way but I can't see that happening.

I think it's a good idea! I hpe its just for people on JSA though? x

i think it is just JSA i will qualify as i have been out of work since March i dont mind doing it i would love to do it for some adult interaction lol, its just the finance side dosnt jusify it

also if they have these jobs for JSA to do then why dont they open them up for a full time / part time paid role and get a few more out of workers back into work

I agree with it in certain instances like if someone is blatantly putting in no effort to find work at all. But I agree with what they were saying on Loose women today, how about genuine people with skills like teachers, managers etc who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are genuinely struggling to find the jobs they are qualified for how is it going to help making them litter pick etc.. why not send them into places where they can use their skills or gain skills. I think theres a good idea in there somewhere, as i think its a good idea for people to gain some confidence in getting back out there .

Im on IS and signed up for a govt back to work scheme. For 3mths I did 20hrs a week for a £15 a week top up, I didnt do it for the £££ (which was 77p an hr ), I did it for the opportunity. A job didnt come at the end of it but i am eligable to apply again in Jan for another 3 mths if I havent found a job- and I will!

The only good thing with my scheme was that they paid £70 a week for a family member to care for Caitlin or up to £130 for a nursery/child minder that I had to find. In the end my mum & MIL could do it. Stuart taking a weeks hol in that example wouldnt work for us due to his epilepsy and im sure there are many single parents who are serious about finding work that dont have the luxury of a relaible ex that could take them (eg they could be alcho's, druggys, twats etc) or they could have mums that worked full time & couldnt offer the suppport my mum could give me.

Childcare is going to be the big deal breaker on that one. If the govt pay for it its going to end up more expensive than just leaving single parents on JSA or IS. A job isnt guaranteed at the end of no matter how much effort you put in. We need to save money for the country by reducing amount wasted on JSA, but swapping JSA/IS of £60 a week for childcare help of £100 + and then the person is entitled to WTC of say £70 a week.... its actually cheaper for the govt in a lot of cases if mummys stay at home, partcularly single mums! When I was working pre- Caitlin there was no way I was contributing anywhere near the amount of tax & NI compared to what the govt would give me if I went back to work. Dont get me wrong, im still job searching & will be going back. I just mean getting mums to work sometimes costs more than people realise.

I agree its better if those that can work do, however people need to remember that there will never be full employment. There simply is not enough jobs in this country for everyone to work. There will always be people out of work that dont necessarily want to be.

I hope some of that made sense!

I reckon childcare will be a big problem. Maybe they should train some of the unemployed people looking for work as nursery nurses or childminders and set up government funded creches!

I think its for people out of work for a year or more. I agree in principle for people that don't attempt to find work but again would question the childcare situation, our nurseries are £40 a day so how are you supposed to find the money?

Hmm, I know they need to try something, but I cant really see how this will work - not only the childcare thing costing the country more - but also the amount of administration involved to do this - it will take an awful lot of effrot to find places for voluntary work , then people to manage who does what etc - that will be quite expensive and may not save much in the long run?!

I think that for the blatent scroungers they should, say, do 2 days a week to "earn" their £60 or what ever the going rate for jsa is nowadays that way they are doing voluntry work, helping the community and "earning" their jsa I'm only basing this on a person with no children though as I don't know how jsa with kids works. I'm only saying 2 days a week because I'm basing it the minimum wage and how many hours one would have to do to earn £60 or £80 odd.

When I was last on jsa I think the going rate was £50 or so a week as I was on it but "working" from 9-3 Mon-Fri the "work" was voluntry and I got an extra £15 added to my jsa to pay for my lunches (they paid my bus fare) etc so although I was out of work I was working with adults with learning difficulties and doing admin work and I loved it, the best "job" I ever had and it made me feel less bad about getting given money, it didn't feel like I was getting it for free and my "job" was giving me skills which I could apply to the work place for when/if I wanted to move on to a proper job but I got preg with MJ so when my 6 month contract was up I went back to job searching for a month before I was legally entitled to take Income Support as if I found a job I'd have to go straight on maternity lol. xx