Something for nothing.

So precisely how many people are getting something for nothing? Doesn’t seem anyone really has any idea but this is not a surprise there are quite a number of figures that the government is wishing to change, such as health tourism, that they can’t actually put a figure to but still classify as ‘significant’, and much as some of them may be significant no one can tell.

George Osborne’s

Because a fair welfare system is fair to those who need it and fair to those who pay for it too

Is quite a tag line and I’m sure there are many who will whole heartedly agree, however I am not convinced that what he is proposing will be either. Quite apart from the implied number of people who are getting job seekers who are not actually capable of doing work I am asking myself whether we are not treating the long term unemployed more like criminals than job seekers. Picking up litter, cleaning graffiti, working for charities, isn’t this enforced régime the same as what is dictated to drunk drivers and those who’ve committed crimes.

So in this fair system I ask myself, who are these long term unemployed and why are they still unemployed?

According to the Labour Force Survey, disabled people are now more likely to be employed than they were in 2002, but disabled people remain significantly less likely to be in employment than non-disabled people.  In 2012, 46.3 per cent of working-age disabled people are in employment compared to 76.4  per cent of working-age non-disabled people. There is therefore a 30.1 percentage point gap between disabled and non-disabled people, representing over 2 million people. The gap has reduced by 10 percentage points over the last 14 years and has remained stable over the last two years despite the economic climate

It could therefore be assumed that actually there are significant numbers of disabled people long-term unemployed and this may have nothing to do with how hard they are looking for work. It may also be assumed having seen the results of the work program that showed dismal returns for those with disability that is not likely to change by forcing them to volunteer. Granted the easiest figures to grasp are those referring to those who are claiming ESA and not jobseekers it showed

…. Only 1.5 per cent of people from this group found sustained work.

Ca we assume that those who were claiming job seekers had better luck?

Well maybe but still it seems unlikely given the above figures on disable people being more likely to be unemployed.

It seems to me that yet again despite previous problems the government are pushing forward with a scheme that is unlikely to change the fate of those on job seekers and really what good is doing community work such as littler picking or cooking for the elderly going to do for some ones job status when the work program could already have had them doing this on the work placement scheme. Equally shouldn’t illiteracy have been already sorted by the same work program?

So what would I suggest?

Radically I feel that for the most part the government is trying to incentive the wrong people. Why are they focusing on the person on job seekers when it seems more of a problem with the employers?

Surely the stigma surrounding disability both mental health and physical is causing the job market to discriminate against them and wouldn’t a better quality of work give these job seekers a better chance of attaining a job.

This doesn’t solve the problem that was clearly shown in the recent program on channel 5 ‘On benefit and proud!’ That sort to expose some of the less desirable attitudes that some job seekers have and some that I would definitely feel that should the government wish to sanction them for not actively seeking work I might well agree. But as I see far more problems with equal opportunities for the disabled particularly those with mental health problems this new something for nothing sanction is not likely to improve the situation.

It strikes me that the government is trying to put those on benefit out to work without actually paying them as they never see them as getting any kind of paid work. I doubt that this scheme with have any effect on these peoples motivation to attain paid employment. In all likelihood they will just fulfill this new criterion and carry on as they were because what you are really trying to do is change their attitude to going to work and I don’t believe that this is about the money at all.