Workfare - extend to the retired / O.A.P.s ???
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Grapplin
Oct 24, 2012, 12:41:51 PM10/24/12
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Complete with sanctions!
Retired people should be encouraged to do community work such as caring for the "very old" or face losing
some of their pension, a peer has suggested.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862
Former benefits chief says retired people should do community work - and have pension docked if they refuse
Retired people should be encouraged to do community work such as caring for the "very old" or face losing
some of their pension, a peer has suggested.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862
Former benefits chief says retired people should do community work - and have pension docked if they refuse
Grapplin
Oct 31, 2012, 8:07:58 PM10/31/12
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This is what the DWP & JCP's own union think of workfare. You couldn't make it up.
PCS has a clear policy in opposition to ‘Workfare’, which is a generic description of programmes developed in the USA and elsewhere which require unpaid work as a result of receiving state benefits.
Blaming the jobless for unemployment is an appalling and dishonest government response to an unemployment crisis caused by their failed austerity policy. This is why PCS is calling for an economic alternative and the scrapping of worthless anti-claimant programmes like MWA.http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/department_for_work_and_pensions_group/dwp-news.cfm/id/2700DC8D-E13F-4999-950C830921D752D6
Lazy Cow
Nov 1, 2012, 8:01:34 AM11/1/12
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Hi Grapplin
I have a feeling that this idea is headed for the long grass for the remainder of the current parliament. . Neither Cameron or Miliband are prepared to risk upsetting the Grey Vote, which could be crucial in determining which one of those two wins the next general election.
Several elderly people (mostly ladies) are neighbours of mine and some of them are in receipt of Pension Credits, Housing and Council Tax Benefits etc. There are plenty of community activities for them locally, including volunteering for various Good Caiuses. Some of them want to get involved and those who want to - and who are still fit enough to get involved - already do so. They don't need a bunch of pollies young enough to be their own children strutting around trying to dictate what they should do with themselves and they would be suspicious and resentful of any pollie who dared to try to tell them what to do.
Another of my neighbours is a man who was 75 the other day. He has a high enough pension income (two generous occupational pensions plus the State Pension) that he couldn't be forced to work for his State Pension and he doesn't get Pension Credit etc because he doesn't need it. He only became a neighbour about six months ago but I've seen him around the village many times in the last 10 years or so and I already knew him slightly before he moved into his new flat.
This old man Ron is very, very lonely. Because of that, he hobbles up to the village twice a day (a 2 minute walk for anyone younger and fitter.) In the village, he buys half a bottle of spirits every morning and another half bottle every afternoon. Periodically (like the other day) someone like me drops in and is told that he's been too doddery to walk up to the village that day. HINT - "Lazy Cow, will you walk up to the shops and get me some booze for me if I give you the money?" Lazy Cow: "No I won't. If you can't get it by yourself then you don't need it today!"
The sad thing about Ron is that he joined the Royal Navy when he was 15, then he worked in a factory until he was 65, then after that he was self-employed, collecting new cars from Southampton Docks and delivering them on their own wheels all over the UK until the car people threw him out when he was 70. Chatting with him about his working life, it is plain that he absolutely THRIVED on being given a simple task, told how to do it and then praised when he had completed it well. He's never known how to deal with an environment where there are no other people to direct how he spends every minute of his waking life. That is what has led to his fairly recent, most undesirable love affair with the bottle. He'd stop that if he were forced to get involved with exactly the sort of community volunteering that the pollies have in mind - but he couldn't be forced to participate because he could afford to do without the State Pension if need be.
Consequently, I conclude that this whole idea is just yet another Loopy Tory Theory.
LC
I have a feeling that this idea is headed for the long grass for the remainder of the current parliament. . Neither Cameron or Miliband are prepared to risk upsetting the Grey Vote, which could be crucial in determining which one of those two wins the next general election.
Several elderly people (mostly ladies) are neighbours of mine and some of them are in receipt of Pension Credits, Housing and Council Tax Benefits etc. There are plenty of community activities for them locally, including volunteering for various Good Caiuses. Some of them want to get involved and those who want to - and who are still fit enough to get involved - already do so. They don't need a bunch of pollies young enough to be their own children strutting around trying to dictate what they should do with themselves and they would be suspicious and resentful of any pollie who dared to try to tell them what to do.
Another of my neighbours is a man who was 75 the other day. He has a high enough pension income (two generous occupational pensions plus the State Pension) that he couldn't be forced to work for his State Pension and he doesn't get Pension Credit etc because he doesn't need it. He only became a neighbour about six months ago but I've seen him around the village many times in the last 10 years or so and I already knew him slightly before he moved into his new flat.
This old man Ron is very, very lonely. Because of that, he hobbles up to the village twice a day (a 2 minute walk for anyone younger and fitter.) In the village, he buys half a bottle of spirits every morning and another half bottle every afternoon. Periodically (like the other day) someone like me drops in and is told that he's been too doddery to walk up to the village that day. HINT - "Lazy Cow, will you walk up to the shops and get me some booze for me if I give you the money?" Lazy Cow: "No I won't. If you can't get it by yourself then you don't need it today!"
The sad thing about Ron is that he joined the Royal Navy when he was 15, then he worked in a factory until he was 65, then after that he was self-employed, collecting new cars from Southampton Docks and delivering them on their own wheels all over the UK until the car people threw him out when he was 70. Chatting with him about his working life, it is plain that he absolutely THRIVED on being given a simple task, told how to do it and then praised when he had completed it well. He's never known how to deal with an environment where there are no other people to direct how he spends every minute of his waking life. That is what has led to his fairly recent, most undesirable love affair with the bottle. He'd stop that if he were forced to get involved with exactly the sort of community volunteering that the pollies have in mind - but he couldn't be forced to participate because he could afford to do without the State Pension if need be.
Consequently, I conclude that this whole idea is just yet another Loopy Tory Theory.
LC
Gissajob
Nov 1, 2012, 8:39:52 AM11/1/12
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Hi LC - on the subject of Loopy Tory Theories. There seems to be some sort of competition amongst tory back benchers to come up with the most right wing, impractical and divisive suggestions about those on benefits. I am sure we are not far away from someone seriously suggesting work camps - after all it would "help" and "support" the long term unemployed to get a taste of real work. If they were put in nice little camps they could be supervised thus cutting down on the need for police and social workers - with a corresponding reduction in crime figures. As basic food and shelter would be provided on site there would be no need for Housing or Council Tax Benefit and JSA could be limited to a pocket money allowance - say £25 per week.
This would definitely appeal to the Daily Mail reading electorate - want to bet how long before some chinless wonder of a tory MP comes up with the idea?
As for
"HINT - "Lazy Cow, will you walk up to the shops and get me some booze for me if I give you the money?" Lazy Cow: "No I won't. If you can't get it by yourself then you don't need it today!"
You cruel woman you! I'm going off you now!
This would definitely appeal to the Daily Mail reading electorate - want to bet how long before some chinless wonder of a tory MP comes up with the idea?
As for
"HINT - "Lazy Cow, will you walk up to the shops and get me some booze for me if I give you the money?" Lazy Cow: "No I won't. If you can't get it by yourself then you don't need it today!"
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