#Charities under fire for using #workfare schemes and backing #BenefitSanctions - @BigIssue The YMCA has defended its involvement in the government’s workfare programme after it was among a number of leading charities heavily criticised by welfare rights campaigners. The current government has expanded workfare. These now include the #mandatory work activity placements that last four weeks, which a Department for Work and Pensions - DWP report in 2012 showed did nothing for participants’ long-term job prospects. Many of Britain’s major companies, including Asda, Greggs The Bakers and Poundland, are known to have used or be using workfare. The same is true of many national charities. Boycott Workfare, an organisation committed to “ending forced unpaid labour for people who receive welfare”, has condemned charities that provide community work placements under workfare. They include the Shaw Trust, Groundwork UK, The Salvation Army United Kingdom with the Republic of Ireland and the #YMCA. In December, the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty blockaded a #SalvationArmy store in the city for two hours after a member of its group was forced to work there or lose his #benefits. The charitable organisation responded to its critics by stating: “It is offensive that volunteering and work experience can be referred to as ‘forced labour’ as we help support victims of human trafficking who go through unimaginable ordeals.” Liz Wyatt from Boycott Workfare said: “The motivation for many charities using workfare is because they can’t find regular volunteers who can commit to more than one or two days a week. Workfare provides an endless stream of workers at little cost to charities, who often become reliant on workfare workers to operate.” Liz went on to say there is “no evidence that #unemployed people or society at large is benefiting from charity involvement in workfare”. She added: “No wonder therefore that many charities have withdrawn from the schemes as the public are angered by their involvement. “There is no evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work when there are so few jobs anyway. Workfare is about pushing people deeper into poverty and any charity that doesn’t recognise that is the case isn’t worthy of the name.” In October last year, the Chancellor, George Osborne, said there was “no option of doing nothing” for welfare payments. He announced a £300 million nationwide scheme to force 200,000 long- term unemployed to undertake community work, attend Jobcentre Plus every day or undergo an intensive programme to tackle their failure to find work. Osborne’s statement came in the same month as it was revealed that benefit payments had been #suspended 580,000 times to people who were ruled not to have done sufficient to find work in the previous 12 months.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:37:03 +0000
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