Anyone in receipt of certain social welfare payments, like Jobseekers, should be put to work in areas that the government need staff. This could also involve staffing a social welfare fraud squad to investigate fradulent claims. The advantage for people to work in this way is to keep their skills sharp, give something back so they are not receiving money for nothing, keep them working instead of becoming depressed sitting at home, and they may make new contacts and learn new skills in the meantime.
A plan similar to this is working very well in Ontario, Canada. The whole work for your welfare. It helped many of the volunteer dependant agencies get people working for them. It also trained many in actual employable skills.
But going out and working sometimes requires a bit extra cash for bus/tram fare, packed lunches, appropriate clothing etc so you would get a little bit extra money if you had good attendance and reviews from the agencies you work for. The Job Incentive Program helped me get a direction in where I wanted to go, get my grade 12 education and got off of welfare and eventually to college.
A simple change in the way unemployment benefit is calculated would encourage unemployed people to earn doing part-time work and be eligible to claim a percentage of daily benefit as suggested in D8847. This would save a lot of tax payers money and help the unemployed get back to work all of which would improve living standards in Ireland.
I do think it might be good to ask them to work for 8-12 hours a week, but not longer. The cost of transport to work, clothes etc could be prohibitive for them, and they also need to have time to look for jobs.
There is an interesting suggestion under D.7455 of A.B.Kennedy, that could be of some help also for unemployed people who want to srvive to daily loneliness and sorrows
Would you have a look and comment?
Coming form someone who was on the dole for 5 months, I think this is an excellent idea. Sitting at home all day does lead to depression and as a person spends more and more time out of work, they ultimately become less likely to ever go back to work. Even to work two or three days a week would help keep people motivated. There are so many things we could be doing instead of sitting at home all day watching day time TV and being angry at the world. I'm very impressed by thts idea.
Fas already has schemes which give unemployed people work and they continue to receive dole, but how long will that go on? people are being put in jobs, great, but will they ever earn a decent wage. Companies are getting free work from highly skilled people and fas are paying for it. wohoo 200 euro a week forever!
Load a rubbish. Harks back to the days of the workhouse and puts people out of work - why employ people on a reasonable wage when we can get free slaves from the welfare system. Catch yourself on.
Green Eyed Las 01/05/2010
The whole work for your welfare. It helped many of the volunteer dependant agencies get people working for them. It also trained many in actual employable skills.
But going out and working sometimes requires a bit extra cash for bus/tram fare, packed lunches, appropriate clothing etc so you would get a little bit extra money if you had good attendance and reviews from the agencies you work for. The Job Incentive Program helped me get a direction in where I wanted to go, get my grade 12 education and got off of welfare and eventually to college.