There have been sanctions against people who refuse offers of jobs since
the 1911 National Insurance Act. They are of little effect if there are
no jobs. Anyone who doesn't want a particular jon and has any sense at
all can arrange not to get appointed to it. The DWP seem to be claiming
that "Between April 2009 and March 2010 about 97,000 fixed-length about
59,000 sanctions of variable lengths were imposed." Those figures seem
surprisingly high. I doubt if many of those sanctions relate to people
refusing jobs. They are probably about people who didn't "take steps"
which the DWP wanted them to take.
On 11/11/10 18:06, Ted Harding wrote:
> Greetings All.
>
> The details of the planned reforms to benefits, and in
> particular the "sanctions" to be applied to people who
> do not take jobs which are available, remain obscure.
>
> I read: 'There will be tougher penalties for people
> fit to work but unwilling to do so. A sliding scale
> of sanctions will see those refusing work on three
> occasions having their benefits taken away for three
> months.'
> ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11728546 )
>
> It has struck me that, by imposing penalties when
> work is available but is not taken up, without any
> apparent restraints on what work is offered, and how,
> opens the door for employers to offer demanding work
> at minimal wages, taking advantage of the sanctions
> that would be imposed on those who turn it down.
>
> In other words, opening the door to a "gangmaster"
> society (with, perhaps, the Government being Chief
> Gangmaster).
>
> I also read (same URL):
> '"In prosperous times this dependency culture
> would be unsustainable but today it's a national
> crisis," said Mr Duncan Smith.
>
> He said 70% of the four million new jobs created
> during one of the longest economic booms in
> history had gone to foreign workers, while 4.5
> million British people continued a life on benefits.
>
> "Businesses had to bring people in from overseas
> because our welfare system did not encourage or
> even assist people to take those jobs," said
> the minister.'
>
> I think this is probably a mis-representation of the
> reasons why businesses "brought in" people from overseas.
> Surely one of the main reasons is two-fold:
>
> a) Many people from impoverished communites in countries
> newly admitted to the EU sought to come to the UK
> where jobs were avialble;
> b) They were willing to work for a pittance (by UK standards),
> and live in poor conditions, in order to be able to send
> money home.
>
> And employers were thus able to employ them at much less than
> it would cost to employ UK nationals. And the gangmasters
> nicely organised it all.
>
> The above is probably a partially-informed opinion, and I
> would be obliged for any better-informed comment.
>
> Ted.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding)<[log in to unmask]>
> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
> Date: 11-Nov-10 Time: 18:06:28
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Director
Socialist Health Association
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