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.
