Part 1: Hellos & Menu
Parts 2 & 3: What’s Wrong With Working For Your Dole?
For our first phone in: I’m going to swim against the tide of popular opinion by asking what’s wrong with working for your dole? Tesco got slated last week for hiring hundreds of people on benefit for short-term non-paying gigs - in line with government thinking. Slave labor, critics called it. But if half of those on workfare placements end up with paid jobs as they do, what’s wrong with working for nowt for a month first?
We’ll have a word or two on that before it’s over to Pat for the rest of today’s headlines.
Part 4: Today’s Papers
Part 5: Are Hugs Overrated?
Lord Prescott has told he regrets never having hugged his two sons, now in their 40s. He said hugging wasn’t part of his culture. I suspect many my age or older will get where’s coming from on that score. Now everyone’s a hugging and a kissing - and what have we got? A younger generation of knife wielding gangsters hell-bent on drinking themselves into an early grave. Do any of you still think hugs are an essential part of a happy childhood?
Part 6: Brutal Honesty
We encourage our sprogs to always tell the truth while filling their head with lies about tooth fairies and father xmas. And yet we don’t always like hearing the truth ourselves? Pat upset people when he told Benidorm star Chrissy Rock to her face that he didn’t find Benidorm funny. She even branded him a bully. Would she rather he’d lied and said that show you’re in’s hilarious? What would you have done if you were in Pat’s shoes? Lied?
Part 7: 15 Minutes Of Fame Better Than None At All?
And finally: Are 15 minutes of fame better than none at all? It’s 25 years since Andy Warhol died, the artist who predicted everyone would be famous for 15 minutes one day. And now they are. We might mock those who’ve had a brief taste of the limelight but maybe that’s just a sign you’re jealous?
Comments (18)
3 months ago
Steve Blanks
As a soldier in the British Army i have spent a number of months/years away from my children. When i return i feel it is more beneficial for my children to spend time with me in a chilled out environment term time or not.
3 months ago
louisa milner
my husband was out of work for 2years and was on a placement scheme in our local tesco, although he was told he was a great worker and his floor supervisor put him forward for a permenant job he was still shown the door at the end of the scheme only to find another guy there the following week on placement.. i was tampin as my husband enjoyed his work there and he was good at it yet they prefer to not pay someone..
3 months ago
Ken Guest
The roadside verges and hedgerows right across Britain are one huge litter bin. What's wrong with getting teams of unemployed people out (at lest part-time) cleaning up the mess in repayment for their dole.
3 months ago
Claire
This is rubbish, if people want to work they should work for nothing, at least then they have some "work" experience and can get into a routine. I had to do unpaid work on farms and at vets practices for 5 years as part of the course, in holiday time, while trying to fund my own degree. There was no time to get a paid job as well so had a hard time and found it difficult to afford basics like food! I've done years of hard graft without pay, without it I would never have even got into vet school, nevermind become a vet! Claire, North Wales
3 months ago
cass
I admire matthew for admitting he was wrong - this workfare scheme is appalling, along with other crackpot schemes currently being dolled out to the "condemned" by the condems - you couldn't make it up!
This comment was removed by a moderator
3 months ago
john thorman
john t Disabled people in receipt of (Esa) Employment and Support Allowance who have be found (work limited )because of conditions like mine Cerebral Palsy, who are over 25 years are being placed on the mandatory (Wrags) work-related activity group and face face unlimited unpaid work or cuts in benefit or complete loss via sanctions. 1St Sanction 3 months. 2nd Sanction 6 months. 3rd Sanction 3 years. The work placements for people aged 16-24 years is not mandatory they can leave the work placement before a week without loss of benefits Young People 16-24 taking up work experience places up to 30 hours a week of unpaid labour for 2-3 months. How is this fair after all people placed on Work-Related Activity Group have been deemed work limited thus they are in receipt of (Esa) Employment and Support Allowance.
This comment was removed by a moderator
This comment was removed by a moderator
This comment was removed by a moderator
3 months ago
Cass
After having 3 comments removed by a moderator am I allowed to say that I do not believe the claim that 50% of workfare claimants find work? I am obviously not allowed to say why I believe this.
3 months ago
Jinty
People who often say they 'tell it how it is' don't seem to stop and consider that perhaps no-one really cares what they think anyway!! Do they have the monopoly on opinions?...I don't think so but the majority of us have a little more intelligence and tact before blurting out our own.
3 months ago
jon
Steve Wright his wrong. Young people have the option to opt out of The Work Programme,before a week has past. NOTE After a week they are locked in, this can lead to benefit sanctions. Ist Sanction 3 months benefits 2nd Sanction 6 months benefits 3rd Sanction 3 years benefits Do not forget young disabled people are included on this scheme.A young lady with Cerebral Palsy was dragooned into The Work Programme when she was found fit for work after an Atos (WCA) Work Capability Assessment,which I stress is not a medical.
3 months ago
Tony
Thanks for calling everybody on JSA ,Pond Life Mr Wright. I was always lead to believe you were a socialist. A Champange Socialist maybe?
3 months ago
michael
i am sorry but doing unpaid work for 5 years is not acceptable, i dont care what you want to be, dont vets practices train people while being paid and doing courses? isnt there basic vet work at a lower rate. after all its an important job. the whole point of a job is payment its why it was invented. work means anything imvolving a task with an outcome. tje whole point is even if people find their own unpaid/voluntary work they are still hounded to find a job. ok so doing something instead of being at home all day is better but the whole point is if work was handed out like some people think, we'd all be in jobs but it isnt people have to jump through so many hoops even to do shelving. these companies are using people as cheap labour so they dont have to pay an employee which is why they get self checkouts installed where the customer is doing all the work - every little helps i suppose! my mom worked in the 50s, not only was work easier to get but you had to do less tasks for your money. if they were serious about getting people into work, why not make everyone do part time? if people do 10 hours a week at tesco they have earnt their money, why force them to still find work, 30 hours full time does not equal £67.50 a week. they should be paid a proper wage in that time, which tesco dont want as it saves them money to call it work experience. work experience is part of a course to get students used to work and its often part of a course and relevant to that course. my mom doesnt believe in this, she thinks as i do its exploitation otherwise. she has no qualifications, and employers in the 50s worked with schools etc, people were offered work and worked straight away, there was hardily an interview, when there were. plenty of jobs, she says employers had to employ the disabled, but then jobs werent multitasking, you werent required to be a perfect person, which is why only half of the disabled and 13% of the mentally ill are employed today. there are too many employers expecting perfect people without changing their work practices and reorganising things. voluntary work as with oxfam is different as its a charity and receives little money and is glad people helping them and they help people who can only fo certain jobs, they care more as with the museums i work in. people are less caring in private firms
3 months ago
michael
why arent employers training on the job, working with school, colleges and universities instead sitting in ivory towers expecting perfect people to come to them? who made them god? we in this country have the bizarre notion only paid work is valuable, yet there are loads of ways to contribute. we have loads chasing top careers, while basic important jobs like cleaning are shunned. why is cleaning less important than being a top vet. why are cleaners paid less, all work that needs doing is important. with cleaners the vets would get diseases. we have the cult of the individual, job and career and no longer care about others
3 months ago
michael
in the past £2 was a lot now even £67.50 doesnt stretch far, the cost of living is a lot more now
3 months ago
michael
the problem for me work is a status above everything else even above people, who are now second. with everyone working so hard we have still ended up with loads of inefficiencies and a economy behind germany, loys have i have seen how in germany workers are valued yet they work less hours and are more laid back. before industry work had no value other than intrinsic value, people only did what they needed to do, it was purely functional and people worked together for a goal. we've created harsh environments based on the need for 'survival' when actually we dont mean literal survival we mean social survival. harsh environments create harsh people, we've created loopholes in order to supposedly get the right people for work when infact its peoples way of controlling people and putting up barriers for no reason. yet when it suits employers these barriers disappear when they get cheaper workers straight away, i cannot see how many of the foreign workers have even passed an interview. getting work is no longer easy and yet.everyone moans for people to get work. if people dont have access or accepted for jobs they cannot do them (there are lots of factors). experience is only a small part, your face fitting, being in the right place at the right time, knowledge/experience, you cannot compare a talkative extrovert with a quite introvert and yet both can contribute in their own way. we can make work be how we want it, be flexible and still be efficient and productive, we think there are no other ways to organise things and people must except thats the way things are but people can change things if they want. yet loads of people do unpaid work everyday are they not contributing to society? why are they still punished for contributing?