Snouts In The Trough – Charities Scramble For Lucrative Workfare Hand Out

It’s full steam ahead on the workfare gravy train as charities and welfare-to-work companies scramble to profit from George Osborne’s upcoming mass workfare scheme.

Appallingly these charities will not just benefit from a mass influx of unpaid forced workers, but are even set to be paid for this abuse of unemployed people.

Welfare-to-work company Reed in Partnership have recently issued a call out for placement providers happy to join them in condemning claimants to forced labour. According to the company: “For organisations wishing to work with Reed in Partnership, financial remuneration will be available for each placement.”

So obsessed is the DWP with forcing people into unpaid work they are now bribing charities with tax payers money to take part in workfare!

Unemployed people will be expected to carry out 780 hours of unpaid work when the Community Work Placements begin next year.  This is over two and a half times the maximum possible community service sentence which can be handed out by the courts.

Those who refuse, or are unable to take part, could have benefits stopped completely for up to three years.  A recent report by Citizens Advice warned that benefit sanctions are driving people to attempt suicide and have led to people being forced to beg or go through bins to find food.

Yet this hasn’t stopped greedy charities lining up to take part in the scheme.  As revealed by @boycottworkfare several so-called voluntary organisations are currently promoting Osborne’s workfare on twitter.

The laughably named Voluntary Action Leeds (@VolActionLeeds) along with the equally misnamed Voluntary Sector NW (@VSNWnews) have both been encouraging organisations to sign up for mass workfare.  One Southampton based training organisation is already boasting that they are looking forward to ‘working with the prime contractors’ to offer Community Work Placements.

There should be no squeamishness about holding these organisations to account.  Every single organisation that takes a placement under the Community Work Placement scheme shares the blame for the brutal benefit sanctions which underpin the regime.  This scheme cannot work without the connivance of greedy charities, eager to sign up free workers and soon to be paid by the tax payer for doing so.  These charities will never see, or hear the stories of people sanctioned because they were unable to work for free – and they think this means they are not responsible for the suffering they have caused.

Benefit sanctions are state terrorism that do nothing to ‘incentivise’ people to find work.  Sanctions demolish people, leading to debt, ill health and homelessness.  So-called charities eager to profit from these callous measures should hang their heads in shame.  And the rest of us should make sure everyone knows exactly what these grubby little exploiters are up to.

Read Boycott Workfare’s statement on Community Work Placements: Seducing the voluntary sector: Or, never take sweeties from the men at the DWP

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid