George Osbourne's Work Programme revamped

George Osborne extends 'work for benefit' for jobless

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The long-term unemployed will have to undertake work placements in return for their benefits, under tougher rules unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne.

Welfare must be "fair for those who need it and fair for those who pay for it", he told the Tory conference.

Cleaning up litter

By running a budget surplus in the good times, he would "fix the roof while the sun was shining".

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Analysis

Ross HawkinsPolitical correspondent

There is nothing new about making jobseekers work on pain of losing their benefits.

The government began what it called Mandatory Work Activity back in 2011.

Under the scheme, JobCentre advisers sent people on four-week placements on pain of losing their Jobseeker's allowance. It was down to private contractors to source the placements.

There is nothing new in the policy affecting many thousands of people.

Between May 2011 and February 2013, there were 146,810 referrals to Mandatory Work Activity placements.

Although government figures show there were only 53,720 occasions on which people actually started the placements.

Those who failed to begin may have got a job, decided not to claim the benefit or simply refused to take part.

And there is nothing new in putting some people on work placements once their time on the Work Programme has finished.

Plans to do that were announced in May. George Osborne is changing the system, though, by extending the placements from four weeks to six months.

Only about a third of the 200,000 Jobseekers Allowance claimants affected will be on the work placements.

The other two thirds will either have to attend a jobcentre every day or undergo programmes to address the reasons they cannot find work like illiteracy or mental health problems.

The new system will affect people completing the Work Programme without finding jobs from April 2014.

• Q&A: How 'Help to Work' works?

Labour said Mr Osborne could not be trusted to deliver a surplus, having had to backtrack on his earlier pledge to eliminate the structural deficit in 2015.

"By opposing the measures Labour announced last week to freeze energy prices and expand free childcare for working parents, the Tories have shown once again that they only ever stand up for a privileged few not for hard working families," shadow minister Rachel Reeves said.

On welfare, Mr Osborne said that while the government would not "abandon" the long-term unemployed, no-one would be able to get something for nothing.

Those who had not found work after two years on the existing Work Programme - where contractors are paid a fee to get people into a job - will face a new scheme called help-to-work.

To still qualify for jobseeker's allowance they will have three options - work placements, such as cleaning up litter; daily visits to a job centre; or taking part in compulsory training, for example, to improve their literacy.

People would have to remain on help-to-work until they found employment - unlike the current scheme which is limited to six months.

Those who breach the rules will lose four weeks' worth of benefits. Anyone who breaks the rules a second time faces losing three months' worth of benefits.

'Useful work'

Mr Osborne told the conference: "We are saying there is no option of doing nothing for your benefits, no something-for-nothing any more.

"They will do useful work to put something back into their community; making meals for the elderly, clearing up litter, working for a local charity.

"Others will be made to attend the job centre every working day.

"And for those with underlying problems, like drug addiction and illiteracy, there will be an intensive regime of support. No-one will be ignored or left without help. But no-one will get something for nothing."

A Department of Work and Pensions assessment of mandatory work activity - a similar compulsory work scheme introduced by ministers in 2011 - found it "had no impact on the likelihood of being employed". And on the work programme, DWP figures suggested one in 10 of those seen found a long-term job.

Unions said the help-to-work plan was an admission that existing schemes had failed.

And business groups said "warm words" on enterprise and wealth creation must be backed up by a "relentless focus" in the years ahead.

"Breaking government addiction to debt and achieving a surplus in public finances is the most important ambition any administration can have," the Institute of Directors said

The Reality in the areas of high Unemployment

The classic challenge has been with us for years. The challenge is that the Programme thus far has not been set fit for the needs of industry. often the training has lacked as has the opportunities in the respective areas.

many of the jobs taken up are part time or 0 hours which then leads to an immediate suspension of support. Because of the set up many are left in an area if income generation without the needed support. This Blog has already featured posts indicating the issues.How the Work Programme has failed

Having claiments attending the Job Centre Daily means the Job centre has to have the capacity to meet that need. Reality is it hasn't.thus more fall through the system

Minimum wage and Poverty. True stories from documentaries

Finding the work is tough in the Birmingham area
Breadline Britain shows the changes in our current situation

conditions are clearly not good for many of the houses.
1.8 million are living in poverty

REDCAR
1 in 10 men are out of work in Redcar. Redcar is a seaside location in the North East
1/3 are under 24
 For every 12 people on Job seekers allowance there is one vacancy.
30 million people in the UK are financially insecure
2.1 million people who are in work supporting a family are in poverty
David Rooks family is an example..Both parents work..Part time. which , is often the only option for many. They admit they would be financially better off split up. Yet they stay together.

All work and low pay
Minimum wage or not....Living wage

 Mathew Parkes situation is not unique because of his work experience.
The 0 hour contracts also means that holidays and sick pay are also less accesible to many.

Food Banks in the West Midlands

Not the effect of the Sanctions and that many would like to work.

11 September produced the unemployment figures

Here are the stats for September

The political debate rages on


The different views on PM question time today as the results came out
The discussion of the cost of living is included


There is also the idea of the 90 mins signing on idea being floated

 
The striking figure is the number of males taking part time work that are keen to take on full time work
This proves that there is an enthusiasm to do any work rather than no work but.....Can we have enough hours please..In recent days there has also been discussion about the 0 hours contract..This tends to benefit only the Employer
What are your views?

Working on line..is it an area you have considered to help you earn money?

I read this article on the BBC web site and reflected in the issue that there are many who are stuck at home feeling they have little in the way of opportunity.

Sat at home due to a disability unable to work. Could this be a solution. Do you need help finding the right source of reliable work.

Onthedole.com has unique support in this respect with members like yourself. 

You may have faced challenges having got into trouble in the past yet..wanting to make a fresh start. 

Maybe as a single parent you are have to put your family first and need the flexibility.

The online opportunity is certainly a direction that if you do your research can open new doors of opportunity if you are keen to earn the money. you can even study and learn online for free.

so have a read of the article and come online and have a chat

"Crowdworking is growing fast. Companies can now call on workers from all over the world to collaborate on huge tasks while simply sitting at their home computer. So how much money can you make at your keyboard?

I'm not averse to a bit of hard graft, so I decided to sign up to some sites to try micro-working through the internet.

I've decided on two rules. Any cash earned goes to charity. And I don't want to be paid for anything I wouldn't be happy doing on daytime television.

In order to preserve the BBC's reputation, I warned my social media network that I was conducting an experiment and they should expect some strange status updates.

Day 1: Surveys and Videos

First up, InboxPounds, a site providing surveys and odd jobs to casual clickers.

That's my first 20p under my belt

I've been given a £1 bonus for signing up.

Answering a 15-minute survey about an advert gets me 25p.

I watched a video for 1p, and "liked" a certain brand of mobile phone on Facebook for 1p.

Yes, you heard right, I got paid for a "like" - I'm not proud.

Seems promising, but no cash in hand till I earn £20.

Total amount earned - £3.06.

Day 2: Games

Swagbucks is a site offering points, which eventually add up to money that is paid either through Paypal or as vouchers.

I watched a selection of videos, played casual games and earned - though the amount was negligible.

A day's casual gaming and video-watching earns 102 swag bucks - roughly working out to 50p, depending on the offer used to convert them.

Payout is at £5.

Total amount earned - £0.50.

Day 3: Transcription

Next up, CastingWords.

I've joined an army of transcribers, listening to audio and typing out the words.

Sounds simple enough for a fast typist - so I unwisely jumped straight in with a transcription challenge.

It wasn't easy - just one assignment took me nearly an hour - and my promised pay was docked heavily for not fitting house style.

I was demoted, and can now only review other people's work for a few cents apiece until my score improves.

Payout is at $1.

Total amount earned: $0.58 (37p).

Day 4: Microworking

Microworking sites, such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk, pay for so-called human intelligence tasks (Hits).

These can be for creative writing, coding, or more.

Sadly my registration did not come through in my assigned work week.

Amazon said: "Mechanical Turk works on an invitation-only registration process for workers.

"Workers are asked to start the registration process and then receive an email invitation in order to complete the registration process.

"This process is in effect for all workers, regardless of country.

"Invitations are extended to new workers based on a number of factors including the demand within each country."

Here's my work on mail-order catalogues

I was able to sign up to an alternative site,Clickworker.

First I passed an English test and a creative-writing test.

Thanks to my 100% score I have landed a plum assignment - creative writing for mail-order catalogue entries - for tennis clothing, based on translated German text.

It is a comparatively lucrative 1.25 euros (£1.05) for just over 100 words, although you're at the mercy of whoever marks your assignment.

If they're not impressed, they give you nothing.

This happened on my last three tasks - so much for my 100% score.

Paid weekly.

Total amount earned - 5.85 euros (£4.95).

Day 5: Creative microworking

Finally I turned to Fiverr, a site where the crowd advertises services as "gigs" for $5 (£3.20).

Some services are frankly mystifying, for example - $5 to find something in a watermelon, or $5 to draw and roast a picture of a chicken.

Encouraged by this, I used my existing musical and writing skills to offer paying customers poetry, music composing, and bad pun headline writing.

The inevitable witty Facebook friend asked me for something virtually impossible - 30 seconds of a Miles-Davis styled piano theme.

For $5 - in 4 days.

Oh well, his money is as good as anyone else's.

I found the horror of the countdown on my seller's page combined with the promise of $5 to be good motivation.

Although these assignments took the longest to complete, I found this approach by far the most fun and enterprising.

Job done - but Fiverr takes a healthy 20% cut. Leaving me with - $4 (£2.57).

And the payment process is positively glacial, it takes 14 days.

Total amount earned - $16 (£10.28).

Conclusion

So, working week over, how did I do?

Total amount earned - £19.16.

Total hours worked - 37 hours.

Clearly not as much as I was hoping.

Much of my working week was spent researching which websites paid the best- if at all.

Many sites I tried to earn money through turned out not to be worth the time or effort.

I learned to beware of scam websites thanks to searching the company name for worker reviews before signing up to a site.

Out of the many tasks available, I thought the low-paying ones seemed the least efficient.

Like the offline world, specific abilities like touch typing, fast creative writing, or something unique, such as composing, gave a better return on time spent.

Anyone thinking of quitting their offline job might like to bear the following in mind - with what I have learned this week, the potential over time to earn a reasonable wage requires a lot of effort.

Serious crowdworkers understand which tasks fit them, they work long hours for a number of weeks and are prepared to wait a while to get paid.

So, yes, there is some money in crowdworking - but for now it looks like I'll be at my Click day job for a while longer.

All the money raised will be donated towards the BBC's Children in Need appeal."

Universal Credit-thought through

Has the concept of Universal Credit been thought through by the Government?
Yesterday I posted articles by a number of sources indicated some of the arguments featured in the media.
Today I thought some observations might be relevant.

The all in one system
The Government has mixed the workers with the non workers.Those on Job seekers allowance and those on Tax Credits. Politically this means they cannot say that all those on Universal Credit are "work shy" as this will potentially alianate many millions. Add this to the interesting challenge that they are taking this to a monthly payment instead of the weekly payment this assumes that all those on this benefit can live month by month.
The Credit will also apply to those self employed and on 0 hours contracts. In other words those with the most fluctuating benefit.
The CAB is stating that the benefit allowance is going to be assessed monthly instead of on an annual basis. Over the years many including myself have seen the issue with the annual mistake with Working Family Tax Credit. A letter saying an over payment has been made that they will not take through reduced payments but simply by the setting up of a direct debit, standing order or payment.THEY HAVE MADE THE MISTAKE.


The all in one system is already providing issues for CAB and other relevant bodies on top of the bed room tax.
It is clearly a way of losing votes during a general election.

Computer Training
To expect claiments to use new application processes to apply for relevant benefits you have to provide support. Looking on line through Youtube and other sources where the public will tend to look for information it is clear to see the lack of advice and guidance. INDEED, the majority of material talking you through any of the changes have been created by councils. Very little though the department itself that will be administering the changes.
Indications are that the training for staff at relevant departments is not as good as it might be. There is a strong indication that there may be many grounds for appeal to Upper tier tribunals where Universal Credit has been initially turned down and where decision makers decisions are questioned. Within the legal frame work of  the Welfare Act this is likely to increase the pressures.
One does wonder what the back up plans are for computer failure and other software issues. Yesterdays political statements were not reassuring in the sence that Ian Duncan Smith admitted to having to under take reviews and we are currently not yet at the end of the pilot scheme in the North West.
It should be remembered that the North East and Birmingham areas are the areas that are where training and support will be key as this is where the unemployment figures are at their worst and it could be argued that this is where there literacy and I.T competence for not just Universal Credit but also Universal Job Match may be needed the most. You can as a jsa claiment be sanctioned for failing to tick the box asking allowing the adviser to see your account.....dpa not considered.
Opportunities
There is without a shadow of doubt a market for online training and support that may be filled and met by training providers. There is a way here that claiments can be saved time and energy by on line training and support where the claiment has access to a computer at home.
Conclusion
There is a General election coming up before the final role out of this process. Are we likely to see a re branding of the concept..Yes.
If this becomes a disaster we are likely to see this as a vote loser. It doesnt just affect the non workers.But, it affects the millions of low income earners with savings of less than £16.000.
The computer access will clearly be key and its infrustructure does have to be accesible and fit for purpose.
WATCH THIS SPACE COMES TO MIND

Universal Credit the Challenge approaches

Universal Credit

An introduction to Universal Credit by DWP

Is it to close time wise with the issues involved

The Parliamentary challenge is that the national Audit office has made it very clear

The setbacks the watchdog identified included:

• Officials were "unable to explain" the reasoning behind the timescales or their feasibility
• There were no "adequate measures" of progress
• Computer systems lack the function to identify potentially fraudulent claims, relying instead on manual checks
• £34m investment in IT systems was written off
• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) lacked IT expertise and senior leadership
• Delays to the rollout would reduce the expected benefits of reform

BBC"

Universal credit: Welfare reform 'poor value' watchdog says

Mr Duncan Smith said the rollout of universal credit would be delivered "within budget and within the timescale"

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The government's flagship welfare reform has been badly managed, is "overambitious" and poor value for money, the spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office said risks were taken with universal credit to hit targets, IT systems had "limited functionality" and an unfamiliar project management approach was used.

A national rollout of the new benefit has been delayed following IT glitches.

"

Expenditure on IT systems has accounted for more than 70% of the £425m spent to date but the report suggested officials did not yet know whether the infrastructure in place would support a ational rollout.

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While steps were taken at the end of 2012 to get to grips with some of the problems, the watchdog said the "underlying issues" had not been addressed.

Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office, said the "relatively high risk trajectory" was met by "weak management, ineffective control and poor governance".

The BBC has learned that the overspend on the the governments flagship welfare reform programme could rise further, as £162m has been invested on new hardware and software, in addition to the £34m on IT systems.

The TUC view is featured here-




The Guardian says"

Universal credit frontline: 'I'm left with nothing'

Kiran Singh, part-time lecturer and sole parent of nine-year-old, dreading move to streamlined payments

Kiran Singh is living on the breadline. The 35-year-old single mother from Harrow, north London, received her advice letter about universal credit from Harrow council three weeks ago. And now she's fretting as to how her already precarious circumstances might be affected.

Working 9am-3pm as a part-time lecturer, she sometimes manages to rake in extra cash by taking on design projects, but on average she takes home far less than £1,000 a month.

As sole parent for her nine-year-old daughter and in a low-income bracket, she is entitled to working tax credits and housing benefit. Yet with childcare costs, London rents, bills and a bus pass, she barely scrapes by. "It all adds up and I'm left with nothing," she says.

A failure to pay a few pounds here or there may send her precariously balanced finances over the edge, so she is not looking forward to the move to UC and its new streamlined payments system, which the National Audit Office has warned has veered dangerously off track and is suffering from serious software development issues. Software central to the design of an IT system meant to serve the day-to-day lives of approximately 12 million people has not materialised to specification or has been junked. The programme had to be officially restarted this summer, communication between staff is poor, and morale is low.

When about one-third of the staff were moved off the programme at the instruction of the project's new director, Howard Shiplee, in July, one senior manager wrote: "The plans to coordinate our communication of staff assignments have failed. We now have people sat together all over the programme, some who know, some who don't know, some who have seen lists with their names on, some who have heard their names are not on them, etc, etc."

In a leaked internal survey, DWP staff comments were damning and painted a picture of administrative chaos. "This is the third review in 16 months, no rollout plans, no confidence in going forward and stakeholders losing confidence in our ability to deliver," wrote one civil servant.

"After 29 years of service this has been the most soul-destroying work I have done," wrote another.

Singh also fears that under the new culture, where the mantra is "more and better paid work" she might be told by job centre advisors that she'll have to take on more hours or face receiving diminished benefits.

She can't see how she will find time to search for extra and better paid work even as her daughter gets older. "I'm a single parent. I have to be with my daughter. I can't work full time until she can look after herself."

Fiona Weir, the chief executive of Gingerbread, a charity for single parents, said she was concerned that the delayed introduction of universal credit has meant many millions of people simply aren't being informed about how the programme will affect them.

"There has been virtually no communication about when these individuals and families – nearly 2 million of whom are single parent families – can expect to move on to universal credit, and what it will mean for their often precarious finances."

So what is the Staff view point
Well "The Guardian " put this article together based on a leaked report

Staff working on the biggest shakeup of the welfare state in its history have described the project as "soul-destroying" and "unbelievably frustrating", with some saying they are under so much pressure that they can only engage in "firefighting and panic management".

A leaked internal survey of scores of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) employees working on the government's flagshipUniversal Credit programme describes an environment of poor management and high levels of stress. Labour said the survey was "utterly damning".

Universal Credit (UC) – the brainchild of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary – seeks to streamline and integrate benefit payments for millions of claimants. It is a huge IT project that has been hit with a number of setbacks in recent months.

Interim results of the staff survey selected by the DWP's business change director and distributed back to staff last week were mainly negative. One civil servant writes of "a near complete absence of anything that looks like strategic leadership in the programme". Another says: "There is a divisive culture of secrecy around current programme developments and very little in the way of meaningful messages for staff or stakeholders explaining what will happen and when."

Taking a direct swipe at managers, another civil servant says: "I have never worked somewhere where decision making was so apparently poor at senior levels … and communications from that level was totally nonexistent. This programme should be a case study for how not to engage with your people to get the most out of them."

In an email to programme staff on 23 July, the business change director, a senior civil servant, admits that the initial findings from the survey revealed that there was "much room for improvement".

"We received some very honest comments, which is exactly what we need if we are truly going to address your concerns and make things better … Many comments focused on communication – colleagues were unclear about both their role and future plans for UC. There were also a significant number of comments about senior leadership and the culture within UC.

"Clearly there is much room for improvement and we are starting from a pretty low base. However, without this honesty it would be much harder to tackle positively and move forward. With your help we will do all we can to make Universal Credit the great place to work that we all want it to be."

The report found that 68% of employees responded to the survey. The highest ratings came from staff who said they were "treated fairly and without discrimination". However, the lowest ratings were given when staff were asked if "senior leaders listen to my concerns and act on them" and "I understand the programme vision for UC and what success looks like".

Comments included: "After 29 years of service this has been the most soul-destroying work I have done," and: "There is too much dishonesty and no one ever admits to making a mistake."

Another said: "This is the third review in 16 months, no rollout plans, no confidence in going forward and stakeholders losing confidence in our ability to deliver."

One respondent to the survey complained that stress was damaging people's health.

The shadow employment minister, Stephen Timms, said: "These testimonies from the heart of the Universal Credit programme are utterly damning. No strategic leadership, no plan, no idea. The scheme is in chaos.

"The truth is Universal Credit is in crisis and everyone knows it. It's time for Iain Duncan Smith to admit this project is in deep trouble, come clean about how bad things are, and ask for help, because if things stay as they are this flagship will sink – taking hundreds of millions of pounds of public money with it."

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, which represents 80,000 civil servants in the DWP, said: "Universal Credit is defining Iain Duncan Smith's time as work and pensions secretary, lurching from crisis to crisis and showing the failings in the government's obsession with ideology over proper investment and support for people who are out of work. The views of the staff could not be clearer and they really must be listened to."

The DWP acknowledged that its staff had raised important issues and said that a new management team had been put in place following the death of Philip Langsdale last year.

A DWP spokesperson said: "Universal Credit is in a new phase following the successful early launch in Greater Manchester and the announcement of how the new benefit will roll out across the country from October.

"A new management team with clear strategic leadership is in place led by Howard Shiplee, one of the UK's leading experts in delivering major projects including the Olympic Park. As a part of this, we are working with staff to understand the issues they were facing, just as any responsible employer would."

UN comes to look at UK housing issue and Bedroom tax

The effect of the bedroom tax on low-income households is being investigated by Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur on housing. Photograph: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images

A senior UN official is in the UK to scrutinise the impact of the bedroom tax on the human rights of people in low-income households. The special rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnik, is on a two-week tour of cities where she will meet tenants affected by the policy as well as officials, campaigners and academics.

Social tenants deemed to have more bedrooms than they need have had their housing benefit reduced under changes to the welfare system that came into affect in April.

Ministers say the change tackles an unfair spare room subsidy not available to private-sector renters and suggest it will save around £500m a year as part of the government's deficit-reduction strategy.

But the policy has triggered protests, with critics claiming it is forcing families into deprivation and that it will ultimately increase the benefit bill by pushing people into the private sector where rents are higher on average.

Rolnik, who will reveal the initial findings of the unprecedented inspection next Wednesday, said the UK faced a unique moment when the challenge of providing adequate housing was "on the agenda".

Rolnik asked the British government to allow her to make an inspection late last year. She makes two country investigations every year. Her decision to visit the UK was prompted in part, she said, by her sense that Britain was experiencing a housing crisis and by concern about the impact of welfare changes on the right to adequate housing.

"There is a housing crisis. This is very clear," she said. "The aim of the visit is to assess the current situation. Of course the bedroom tax and austerity measures and welfare reform as far as they impact on the right to adequate housing is part of our agenda."

Judging by her previously frank assessments of government's housing records, Rolnik is likely to be vocal in outlining her concerns at the end of reporting trip next week.

A spokesperson on the visit said Rolnik's investigation would not just focus on the bedroom tax but also on UK housing policy more widely.

Article 25 of the universal declaration of human rights includes housing as part of the "right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family".

Rolnik said: "The UK has voiced its commitment to human rights on repeated occasions, and this mission will give me an opportunity to assess in-depth to what extent adequate housing, as one central aspect of the right to an adequate standard of living, is at the core of this commitment.

"The UK faces a unique moment, when the challenge to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for all is on the agenda.

"In doing so, special attention would need to be given to responding to the specific situations of various population groups, in particular low-income households and other marginalised individuals and groups."

The visit – at the invitation of the government – takes in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester and will include sessions in local communities.

A UN spokesman said the UK was the signatory to a number of international treaties that protect the right to adequate housing and non-discrimination.

The final report will be presented by Rolnik to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March.

Reality is that the Bedroom tax has only recently come into effect and responce may prove interesting in respect of human rights