Comments on: Abolish the Jobseekers Agreement http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/2009/07/01/abolish-the-jobseekers-agreement/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:12:47 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Available for Employment: Jobseekers Allowance terminology « Jobseekers Allowance Advice: http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/2009/07/01/abolish-the-jobseekers-agreement/comment-page-1/#comment-133 Available for Employment: Jobseekers Allowance terminology « Jobseekers Allowance Advice: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:33:45 +0000 http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/?p=81#comment-133 [...] or being able to commence employment within the agreed timescales on your Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) – whatever is [...] [...] or being able to commence employment within the agreed timescales on your Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) – whatever is [...]

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]]> By: Ipswich Unemployed Action http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/2009/07/01/abolish-the-jobseekers-agreement/comment-page-1/#comment-132 Ipswich Unemployed Action Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:16:22 +0000 http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/?p=81#comment-132 Thanks for the great comment. I will only pick up on one point due to time constraints but like you mention there needs to be some regulatory element implemented if they are serious about "full employment". Reducing the hours you can work (as applied in most European countries anyway) is a good start it will then allow a full time position and a part time position making up the difference. Current system is unfair. I would say capping hours to 40 a week (with exceptions for like self-employed people and bosses) would be the first positive step. The worst part about the "Joke Centre" is the staff moaning about doing overtime while the people who go in there are looking for work. Thanks for the great comment.

I will only pick up on one point due to time constraints but like you mention there needs to be some regulatory element implemented if they are serious about “full employment”.

Reducing the hours you can work (as applied in most European countries anyway) is a good start it will then allow a full time position and a part time position making up the difference. Current system is unfair.

I would say capping hours to 40 a week (with exceptions for like self-employed people and bosses) would be the first positive step.

The worst part about the “Joke Centre” is the staff moaning about doing overtime while the people who go in there are looking for work.

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]]> By: Blackpool Lad http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/2009/07/01/abolish-the-jobseekers-agreement/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Blackpool Lad Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:24:41 +0000 http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/?p=81#comment-131 I have apposed the Job Seekers Act (and agreement) since the day it was announced in 1995 by the Major government (no wonder they were called the nasty party!). My main opposition to the act is that it treats all unemployed people as the lowest common denominator, that everyone claiming benefits is a lazy scrounger who doesn’t want to work. I accept that there is probably a small minority who will do anything to avoid work because they simply don’t want to work. I do not include people caught in the poverty trap, or who suffer from genuine ill-health. I believe that most unemployed people do want to work, as work gives people a purpose in life and a sense of contributing to society (if that still exists after Thatcher said there was no such thing). Let’s face it, who wants to attend the Joke Centre once a fortnight having to justify themselves to a brainless bureaucrat, or worse still attend (expensive) rubbish like the New Deal. What is needed is job creation on a massive scale. When I talk of job creation, I am not talking about pointless jobs such as Lifestyle Facilitators or Equality and Diversity Officers, but jobs that actually need doing, such as putting conductors back on buses on busy routes and repairing roads, houses and buildings for a start. Companies should also be stopped from exporting jobs to third-world countries. The rule should be that if a company wants to sell their products in Britain, they must employ British workers in British factories. Companies that won’t agree to this should have their products blocked at the ports. Britons work the longest hours in Europe, so the first thing that needs to happen is a reduction in the working week and making it more expensive for employers to have existing staff working longer hours, rather than recruiting extra staff. Also needed is a halt to any further immigration (including from the EU) except where staff genuinely cannot be recruited in this country. I do not include low-skilled jobs as difficult to fill. I realise this may upset the liberal-left, but I don’t care. What is needed is a large dose of realism. Mass unemployment has been used to control the unions for the last 30 years by successive Thatcherite governments, but it is counter-productive actually costing a lot more in benefits than it would have cost due to lost work-days because of strikes. So as you think about which party to vote for at the next general election, which one is going to give you this? That is for you to decide, but you can certainly exclude Labour or the Conservatives. Labour have lost all credibility and treat socialism as an unwelcome relic of the past, whilst the Conservatives will say and do anything to get back in (anyone else noticed how they always avoid talking about Thatcher or Thatcherism, which is strange as they thought she so wonderful at the time). When the parties ask for your support, ask them for a commitment to repeal the Job Seekers Act, get rid of the New Deal and create the jobs that are needed. If they ask how it will be paid for, tell them by getting rid of Job Centre staff, closing down training centres such as the much maligned Dencora House and others like it (MBW Training in Blackpool) and getting rid of unnecessary bureaucracy for a start. If they start to waffle, walk away and tell them you will not be voting for them. I have apposed the Job Seekers Act (and agreement) since the day it was announced in 1995 by the Major government (no wonder they were called the nasty party!). My main opposition to the act is that it treats all unemployed people as the lowest common denominator, that everyone claiming benefits is a lazy scrounger who doesn’t want to work. I accept that there is probably a small minority who will do anything to avoid work because they simply don’t want to work. I do not include people caught in the poverty trap, or who suffer from genuine ill-health. I believe that most unemployed people do want to work, as work gives people a purpose in life and a sense of contributing to society (if that still exists after Thatcher said there was no such thing). Let’s face it, who wants to attend the Joke Centre once a fortnight having to justify themselves to a brainless bureaucrat, or worse still attend (expensive) rubbish like the New Deal. What is needed is job creation on a massive scale.

When I talk of job creation, I am not talking about pointless jobs such as Lifestyle Facilitators or Equality and Diversity Officers, but jobs that actually need doing, such as putting conductors back on buses on busy routes and repairing roads, houses and buildings for a start. Companies should also be stopped from exporting jobs to third-world countries. The rule should be that if a company wants to sell their products in Britain, they must employ British workers in British factories. Companies that won’t agree to this should have their products blocked at the ports. Britons work the longest hours in Europe, so the first thing that needs to happen is a reduction in the working week and making it more expensive for employers to have existing staff working longer hours, rather than recruiting extra staff. Also needed is a halt to any further immigration (including from the EU) except where staff genuinely cannot be recruited in this country. I do not include low-skilled jobs as difficult to fill. I realise this may upset the liberal-left, but I don’t care. What is needed is a large dose of realism. Mass unemployment has been used to control the unions for the last 30 years by successive Thatcherite governments, but it is counter-productive actually costing a lot more in benefits than it would have cost due to lost work-days because of strikes.

So as you think about which party to vote for at the next general election, which one is going to give you this? That is for you to decide, but you can certainly exclude Labour or the Conservatives. Labour have lost all credibility and treat socialism as an unwelcome relic of the past, whilst the Conservatives will say and do anything to get back in (anyone else noticed how they always avoid talking about Thatcher or Thatcherism, which is strange as they thought she so wonderful at the time). When the parties ask for your support, ask them for a commitment to repeal the Job Seekers Act, get rid of the New Deal and create the jobs that are needed. If they ask how it will be paid for, tell them by getting rid of Job Centre staff, closing down training centres such as the much maligned Dencora House and others like it (MBW Training in Blackpool) and getting rid of unnecessary bureaucracy for a start. If they start to waffle, walk away and tell them you will not be voting for them.

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