Mandatory Work Activity - Your views?

Maybe the the other answerers agree that people on benefits should be working for peanuts? Lol, well I don't. I wonder how they'd like to be paid around £2 an hour for 30 hours a week (technically it's only £1-something; 30 hours at £2/hr would be £60 - JSA for an 18-25 y/o is currently £50-something, I signed off in March, so I'm not sure of the current rate)?

Benefits are a basic right. Getting a job is difficult. If you have 2 GCSEs, no references and no previous work experience, you can't even get a basic cleaning job. References are hard to get if you left school several years ago, and don't really know anyone in a professional capacity (employers usually want professional references, not character references).

Yeah, some people on JSA are lazy, but forcing them to do 30 hr/week for so many weeks is not gonna make them any less lazy. If anything, it'll make them worse. Even people on Apprenticeships get paid £2.60/hr. I nearly became a Dental Assistant apprentice just to get off JSA (but then I found out I was gonna start college in September, so I never started). It's not technically slave labor, but it almost is. No one should be made to work for £1.90/hr.

Here, "community service" is a punishment. Working in a charity shop is "voluntary work" not "community service".

Being forced to undertake what should otherwise be voluntary is forced labor, it stops being voluntary from the moment they tell you that you have to do it. If I wanted to work in a charity shop, I would go and ask to volunteer at the charity shop - I wouldn't do it if I was being told "do it or get no benefits". Are we supposed to be punished for not having a job, no. I don't think so.

If I ever find myself unemployed again (that is to say, before I finish college/university), I will be applying to the RAF - something I plan to do after university anyway. I plan on becoming a nursing officer, and never having to work a menial job or claim benefits ever again.

MWA is a load of rubbish. Being forced to work for your benefit is pathetic. It is forced labor. It's not voluntary if you're being told "do it or lose your benefit".

Based on your spelling, I'm guessing you're in the UK. So, my perspective may be a bit off, since I'm on the other side of the Atlantic. However, I'm not sure what your complaint is. Performing community services is a bad thing... how?

It doesn't seem like forced labor to me. It's a requirement to obtain certain benefits - at some level, we all have to do something to earn money, and since there are service jobs that need to be done, this seems a natural fit.

That said, I do have a question. Say a person has a low-income job, but a job that pays regularly nonetheless. A job where, they still need a little help in getting on. In that scenario, would they still be required to work the 30 hours of community service as well? That would seem unfair, since it's not a case where the person receiving benefits is simply not working at all. (This is all assuming the case of a well-bodied person who is not disabled or otherwise prevented from working).

I ask that because in some US states, those receiving benefits are required to show proof of employment (any employment will do, really) in order to continue receiving benefits.

Working in charity shops, maintaining parks and public areas are considered 'communtiy service' and you do NOT get paid for them....it's a bit like volunteering.....therefore, NOT 'forced labor'!

Yes, 'community service' work does make a person better....it give them a better perspective of life and to appreciate things more plus it gives you some 'work experience'.

When applying for jobs; list the community service work.....even though you don't get paid - it's still experience.

They receive no additional benefit? How about the benefit that they already receive? They are already getting paid. To sit on their arses. So now they will be paid to work instead. It sounds fair to me.

This is not forced labor. Nobody has you in handcuffs. Nobody has a gun to your head. You do not have to participate. If you want the money, you show up. It's your choice.

Or is my job forced labor too? I work in a concentration camp? Because if I don't show up, they don't pay me my wages. Oh my god! I never knew! It's the Gestapo! They have me in a forced labor camp!

He who does not work does not eat!