Hi, I am on "workfare" at the moment near Glasgow !!!! I am actually quite happy with my placement via JobCentrePlus and a local provider. I want to go back into anything "admin", and my placement is an Admin post, where I have learned new skills and am set to learn more in 2015. It gives me something recent to discuss at interviews and looks good on my C.V. HOWEVER... we have to attend a job activity session once per week. Unfortunately for me, there is a Manager there who does NOT like me, and spent an entire morning making a fool of me, telling me I was having a bad morning (I was not), etc., etc. When I challenged him and told him I had "done nothing", I was told this was WHY I was being picked on !!!! I have contacted "Learn Direct" on a complaint form. Learn Direct are in partnership with this local provider. However, it seems they cannot handle my complaint until January 5th 2015 !!!! At this point, all Hell is bound to break loose, as I have not spoken to this Manager directly. I feel for JSA allowance folk are being set out to pick up litter and all sorts - job search at the same time - all for garbage money - and some folk try to make our lives Hell over and above this. The whole thing has not been thought through properly, with some folks' Managers not quite realising how many hours job seekers have to do, etc., etc. What would other folk do? Thanx for advice and Merry Xmas !!!

Only someone very naive could believe private firms are participating in the government’s workfare scheme because they want to provide work experience for unemployed people out of the goodness of their own hearts and not as a way of reducing their wage bills by using forced labour at taxpayers’ expense. But ask any of them and they’ll swear the workfare people they’ve taken on are extra to their requirements and are not – repeat not – replacing jobs they would normally have had to pay someone a proper wage to do. Well. It looks like Homebase have accidentally let the cat out of the bag. A poster currently displayed on the wall in the manager’s office of Homebase Haringey – clearly shows the company is using workfare as a means to reduce their payroll costs: This is particularly interesting, as Homebase have recently been lying to telling the public they’re not participating in workfare at all. See my previous post about that here: Homebase are so embarrassed about using workfare – they’re reduced to lying about it Looks like Homebase just can’t stop themselves telling porky pies about workfare, doesn’t it? https://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/oops-homebase-let-cat-out-of-the-bag-about-using-workfare-to-reduce-wage-bills/

Story here http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/author/johnnyvoid/ this is not just about people mandated on to the WP, this legislation has implications for all of us. If the government can break the law then retrospectively change the law what stops them applying this to anything else? There is no point now taking the government to court over anything, they could simply reverse court judgments by 'going back in time' and changing the rules, we are heading for a dictatorship, and there is no party with the guts to do anything about it.

After my brothers fight back against the job centre advisors yesterday on his treatment, he this morning receives a phone call saying they are putting him onto this mandatory work program working in charity shops etc. lets keep the politics out of this and concentrate on the real issues. There was that case last month where this work program was ruled unlawful in the high court, and the government were bringing in secondary legislation to address the issues raised by the law lords. What is the legality of this mandatory work system as it stands now, that is as of todays date WHAT I WILL SAY IS THAT IF THEY FORCE HIM INTO ONE OF THESE PLACEMENTS BY THREAT OF SANCTION, I WILL BE OUTSIDE THE CHARITY SHOP DEMONSTRATING MYSELF WITH A PLACARD