Cait Reilly, who has been looking for work since leaving Birmingham University, was volunteering at a museum until she was ordered to take a work placement at a Poundland store in the city.
The geology graduate spent two weeks stacking shelves and sweeping floors after being told she could lose her benefits if she did not accept the ‘mandatory’ post. She is now asking the High Court to quash regulations that her lawyers claim were created by the government ‘without parliamentary authority’ and ‘forces people into futile, unpaid labour for weeks or months at a time’.
The 22-year-old, who was not offered an interview following her placement, told her Jobcentre Plus adviser of her previous retail experience and that she did not want to give up volunteering at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
The Department for Work and Pensions said: ‘Our priority is to help people off benefits and into work. It is simply absurd to suggest that we should not be providing this support and effectively leaving people at home doing nothing.’
Poundland was unavailable for comment last night but said earlier: ‘Our partnership with JobCentre Plus is a positive step to get people back into work.’
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/887128-graduate-told-to-work-for-free-or-lose-benefits#ixzz1jGdXau1Z
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The Coalition Government's plans to introduce a national scheme of compulsory community work for unemployed job seekers may be considered unlawful.
The scheme will compel the long term unemployed to accept unpaid work assignments in the community for four weeks or more. Failure to accept assignments will result in a loss of benefits.
The scheme is part of the Government's attempts to reduce the country's welfare bill and follows a pilot in which the number of benefit claimants dropped dramatically when community placements were assigned.
However the scheme may fall foul of the Human Rights Act which outlaws anything that is considered 'forced or compulsory' labour and could also breach the minimum wage act, particularly if they are for a profit making company.
The scheme has come under increasing scrutiny recently. Unemployed Cait Reilley, who was volunteering in a museum in Birmingham in order to gain work experience to follow her career ambitions of working in the heritage sector, was forced to abandon her volunteering to take an unpaid placement for the retailer Poundland where she was made to sweep floors and stack shelves. In cases like these there is concern that the government is at risk of providing free labour for companies like Poundland to make a profit.
Opinion is mixed as to the potential sucess of work schemes to reduce unemployment. In 2008 the Labour Government examined a ange of similar schemes in the US and Australia and found little evidence that they helped claiments find paid work.
A poll running on social network i-volunteer currently shows 33% of people are in favour of job seekers working in the community in return for state benefits, with a further 52% citing that the scheme might be acceptable depending on an individual's circumstances. So far only 1% disagree with the scheme with 5% undecided.
http://www.i-volunteer.org.uk/newshound/compulsory-community-work-may-be...