date: 18 July 2008

embargo: 00:01 hours Monday 21 July 2008

No to 'no pay' jobs says TUC

Responding to media reports that the welfare reform Green Paper, due to be published today (Monday), will include proposals for workfare that force unemployed people to work on community service schemes in return for their benefits, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'This is a mistake. There are already sufficient sanctions to deal with benefit claimants who cheat the system, and all the evidence shows that the vast majority of the jobless want to work.

'With the economy slowing down, and many commentators expecting unemployment to rise, now is not the time to start blaming the victim. People who lose their jobs want help in getting new skills and new paying jobs, not make-work schemes that provide no pay, no prospects and not even any time to search for a new job.

'Workfare policies do nothing to benefit wider society. The economy needs more people in real jobs with real wages to spend, boosting the economy and creating more jobs. And workers in low paid jobs could well be replaced by workfare claimants leading them to lose their jobs in turn.

'This is a curiously old-fashioned policy. This may have been cutting edge when the economy was doing well, but will now frighten everyone worried about their job prospects.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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Press release (400 words) issued 21 Jul 2008