Return of the workhouse? (From York Press)

Return of the workhouse?

8:59am Wednesday 9th January 2008

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I listened and read with interest David Cameron’s plans for the long-term unemployed. I was intrigued and concerned.

Many years ago, people who could not afford to continue living, ended up in the workhouse and working for a pittance for unscrupulous, exploitative bosses.

Being poor is not something to be ashamed of, a crime or a debt to society. Poor people need help, encouragement, even coercion, not punishment.

Under Cameron’s plans the long term unemployed would be required to carry out 12 months community service. This is more than criminals get (I agree they should get more). I would like to know how many Tories have been long term unemployed? I have previously been unemployed and on the dole for 3 months. It is depressing, demoralising and I was given no help or encouragement to find a job. I had just left University and many students have difficulty finding their first job.

Under Cameron’s proposals, the two-year limit on job seekers' allowance would apply to "continuous and cumulative periods of unemployment". Therefore if I am on the dole for 1 year and 9 months, demoralised, depressed, rejected and I do not have enough to pay my rent or find a job, I would have to mop up after people committing criminal damage. All of this due to intermittent short periods of unemployment in my life.

I am an educated, hard working, tax-paying individual, with much to contribute to the world of work. Having people like me doing this is a waste.

I want the unemployed to have jobs, to have dignity and be something they, their family and society can be proud of. I do not want to return to a society where everyone is supposed to “know their place” and aspiration is rare. We are talking about not the breaking of an underclass, but visually galvanising it. It sounds to me like David Cameron is just planning for the day when under the Tories unemployment reaches 3 million again.

David Cameron, Mr nice guy? Sounds more like a return of the workhouse.