[Vicky.]

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/department_...conditionality

Just reading through this and I find it quite harsh to be honest.

From April 2014 changes will apply to lone parents who are entitled to Income Support (IS); or claim Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and are in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) Currently lone parents who are entitled to IS must attend regular Work-focused Interviews (WFIs) once their youngest child reaches the age of one. From April 2014 the frequency and duration of WFIs for this group of claimants will be determined by Advisers. Work Related Activity (WRA) is also being introduced for ESA (WRAG) and IS lone parents with a youngest child aged 3 and over. From 28 April 2014 an easement in regulations has been introduced to prevent more than one sanction being applied in any two week period

While I disagreed with the 7 year old limit (as kids are in school before then so a part time job is very manageable if you can find one) one is very very young to be considering dumping the child with a childminder or something. I feel we should be encouraging parents to bring up their own children, especially at a time when there is really not enough jobs to go around JSA claimants to begin with. I honestly don't see what this will achieve at all..besides making the amount of people applying for each job even larger and making it harder for people who can (reasonably) work to find work. And possibly making the benefit bill even HIGHER when the state is made to fork out for childminder fees..

Mind saying that, its probably not about getting people back to work or anything anyway, much more likely to be about being able to sanction more people /sceptic


In other news, jobseekers made to sign on everyday...what a waste of resources. Or do voluntary work (for tescos and such no doubt, not proper voluntary work which many have been forced to leave to do workfare). Or sign to the work program which doesnt help one bit, infact reserach shows it hinders jobsearching...but they can claim thousands if you find yourself a job while on their program. Its all getting even more ****ed up.