There is no evidence that the Help to Work programme will move
participants any closer to getting a job; charities should boycott the
scheme, writes Kevin Curley
The campaign Keep Volunteering Voluntary has attracted support from
charities large and small. Launched in response to the government's new
Help to Work programme, the campaign offers an appealing definition of
volunteering: "People independently choosing to give their time freely
to help others and make the world a better place." This is contrasted
with schemes such as Help to Work, which, the campaign says, "force
unemployed people to carry out unpaid work or face benefit sanctions
that cause hardship and destitution".
Help to Work is a Department for Work and Pensions scheme that requires
anyone who is still out of work after two years either to sign on daily
at a Jobcentre, take part in further training or carry out a community
work placement. The placement is for 30 hours each week for up to 26
weeks and is unpaid. Anyone who refuses to take part or who fails to
turn up will lose their benefits. The Prime Minister, David Cameron,
recently explained the thinking to Channel 4 News: "Doing compulsory
community work will help people get into work."
But what is the evidence for this? In a pilot scheme last year, the DWP
took 15,000 claimants and placed them in either community work
placements or a control group. It found that by the end of the pilot 18
per cent of people in the control group had found employment - exactly
the same result achieved by community work placements.
In other words, Help to Work made virtually no difference. No wonder the
DWP avoided publicising these findings. Yet £300m is now being spent on
a nationwide programme with six huge contracts awarded to G4S, a
company discredited in some of its previous contracts.
So here we have an expensive programme that won't work. But what about
its compulsory nature? For 30 hours' community work, someone on this
programme will receive their Jobseeker's Allowance of £57.35. That's
less than £2 per hour. The statutory minimum wage is £6.31 and the
living wage, outside London, is £7.65. If people are forced to work,
surely they should receive at least the legal minimum?
Another objectionable feature of the scheme is its impact on people from
minority ethnic communities. Andy Gregg, chief executive of Race on the
Agenda, made the point forcibly to me: "It will affect black and
minority ethnic communities disproportionately, given that levels of
unemployment in these communities are higher, because of racism in the
labour market'."
It seems to me that Help to Work is not about undermining volunteering.
It's about forcing people - and especially black people - to work for
much less than the statutory minimum wage, with no evidence that the
experience will move them any closer to getting a job. But let's get
behind Keep Volunteering Voluntary and do what we can to persuade
charities to boycott this odious scheme.
Kevin Curley is a voluntary sector adviser
Third Sector
