Direct action and online pressure meant thousands of
workfare placements were prevented in 2014
At the tribunal, the DWP argued that if the public knew exactly where people were being sent on placements political protests would increase, which was likely to lead to the collapse of several employment schemes and undermine the government’s economic interests.Guardian, 3 November 2014
Get a mirror. Got it? Good! Now take a look at yourself. Yes you. The amazing person looking back at you has made a real difference. A massive difference in fact. In the last year, people who know instinctively that workfare and sanctions are just plain wrong have pushed workfare closer to collapse. That’s the government’s own view, given as evidence in court in October 2014.
Here are just a few of the ways amazing people like you have helped make it happen:
A new, punitive, six-month workfare scheme to launch in
April 2014 was the headline policy from the previous Conservative Party
conference. But the scale of public opposition to workfare means that rolling
out more forced unpaid work wasn’t going to be easy for them.
- The War Memorials Trust rapidly rebutted Cameron’s headline claims that the unemployed would be put to work “restoring war memorials”.
- Our opposition helped to delay the scheme’s roll-out by several months.
- The Boycott Workfare week of action at the start of April persuaded major workfare users Salvation Army, TCV and YMCA to say that the new CWP scheme was one step too far even for them.
- George Osborne’s first PR visit for the scheme backfired when it prompted such a huge public response that a week later, Byteback IT pulled out, thanking people for bringing the issues around workfare to their attention.
- Encouraged by hundreds of supporters on social media and elsewhere, charities came out en masse to say no to workfare…
In 2014 – thanks to the great work of the Keep Volunteering Voluntary
campaign – over 500 charities have come out against workfare, pledging
publicly not to take part. This is important: many workfare schemes rely on
placements for so-called “community benefit”, so need the co-operation of the
voluntary sector. 500 organisations which will not take part in workfare removes
thousands of potential placements. The growing consensus that charities want no
part in workfare and benefit sanctions is a huge huge blow to the welfare to
work industry and workfare.
The KVV list already includes many household names – such as Shelter, Oxfam, Crisis, Scope and the Trussell Trust – as well as umbrella bodies and local organisations.
As Oxfam put it “These schemes involve forced volunteering, which is not only an oxymoron, but undermines people’s belief in the enormous value of genuine voluntary work.”
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