UK's lowest-paid employees to be classed as 'not working enough'

[dipsydoodle]

One million of Britain's lowest paid employees will be classed as "not working enough" and could find themselves pushed with the threat of sanctions to find more income under radical changes to benefits, the Department for Work and Pensions has said.

DWP internal documents seen by the Guardian reveal that people earning between £330 to around £1,050 a month – just under the rate of the national minimum wage for a 35-hour week – could be mandated to attend job centre meetings where their working habits will be examined as part of the universal credit programme.

Some of those deemed to be "not working enough" could also be instructed to take on extra training – and if they fail to complete tasks they could be stripped of their UC benefits in a move which departmental insiders conceded is controversial.

The DWP said that their overall plans for those in low-paid work were not yet definite and recognised that supporting working families to increase their income was a complex area into which the state hadn't previously intervened. But the department estimates there are one million people in this lower-paid bracket.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/06/uk-lowest-paid-classed-not-working-enough

[msongs]

1. they better put the brakes on huge immigration numbers to make this happen nt

[MotherPetrie]

2. Adding insult to injury (or the other way around)

[non sociopath skin]

3. .... in spite of the fact that the Low Pay/Zero Hours Spiv Employers ....

.... make them sign agreements that they won't work for anyone else.

Government by Eton-educated Barrow Boys.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I really didn't know if this was going to be a Newsthump/Daily Mash headline, or reality

which shows what a farce it is.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Ditto!

[LeftishBrit]

6. The Tory motto: Do kick people when they're down!

But of course this is Iain Duncan Smith, who is quite exceptional for his vileness. Most Tories think that it's OK to kick poor and disadvantaged people in order to favour the rich and those who think they might get rich ('aspiration'), but Duncan Smith enjoys kicking poor people just for the sake of doing so, and claims that it's really for their own good.

I am not generally a vindictive person, but I would really enjoy seeing something very nasty happen to him!

[fedsron2us]

7. Presumably this will mean low paid part time staff working in Job Centres

could end up sanctioning each other to look for alternative employment. Pure genius really.

Of course, to administer this crazy scheme in a country where more and more workers are on zero hours contracts will require a vast army of bureaucrats to constantly carry out reassessments and to authorise the sanctioning. At least that will cure the unemployment problem as half the population will end working for the DWP.

Still coming up with such shit ideas is to be expected from a government which has not got a fucking clue about anything