#Welfare #Workfare #Injustice and #Slavery

It is wrong for people to expect to be supported by others if they are capable of earning their own living.
Paul Perrin

The coalitions 'workfare' programme as currently operated is nothing of the kind, it is wrong, immoral, coercive and wealth destroying.

1) The government justifies much of the Tax and National Insurance contributions it extorts from us by claiming it is to fund welfare - But if welfare is to be withheld and people are to be made to work for a pittance instead, then our Taxes and National Insurance contributions need to be cut substantially - I don't see that happening - do you?

2) If people are to made to work for their benefits, then why are they made to work for the benefit of shareholders in private commercial companies? Tesco may get free shelf-stackers, but how does that save the Taxpayer any money?

3) If people are to made to work for their benefits, then why are they doing jobs that might otherwise be done by real 'employees' - this destroys the very jobs that they might have hoped to have taken!

4) Even if people were made to workfare in the public sector rather than for private shareholders this would displace public sector workers who would otherwise be employed.

There are two possible answers:-

1) Forget welfare all together - let people keep their Tax/NI and provide for themselves when times are tight.

or

2) Offer people 'workfare' working for *private individuals* - doing work/jobs that would otherwise not be done at all. Gardening, decorating, household chores - things that the individual would otherwise have done for themselves.

Option 1 is likely a bit radical and would need to be brought in over time. However option 2 could operate immediately, taxpayers would get a direct benefit from the welfare they are financing, individuals would be doing *real* work on *real* jobs, but without displacing any real employees.

'Workfare' is very loose label - too broad to really mean anything specific. As currently implemented it is clearly slavery - peoples have had their wealth taken from them (tax/NI) and then are being made to work to get it back. Worse still the taxpayer is being ripped off, because the benefit of the work is going directly to private shareholders. What a mess - just like so much of the coalitions policies.