Just when you feel things are going well something always happens to knock you back. I attended on tuesday as usual and was told that my next appointment was for friday this week. I was feeling a lot better only having to turn up once a week but I will arrive on friday in the hope that it is just a one off. All the signs are from the articles I have been reading about the long term unemployed seems to suggest that we are eventually going to be completing six months work experience for our benefits and knowing my bad luck I will probably end up wearing one of those luminous jackets picking up litter and taking away a job from someone. It's true that no political party truly represents the poor as the Labour party had intended to get harsh with the unemployed. They allowed big business to charge us processing charges on our bills if we could only pay with cash. That was a crime against the poor and the Labour party didn't want to talk about it. Five million customers of BT paying four five pound charges (£20)every year just to increase profits. Quite a few people on induction on tuesday and I heard one group who were put on the computers told to find at least three job vacancies relevant to themselves. The staff numbers are definitely increasing and I'm sure are on fairly good salaries for the job they do so they should stay loyal to Working Links. I have completed a few placements in my time but the maximum any lasted was five weeks so an eventual six months doesn't sound inviting as no job will come as a result and exploitation for a month or so is far different than six months. It is true that as unemployed we are paid in terms of benefits and if we say it is for 30 hours a week then the minimum wage could be reached depending on how much the rent and council tax are for the individual. My total benefits for the week are approximately just over £150 after rent and council tax so I would fall a little under the £180 to make the minimum wage for a 30 hour week but many would make it. After a certain amount of time we end up on income based jobseekers allowance and maybe if the government gave me a £30 a week subsidy during any six month work experience in the future then I would not complain but of course they won't. Picking up litter or stacking shelves in a store can't be classed really as work experience as we should be more than capable of grasping the principles behind those kind of jobs in one six hour day. We will be in effect taking jobs away from people to either make money for big business or save councils money and maybe keeping local council tax down. It will be interesting to see what happens at the next general election but history tends to suggest that the poorest people don't vote as much as the better off. The Labour party, formed to protect the poor have taken the poor vote for granted and courted the middle classes. They would need to take a heavy loss of MP's before they change back to the caring party but that would take two elections and I am sure that many of us will be doing our six months in the next few years. I'm getting old so I guess when my time comes for the six months picking up litter I will be as fast as a tortoise.