Liberal Democrat 'Workfare' Education Programe
The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference was held at the Sage Centre in Gateshead on 9-11 March 2012
So far the grassroots Lib Dem voice has been very quiet on workfare. But some local branches and Lib Dem Councils are uneasy with the Coalition and that it could cost them in future local and national elections.
We decided to let them know what what we thought of workfare with a series of online actions in the run up to their Spring Conference.
International Women's Day 2012
Thursday 8th of March is International Women's Day and as part of our actions to educate the LibDems we though it would be a good idea to ask you to contact:
Women Liberal Democrats: Campaigning for Women, for fairness and equality within all spheres
women@libdems.org.uk You can use the email below or draft your own.
Dear Liberal Democrat Women,
Thursday 8th of March is International Women's Day. International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's. It has a great tradition of encouraging women to be politically active; to campaign for change; to give when a voice to tackle inequality, injustice and unfairness. I call on you to stand up for women and their families and raise your voices to the unfairness of 'workfare.'
I believe these programmes are morally, ethically and economically flawed they are not fair to women, to families to people living with illness or disability and our country diserves better than this in these hard times.
The country has been in recession for the last five years:
• Youth unemployment is at its highest level since 1986/87 with the number of 16-24 year olds out of work standing at 1.04 million at the end of 2011
•Women’s unemployment is at its highest level since 1988
• Almost 500,000 over 50’s now unemployed
• Thousands of jobs lost in the retail sector , in 2009 alone almost 100,00 retail jobs were estimated to have been lost
• Up to 200,000 couples with children will lose almost £4,000 a year due to the Government’s changes to tax credits on 6th April.
In some areas of the country there are as many as 12 people chasing every job. There is evidently a shortage of jobs. What we clearly we need is an approach that actually creates jobs. The estimate costs of delivering the Work Programme are between £3m and £5m with no guarantee of success.
Clearly what is best for the economic recovery of the country is both wealth creation and job creation, but this needs to be both fair and equitable. I do not believe that the ‘workfare’ approach can deliver this. Most people are in agreement that at best the ‘evidence’ suggests that programmes which rely strongly on mandatory activity and sanctions have so far proved ineffective in helping people move into employment and are least effective in times of high unemployment.
I am not opposed to the private sector and believe that they have an important role to play in economic recovery. The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s have previously stated that they will invest in their own programme and today both Holiday Inn announced it would be concentrating own scheme aimed at creating real jobs and opportunities.
Next week the Liberal Democrats meet in Newcastle. I ask that the Liberal Democrats applaud these companies for striving to create additional jobs and move away from the ‘workfare’ model of work experience. I feel that all companies should be strongly encouraged to follow suit and help the unemployed into employment through either job creation or permanent training schemes that offer job creation as a result.
I urge you as Liberal Democrat Women to promote fairer and more productive alternatives. I feel that the electorate and UK society as a whole deserves the strong opposition towards ‘workfare’ to be reflected at government level and seek for the Liberal Democrat Women to offer this.
*Delete this and enter name* (on behalf of Online Protest Against Workfare)
We also want to send a message to every Local Liberal Democrat Branch about Workfare.
Email your local LibDem Branch. Use the Find our local Branch search box to the right of the Liberal Democrat Home page Click Here.
Then send them ourt message
(Copy and Paste)
Open letter to all liberal democrat branches
Over the last two weeks there has been a great deal of coverage over the government policy “Get Britain Working”, in particular the focus has been on ‘workfare’ style programmes. Like many people I believe the programmes that we are referring to are morally, ethically and economically flawed.
Over the last week politicians and the media have attempted to reduce this to a less constructive ‘right’ versus ‘left’ point scoring exercise rather than engage in a constructive dialogue about the serious concerns surrounding these programmes. During this polarised debate there has been very little contribution by the Liberal Democrats either in support or defence of a so central to the countries social and economic recovery.
Assumptions have been made that people opposing workfare are anti-capitalist members of the ‘hard-line left’, with little or no regard for the economy and opposed to wealth creation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposition to these programmes draws from a wide and diverse cross section of society. Many of our arguments are based on readily available evidence.
The country has been in recession for the last five years:
• Youth unemployment is at its highest level since 1986/87 with the number of 16-24 year olds out of work standing at 1.04 million at the end of 2011
• Almost 500,000 over 50’s now unemployed
• Thousands of jobs lost in the retail sector , in 2009 alone almost 100,00 retail jobs were estimated to have been lost
• Up to 200,000 couples with children will lose almost £4,000 a year due to the Government’s changes to tax credits on 6th April.
In some areas of the country there are as many as 12 people chasing every job. There is evidently a shortage of jobs. What we clearly we need is an approach that actually creates jobs. The estimate costs of delivering the Work Programme are between £3m and £5m with no guarantee of success.
Clearly what is best for the economic recovery of the country is both wealth creation and job creation, but this needs to be both fair and equitable. I do not believe that the ‘workfare’ approach can deliver this. Most people are in agreement that at best the ‘evidence’ suggests that programmes which rely strongly on mandatory activity and sanctions have so far proved ineffective in helping people move into employment and are least effective in times of high unemployment.
I am not opposed to the private sector and believe that they have an important role to play in economic recovery. The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s have previously stated that they will invest in their own programme and today both Holiday Inn announced it would be concentrating own scheme aimed at creating real jobs and opportunities.
Next week the Liberal Democrats meet in Newcastle. I ask that the Liberal Democrats applaud these companies for striving to create additional jobs and move away from the ‘workfare’ model of work experience. I feel that all companies should be strongly encouraged to follow suit and help the unemployed into employment through either job creation or permanent training schemes that offer job creation as a result.
As partners in our coalition government I urge the Liberal Democrats to strive to steer policy away from schemes which are highly divisive and open to strong concern from many quarters and instead promote within government more productive alternatives. I feel that the electorate and UK society as a whole deserves the strong opposition towards ‘workfare’ to be reflected at government level and seek for the Liberal Democrats to offer this.
*Delete this and enter name* (on behalf of Online Protest Against Workfare)
The letter can also be downloaded here as a word doc
Please let us know if you get a response. Thanks
LibDem Voice has published two articles on Workfare.
The first by Rebecca Tidy supporting protests Work-fare or Work Fair? Why I shan't be shopping at Tesco
The second claiming that so far it is a depressing sterile "left/Right" debate, but there is a Liberal way - although it remains unclear what the LibDem way is.
Head on over and convince the LibDems that 'workfare' isn't fair and just wont work.
