Articles by politicians are often flat and passionless. Not so Iain Duncan Smith’s effort for the Daily Mail today. The welfare secretary sets about defending the government’s Work Experience scheme for unemployed young people, but it soon turns into a full-blooded attack on its detractors. ‘I doubt I’m the only person who thinks supermarket shelf-stackers add more value to our society than many of those “job snobs” who are busy pontificating about the Government’s employment policies,’ he bristles, ‘They should learn to value work and not sneer at it.’ And there’s much more besides, including a warning against ‘a twisted culture that thinks being a celebrity or appearing on The X Factor is the only route worth pursuing in life.’
All of this is, of course, in response to the recent controversy over Tesco’s involvement in the scheme. The idea behind it is that young jobseekers are referred on to work experience placements with participating companies, such as Tesco, in the hope that they’ll become more employable along the way. It’s up to those young jobseekers to decide whether or not to accept the placements, for which they’re not paid beyond expenses. And there’s no penalty for dropping out before a week has elapsed, but after that benefits may be withdrawn. Out of this has arisen a protest with two main concerns: that young people are being exploited for free labour and locked into placements that they might not want nor enjoy.
As it happens, Tesco has also published its official response today. And it’s no surprise to see them highlight that ‘Tesco has suggested to the Department of Work and Pensions that, to avoid any misunderstanding about the voluntary nature of the scheme, the risk of losing benefits that currently exists should be removed,’ not least because this has been previously reported. They are also offering an alternative scheme by which jobseekers will be ‘paid by Tesco for the four-week placement, with a guaranteed permanent job at the end of it, provided they complete the placement satisfactorily.’
So will the government follow Tesco’s suggestion, and remove the risk of losing benefits? For all of IDS’s unwavering prose today, I’d be surprised if they didn’t. As our own Martin Bright has pointed out, these schemes rely on the good will of employers. If that good will isn’t maintained, then even the most worthwhile schemes — and this Work Experience scheme is fundamentally worthwhile — can be whittled down to naught.
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