In a another political round of "let's say something popular", today the Labour Party have announced what they consider a major change to the way people are allocated their benefits.
Interviewed today, the Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves has said "A Labour government will introduce a basic skills test to assess all new claimants for Jobseeker's Allowance within six weeks of claiming benefits. Those who don't have the skills they need for a job will have to take up training alongside their job search or lose their benefits."
Sounds like common sense on the face of it, until of course you realise the implications of these new rules should they ever see the light of day. There are too many assumptions nowadays that without English, Maths and ICT you have no chance of gaining employment. They assume that all people with a low level of knowledge on these subjects are trying to simply scrounge benefits.
Let's take an example.
Person A is 24 years old and 18 months into an office admin job, files paper, inputs data into a computer and drinks coffee. They suddenly get made redundant, take Labours test and get a pat on the back and money every fortnight.
Person B is 48 years old, has worked in a factory for the past 10 years after being laid off from a mine. Person B loses their job because the government put the minimum wage up and the employer could not afford to keep the same level of staff. Person B did not have the best education because the Government of the time failed them yet it is a current Government that is saying they cannot have the same level of benefits because they do not have a good level of understanding in English, Maths and ICT.
To backup their plan it is said that people not automatically qualifying will be able to attend a course to improve their skills. Great for those that want to but not so good for those that will feel forced.
Nobody should be able to tell you that after all those years of paying NI that you are not entitled to receive support because you lack some of what are many skills required to work. As an employer I know that work "ethic" is probably the most important skill to learn - something many young people lack - the same people that would qualify for these benefits.
This is nothing more than another way to try and appeal to the masses because there is nothing sensible to say. Forgetting for a minute how bad the content is, it's so close to a policy already being rolled out that surely we deserve something better.
Politics should be about make changes to people's lives for the better - not forcing them to conform to a standard.
