Daily Mail: Workshy to be forced to clean up the streets in bid to get them into good habits

The British government is proposing that in order for the unemployed to receive job seeker's allowance, they must do atleast 30 hours of 'volunteer' work a week in order to continue receiving benefits.

It's a little odd and confusing that the government is giving the unemployed an allowance, to fund them whilst looking for a job, yet is now proposing to take away the time that they'd spend on job seeking by actually making them do work for the money that they're receiving.

I have had brief stints on job seeker's allowance in the past, but 30 hours of work does not add up to the minimal amount received in the allowance (if complying with minimum wage), so affectively this would be the government making the unemployed do basic jobs for less than minimum wage.

I am in favour of this idea, but they shouldn't do this via the 'job seekers' department. Job Seekers Allowance and minimum wage should be scrapped entirely, and workers should be paid to the equivilent of the work that they do. There are numerous low level jobs on minimum wage where some are more worthy of the salary than the other, and those that are desperate enough for the work should be willing to do a day's hard labour to earn his keep (and that willingness would be there if they weren't getting free welfare support).

The British people really need to snap out of this material mentality, where they feel keeping up with the Jones's is a human right, and everyone should receive an equal or higher income, whether they work hard for it or not. Though poverty is something worth eradicating, the poor is not. Sadly not everyone in life can be as rich as the other, and the government and society should do more to accomodate a lower class lifestyle to be more affordable, rather than forcing the poor to have to pay to live up to a more middle class expensed lifestyle.

Materialism has gotten way too deep into the heads of Westerners. In Malaysia, you can live whatever lifestyle you want, from drinking cocktails in an expensive club, to Teh Tarik at a road side stall, as long as you have the money to afford the former. Those receiving just RM 1000 (£200) a month can still enjoy life and go out as much as those earning ten or a hundred times more, because all classes are accomodated here.

Britain needs to accept that some of its nationals are poor, and by how workshy a number of them are, damn well deserve to be. You can have what you earn, and you get what you pay for. Widescreen TVs, internet and iPads are privileges, not rights...

March 14th 2011