In November 2011, the Coalition announced proposals under which Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants who have not found a job once they have been through a work programme will do a 26 week placement in the community for 30 hours a week.

According to The Guardian in 2012, under the Government’s Community Action Programme, people who have been out of work for a number of years “must work for six months unpaid, including at profit-making businesses, in order to keep their benefits”. The Child Poverty Action Group said  in 1999 the government’s announcement that lone parents and the disabled would have to attend repeated advice interviews for jobs under threat of losing benefits was “a step towards a US-style workfare system”.

The Guardian newspaper further claimed in February 2012 that businesses in the UK which take staff via “work for your benefits programmes” include Sainsbury’s, Argos, Asda, Maplin, TK Maxx, Matalan, Primark, Holland & Barrett, Boots, McDonald’s, Burger King and the Arcadia Group of clothes stores. Bookstore Waterstones withdrew from the scheme in early 2012. There has, however, been concern that the scheme offends the Human Rights Act [1998]:

The high street book store Waterstones has pulled out of a government scheme that employed unpaid jobseekers in its stores after a Guardian investigation uncovered the practice at one of its outlets.

More than a dozen other high street chains have been taking on unemployed workers for weeks without pay as part of the government’sWork Experience scheme and others like it.

In a case lodged in the high court, the government has defended itself against claims that the unpaid work experience schemes are contrary toHuman Rights Act legislation on forced labour.

(source: Guardian)

There was controversy later in February 2012 following the involvement of the Tesco supermarket chain in a government workfare scheme linked to the payment of benefits. An advert appeared on the Jobseekers’ Plus website in which Tesco sought permanent workers in exchange for expenses and jobseeker’s allowance. After the advert was highlighted by users of Facebook and Twitter, the supermarket claimed its appearance was a mistake and that it was intended to be “an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a Government-led work experience scheme”. Here is one of the tweets caught in the crossfire:

A protest about this advert later caused the temporary closure of a Tesco store. Right to Work Campaign and unemployed activists protested against Tesco’s involvement in the Government’s “Workfare” Scheme, occupied a Tesco Express below Portcullis House on Bridge Street, opposite Parliament.

Clothing retailer Matalan subsequently suspended its involvement in the scheme in order to conduct a review of the terms of such placements.

Many thanks to Jamie Glenday who provided this perspective on this issue.