That this House is concerned about the proposals made in the first clause in the Welfare Reform Bill relating to work for your benefits schemes, which give powers to introduce mandatory full-time work experience pilots from 2010 and will require some jobseekers to engage for up to six weeks in a programme of full-time community-based work experience, claiming that this will enable claimants to build up work habits and practical experience; notes that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) defines workfare as programmes that have the aim to improve the employability and work habits of participants and that enforce the reciprocal responsibilities of those receiving social assistance through taking part in activities of benefit to the wider community; further notes the DWP research report published in 2008 examining the impact of workfare schemes that mandate participation in unpaid work activities as a condition of receiving social assistance which found that workfare has a deterrent effect that stops people claiming or encourages people to leave welfare schemes before the workfare stage; further notes that the present sum of ??60.50 per week Jobseeker's Allowance equates to ??1.73 per hour for a 35 hour week of full-time mandatory activity; and therefore calls on the Government to make work for your benefits schemes voluntary.

That this House is concerned about the proposals made in the first clause in the Welfare Reform Bill relating to work for your benefits schemes, which give powers to introduce mandatory full-time work experience pilots from 2010 and will require some jobseekers to engage for up to six weeks in...

That this House, noting the unanimous second report of the Employment Committee on Right to Work/Workfare, House of Commons Paper No. 82 of Session 1995-96, which recommended that a pilot right to work scheme should be instituted forthwith and urgent consideration should be given to providing a nationwide Workstart programme, calls on Her Majesty's Government to implement all the proposals contained within the report, and to make an urgent evaluation of the entire scheme set out in the Right to Work Bill of July 1995, which is designed to eliminate unemployment, increase human happiness and sense of worth, and give everybody the opportunity to earn a living; and asks Her Majesty's Government to prove or disprove the claim by the promoters of the Bill that an annual saving in public expenditure of at least ??5 billion would be achieved.

That this House, noting the unanimous second report of the Employment Committee on Right to Work/Workfare, House of Commons Paper No. 82 of Session 1995-96, which recommended that a pilot right to work scheme should be instituted forthwith and urgent consideration should be given to providing a nationwide Workstart programme,...