Businesses Force Government U-Turn On Work Experience Schemes

The government have been forced into dropping the use of benefit sanctions in their work experience schemes as a result of pressure from the businesses involved in the programme.

After threats that some of Britain’s largest employers would leave the scheme the Department for Work and Pensions announced that the threat of losing benefits would no longer be used. Young people participating in the programme will no longer lose their benefits should they chose to leave a placement.

In a statement issued by the DWP, employment minister Chris Grayling, said the ‘sanction regime’ would still exist for participants of the scheme guilty of gross misconduct. This came after Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, raised concerns over the dropping of sanctions.

Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnado’s, was one of a number of people who attended a 90-minute meeting with Grayling to discuss the scheme. Afterwards she said, "Two things that have come out of it are really important. One is the removal of sanctions for anyone at any time if they leave this voluntary work experience scheme, to make sure we understand it is completely voluntary.

The second thing that Barnardo's proposed is that we produce a young person's guide to work experience, so they understand what is expected of them."

After the meeting Grayling added: "The employers said to us: 'Look we would like to modify it. At the moment you've got a situation where people can leave voluntarily after the first week. We would like them to be able to sit down later with us in the work placement if it is not working out and say we want to opt out.' We thought that was reasonable. We want to keep the scheme going. It is a positive scheme for young people and so we said fine, we will accept that."

The governments u-turn comes after David Cameron had described some of those campaigning against the scheme as ‘Trotskyites’.

“It is time for businesses in Britain, and everyone in Britain who wants to see people have work experience, to stand up against the Trotskyites of the Right to Work campaign, and perhaps recognise the deafening silence there has been from the Labour party," he told MPs.

An unnamed source who attended the meeting between businesses and Grayling said: "They were not angry with Grayling himself, but they were very concerned that they had been trying to do 'the right thing' for unemployed youngsters and yet it had turned into bad publicity. The protests were threatening to damage the reputations of their businesses and undermine morale among their existing staff through accusations that working for some employers was 'not a real job'."

Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said: "We welcome the government's climb-down on the use of sanctions in work experience. Of course proper work experience can be useful and helpful for many young people, but it needs to be designed to help the young person, not provide free labour for employers or displace paid staff.

Right to Work campaigner Mark Dunk said: "The dropping of sanctions for the work-experience scam is one battle won, but the wider fight goes on. Forced unpaid work still continues in the form of the mandatory work activity and community activity programme. We demand that the government immediately drops not just one of its forced labour schemes [but] all of them.

There should not be any young person anywhere forced to work for no pay. Everyone on any training scheme should receive minimum wage or above. We demand real jobs now for all."

(H/GK)