Let’s be honest - who of us hasn’t at some
point in their lives faced the prospect of unemployment? If at no other time in
our lives, as school leavers we do. At that point we just don’t know if we will
make the grade or not. This is all the more likely when there is a national or
global economic crisis or recession. In the last two years alone I have had go
through the process of seeing through redundancies of fabulous staff in my role
as a manager and been made redundant myself. Additionally, I have heard news of
former colleagues from years ago of all ranks being made redundant too.
No one, I hope, likes redundancies – they
are not pleasant processes to have to go through whether you are a manager
implementing that painful decision, or a member of staff being made redundant.
It should be (and usually is) a business decision not a personal slight which is
of some comfort, especially when outside influences and not mismanagement has
led to it.
There are in the UK employment laws and
guidelines to follow - affected staff must be allowed time to seek alternative
work and go for interviews and you cannot then hire new staff to take their
place to do the same job. Nor are you allowed to use volunteers to do work that
would normally be covered by a paid position, but we all know it happens. The
ethics behind that I believe to be right but the realities of the working world
mean that it can be of enormous help to both parties for volunteering to cover
the essentials. In rosier times, the hope is that those volunteers,
having gained work experience, will be offered a paid position as a result of
their efforts - although not everyone wants to be paid.
There is no point talking about
unemployment though without understanding some realities the unemployed are
facing - many of whom maybe friends, relatives and former colleagues of yours
by now.
The realities of being unemployed
For those of you who have never been
through the benefit system here is a brief outline of what others may be going
through or have been through in order to secure work.
Firstly the amount you receive is
determined by National Insurance contributions for the two types of Jobseekers
Allowance. There used to be a crossover for top-ups if you had a medical
condition or disability via Incapacity Benefits. More commonly now you are
either on one or the other. Housing (Council Tax) can be covered
subject to meeting criteria and you don’t have to pay it back. It’s part of
what we pay our taxes for – to help people through hard times so that they CAN
get back on their feet and make contributions again when they secure
work. So far, so good but...
If you are a homeowner, unless you took
out insurance against unemployment only the interest of your mortgage will be
paid (up to a certain level and subject to meeting criteria) and even then it
is only for a maximum of two years. Generally speaking home buyers have made
additional contributions because they took out a mortgage, but not apparently
to receive the same level of support if they hit hard times or indeed for as
long.
However... all benefit claimants also get
assistance with free prescriptions for most medical conditions, (not all) and further
assistance is sometimes available for medical and other emergencies, even
funeral costs (subject to criteria).
What you don’t get is additional money for
utilities, food or clothing except in dire emergency. Basic benefits per week I
believe on average to be £65.00 - that is the maximum you can be paid (it does
go up by a couple of pounds after you've been deemed to be long-term unemployed
(i.e. without work for six months or more). There are variations to this amount
dependent on marital status, dependents and circumstances - hence the benefit
fraudsters we hear about who capitalise on that.
You can sometimes get assistance from the
utility companies if they run such schemes and have
money in the kitty to assist in emergencies (again dependent on criteria).
There are too emergency benefits (e.g. Crisis Loans and Social Fund). These are
usually in the form of repayable loans and payment usually starts (as far as I
can fathom) immediately and are deducted at source thereby reducing the
fortnightly sum of £130 further.
You DO NOT get additional money for
internet connection, phone bills, envelopes and paper and postage when applying
for work although there are things that help with that. The cost of running a
car is also not covered.
To their credit the Job Centre does pay
for travel expenses for interviews even retrospectively now so long as it’s
provable and so long as the interview is over 15 miles from your home. It will
also help with travel expenses all the way up to you receiving your first
payment from a new employer. I happen to think the business world should do
their bit to help the economy by paying new staff after their first week’s
work. Cash flow may prevent it in all cases but none of us want to be
paying more tax to facilitate those travel expenses do we?
Without the government's intervention though, a lot of people simply cannot
afford to even get to an interview.
A brief recap of the ethos behind welfare
support
Initially the benefits system started to
help UK citizens through times of extreme crisis to prevent starvation and
homelessness and that is all. Its origins started in 19th Century
with Victorian philanthropists not in the 20th Century as many
suppose (you could argue it was earlier than that).
In the 20th Century the
welfare system formed and has since undergone many changes and had many
restructures to government departments to run it - in my lifetime, from the
DHSS (Department of Health and Social Services) to the DWP (Department of Work
and Pensions). This latest incarnation says it all... the deal is that if you
need assistance you MUST be trying your best to seek employment no matter what
your circumstances are, regardless even of disabilities. There has
never been any significant increase in benefits to cover the costs of job
seeking or to help facilitate it except via Employment Adviser Services.
Welfare to Work Services
Welfare to Work and Employment Advice
Services are in main contracted by the DWP. Most help by providing clunky old
PCs, intermittent internet connections, a couple of phones (in usually an open
plan office), envelopes, paper and postage. They provide sterling advice
services and guidance for the unemployed to help them to get the most of job
searches, assist with CVs, cover letters, applications and interviews. All
people need to do is ask at their local job centre to access it. Each advice service is paid £14,000 per benefit claimant.
Most if not all work on a target basis set by the DWP
so have little time for morale and motivation boosting prior to job search
activities (hence additional services supplied by many charities, social
enterprises and some private companies). Some of these target based organisations
have failed during this recession because they didn't meet those targets. It
begs the question - is some help is better than none particularly when demand
for such services is, if anything, increasing according to recent reports? Is it perhaps a tad unfair to hold these service providers responsible for the
effects of a recession? Then again, the government needs to ensure every penny
it spends is spent wisely and effectively.
The poverty trap
On the thankfully few occasions I have
been on benefits I can honestly say that the vast majority of job seekers are
honest people who want to be employed and not professional fraudsters who have
no intention of securing legitimate work ever. It is therefore grossly unfair
to criminalise and stigmatise the unemployed as a whole as aside from being
extremely unhelpful – how does that solve the problem?
The most difficult issue by far is whether
or not people will be better
off for working. Often part-time work results in benefits being
deducted penny for penny after the first £5-£20 is earned (dependent on
circumstances). In most cases this meagre amount would not cover the travel
expenses to get to work. The government has introduced the Back to Work
Calculation and Tax Credits to assist, but frankly it isn’t enough. Rumour has
it that new initiatives will be brought in next year - what they will be I
haven’t a clue but I'm not hopeful.
The domino effect
In the last couple of years this economic
crisis has seen many high ranking managers, company directors and even CEOs be
made redundant; there are cases where they have become job seekers voluntarily
resigning to ensure their organisations survive the recession and to save lower paid staff their jobs. Some have gone
on to secure new positions at a lower level and at substantially reduced
salaries. The knock on effect of that is that lower ranking managers end up
taking the jobs normally taken by supervisors etc until in the end it hits the
unskilled labour level or those looking for their very first job opportunity.
Compounding that are the recruiters and HR
departments who are asking for more and more qualifications, skills and
experience to help them shortlist (aside from anything else). This domino
effect isn't unique to a recession but it certain escalates during one.
Another good initiative from the
government did come in the form of apprenticeships and some funds for training but the latest indications are that they are likely to be cut now.
Other ideas to resolve unemployment include more job-share opportunities, more
jobs at lower salaries and quite simply short-listing according to what skills
are required instead of on qualifications or even experience. I personally like
the job-share idea best and more people being employed on a contract basis. In
these uncertain times, businesses would do well not to over commit by offering
contracts for over a year - nothing to stop them being reviewed and renewed
though. With more short-term contracts the prospect of everyone getting some financially viable employment
increases in my opinion.
An appeal to the business community
My real reason for writing this article is
to inform the business community to prompt it to think about what it can do to
ease the burden of vast numbers of unemployed people, as it helps no one, (nor
the economy), to have people unemployed.
Heaven knows how complex it is for the DWP
to overhaul the current system, but it certainly needs it. What hasn’t helped
is successive governments scrapping what their predecessors have put in place
that was working. Would that they displayed a more
businesslike approach and collaborated to find the right solutions to sort this
once and for all. A joint effort from all political parties on this issue might
just achieve that, I think. Unlikely to happen though, I fear.
Finally...
If you are experiencing any difficulty at
all related to unemployment the Job Centres have information of local support
agencies which are there to help you. Failing that there are the CABs
(Citizen’s Advice Bureaus) - they are a charity and therefore reliant on
donations etc for funding. Those working could help with either donations or by
volunteering as advisers (if you have time to spare) as the CAB strives to
provide information on the professional services out there for anything people may need a hand with.
The CAB does not help with looking for
work. Instead google 'Welfare
to Work', 'Employment
Advice' and 'Careers Advice' services if ever you are stuck
or indeed if you want to change your job. Any one of them should be able to
list all local recruitment agencies as well as general and industry specific
on-line sites where you can upload your CV and get job-alerts by email. If
they don't... find another that does. That search also lists specific sources
of help if you suffer from any form of disability although the Job Centres
themselves will happily connect you to the local services they know of.
Hope it helps.
