Should unemployed work for benefits

[Mr. Awesome]

Should people who are on unemployed benefits (Job seekers allowenece ect.) have to help around the community, cleaning the neighbourhood, painting walls, working at shelters, meals on wheels ect.

My opinion:

Arguments for- A cleaner community, social interaction (help prevent depression due to job loss), earning unemployed benefits, encourage people to look for jobs(people who cant be bothered to work)

Arguments against- People working for years and laid off deserve there benefits, how to police it, social stigma.

[huginnmuninn]

I think that the people who are unemployed and get benefits should work around the community to get their benefits. unless they are unabled to do anything

[TopGear]

well it's very hard to police this. Why I say that is because every situation is different. I think that it would be unfair for those who worked there ass off for years and get laid off from a job they have worked at for 20-25 years. The unemployed pool is soo diverse from people with Ph.D's to people with just a high school degree. So would it be fair for the person that has the Ph.D's that now they have to work for benefits. I would be pissed.

[foot soldier]

I am all for unemployment benefits. They are a necessary thing, however, they have a tendency to get abused. In my own opinion, I believe they should be given out freely to an extent. At some point however they need to be either cut back or cut out because I think the extended dish of free funds for no work is unhealthy for not only the individual but for the community as it introduces the idea that one can be rewarded for unemployment and therefore could possibly encourage persons to live in poverty simply because they can or because of their own laziness. But if one is actively searching for a job, they should be allowed to to just that, not be penalized with frivolous work and jobs that could take away from the time they could spend searching out lasting occupation.

[Amnesiac]

well it's very hard to police this. Why I say that is because every situation is different. I think that it would be unfair for those who worked there ass off for years and get laid off from a job they have worked at for 20-25 years. The unemployed pool is soo diverse from people with Ph.D's to people with just a high school degree. So would it be fair for the person that has the Ph.D's that now they have to work for benefits. I would be pissed.

I have to agree with this, it really depends on the situation at hand.

[CairAndros]

In the UK we have had a massive overhaul of our benefits system recently in order to tackle our budget deficit.

Before this overhaul, and indeed still because the overhaul is just over a week old and most of the measures are still being implemented and the necessary checks done on the people claiming them etc, we had a culture of people who would claim benefits because they paid decent money and it was indeed encouraging laziness.

Now, the benefits have been around for over 100 years in Britain but they used to have a social stigma attached to them that if you accepted them then you were accepting charity and that was a bad thing etc - the whole pride idea coming into play - and this was the case up until the 1980's/90's.

Since then we have had a generation or two of people surviving solely on benefits - whether it is unemployment or housing or falsely claiming disability benefits.

Now, I am all for helping people who are unemployed that have been laid off or are trying to find a job. I am all for helping people who have a disability and need the money to live because they can't get a job due to their disability. I am all for helping families that need help with housing because that is what we do as civilised human beings. However I am totally against giving money to people who just sit on their back ends all day and refuse to go look for a job or who have never worked a day in their lives. That has to stop and that is what I would hate to see develop in America.

As for the policing of benefits; a simple means test system could be put into place where a persons employment records are checked to see whether they have been working before and been paid off or set up a system with employment centers that requires the person on benefits to come to that center and actively look for a job and fill out application forms and go for interviews etc - that way they are earning their benefits without having to earn a social stigma of working out in the community like those that have been giving community service terms; why make unemployed people look like criminals when the only 'crime' they are guilty of is being paid off from their job during a tough economic time.