Back to work — or else

UK: Britain's government has a plan to get unemployed people back to work. They will have to take unpaid jobs or risk losing their benefits.

The proposal being presented by the UK Department for Work and Pensions is aimed at jobless people who may need a push to get back into the daily "habits and routine of working life". Those getting benefits must work a 30-hour week in community service for four weeks, or they could see their £65 per week Jobseekers Allowance stopped for up to three months.

With the new Work Activity Scheme, the government hopes to reduce the £190 billion in welfare payments it makes every year. At the same time, the aim is to break what it calls the "habit of worklessness". Under the proposal, the current welfare payment system will be replaced with so-called "universal credits" for work activity. These are intended to make sure that it always pays to work rather than to collect welfare for doing nothing.

Critics say the plan does nothing to create jobs, and that there are currently at least five applicants for every open position. Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams of the Church of England told the BBC that many people who are out of work are already deeply uncertain. "People are often in this starting place, not because they're wicked, stupid or lazy, but because their circumstances are against them," Williams said.

Rowan Williams

"People without jobs are not wicked, stupid or lazy."

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander defended the scheme, saying it aims to "support and help" the jobless, and to give people a chance to demonstrate their employability to prospective employers.