Personal Stories

Stories & experiences of Workfare

1. Son had to go out and buy his own black trousers and black shirt's. He worked 5days Mon Fri from 1pm - 6pm.

2. I am aware that Wrexham jobcentre routinely send people on mandatory work placements to B and M bargains in Wrexham. One person has reported that they were forced to work for free for 6 months. They are still accepting people on workfare at present and they are known throughout Wrexham as being the worst exploiter

3. This is 'voluntary' work set up by Rugby Jobcentre. They used the word 'voluntary' very loosely and gave no mention of this being 'non-mandatory' although it was marked as that. They didn't really offer much choice in doing it.They gave no choice in placement either. Had they given me a list to look at and allowed me to choose I would have been more ok with it.They seems to be trying to 'force' people into placements they have sourced locally. These are with Blue Arrow and B&M in Rugby. They have been using B&M in Rugby for more than six months and they take handfuls at a time.These placements are for 25-30 hours a week for upto 8 weeks. Far too long in my opinion.If I could do 4-16 hours a week it would be better. 11 hours at £72 JSA would be just over minimum wage so that should be the most anyone on benefits should be doing.Plus Rugby Jobcentre has said nothing about travel expenses so far. It will cost me £18.5 a week to travel into town and that is over 25% of my weekly JSA benefit

Name and Shame Data

Information from Name and Shame reports