Westminster Council should not make volunteering compulsory for benefit claimants, says CVS

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Westminster Council should not make volunteering compulsory for benefit claimants, says CVS 5

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 13 Dec 2011

Voluntary Action Westminster has welcomed Westminster Council’s new consultation on a proposed civic contract, but warned that proposals for benefit claimants to do more community work, must have no element of compulsion.

This week, Tory-run Westminster Council has launched a consultation on a civic contract, which includes a series of measures to encourage people to get more involved in their community. It suggests, for example, that volunteers in the community should receive some form of benefit for their contribution.

The consultation also proposes expecting benefit claimants to do more community-based work to help other residents while they’re in receipt of benefits.

Bernard Collier, chief executive Voluntary Action Westminster, told civilsociety.co.uk that the consultation had a lot of positive and interesting ideas, but that it would be wrong to compel benefit claimants to volunteer:

“If there is an element of compulsion it ceases to be voluntary. Therefore by definition it is not volunteering,” he said. “We will be making this clear when we respond to the consultation.”

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Peter Munro
Deputy Chairman
Borders Family History Society
14 Dec 2011

I doubt very much that forcing people to work as 'volunteers' or lose benefits would help either the claimants or the organisations taking them on.

People volunteer because they want to.

However, having been unemployed on many occasions, I found the greatest difficulty in persuading staff at the Dole Office/Unemployment Centre/Job Centre that undertaking voluntary work would not prevent me seeking paid employment. So if Westminster Council can make it easy for the unemployed to undertake voluntary work, I would strongly support that.

If it were compulsory,
How would mothers find childcare ?
Would claimants who couldn't find voluntary work lose their benefits ?

Far better to use a carrot approach - tell the long-term unemployed that if they can do 3 days a week in a charity, they'll get free use of the leisure centre, or an extra allowance, provided of course that they vet the charities and get feedback.

[Reply]

Jeremy Barker
Specialist Adviser
Scunthorpe CAB
15 Dec 2011
Response to [Peter Munro]

There is an amazing degree of ignorance among JobCentrePlus staff about the rules on doing voluntary work when claiming benefits. There is essentially no restriction on doing voluntary work and several JSA availability rules are relaxed.

To be considered available for work you have to show them is that you can take up a job with one week's notice rather than the normal requirement to do so immediately. Likewise you don't have to be able to attend an interview immediately but only on 48 hours notice.

In addition doing voluntary work will count towards seeking work if it may have improved your chances of finding a paid job.

[Reply]

Barbara
13 Dec 2011

Oh give us a break, politicians! First of all, volunteering has to be voluntary (yeah, I know... Not obvious though, apparently).

Secondly, managing volunteers (and paying their expenses where it happens) is a serious burden on every voluntary and community group - if we can't get devoted volunteers who share our mission, vision and passion for the cause we get just a bunch doing somebody a favour and there is nothing worse than that in mission-driven environment.

Charities are to accomplish their missions and bring public benefit to the people and not to be coerced to make any favours to local council (but unfortunately this is precisely what average council officer/Member thinks...) - spending precious resources on managing a lot 'volunteered' to get more involved is complete and utter misunderstanding.

I'm sure plenty of benefit claimants are happy to help in meaningful way anyway, pushing both them and charities into forced marriage is not helping anyone.

[Reply]

Peter
Volunteer
13 Dec 2011
Response to [Barbara]

Well spotted - an important point.
perhaps volunteering/charities should be split into 2 or 3 groups those that it would work for and those it would not - op-in or op-out based on charity's needs.

[Reply]

Barbara
15 Dec 2011
Response to [Peter]

It would be great if that option existed - opt-in and -out system - but experience of dealing with local authorities suggests that there would be plenty of blackmailing, cutting down grants (if still in existence), choosing preferred contractors from miraculously discovered pool of external agents and so on and so forth. Not many charities these days can afford messing with LAs for sake of their independence. How sad, how very sad...

[Reply]

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