Forced into volunteering

Feb 13 2011 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

COMING soon to a Jobcentre near you! No, not a job, don’t be daft, but the “opportunity” to work for nothing.

An “opportunity” is how work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith described plans to encourage the unemployed to donate their time to charities.

Stalls will be set up in Jobcentre Plus offices by the Prince’s Trust and others. Volunteering to help those less fortunate than ourselves is something to be encouraged. But to do so in the context of high unemployment and at an unemployment office is rubbing salt into the wounds.

“Sorry, mate, ain’t no job today, but you can give your time for free. Next please.”

So that’s how the so-called Big Society works. Those who have a lot take away from those who have a little but still dress it up with a positive spin.

Duncan Smith said: “I am delighted this partnership will mean thousands of volunteering opportunities for jobseekers. For some it will be the chance to get some valuable experience and get skills after years without work.”

And for others it will be the chance to get some sucker to give his time without bothering with such troublesome details like pay, holidays, and pensions.

Duncan Smith and his cronies are in danger of giving volunteering a bad name.

Pushing the unemployed into potentially giving work for free when it used to be paid for – lots of charities are facing funding cuts – is a sign of the times. And the times are hard.