Question Author
I agree htc. I am not sure I would want to employ some of our long-term unemployed, especially the ones living on my housing estate !
But the option of doing nothing and getting paid for it, just isn't tenable any longer. If these long-term unemployed need extra help, then lets provide it.
Literacy, for instance, is a much worse problem in Britain today, then most people realise. I come across it on a daily basis. There is a lot that can be done, and I suppose the 30% who have benefitted from this welfare-to-work programme is an example of what can be achieved. But it isn't good enough.