Benefit Busters

[mountainboo]

Has anyone been watching this, if so what are your thoughts?

[annie0000]

Saw a bit of it last night for the first time - I guess I have never been in that situation, but it seems that as a society we have gotten something far wrong when people are better of on benefits and where generations of families have never been in employment.

[mountainboo]

I to have never claimed benefits, but if I had, I would certainly not willingly go to that company. Most of the people that work there have come accross as extremely condescending and rude.

The guy that got the job at the landscape company seemed to me to be quite genuine and eager to work. But, it appears to me that A4e will happily arrange a job that is only for a few weeks, so that they can reap their bonus from the government.

[annie0000]

I got that impression as well. The founder or chairwoman or whoever she was seemed really strange - a bit like an Avon lady on drugs - god knows how she managed to get a �700m contract - she looked like she would stuggle to get a basket of shopping correct .

[annie0000]

Yes and the guy who got the job at the landscape place looked so pleased when he got the job - it obviously did his self esteem the power of good.......only to be kicked in the teeth again.

[caththecrazy]

For someone in her position she wasn't very articulate. She is maybe a wouldbe politician - liked to avoid answering the question.

I felt sorry for the landscaping guy but not so sorry for the guy with the dog and the young daughter who said his whole family were on benefits. Then said his mum had had a job or 2 for a few months once.

[~Wingnut~]

Annie! loving your description of the founder of A4e, "Avon lady on drugs" you've hit the nail on the head there lol

[barney1966]

she is Emma Harrison, a multi-millionaire business woman, apparently. She has been on reality TV programmes before.

[barney1966]

I can't believe the Government is wasting money on this company. It is little more than a scam. The company makes loads of money for all the people that go on the courses and it looks like the firms who "employ" people from the courses make money from taking them on, but they only seem to have them on part-time work or dump them after a short while.

Some of the people on the courses are just unemployable anyway.

And for people who are a little vulnerable, being treated like the guy Mark was last week could push them over the edge.

[VHG]

>I can't believe the Government is wasting money on
>this company

This is a typical example of how governments (particulalry this labour governemnt) deal with problems.

They realise there is a problem, come up with a half baked idea, throw money at it, and then realise after a while the money is being wasted.

A couple of years ago the goverment paid out loads of money to companies who said they would educate people, so much per person.

But the companies were just adding any old name and address to their database, and claiming they had educated them so they got paid.

Some companies just went out i nthe street and got the name and address of anyone who was passing and said they had educated thgem so got paid.

Loads of companies did this, and it cost the government millions in fraud.

Typical badly thought out government project.

[Buenchico]

I didn't see the programme but I've read enough about it to have a rough idea what everyone is talking about here.

I once applied for a job with a company which was engaged by the government to provide mentoring services to 'the long-term unemployed'. When I attended the interview it was explained that part of my job would be to help long-term unemployed people obtain prompt and useful feedback from an employer when they'd had a job application turned down. It was stressed that the company regarded such feedback as very important.

Well, I was one of 'the long-term unemployed' myself at the time. That government-funded company (who stated that they regarded prompt and useful feedback from employers as extremely important) then took 10 months to send me a two line rejection letter!

Chris