The present welfare system, by the way it operates, does not encourage the individual to improve their self respect or financial independence but does the very opposite.

It endeavours to cover every aspect of our social problems and allocate benefits down to the minutest level and by its very nature is wide open to fraud and abuse. Many people not getting what is due to them, but a greater number obtaining benefits to which they are not entitled in spite of a great deal of time and effort spent on trying to police it.

So a system to replace this would set out clear rules to ensure that no individual has any reason to suffer poverty. It would be simple and straightforward, with no opportunity for fraud to take place and so designed to make it advantageous to the individual to improve their lifestyle by their own efforts while accepting their social responsibilities.The most efficient way to change the present system to incorporate these ideals would be to dispense with unemployment and welfare benefits, and to replace them with a single entitlement which could be called “Underemployment Entitlement”

This entitlement would be available to all, whatever their circumstances and would be the only benefit available. It would be an entitlement available to everyone without exception and without time limit or other retractions and would be paid weekly on the number of days credited. There would be no other benefit available and no other option for claiming on the state.
 

 For practical purposes it would be set at a level in the region of, say, 80% of the present minimum wage and to last indefinitely. Everyone who would apply for the entitlement would be required to perform a designated work task for the hours of the working week at that time. They would be paid weekly for the number of days that they worked on a daily basis during the week.
 

Such a system would obviously not be able to take into account every person’s needs to the finest detail. It would not be possible, desirable or necessary to do so because, due to the tremendous improvements in efficiency that this would bring and with the incentive to further improve their own circumstances, everyone would be above the existing poverty level to a varying degree.

There would be no allowance for opting out. If they did not attend then it would be deemed that they did not require this entitlement.
 

Single parents would have the same entitlement under the same conditions as anyone else, but the children would be taken care of in a crèche during the working hours, for a small charge. Likewise the long term but not chronic sick would claim the same entitlement under the same conditions with the same requirements. Each individual would be assessed and placed according to their abilities and where their skills and abilities could be most usefully employed. Everyone would be required to do something productive for society apart from pensioners and the chronic physically and the mentally ill who would receive the full care and attention that they require.
 

Thus it can be shown that, with good care and taking into account all that has been said, the present welfare system, would be replaced by one that would be efficient while providing a guaranteed safety net for all.No person would fall below the poverty level while everyone who is capable of contributing to society would have the opportunity and obligation to do so. The rest of the community would be able to see that it is fair, and it would raise the self esteem of the participants while encouraging them to consider their long term future.

There would be no possibility for double claiming of the benefit and because the claimants would be fully occupied during the day, the opportunity for unsocial behaviour would be reduced.

All the claimants for this entitlement would be available for work on the open job market and because the rate would be set below the minimum basic rate there would be a constant incentive for them to move from “Underemployment Entitlement” into the normal working environment.
 

The jobs that would be created for the underemployed would essentially be base load jobs that are not performed at present because it is deemed that there are insufficient funds available, or where it is considered that the work would be uneconomic even though it may be desirable, such as social, environmental, capital and recycling projects within the local community. However it would always be the objective of the scheme to move the claimants from “underemployed work” into better paid employed work in the mainstream economy.
 

For the system to work efficiently it needs to be simple, straightforward and as local as possible, at the local Community Council Office from where it would be administered and where a list would be kept of work that needs to be done. Local utilities and other bodies would be encouraged to think in the long term by setting out rolling programmes for labour intensive work, and if suitable they would then be assigned the manpower required, it being paid for out of the Government funds.

Social care in the community is one of the areas that could make good use of this pool of labour to benefit society in a positive way by providing additional care for the aged, chronic sick and mentally ill. Help in cleaning maintaining and decorating their homes and gardens, in washing, shopping and comforting, while providing companionship and assistance to those who are presently living in a society without the backup they ideally need. So an integral part of the system would be that day care centres be set up in the many existing buildings that are suitable and those that are sick would be encouraged to attend so that they can be assisted back to health or to assist others in the centre, and this would aid in healing and in the personal wellbeing of those required to take part.
 

The intention would also be to reactivate the community cottage hospitals and so make available facilities to enable local communities to provide care for their residents who are presently in hospital, but no longer in need of the specialist care provided by the regional hospitals, or who are occupying a bed in the regional hospital because there is presently no other facility available to provide for them during their convalescence.

Some of the other areas where the underemployed could make a significant contribution, within the environment:
 

Additional help would be provided for cleaning and maintenance in municipal car parks, parks, gardens, and cemeteries

Labour could be employed to raise the standard of litter control.

Maintenance and marking of footpaths.

Provision of cycle lanes.

The extention and provision of additional cycle paths.

Protection of endangered species.

Vermin control.

Cleaning of rivers and canals.

Tree planting and woodland management.

Care of historic buildings and sites.

Assistance for the RSPCA and RSPB.

The control or elimination of invasive species

This list could go on and on.
 

All this work could and should be done but it is not, because it is considered uneconomic or the funds are not available, yet these very funds that could be used are instead used to pay people to do nothing and this encourages sloth, lowers self esteem while promoting crime and fraud.

Another area where a vast amount of labour could be usefully employed is in the recycling of materials. The UK is lamentably behind in this field and a change of policy in this way would inevitably improve the situation, for the world has finite resources yet the demand for these grows continuously. 

The effort spent on recycling of materials is minimal and common sense dictates that this has got to change, for a resource crisis is upon us while the environmental situation spirals out of control.

These recycling systems could be set up by each local community, in the many buildings that are now empty. Paper, metal, glass and plastic, are just some of the many materials that could be recycled from domestic, commercial and industrial refuse, also the labour could be used for the “complete” dismantling and recycling of fridges and freezers, batteries and automobiles.
 

A system could be brought in that would require a manufacturer, selling a product contained in a tin, glass or plastic container, to charge an additional percentage on the product and this would be paid to the government as an environmental deposit. Or manufacturers could organize their own retrieval system, so encouraging them to consider the end use of their product and packaging materials.

 A similar requirement could be made for manufacturers, to buy back their products for a set percentage of the original sale value. It would then be up to them whether they organize a reclamation scheme of their own, (and so encourage them to build their products with eventual recycling in mind), or pay the recycling centres to do it for them.

 Either way it is good for the economy, the environment, and additional jobs.
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Education.

 In the last fifty years there has been a raft of changes for teachers and pupils that have all been designed to remove responsibility for success or failure. Clear-cut rules have been replaced by shifting sands of ever changing policies which have destroyed a system that was once the envy of the world. Teachers have become disillusioned and have lost the respect they once had as a profession, this is because they are trying to teach under a system that is not based on truth and is not based on morality, but on a pseudo morality. You will get the results dependant of the actions you take and this is the case in education today.

Unfortunately, but predictably, many children that are leaving school today are basically illiterate and innumerate. Others have qualifications that have been devalued by their very commonness.

If you award every child a GCSE then what is the point. It has no value. A prospective employer will look at it and toss it to one side. Degrees are common, A levels are plentiful, and this has left employers with little option but to ignore academic qualifications and to set tests of their own to try and find out for themselves if applicants have the attributes they require  that the current system has failed to develop.

 In this situation a degree can even be a disadvantage to an individual, because it may signify a person who has taken the easiest option, yet has the highest expectations.

 

Continued ....