If you want a council house, find a job

[Morris Onions]

Up to a million people in social housing, including those on council estates, should be expected to actively seek work as a condition of their tenancy, the new housing minister, Caroline Flint, proposes today.

In her first interview since becoming housing minister, Flint told the Guardian that unemployed tenants should also undertake skills audits.

The pockets of joblessness that exist in council house areas would also be tackled by opening up more jobcentres, some run by the private sector, on the estates themselves.

She admitted she was surprised by figures showing that more than half of those of working age living in social housing are without paid work - twice the national average. Nearly three quarters of social tenants under 25 are unemployed.

The new "commitment contracts" would initially apply to new council tenants, Flint said, but could be extended to existing tenants.

It is thought to be the first time the government has proposed making a traditional social housing tenancy conditional on seeking work. However, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, has committed to a radical welfare reform package, including greater use of the private sector.

...

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2252563,00.html

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. This raises some questions in my mind, given the U.S. experience with welfare "reform"

1. Are there living-wage jobs available? Or would British poor be crowded out by Eastern European immigrants?

2. What social benefits do people lose by taking jobs? (For example, in the U.S., someone who goes off welfare can lose eligibility for free health care, subsidized day care, and food stamps or WIC coupons with only a small increase in income, so that they end up worse off than before.)

3. If there are living wage jobs available and people aren't taking them, what are the barriers to taking them? Poor education leaving people functionally illiterate, for example? A lack of work history in the family?

I think your minimum wage would have to be pretty high to compensate for the cost of living.

[T_i_B]

2. I take it that there isn't a homelessness problem in Ms Flint's constituency then.

Cos her bampot ideas will sure as heck create even more homelessness problems, and we already have far too much homelessness in thjis country as it is.