British welfare: back to the future

Some years ago, during the reign of Tony Blair's Labour government, Agent 3 worked for the British Department of Work and Pensions. That's the state agency responsible for handing out unemployment and other "social benefits".

Being a free-enterpriser, he tells me it was one of the worst jobs he ever had. "Every day," he writes, "I had to deal with scores of people coming and demanding their 'dole' as a matter of right. The asylum-seekers were bad enough, but even worse were the able-bodied men and women who had never worked and never intended to work, but still thought the world (or at least the government) owed them a living."

Agent 3 writes this in passing along a report by AP that the new British government intends to ask the able-bodied unemployed to sweep streets, help out in community centres or mow lawns at public parks under a tougher welfare regime. This is exactly what was done in the USA and Canada in the Dirty Thirties, and it's well worth revisiting, says Walt.

Under possible reforms to the benefits system, the long-term unemployed would be not asked but ordered to carry out four weeks of unpaid work to remain eligible for their weekly welfare cheque of just over US$100. Those who refuse to take placements — which would include duties like garbage collection and gardening — would temporarily lose their benefits.

AP quotes Foreign Secetary William Hague as telling the BBC today that the plans were intended to help the jobless readjust to the culture of full-time work. According to Agent 3, that would be a real novelty for the many who are proud of being second- or even third-generation welfare recipients.

The AP story does not mention opposition to the plan, which will certainly come not just from the idlers and scroungers, but from the labour unions representing the government employees who are supposed to be the ones cleaning up the country.

The success or otherwise of the British version of "workfare" will be watched closely by the American and Canadian government, or so one hopes. Walt's advice: invest in companies manufacturing picks and shovels.