Rules on work experience changed after threats from major employers The government abandoned a central plank of its work experience scheme on Wednesday when it was forced to bow to pressure from businesses to drop benefit sanctions against young people on the programme. Amid threats from some of Britain’s largest employers that they would withdraw from the scheme, which has been criticised for exploiting young people, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that participants would now keep their benefits even if they left a placement. The announcement by Chris Grayling, the employment minister, came after business leaders raised concerns that involvement in the voluntary work experience scheme was damaging their reputations. Participants in the scheme, which offers 16- to 24-year-olds eight weeks of work experience, receive their benefits while on the scheme. Until the government’s change of heart, they would have lost two weeks’ jobseeker’s allowance if they withdrew after a week. In a statement issued by the DWP, which announced that Airbus, Center Parcs and HP Enterprise Services were joining the scheme, Grayling claimed the “sanction regime” would remain in place, because participants would lose their benefits if they were guilty of gross misconduct. Grayling had earlier acknowledged the change, but later issued the carefully worded statement amid unease from Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, over dropping the sanctions. News of the change was conveyed by Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnardo’s, one of those who attended a 90-minute meeting with Grayling to discuss the scheme. She told Channel 4 News: “Two things that have come out of it are really important. One is the removal of sanctions for anyone at any time if they leave this voluntary work experience scheme, to make sure we understand it is completely voluntary. “The second thing that Barnardo’s proposed is that we produce a young person’s guide to work experience, so they understand what is expected of them.” Grayling acknowledged that the sanctions had been withdrawn. He said: “The employers said to us: ‘Look we would like to modify it. At the moment you’ve got a situation where people can leave voluntarily after the first week. We would like them to be able to sit down later with us in the work placement if it is not working out and say we want to opt out.’ We thought that was reasonable. We want to keep the scheme going. It is a positive scheme for young people and so we said fine, we will accept that.” The government’s change of heart, which follows a series of investigations by the Guardian into the work placements, came shortly after David Cameron denounced as “Trotskyites” some of those campaigning against the scheme. “It is time for businesses in Britain, and everyone in Britain who wants to see people have work experience, to stand up against the Trotskyites of the Right to Work campaign, and perhaps recognise the deafening silence there has been from the Labour party,” he told MPs. However, the prime minister was forced to announce a review of Whitehall procedures over the appointment of Emma Harrison, the former chair of A4e, as his troubled families tsar. Some employees of her company, which finds work for the long-term unemployed in the separate Work Programme, were subject to a fraud investigation before her appointment. There is no suggestion that Harrison did anything wrong. “I am concerned that subsequent to Emma Harrison’s appointment, information needed to be passed up the line to ministers more rapidly,” he said, announcing that the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, would review Whitehall guidelines. His move came hours before the government’s flagship welfare reform bill passed all its stages in parliament after a bumpy ride in the House of Lords. The bill will introduce a blanket £26,000 cap on household welfare benefits and lead to the introduction of Duncan Smith’s universal credit, which wraps most benefits into one payment. The prime minister said: “Past governments have talked about reform, while watching the benefits bill sky rocket and generations languish on the dole and dependency. This government is delivering it. Our new law will mark the end of the culture that said a life on benefits was an acceptable alternative to work.” Grayling amended the rules for the voluntary work scheme, which falls outside the new bill, after business leaders expressed their frustration to him in their 90 minute meeting. One executive, who was present but asked to remain nameless, said: “They were not angry with Grayling himself, but they were very concerned that they had been trying to do ‘the right thing’ for unemployed youngsters and yet it had turned into bad publicity. The protests were threatening to damage the reputations of their businesses and undermine morale among their existing staff through accusations that working for some employers was ‘not a real job’.” Some of the large supermarkets were particularly vociferous, added the executive, who said there was a feeling that the debate had been lost by the DWP to protesters in the media. “Most people at the meeting told Grayling they supported the general scheme and said their local managers got positive feedback from the youngsters, but they made clear the government had to make changes to it or they would be forced to pull out.” Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said: “We welcome the government’s climbdown on the use of sanctions in work experience. Of course proper work experience can be useful and helpful for many young people, but it needs to be designed to help the young person, not provide free labour for employers or displace paid staff. Making absolutely clear that it is voluntary at all times will help safeguard against abuse.” Grayling denied he had caved in to the “Trotskyists”, saying: “The real argument of the Trotskyist is that unpaid work experience is wrong, and is denying people the right to work; they are wrong.” Grayling pointed out that only 220 participants in the scheme had had their benefits withdrawn. This sanction was at the discretion of jobcentre staff. Critics of Grayling and the DWP will say that they should have acted earlier to get rid of any accusation that the scheme amounted to “workfare”, since he has been under pressure from employers for more than a week on the issue. Mark Dunk, from the Right to Work campaign, said: “The dropping of sanctions for the work-experience scam is one battle won, but the wider fight goes on. Forced unpaid work still continues in the form of the mandatory work activity and community activity programme. We demand that the government immediately drops not just one of its forced labour schemes [but] all of them. “There should not be any young person anywhere forced to work for no pay. Everyone on any training scheme should receive minimum wage or above. We demand real jobs now for all.” Katja Hall, the CBI’s chief policy director, said: “It’s good to hear that many more employers are signing up to give young people a chance to get experience of work.” “Gaining hands-on experience of the workplace is vital to giving young jobseekers a foot in the door, and it can make such a difference when they are applying for interviews. The advantage of this scheme is that they gain work experience while remaining on benefits.” Welfare Benefits Chris Grayling Young people Job losses Economic policy Patrick Wintour Nicholas Watt Shiv Malik guardian.co.uk
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Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will ‘guide nation to peace’ North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests and uranium enrichment, and submit to international monitoring, in return for US food aid. Washington described the deal, which breaks with the US’s previous assertion that large-scale deliveries of food are not tied to North Korea curbing its nuclear programme, as “important, if limited”. Under the agreement, which was hammered out in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launche. It will also allow the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were forced to leave North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor three years ago. For its part, the US will provide 240,000 tonnes of food for the first time since deliveries were suspended in 2009. Washington also affirmed it does not have hostile intentions toward North Korea and is prepared to take steps to improve relations. Diplomats said it was an important move in assuring Pyongyang the US is not intent on bringing down the communist regime. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was cautious in her description of the agreement to a congressional committee on Wednesday. “The United States still has profound concerns, but on the occasion of Kim Jong-il’s death, I said that it is our hope that the new leadership will choose to guide their nation on to the path of peace by living up to its obligations. “Today’s announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction. We, of course, will be watching closely and judging North Korea’s new leaders by their actions,” she said. “This is just one more reminder that the world is transforming around us, from Arab revolutions to the rise of new economic powers to a more dispersed but still dangerous al-Qaida terrorist network to nuclear diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.” Clinton said the aid would be subject to “intensive monitoring” to ensure food supplies reach those who most need it. Until now Washington has insisted food aid to North Korea was not linked to its nuclear programme. But on Tuesday, Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the US Pacific fleet, told a Senate committee that preconditions for food assistance “now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon”. “There are conditions that are going along with the negotiations with regard to the extent of food aid,” he said. There are differing opinions over whether the deal marks a breakthrough in western relations with North Korea following the death in December of Kim Jong-il and the rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-un, or whether it is a short term attempt by Pyongyang to alleviate a food crisis. North Korea has battled to feed its population since a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people. Aid agencies say the food situation has again deteriorated after a harsh winter hit harvests. George Lopez, professor of peace studies at Notre Dame university who served on the UN panel of experts for North Korea until last year, said the agreement “indicates we have turned a new page with the North Koreans”. “First, the moratorium will be monitored by the return of IAEA inspectors, which is a significant move to nuclear transparency and stability. Secondly, the delivery of large amounts of nutritional foodstuffs sets a tone for other nations to respond to North Korean needs – it is an important confidence building measure,” he said. “Finally, the US has reaffirmed the armistice agreement as a platform for peace and has essentially provided a non-aggression pledge, both important to the North. History shows that nations never fully denuclearise without a public non-aggression pledge from their foes.” In 2005, North Korea reached a deal with the US, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in return for economic aid and other incentives. But the deal fell apart with some blaming Washington for being reluctant to follow through. The following year, North Korea tested a nuclear bomb. Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University said the latest agreement “shows the logjam has been broken between the US and North Korea”. “We have seen it before but the timing is significant; it is so soon after Kim Jong-il’s death. Whatever the shifting factions are, it shows the ones who want to push for peaceful compromise have the upper hand,” she said. “It looks like this small space has been used on both sides to open up a dialogue and I think that’s very positive. The US is talking about a quarter of a million tonnes of food: that is not a token amount like 10 or 20,000 tonnes. It is a diplomatic sign. It is a pretty big gesture by the US if they go through with it all.” She added that the South Korean elections were also likely to reduce tensions. Relations on the peninsula deteriorated sharply after the President Lee Myung-bak took office and ended his predecessor’s policy of free-flowing aid. Others were less optimistic, stressing the agreement’s similarity to previous deals that failed to improve relations in the long term. “History repeats itself … There were nuclear inspectors on site in 2002 and 2007,” said James Hoare, a former British chargé d’affaires in Pyongyang. “People suddenly think it’s all different. Anything that leads to some sort of movement is positive, but there will be lots of voices in the US saying, ‘Come on, we have been there before and you can’t trust them; they broke the agreement last time’ – though my view is that it was the Americans.” Hoare said he thought Pyongyang was keen to secure a source of food ahead of the celebrations in April to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the new leader’s grandfather, revered in North Korea as the country’s founder. Pyongyang has heralded 2012 as the year when the country becomes a “strong and prosperous nation”. North Korea Nuclear weapons International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chris McGreal Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Davy Jones, a former actor turned singer who helped propel the TV rock band The Monkees to the top of the pop charts and into rock `n’ roll history, died Wednesday in Florida. He was 66. Jones, lead singer of the 1960s group that was assembled as an American version of the Beatles, died of a massive heart attack in Indiantown where he lived, his publicist Helen Kensick… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 07/11/2010 03:53 Number of articles : 14
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In these modern times of Facebook, Twitter, and unlimited text messaging phone plans, you can be in constant communication with your friends and fans. People text in movie theaters, in class and whether or not they should be, people even text while driving. Up until now though, no one was tweeting from the driver’s seat
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