The current minimum wage in the United Kingdom is £6.19 per hour for persons aged twenty-one and over. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan-Smith stated during an interview on LBC’s James O’Brien show that Cait Reilly, (who challenged the governments right to force unpaid work in Poundland under threat of losing benefits), that “She was being paid for it, what do you think the taxpayer was paying her for God’s sake? Her job seekers allowance. The taxpayer is paying her wages.”
I don’t know Cait’s personal circumstances but in my own case the welfare, including housing benefit, which Iain Duncan-Smith describes as pay works out at £3.65 per hour based on assumed working week of 37.5 hours and a Job Seeker allowance of £71.00 per week. This is 41% below the legal limit for minimum wage.
Stacking shelves in Poundland requires very little in the way of training and, based on my own experience of working in a supermarket, it would only amount to a couple of hours even if it could actually be described as training.
Poundland are on to a nice little earner with the DWP boosting their profits at tax-payers expense. The more Poundland use free labour provided by the DWP the lower their wage bill and the higher their profits. The more people they take as free labour from the DWP the less need they have for paid employees (thus creating unemployment) and resulting in further costs to the DWP who now not only have to fund the free labour but also those who now have to claim benefit because Poundland no longer needs to employ them.
Welfare Sorrows
