New government proposals today which could force benefit claimants in the UK to undertake unpaid manual labour are a timely step in the right direction if you ask me.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith’s plan to make long-term dole claimants take up four-week unpaid placements of up to 30 hours of week where they can “experience the habits and routines of working life” could in an instant improve British efficiency, giving the coalition government another string to their bow instead of wholesale public sector cutbacks.

Clearing litter, is among the ‘work experience’ jobs being proposed and this Westminster political mission statement is just the tonic for de-voiding the UK of dishonest benefit seekers who are costing the state an absolute fortune.

Claimant’s choices not to work through a list of excuses just shouldn’t be heard especially when working class people are fighting tooth and nail through this recession to keep their heads above water.

Adults who have never worked a working day in their lifetime need to be coached as to what a working day consists of, how money for the most part does not just get given out on a whim and how now is the time where scrounging off of the UK state is not acceptable, with individuals needing to accept their role to try and find work, help an ailing economy and to ‘do their bit’ for their family and future generations.

Obviously, these proposals have received a backlash off of opposition party Labour, whose Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Douglas Alexander claims the plans will only create a higher welfare bill for the UK, where claimants could possibly become affected by the insecurity of temporary work placements and no immediate job security.

Alexander’s views do highlight several risks if the offer is approved in the House of Commons; however the initiative is a way to get Britain moving again so people are less dependent on handouts they receive from the government. A chance worth taking.

A crucial step in the right direction? I believe it is, as we all knew the axe would be wielded on many, not just one, in Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review.

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