Yesterday, in a much-trailed speech, Iain Duncan Smith made it clear that some claimants would be expected to spend 35 hours per week in a job centre. That means daily trips to job centres. As I said in the Assembly yesterday in questions to the First Minister, some of my constituents would have to spend more than half of their benefit on travel.
Of course, no-one should be allowed to claim benefit fraudulently. But it will be ordinary claimants who will be caught by this scheme. There aren't job centres in all communities, and that means bus or train journeys - bus journeys only in the Rhondda Fach - for most.
I am currently reading Gwyn Thomas's novel about the Rhondda in the 1930s, Sorrow for thy Sons, as part of my background research for this centenary celebration evening in the Park and Dare Theatre in Treorchy on October 24th . It was the first novel he wrote, though it wasn't published until after his death. The following passages are particularly relevant today:
The Labour Exchange was a church hall....The vicar had not demurred when the government converted the hall into a Labour Exchange. Three thousand men, drawn from a two mile radius, signed there. The vicar said that this was the finest use to which the hall had ever been put.
If this latest IDS policy is implemented, then the UK government will need local Labour Exchangees again, if it is not to force those on benefit to spend their income on travel. Well, I suppose we have a few church halls, community centres and institutes that could be used. It's back to the Thirties folks, and no exaggeration.
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