National day of action against 'workfare' schemes

Today is the national day of action against 'workfare' schemes. Given the concern expressed about these schemes, we thought it would be useful to restate our position.

Capability Scotland does not have contracts for any 'workfare' schemes which demand that people undertake unpaid placements and, if they refuse or leave early, have benefits docked.

We also do not have any plans to undertake, or get involved with, contracts of this nature.

Checking the records across our 19 shops, we have discovered that a small number of people (less than 5) have been placed with us by companies which do have links to workfare schemes. The local shop managers were unaware of the nature of the schemes operated by these companies when they agreed to the placements.

We'll be ending those agreements, and speaking to each of those on placement to see if they would like to be offered alternative options with us.

We believe that the principles of work experience, and volunteering, give people the opportunity to learn new skills and we support anyone who wants to do so.

But we don't believe it's in the interests of people to be forced into unpaid work experience (sometimes known as mandatory work activity, or MWA) with the threat of losing benefit if they refuse or leave a scheme early;  and Capability Scotland does not support such schemes, in principle or in practice.