Some defenders of the scheme would justify this as they say it gives the long-term unemployed a bit of work experience. In any case work experience is useful for one thing only - experience of work, and if no new jobs come into existence it will just be a waste of time. The main point is that, even under favourable estimates, nearly three quarters of the jobs 'created' under the plan are not new jobs at all. Tory critics are predictably saying the whole thing is just a waste of money. The Wise Group for instance has worked out that each job created could cost 14,000.
Unemployment is the biggest waste of money there has ever been.
Defenders of 'Welfare to work' reckon that even if most of the jobs created are not new, we will all benefit from the fact that an average 76 benefits will no longer have to be paid out, and every new worker will be paying an extra 13 in tax. If we accept this argument the programme should be quids in by year two. The Tory-dominated House of Commons Employment Select Committee in 1996 worked out that unemployment costs us all 24 billion, or 8,500 for every person in the country. They also castigated the civil servants for not giving them the full figures to provide a more detailed and devastating calculation as to how much unemployment is costing us all. Socialist Appeal and everyone else in the movement would regard the money as well spent if the Brown plan works and unemployment is reduced - but it won't be.