1/2 million hours of unpaid work in Local Government

Councils have used half a million hours of unpaid work through the Government’s workfare schemes, a FOI request has revealed in LG News.

Over 60% of the 271 councils responding to information requests from !Boycott Workfare” had taken on a place through the Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme in the last two years, which requires jobseekers to do unpaid work or face benefit sanctions. Only one in 14 of the 1,929 placements reported to have taken place at local authorities led to employment, the campaigning body said.