Self Employed Youth Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 I believe this has been scrapped, but it is still going for a little while longer. What do you guys think of it. £6500 paid to the employer (up to?), the employee must be paid a minimum of minimum wage, 25 hours - 37 hours per week. I'm struggling to get work at the minute, believe it or not, and I am applying for quite a few jobs too. A couple of 'real' jobs are looking promising for me, paying 18k and above, but I've also applied for some of the 37 hour FJF jobs too, as I have become eligible. The pay will be £11.4k, £1600 of which is NI and tax. I'll come out with £190 a week which is £60 more than my £130 a week (£6.6k pa) combined benefits. Instead of claiming £6.6k benefits, an employer will get £6.5k and I'll be putting £1.6k into the state. (Paying a bit extra VAT and most likely beer duty too). The state will be paying out an extra £100 but they will get £1600 back, effectively making a saving of £1500. If I wasn't getting housing benefit it wouldn't be cost effective for the state to offer me a job via the FJF, but for anyone who is claiming housing benefit, the state stands to make a saving. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to cut it perhaps restricting it to people claiming housing benefit would have been better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 (edited) I believe this has been scrapped, but it is still going for a little while longer. What do you guys think of it. £6500 paid to the employer (up to?), the employee must be paid a minimum of minimum wage, 25 hours - 37 hours per week. I'm struggling to get work at the minute, believe it or not, and I am applying for quite a few jobs too. A couple of 'real' jobs are looking promising for me, paying 18k and above, but I've also applied for some of the 37 hour FJF jobs too, as I have become eligible. The pay will be £11.4k, £1600 of which is NI and tax. I'll come out with £190 a week which is £60 more than my £130 a week (£6.6k pa) combined benefits. Instead of claiming £6.6k benefits, an employer will get £6.5k and I'll be putting £1.6k into the state. (Paying a bit extra VAT and most likely beer duty too). The state will be paying out an extra £100 but they will get £1600 back, effectively making a saving of £1500. If I wasn't getting housing benefit it wouldn't be cost effective for the state to offer me a job via the FJF, but for anyone who is claiming housing benefit, the state stands to make a saving. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to cut it perhaps restricting it to people claiming housing benefit would have been better. Because such systems are gamed and exploited by companies. Much like the new deal types. The employer hires you for the period which the jobs fund lasts... once it ends you get the boot. At which they hire a new FJF person who has the wages paid for by the state, after this funding dries up they get the boot. Same with apprentices and also with whats the word, interns. They get people to intern (i.e. work for free illegall) and tease them with a fake non existent job at the end of it. This job does not exist. After the 3-6 months interning is over they get the boot and a new intern is taken in to replace the original intern. Seen it in action lots of times. You see it on payrolls in accountancy pretty much all the time (on the jobs that have payrolls as well as accountant payrolls). You always see a large government fund (IIRC Iris code 320 or something) which is a government incentive to hire such people. And as a result it is gamed companies get free labour etc. I know of a couple YTS people though who did get jobs. There is an even bigger scam with apprentices. Edited December 14, 2010 by ken_ichikawa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blod Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 Yes I agree with your sentiments however apart from this being a political policy it maybe that it costs more than the savings for the government to deliver this scheme. Just a cynical thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Self Employed Youth Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 Because such systems are gamed and exploited by companies. Much like the new deal types. The employer hires you for the period which the jobs fund lasts... once it ends you get the boot. At which they hire a new FJF person who has the wages paid for by the state, after this funding dries up they get the boot. Same with apprentices and also with whats the word, interns. They get people to intern (i.e. work for free illegall) and tease them with a fake non existent job at the end of it. This job does not exist. After the 3-6 months interning is over they get the boot and a new intern is taken in to replace the original intern. Seen it in action lots of times, I know of a couple YTS people though who did get jobs I do appreciate that will occur, many apprentice jobs are on offer at the minute at £2.50 per hour. But the FJF is only open to people who have been claiming a while, if it was restricted even further to people claiming JSA and HB, it would provide a net saving to the state. I've no doubt it would be exploited, but if it makes a saving then surely its a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Self Employed Youth Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 Yes I agree with your sentiments however apart from this being a political policy it maybe that it costs more than the savings for the government to deliver this scheme. Just a cynical thought. There does appear to be some administration costs involved but they appear to be only £150 per placement. To be perfectly honest, I could imagine them being less than £150, as the time spent at the jobcentre telling me about the FJF and organising the application cut into the 'signing on' routine. Normally you sign and spend 25 minutes being asked the same pointless questions week in/week out. Sometimes they have staff missing and you are in/out and have signed in under 3 minutes. The FJF routine cut 20 minutes into my signing time and i signed in the last 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 Agree re interns, free worker for a few months then ship them out and get the next one in. Old style apprenticeships did not work like that as during the four of five years you would work in various parts of the factory and build up a good knowledge base and so would always be employed. In fact it was a natural progression from lowish pay to a proper wage throughout the apprenticeship. Today it may well be different. Such apprenticeships do exist. Matt who everybody hates (except for 5 months in 2007 when he crashed and broke his spine in 3 places, got better then totalled a car, then got banned and totalled another bike) Is an apprentice at an old style engineering firm. He has been poorly paid for a very long time. These days he makes £15/h. However such things are rare, there are too many fake apprenticeships around, which don't lead to any qualification or knowledge. Just have a look at the JCP website, lots of apprentice jobs except they are fake. Apprentice office junior! Apprentice cleaner, apprentice shop assistant! Etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rented Posted December 14, 2010 Share Posted December 14, 2010 (edited) . Edited December 14, 2010 by rented Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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