January 13, 2012
Geography graduate, Cait Reilly, is to take action against the government for breaching her human rights by making her do ‘forced labour’ in order to keep her unemployment benefits.
Ms Reilly, who graduated in 2010, had been claiming job seekers allowance (JSA) whilst volunteering at a museum to boost her prospects of getting a job in her chosen subject area. But as part of the government’s Work for Benefits scheme, designed to get long term unemployed back to work, she was forced to quit her placement at the museum in favour of two weeks unpaid work at her local Poundland store. Had she turned down the unpaid work, then she would have forfeited her JSA.
Ms Reilly’s lawyer, Jim Duffy, said “We have no problem with Government schemes that increase the chances of people gaining employment – that is key to combating the current economic crisis – but these “work for benefit schemes” have been proven in other countries to do nothing other than increase the cycle of unemployment and poverty. Cait wasn’t told when she went to the open day that she was committing herself to work for free. She has been taken away from a voluntary role useful to help her break into the career she would like to have, simply to stack shelves.”
Ms Reilly claims that the scheme contravenes her human rights under article 4(2) of the Human Rights Act which states that “no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”
