Government bids to ease work experience scheme concerns
Ministers drop work experience scheme sanctions
(40 minutes later)
The government has met companies involved in its unpaid work experience initiatives, following protests about the way the schemes operate.
The government has agreed to end all sanctions for youngsters opting out of a controversial work experience scheme.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling held talks with dozens of firms. Some want a threat to withdraw benefits from those leaving placements early to be removed.
Businesses had expressed concerns about the programme - which sees 16-24-year-olds on job seeker's allowance doing up to eight weeks' unpaid work.
Public concern has prompted firms such as Waterstones and Burger King to quit.
They volunteer for the scheme, but if they later dropped out they faced having their benefits docked.
Critics call the schemes "slave labour" but ministers insist they help prepare jobless young people for employment.
The announcement came as dozens of firms met ministers, following protests by the Right to Work campaign.
Campaigners have argued they are not voluntary because people can have their benefits docked if they do not complete the placement.
Critics say the scheme amounts to "unpaid forced labour" for many young unemployed people - but Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused groups protesting against it of being "anarchists".
The work experience programme allows young jobseekers to keep their benefits if they do an unpaid work placement. They may also get travel or childcare expenses.
But anyone who cuts a placement short after more than a week may have their benefits stopped for two weeks.
'Trotskyites'
'Trotskyites'
The issue came up in Prime Minister's Questions, where David Cameron said 200 small and medium-sized companies had expressed an interest in joining the scheme in recent days.
Business leaders met Employment Minister Chris Grayling to discuss their concerns and it has emerged that the threat of sanctions on those who drop out would be removed, to reassure firms.
During Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron said 200 small- and medium-sized companies had expressed an interest in joining the scheme in recent days.
He urged firms to "stand up against the Trotskyites" protesting against it.
He urged firms to "stand up against the Trotskyites" protesting against it.
Mr Cameron told MPs: "The whole country wants young people given the opportunity that work experience provides."
Burger King, bookshop Waterstones and electrical retailer Maplin have left the scheme, while Sainsbury's says individual stores which took part are no longer doing so, as it is not company policy.
Supermarket Tesco changed its policy within days of a protest at one of its stores, saying it would start to pay those on work experience and guarantee a job when placements went well.
Tesco says it will start to pay those on work experience and guarantee a job when placements go well, and baker Greggs says it does not want people to lose benefits if they fail to complete their placements.
Baker Greggs has offered 40 placements since June, with 14 of the participants going on to secure permanent jobs.
Fashion chain Matalan has suspended its involvement pending a review.
Its chief executive Ken McMeikan said his firm still believed in the scheme but the benefits penalties had created concern.
But former Marks and Spencer chief Sir Stuart Rose told the BBC that, if he had a child who was long-term unemployed, he would put them into the scheme.
But he added: "If... somebody decides they don't want to complete the placement, we don't feel they should lose their benefits."
The government says that between January 2011, when the scheme started, and the end of November 2011, 34,200 people took part, and just had their benefits docked.
The government is running a series of work placement schemes for unemployed people - including the "work experience" programme, aimed at 16-24 year olds which allows those on jobseeker's allowance to volunteer to do an unpaid placement for up to eight weeks without losing their benefits. They may also get travel or childcare expenses.
Mr Duncan Smith called the programme "brilliant", adding: "People volunteer to do it and we have a queue of kids desperate to do it."
But anyone who cuts a placement short after more than a week may have their benefits stopped for two weeks.
On the protesters, he said: "This bunch of anarchists, half of them who are are unemployed, actually need to be cleared out of the way."
The Department for Work and Pensions says between January 2011, when the scheme started, and the end of November 2011, 34,200 people took part, of which 220 had their benefits docked.
For Labour, shadow employment minister Stephen Timms said he backed the theory behind the scheme - but said there was a "complete muddle about whether this is a voluntary scheme or not because job centres are telling people it's compulsory".
'Absolutely degrading'
The CBI employers' group said business support for the scheme was "hardening" but called for greater "clarity" over the possible removal of benefits.
Mark Dunk, an unemployed activist with the trades union-backed Right to Work group, which campaigns for alternative job creation policies, told the BBC placements must not amount to "unpaid forced labour".
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"If you go and do work you're making money for those companies, why can't they pay? It's absolutely degrading to... do exactly the same job as someone else but not be paid."
Fast-food chain Burger King said it had registered to take on youngsters at its Slough headquarters six weeks ago but withdrew due to "public concerns", without having recruited anyone.
Supermarket Sainsbury's said the small number of its stores that took part in the scheme had since ceased participation, as it was not company policy.
Fashion chain Matalan said it had suspended its involvement pending a review, while bookseller Waterstones and electrical retailer Maplin have already left.
Deputy PM Nick Clegg said, under the previous system, young people on jobseeker's allowance were not allowed to take up work experience for a few weeks and keep their benefit which had forced them to "sit at home, feeling lonely, cut off, sending out job applications and often not getting an answer".
"All the evidence shows that if you get young people out of the home, off the sofa, away from the television screen, into the habit of getting up and going to work, getting dressed, being disciplined about it, actually your chances of them finding work are substantially increased."
'Complete muddle'
And former Marks and Spencer chief Sir Stuart Rose told the BBC if he had a child who was long-term unemployed, he would put them into the scheme.
Employment Minister Mr Grayling has blamed a "small number of activists" for targeting "jumpy" firms.
The programme is aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds unemployed for more than three months but less than nine months.
Participants have an unpaid placement for two to eight weeks, working 25 to 30 hours a week.
For Labour, Shadow Employment Minister Stephen Timms said he backed the theory behind the scheme - but said there was a "complete muddle about whether this is a voluntary scheme or not because job centres are telling people it's compulsory".
The CBI employers' group said business support for the scheme was "hardening".
Its director of employment affairs, Neil Carberry, said: "It's right to have a penalty for those people who don't engage with efforts to get them into work.
"Life on benefits cannot be a career choice, therefore under certain circumstances removal of benefits is justified.
"What we need to be clear is under what circumstances that penalty would be applied."
The Public and Commercial Services union is encouraging its members to join demonstrations against the scheme.
General secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Instead of exploiting our young people and seeking to blame them for mass unemployment, the government should be helping to create long-term paid jobs and training to get people off benefits and into meaningful work."
