I am a member of the labour party in Blacon Chester constituency a marginal .. We send all labour councillors to Chester city council and cheshire county council Blacon votes are vital to labour keeping chester as a seat but we are being left to suffer by the labour government .Let me explain -the 2 wards in Blacon have very high unemployment 33% and 29% counting IB recipients as well but Cheshire county is counted as a rich county so we are lost in a black hole. Cheshire is not to get any money from the working neighbourhoods fund so the money job centre plus used to get dedicated to Blacon will be no more because all that money is now going to a few big councils. Thank you for nothing Labour Party i might not rejoin in june or help at the next election.I work voluntary in the comunity as vice chair of the employment and enterprise partnership of the pathfinder but our money ffor projects has run out and we were relying on funding from working communities fund to keep funding job fairs and training.I look for a reply to this from someone in authority Gus Cairns

I have been trying to get steady regular work for years and have studied hard, qualifying as far as I can afford to go, only to find myself either over qualified or under qualified. I follow what I have been taught in university only to find myself being ridiculed or ostracised in the workplace Legally all jobs have to advertised even when they are technically already filled. meanwhile I am sending out my cv (personal details) to hundreds of strangers out there occasionally getting an interview. Even when I do get a job any sign on my part of initiative and intelligence is treated with suspicion and quickly quashed. Apparently to get by you have to be a vegetable or greedy b...... Bullies thrive in the work place and hard workers are punished and I am getting nowhere fast The view of the well heeled long term employed does not help -- The other day - soaked from a rainy/snowy day out in the community looking after the elderly. I work very hard and put in a lot of effort to make sure my service users are cared for to the best of my ability in the short time allocated before moving onto the next service user. Soaked and tired, I dived into the local superstore. Having trouble because the cash machine was not registering my card - possibly due to the wet - I was advised by a passer by in his snug dry ski jacket, to go get myself a job

What Labour did was to stop taking the real employment statistics and alter them, they decided employment should be those who claim benefits, but of course many many people cannot claim Job seekers because of savings, or because of redundancies payments or do not claim at all. Now Labour calls this group inactive, but we called them unemployed, the inactive group is of course standing at 5.5 million right now, Labour says we also have about 1.5 unemployed who claim benefits, now looking at this we have unemployment in the UK standing at 7 million. Because a person has savings and is looking for work is not a reason to discount them. The fact is spin has become the words for Labour offers of more funding for this and that , yet it's either money already allocated or less then what we had before. I think in all fairness Labour is Thatchers government is style and substance.

I used to donate to the labour party through my union subscriptions but stopped when I was put on a 3 day week, twice under this lot. I’ve watched my council tax double, my water rates double, I’ve been hammered by all those tax rises. My wife’s been made redundant. The list is endless. The thing I will never forgive them for though is my son suffered a massive brain haemorrhage when he was 25, but despite on going health problems has secured a place at university. You would think that people like my son who wanted to try and get on in life would be helped? Well not by this lot. After looking at the forms for incapacity benefit you have more chance of getting help and are better treated if you’re an alcoholic. You get zero points for not drinking; you get 2 points if you need a drink before midday. And what about all the little Vicky Pollards out there delivering more mouths to feed by the state, just because they can’t say no.Oh yes labour helps them. “Things can only get better!” what a joke.

IB or incapacity benefits is paid after SSP you get incapacity benefits after being on the sick after twenty eight weeks, but you only get it if you have worked and paid sufficient stamps. I think your talking about the PCA the Patients capability tests, in which you must hit 15 points. sadly next year we will have a new PCA which will be even more stick. But if your son is suffering that much have you had an assessment carried out for ILF. Has he applied for DLA you can work and get this benefit or go to Uni or further education and get this benefit.

Thanks for replying Treborc and yes my son is suffering.He has difficulty in walking, memory loss has been diagnosed with epilepsy, suffers severe depression, suffers from hypothyroidism, but despite this he has tried to remain positive.And yes your right it is the 15 point test.You can go armed with all the information you want but there is a public agenda of help and caring, and there is a second agenda behind the scenes of altering the figures at any cost to save MONEY.It's designed to put as many hurdles in front of you until you give up.I have come to the conclusion that money is more important than people. Peter Hain States on his website ""The principles and values remain constant equality and opportunity, rights and responsibilities: work for those who can and support for those who can’t." Support for those who can't, just shallow words.

I totally agree with you we do have two agenda's one is to force all disabled people onto a lower benefit. Well you would want to lower benefits when you have so many young soldiers who will be adding to the problems of Browns Blair's disability rates. But DLA is the benefit you need to go for, it can mean not having to go for PCA tests. I suggest with his disabilities he would get DLA and it's worth about £100 a week

Thankyou for your reply Treborc. I have written to the p.m but have received no reply. It's not a pleasant country, and certainly not a just one where genuinly sick peolpe are picked on because they are easy targets. It's no wonder politics and politicians have a bad name.

My Father was treated in the same contemptual manner as you, albeit not related to any health issues. He has never been unemployed yet was made redundant last year. So, off he went to the job centre to let them know his situation. However, because he had never borrowed any money and saved he was not allowed to claim any financial help until "He had used up all of his savings". He was treated like some sort of scumbag asking for handouts. Unless he was a fool with no money there was no way he was going to get help. Thankfully he got another job within a few months. But it really does show that you are better off not earning anything in your life time and not saving as you wont get any help from the government when you need help.

Thanks for your replies. I have considered doing the ECDL but find companies want actual work experience in thoses fields. I am 42 and degree qualified and have a decent cv but the lack of the relevent work experience is what puts potential employers off as well as the list of temporary 'Micky Mouse' jobs. I am waiting for a reply to an admin type job but the postal strike will delay that for a bit. It is good some employers offer training but this seems to be more directed at young people. I'll have to be patient.

Been in your position my self and was in that a long time. It's not nescisearaly qualifications you need it's more i think about just having an idea of where you think you can do well and just pushing and pushing. It's hard and often disheartening but you will eventually get their. Don't for one second as i did think the world owes you a living it might do but it will not give you one. For all the talk of zero unemployment etc... the only person however hard this may feel to get your self where you would like to be is you. So good luck don't waste another second of your life hoping just start that up hill struggle and if you do one day you'll realize your own dream however far you feel you are from that. If you reach for the moon and never get their at least you'll be up with the stars x.

I know what you mean, employers now have a choice of whom ever they want, jobs are becoming very hard to find especially good jobs. Well good luck for the future I hope a good job comes along.

I have been paid off from two jobs this year through no fault of mine. The first job, myself and another girl were paid off in favour of two Polish girls who are still working there. I was quite upset at this. Do the companies who hire folk from other countries get grants to keep these people there? The other place I worked in show no regard for people. I and a few others were taken on by an agency for this company and paid off two weeks later and this really messes up the finances through signing off and on. Full-time jobs are like gold dust in my area. What is the goverment going to do about that. If you happen to be British born and unskilled, with or without qualifications you are just cheap cannon fodder. People need longer term work, there isn't much hope without it. These issues and many others mentioned really need to be addressed. A revolving door lifestyle is useless.

Fiona, I feel for you. This has happened to me and I am totally dreading it happening again now that I am nearly 60. To get back to the earlier occasion, I did take up a training option. It made me feel I was doing something to change my situation. If you don't try to see a light at the end of the tunnel depression kicks in. This leads to a downward spiral into despair. Now that I am older and wiser I'd also advise you google for sites that help you raise your self-esteem, give guidance on a good CV - and do a bit of voluntary work. Nothing lifts the spirit better than helping someone who needs you. I reckon if a government could protect all people from life's cruel turns all the time it would have been invented by now. Good luck! I hope you get to do some really interesting and absorbing training.

Your going to get this until you do get some qualifications, because your now unemployed you can return to education or do a course to get that qualification, why not try. But yes i agree with you long term work has gone employers now want agency workers and short term contracts this way they can use you like cash flow, a poor down turn your gone, but Labour is going to protect agency workers but Labour are saying a lot at the moment just to get an election finished. But why not get qualifications, it's pretty easy really. The CLAIT and ECDL are two qualifications for IT, you need to be able to read and write thats all.

Unemployment is a major problem for the government one option for the government to try and get more people into employment could be through a national service programme, For citizens over the age of 18 the governement could offer paid training in one area of the military(out of action). In this way The UK could benefit as at the moment the war in afganistan and Iraq are major drains on the army, navy and airforce resources i feel that many unemployed people would be willing to work for the military out of action so long as they are paid. In this way the military will pick up more recruits as people who are working out of action may wish to join full time after they ahve completed their service programme this can go on for a few years for those who wish to join. Not only will this increase the number of people in employment it will also increase the militaries ability to handle wounded from the middle east if their are many training out of action medics at home along with training pilots. IM sure that many of the people who are offered this whilst unemployed will take it and then they will join the military and be fully employed. Hopefully this will lower the unemployment rate and give young people the option to join the military from their training if they can find no other viable employment. The reason for this to be limited to around two years is so that they people in training are not a drain on the militaries funding if they do not decide to become fully employed by the military. This same programme can be used to train civil servants in order to help run the government. The higher employmetn rate should also reduce crime levels. I hope that you read my comment and consider my proposal

Yes it's called national service mate, what about those that have served do you expect those to do it again. It would not work because in the end your expected to fight thats what the army does, and if people wanted to they join up any way. a ridicules idea.

Would like to personally thank Tony Benn and Austin mitchell just watched their speeches at the labour party conference where they have spoken out to give people a referendum on the EU treaty. you can watch these speeches on youtube and i would advise you do.

Brown has said no, so you can say what you like it's not going to happen.

You no what i here so many people say that. We do still live in a democracy. If he signs that treaty we will no longer live in a democracy we will have no say what so ever in the way this country is run. So wile we still have that hard fought for democracy it is as far as i'm concerned my duty to rather than say "Brown has said no" to try my best in every little manor possible to protect that democracy by keeping up the pressure. You obviously do hot realise what is at steak here i do.

Good luck

Thank you. We'll all need it.

Most of the long term unemployed are ill,and many of these are mentally ill. In order to get the mentally ill back to work we need a cure for mental illness. The Kadir-Buxton Method can cure people in thirty seconds and a practice nurse can replace expensive drugs, wards, and staff. The reason we have low unemployment (although we are not told about it) is that the Government uses the five Buxton Coefficients of Unemployment, which are ways of calculating exactly how much money to put into the economy in order to give everyone a job without increasing inflation. All we have to do is increase the money supply using the five Buxton Coefficients of Unemployment to compensate for all the mentally ill going back to work. Easy. www.kadir-buxton.com

Simplicity is normally the most effective policy. Many areas of high deprivation need quality public sector workers. Why doesn't the bank of England offer a discounted mortgage rate directly to the employees willing to work in these areas(minimum 5 years). This will make the posts more attractive to a better calibre of professional.At the moment teachers, for example,are paid on a standard main scale and are on a level playing field with teachers in leafy lane schools. Only the commited or desperate apply to work in areas of social deprivation.

I live in an area which has grant one funding, it has massive unemployment, drug problems, youth unemployment is the highest in the country, to help out we pay one of the highest council taxes, according to Labour this helps the council put in place social; projects, like building a new Rugby stadium for the local rugby club, joke nope fact. Kids leaving schools are now given the real facts about employment, if you want to have a job get out of the area, the biggest employers are Asda Tesco and Morrisons. We lost our job center, our benefits office and now out tax office, the NHS is always going to close, so we have serious problems. Teacher we have no problems in my area with teachers because of extra funding, and when you say teachers should be helped with a mortgage payment, this would also then go to the council workers, the Police the nurses the young doctors, and the teachers, then low paid bank cashiers, workers in the benefits offices and so and so, because believe it or not outside of the big cities not many people get a good wage, the national average pay in my area is £12,500, by this you would have to end up giving mortgage help to everyone.

now that both the conservative & labour parties have washed their hands with blackpool) i would truly like to thank the labour party government for all that it has done for blackpool and the surrounding area's. over the last ten years . such as, er" er" If i can think of anything ill let you know!

Many mature folks who have experience and skills that can be used are never even given a chance because of age discrimination. I am an example and getting an interview is hard as middle-age is a major barrier to finding work!

Imagne adding a serious disability to that, yesterday I was asked by the Job Center to think about volunatry work. God I already do this, but it does not pay the bills.

If people have beeen out of employment due to long term sickness they need to be actively encouraged to contact the Disability Employment Advisory Service.

Ah they do it's called the Pathways to work, and you have to do six interviews. Do you think they just leave us, no we have benefits checks we have interviews, and we actaully look for work, yes I know you know somebody who is a cheat, everyone knows somebody who is a cheat. But most of us look for work

Employment is at a high which is true, well paid, skilled, satisfying jobs with good terms and conditions, no low paid exploited people doing jobs to allow the rich and powerful business leaders to become even more rich and powerful, all under the threat that if you do speak out or even ask for humane working conditions you will be replaced by a pole through an agency, modern Britain under a Labour Government, sacked by text or microphone, forced to work long hours, bullied and intimidation a common practice in the workplace and all the laws on the side of the exploiters, I am so proud of my Labour Government and all it stands for?

Which planet do you live on? I've been on a 3 day week twice since 1997.Is that something for Labour to be proud of?

WHy have you been on a three day week, we have so mmany nice jobs on offer these days, of course most are low paid and part time, but under Labour your in work, most of the people around me work less then 15 hours a week live off benefits but under Labours rules they are working. Thats the trick you see people working 4 hours a week are deemed to be working and not unemployed. silly really.

being a full time lone parent with a dissablty ie deaf and also being a man bringing up two children is not been easy.tax credits have helped me through times of hardship plus my two digital hearing aids supplied by the nhs but i think the real problem is giving people an incesstive a way from benifits and into the workplace.by the time i pay my bills i have about 200 a month to myself thats working full time and 2 hours in travelling a day.i think an increase on tax credits to those working or raise the personal allowance for low income would be a real help with a much more harder approach to the ones not willing to work.

i wont to go back to work i know u get help with tax credit but when u but u dont get much help with housing benifit or council tax when i was at work i was worse off as i had to pay more council tax and housing benifit i think there should be more help

Labour have helped to lower unemployment in the UK, that's why it's far lower than ten years ago! The EU helps generate jobs in the UK and expand our workforce to do unskilled jobs that previosuly no one wanted to do. This 'scrap the EU' talk is ignorant, old and tiresome.

God how you people never check what your saying, in the last few years employment have gone up statistics which Labour spout about a lot has stated unemployment has gone up, now before you jump onto the band wagon the way Labour count employment has altered, the statistic office Labour own words have shown unemployment to be at the highest level for ten years.

Perhaps more able-bodied people would go to work if it weren’t so easy to get money from pretending to be disabled. Whilst it’s easier for people to get benefits from claiming to be disabled than actually going to work they’re going to do just that. I'm not for a moment against people who are genuinely disabled getting benefits - but it seems that its all to easy to fool the system and claim benefits where there’s in fact nothing seriously wrong with you.

As a disabled worker working in a main stream indusrty like many disabled people there is not enough done to make them want to work because of the abuse that you can recive for just being disabled in a all able bodied company and to some people the loss of the benefits they receive is not adequite to make them want to work there should be more help for disabled people in work if in remploy or any other job that they have i applude the stand of the remploy workers in there struggle to keep open there factories and wish them allthe best in there fight but if mainstream work was made more freindly towards disabled people the need for remploy would not be so great so the time has come for this goverment to do somthing about what they can do to make work more accesable and disabled freindy through the wage structure and the help the disabled person can recive at work with there needs as a human being and a person not just a person to blame when things go wrong

most of the jobs out there are for like a month 2 month or you need 5 gcse,s or theres 50 better than you applied so why should ppl work for minimum wage?????

At a time we claim to want get more peeople of disability benefit and back into work why does a Labour Government attack Remploy factories? Remploy factories (and offices) should provide good quality meaningful jobs for disabled workers. Stop this attack on them claiming it is best use of money. Disabled Remploy workers want to stay in Remploy, not to work as chhep labour in Tescoe Ada etc. Please support the remploy unions campaigne to spend more of existing budgets for purchasing in Remploy not buying from China, India etc. contavt www.gmbremployworkers.info for more information.

We have saved Bridgend in south wales, the Welsh Assembly has stated with unemployment being high within Wales, the factory is to stay open, and it looks like the Swansea factory is to be saved as well. Thats two which we saved, I was on Radio wales a few months go explaining the plight of working in so called mainstream employment. I am also a GMB member, but disabled.

My personal experience is that the financial incentives to go back to work are generally good but the rules, particularly for Working Tax Credit are too complex. There is also the gross unfairness of the age restriction for those without a disability etc within WTC. Why should it not be payable to anyone of working age who meets the conditions, not just those over 25? What with the abolition of the 10% tax band incentives for young workers under 25 on low incomes are getting worse not better.

Working to a better future is not improved by apparently giving credit to the politics that damaged the country in the first place. The thatcher visit was a political mistake. At least it was for those of us who normally knock doors to get Labour elected. Perhaps you might have gathered a few right wing votes but hey who wants to be in another version of the Liberal Party?

Dont talk such rubbish,thatcher was a fine prime minister leages above what we have now,thatcher made us proud to be british and rewarded enterprise,taxation was far more realistic,imigration was under control and business could thrive without being bogged down by ridiculous rules and regulation,you lot want to ask the man in the street what he thinks of labour because believe me most hate this government and once you have traitorously signed this amended eu treaty,brown will never be forgiven.

I disagree with you Josh about Thatcher, she was totally evil and we are paying the price. I agree with you about hating this government. I used to donate to the labour party through my union subscriptions but stopped when I was put on a 3 day week, twice under this lot. I’ve watched my council tax double, my water rates double; I’ve been hammered by all those tax rises. My wife’s been made redundant. The list is endless. The thing I will never forgive them for though is my son suffered a massive brain haemorrhage when he was 25, but despite on going health problems has secured a place at university. You would think that people like my son who wanted to try and get on in life would be helped? Well not by this lot. After looking at the forms for incapacity benefit you have more chance of getting help and are better treated if you’re an alcoholic. You get zero points for not drinking; you get 2 points if you need a drink before midday. And what about all the little Vicky Pollards out there delivering more mouths to feed by the state, just because they can’t say no.Oh yes labour helps them. “Things can only get better!” what a joke.

Labour's delivery of basically full employment has been the greatest contribution to social improvement. Handouts may enable people to survive, but work gives them a sense of worth and achievement, as well as income. People with jobs have a stake in society, which is a force for cohesion. Well done Gordon as both Chancellor and PM.

Greg can you please enlighten we by explaining your post above. Theres lot's of great words their that when added up mean nothing. I might be wrong in my view and invite you to show me up.

A hell of a lot of people get up every day and do jobs they dont enjoy ,you are the problem .What are you better than those who do stand and welcome people in ASDA .Just because your in a wheelchair the world dosn`t owe you a living you should take pride in the fact that you would be supporting yourself.Going by your logic we sould all stop doing jobs that we dont like and start sulking like spolit kids.

I don't think you can criticise a lack of jobs, and then at then at the same time dismiss the ones available.

Why should everyone work? If it's so good for your health, and makes you happier, perhaps we should get the Royal Family and members of the House of Lords doing physical labour for the minimum wage. It would be interesting to see if they could survive on it! Why does every government target single parents and the unemployed when more money could be saved targeting corporations who avoid paying tax. We could of course, look at the type of emploment options provided. Britain is one of the largest Arms producers in the world. So we can have full employment, sound in the knowledge that our products are killing thousands of people globally.

Question. How do you balance the budget in line with the quest for full employment? In balancing the books, keeping consumer confidence and ensuring the market is stimulated is of course paramount. The decision to continue with the raising of tax revenues, the reduction of public employees wages(1.9%)along with unemployment benefit is probably the formula that Brown will continue with. However if there is a continuation in cutbacks in spending and wages, it will provide lower tax revenues from workers on lower incomes. Question. Are these 500,000 new workers that was highlighted at the TUC Conference, part time workers, voluntary workers, public sector workers, private sector workers on Government grants support or charity workers. According to Beveridge, full employment is regarded as no more than 3% of the working population being unemployed. How will this Labour Government achieve full employment? Regulating expenditure on goods and services will perhaps maintain a level of effective demand. There is also without doubt demand for Labour in Britain but how will this be managed? Question Will full employment be achieved by a Keynesian fiscal policy of economy control or by something else?

I work for a training provider for the unemployed. A lot we see over and over again. Most can work, don't want to work or are better off on benefits. I would like to see something like the USA system with benefits based on what you have paid in NI and a maximum limit on claiming benefits to stop this benefit culture. I also question why the jobcentre is targeted to get claiments of their books to training providers and not into jobs, which we are targeted to do, I find this very strange.

A training provider, like Rermploy you mean or the Shaw trust, groups who have become great friends of Labour, do people know I cannot go and see Remploy or the shaw Trust without first getting a form from the job center which allows these groups to get paid. Charities yes once now money making groups. In four years of going to Remploy and the Shaw trust I've not seen one single disabled job broker or as they like to be known DEA's which is Disability employment adviser, to date after four years, I have been offered sixteen jobs, from plasterer painter and decorator perfume sales rep, and a window cleaner, I am in a wheelchair. The whole thing has become a money making racket, last month I was sent by my job broker to an interview as a community Police officer, the chap said I have doubts whether you would be able to do the job mate don't you. The fact is right now we have in my small town eleven job brokers, six employment adviser agencies and numerous what I call crooks which are called training providers. Now for a job provider you again show your self to be so out of touch with silly comments about NI payments. IB incapacity benefits are paid to those people who have paid enough stamps, a second IB is paid to those who have worked yet not paid sufficient stamps which has a means tested portion, and for those you have not work we have a means tested benefits. Now lets look at the USA , in the USA all companies are paid to employ disabled people, the government will pay half of all disabled wages for the first year, then 1/3 for the rest of the time. The US government has a plan for people to go self employed, all canteens run by the American military are run by disabled people, this has been extended to other disabled people and other jobs, it a job creation plan. In the USA if a disabled person returns to work, they can within the next nine years return to benefits at any time without loss of benefits. In America firms are given total grants to keep more then two disabled people employed. In Germany and France Spain employers who employ over 20 people must by law employ two disabled people, if your employed in Germany France and some other countries you cannot sack a disabled person without first going to a job center to see if they can work out something, this also goes in America. In the UK nothing.

I think that there are jobs for people but the major problem is that they are transient and very poorly paid, quite often without the protections accorded to most people by employment law because they are in a temporary or agency job. The Labour Government should be putting pressure on wealthy employers to pay at the very least a living wage, not just a minimium wage which is below subsistence level in our economy - you can't live on the minimum wage, as the cost of living is extremely high. Unfortunately, one way of looking at the tax credits system and the other very welcome benefits of the Labour Government is that they effectively subsidize the employers' abiltiy to get away with low and unfair pay.

I've seen on this sight a lot of comments about the royal mail which is as far as i'm concerned one of the last great british institutions. Yes a service that will get your mail from london to glasgow for a mater of pence what a great service. I don't know the hole story i've just started looking at it but it would seem the good old EU are a lot to do with destroying it. Like i say i don't know the hole story and i'm no expert on the royal mail so my word is unimportant but would be nice to hear a bit more of what is happening so get on google read the arguments from as many sources as you can and let me and every one else on this forum know what is happening.

So what the hell has this to do with getting people back to work, or are you so far gone you think perhaps we should all be working for Royal Mail and it whole not hole, hole is something you dig.

Well perhapes small business would create jobs,if you allowed them to make money and stopped bogging them down with daft rules for this and rules for that high taxation and ridiculous employment laws.

Treborc sorry mate i'm a bit deslixic.

Thinking about it that makes me a minority. So in line with current politicaly correct social thinking. Any one who agrees with me should be praised and anyone who disagrees with me should be accused of being pedjudise, their opinion should be snubbed and they should just be ignored.

Yeah, that's exactly how we treat minorities. Just like Islamic suicide bombers - they're a minority, so we naturally agree with everything they say. It may be fashionable to say that anti-discrimination laws have given us political correctness has gone mad, it doesn't mean it's true.

Sorry josh the post you left it kind of starts off agreeing with me then ends up disagreeing would be intrested to know which one it was ment to be or if i'm just reading it wrong.

Sorry, I was being sarcastic with my first sentence, but didn't really make that clear.

We need to do much more in assisting people getting from a position of not working from one where they are regularly working - some "half way house" initiatives, that could help people have a "taster" of different jobs, and build confidence. The gap between working and not working is too wide and black and white. Allied to this, must be some schemes to allow young people to get experience - I have seen many youngsters lose out on jobs because they are told they do not have experience. We must do something to encourage employers to take a chance on some people, but I think recruitment practices are now overly scientific and aimed at guaranteeing no "bad" appointments are made.

I like your idea of offering people a taster of different jobs. Perhaps a scheme could be put in place for employers to offer this. Extra people are often needed to help cover holidays or busy periods. It would help people build their confidence, provide experience and give anyone a better idea of what kind of work they are most interested in. I think it can be difficult to know if you would like a job or a working environment until you have tried it. It could save someone training for a job only to find that it's not for them or someone trying a job that they would not considered only to find that they like it. I totally agree about recruitment practices. I have seen people taken on because they can jump through the right hoops only to find that that person is not suitable. I also think that the system encourages dishonesty because you are expected to present yourself as all singing all dancing just to have a shot at a basic job.

Jesus you lot come here spout about disability and you have no idea at all, the DWP department of works and pension the people who pay out benefits and the Job Center plus are one group now, taster work session are already available, so is work step, I've done them all, but the one thing they do not do is get you a job. Companies like tesco and Asda already do these, but nobody else will. You see I know this comes as a shock to most, companies are not bloody interested.

During the Tories period in office people who had Disabilities would not be encouraged to keep working or try to find work, an easy and costly option everyone seems to forget, at least the Labour Goverment have again taken the bull by the horns and made the way forward easier and strived to help by giving the individual oppurtunities by creating policies that work, well done , people need to stop relying on hand outs and get off there seats

God almighty not another one, no wonder new Labour loves Thatcher, first of all mate I paid for my benefits. second your not listening are you simple facts are to hard for you to grasp, employers do not want disabled people, they want fit healthy people. And some of us cannot get off our backside we are stuck in wheelchairs. but saying that at least my brain is working unlike a few. I have done everything asked of me to return to work, four years down the line nothing and not only me hundreds in my area. Last year remploy left the area, so did the Shaw trust they just packed up and left because of a lack of interest by employers. So brain boy how do you think we are going to work then, how about the three biggest employers of disabled people, the DWP, sorry closed the office, benefits office closed last year, inland revenue closed this year, NHS is number four, never any good at maths, the NHS this week laid off 750 people. What did you say about getting off backsides.

There are more chances for a job now than ten years ago. There are jobs available, not just with NHS.

sorry but their is not lots more jobs spare jobs are now being filled by cheap easten european labor that is a fact. I work in the building industry if you go to a lot of building sights especialy the large construction sights you will not even get on them if you are not easten european. The end result of this is i have now moved into the domestic side of the industry where the money is not nearly as good. At one point i was out of work and went up to the job center to sign on which in the end was so much hasel to do i just gave in. Things were also so bad i looked at what else i could do for a living and their was nothing. Luckily decided that i would change my angle on my life and now just stick to smaller private jobs. So all this zero unemployment talk is just that 'talk'!

Where where where.

I agree with Paul - more people need to be encouraged off benefits and into work. The government is right to try to increase the number of jobs, so that everyone has a chance to work. However, when the government rewards public sector workers with real-terms pay cuts, there is not much of an incentive for people to work in public services.

At the moment there are many people scared to try to get back into work because they know they would be worse off trying to work but finding themselves unable (given how long the benefits system takes to work correctly) than if they never tried.

It would be good if there were near full employment and choices of jobs and careers for people. I do notice that lone parents are targeted, why not the long term unemployed too? There is a large family in our town that get all the benefits going and cheat to get other benefits too. They have no intention whatsoever to work or train. So what about people like them? Start applying the pressure on them and less on those who really want to work. Then there is employment agencies. Good if it's temporary work, if it's what you want. There is no security there and people become disheartened as they could be paid off at any time and are not valued. If they are valued why not give them a trial period then offer a more permanent position. With temps and agency workers are scared to call in sick, even with evidence like a doctor's note, they know it could mean loss of their job. Tesco works this policy, if a temp takes more than two days off, with or without evidence you can kiss your job goodbye. Any wonder we get sick with worry? My partner suffers from sciatica and had to take time off and he works his last day this Friday.

With regard to the family you are talking about their will always be those who know how to work the system you can not put every one on benefits in that catogory. And with regard to your partner he is a victim of to much legislation on employees with regard to taking on full time workers. The very legislation that was forced opon employers by those idiots that proclaim to be protecting workers rights has now led to a situation in which many employers have just said either we'll just take on temps or we'll just get disposibal labour from agencies this to me is just another example of social ideolists and the nanny state sticking it's nose in with out having bothered to look at the implications of it's do-gooder policies.

I find all this talk about full employment a bit hypercritical, from this government. I too, am a life long labour supporter, I am also the wife of a postman, who at present is trying to get a decent wage and the bonus he and other postal workers have worked for, but they have been told they will not get their bonus unless they agree to nigh on 40,000 royal mail workers being put out of work, this is blackmail of the worse kind. My husband was out of work for five months before getting this job, now is being used and abused by a Government that we have supported all our lives, as the public sector are being used to keep down inflation. If you want full employment then you have to pay them a wage they can live on; otherwise it will not work. It is difficult to believe this government, I think what they want is full cheap labour employment. I also think Clement Attlee must be turning in his grave.

I think to day shows Labour in the true light, or sorry New Labour, Thatcher meeting Brown and him saying she was a person he admired, thats enough for me. But look common sense tells everyone you will never get full employment because even today if all the people who are unemployed decided to take all the jobs available, we still have millions unable to work because they do not have enough job or according to Labour anyway. I had a discuss on another forum with a bloke who argued about how many people are disabled within the UK, it's actually 10 million. where are those jobs.

I have yet to find many people admiring gordon brown.

Not every person with a disability in the UK is unemployed, so there isn't a need for 10 million new jobs - which is an overinflated figure anyway. Full employment is possible, and the rate has increased steadily since Labour came into power.

I don't think the government is looking for cheap labour - the minimum wage proves that.

I think the government has been good to workers over their ten years in power. If you look at the basics: the establishment of a decent minimum wage, more jobs in our economy and better working conditions for all workers. The government is also not to blame for Royal Mail pay conditions.

So your say £3.20 was a good min wage, well you still needed benefits to ungraded this wage, and today the wage is so low you still need benefits, the idea of a min wage was to remove people from benefits, you need to been at £6.95 for this to happen.

The minimum wage is actually £5.35 - which is a masisve improvement on previous governments. It pays to work, not stay on benefits.

It was not £5.35 mate when it started, it was to low then and it's to low now. Or are you one of those who think low pay is ok.

It's £5.35 now, which is far more than when it started. It's not low and it will continue to improve. If people spent less time moaning and got into work, they'd relaise there are opportunities.

God not you again, if i was going to join another party I can assure you it would not be a bunch of losers. Your about two ticks away from being the new BNP, and we know what they are. Sad your the same person who uses about six or seven names. Never mind you go and play with your friends in UKIP I am sure a doctor will come along soon and give your your medication.