David's Daily Diversions

Crime Pays - Very Well, Actually

The Government has announced a great new scheme for increasing the earning power of young people. Currently 16-year-olds earn an average of £8,000 a year. Now they can receive as much as £20,000. For those of you on the western side of the Atlantic, that's the equivalent of $32,000. Getting this money couldn't be easier. All they have to do is become criminals.

As long as they are either first-time offenders, or multiple offenders with no violence was used in their crimes, they will be given the option of paid community work for what would otherwise be the length of their sentence in prison. They will be paid £384 ($615) a week.

This is another result of Tony Blair's reshuffle. Junior minister Hazel Blears moved from the Health Department to the Home Office as Minister of State for Crime Reduction, Policing & Community Safety. This is her idea.

It will behoove those out of work to commit crimes rather than go on Job Seeker's Allowance (the current name of the dole). A single man on JSA gets about £40 a week. This is better than most would get in the prevalent practice of the what I call "Dole Plus". Since it is not possible to actually survive on the dole, whether someone is on it willingly or as a last resort, many recepients of public funds have heretofore found it necessary to either work in the grey market with no paperwork, or find things that have fallen off the back of a lorry to sell on the black market. This is all an awful lot of trouble for what is inevitably a lot less than £384 a week.