Seasonal jobs could help the unemployed

TIM Mickleburgh (The Yorkshire Post, March 14) is making a valuable contribution in to the debate on unemployment in suggesting that a “useful step would be to let those on the dole earn more in part-time work”.

Seeing the piles of leaves on our streets last autumn suggested a similar idea to me. Obviously sweeping them up would be very labour intensive and local councils, with budgets increasingly under pressure, could not keep a large number of people fully employed for such occasional work. A similar situation, which we did not experience this winter, is the occasional heavy snowfall.

Offering those currently unemployed the chance to earn something by doing these sort of seasonal jobs, especially if this were allowed without any reduction in their jobseekers’ allowance, would probably be welcomed by many of them.

Of course, nobody should be forced to take them on but, undoubtedly, sufficient would be attracted to make it worthwhile and there would be no threat to full-time jobs.

We would all benefit, the general public by not being 
liable to slip on unswept pavements and the unemployed by having a little extra 
which they would, no doubt, welcome especially at that time of year.