I think the volunteering issue is not as simple as all that. For people to be accepted as volunteers they still need to have a certain employability about them, just the same as they would to be given a regular job. In fact there are voluntary jobs that require CRB checks, and a lot of people who find themselves long term unemployed and unemployable are going to be in the category that would fail a CRB check.
The benefits system is there to help everyone - it is what makes this country one of the best in the world to live in. Plenty of people think it is going to the dogs, but in fact, we have so much to be thankful for, living in Britain. We have a benefits system that is there to help low paid workers (remember, tax credits are still a means tested benefit - you can be working and still claiming off the state, it's not just those who are out of work), as well as those who find themselves out of work due to redundancy, ill health, accident, etc. There are others who, for many reasons, are simply unable to work. Look at Marva and Shaun. These are two people who will never ever be employable. They do not come from happy homes. These people are a part of society that many wish to shun and treat like scum but the fact is they are incapable of even getting into the normal social ladder. They wont get a nice regular job and live in a nice house with happy children all around them. It just wont happen for them. They have lived with abuse (certainly Shaun mentioned it as a child), have lived with drugs, alcohol, homelessness and poverty, a life most of us here have absolutely no experience or understanding of.
I work in the benefits system and while there are many who abuse it, the majority don't, and are doing their best in a very poor economic climate. Wages are low, jobs scarce, and cost of living is high. A lot of the people I have contact with are trying very hard to get themselves out of the poverty trap, and depression and low self esteem feature very highly.
There are bankers out there getting paid a million pounds a year and then getting a million pound bonus on top of that just for doing their jobs, when the banks are owned by the taxpayer, and we certainly aren't getting any lovely payouts and bonuses for having bailed them out, yet we are getting benefits capped and the poorest people in the country are being penalised yet again. I think talking of sterilising people on benefits and forcing them to take unpaid voluntary work is misplaced anger. There are people at the top of the chain who deserve our anger a lot more.
Just be different ones (ish) 
