Monthly Archives: February 2017

AGES on hold with the DWP…

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Because I like to log these things…

Called the DWP’s 0345 608 8545 benefits number last Thursday afternoon on behalf of a man who was worried about his benefit payment not being made.

Spent the best part of half an hour working through the options and then on hold while waiting to talk to someone. The whole call took about 45 minutes (43 minutes and 23 seconds to be precise). I’m pretty sure the DWP’s 0345 numbers cost on some phone plans.

This sort of waiting time won’t be news to anyone who regularly uses these systems. I like to note these waiting times for people who don’t regularly use these systems, so they can get a feel for some of the reasons why many people are angry and frustrated. It can be the little things, you know. They add up and add up.

Update:

Bit of maths on the topic by the excellent @StopCityAirport

It would be interesting to know how much people find themselves paying. A fiver is a lot to people – especially people who are ringing the DWP to find out why their benefit money hasn’t been paid in.

Look at the state of this flat. Here is independence vs neglect in austerity

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These recent photos show the mould and mess in a one-room Haringey flat that is occupied by a man his mid-50s (I’m withholding his real name in this story).

This man has learning difficulties. He also has diabetes, which he struggles to manage, and is in poor health. These photos were sent to me recently. I visited this flat a number of times a while back and have known this guy for several years. His living conditions are usually atrocious.

He is about to be evicted from this flat, because it is in such an appalling state. He received a court notice last Thursday. He brought the notice in to show members of the Kilburn Unemployed Workers’ Group at their Thursday afternoon meeting (he also had other photos of the mould in the flat, which he showed us).

Some history:

This man lived with his mother until she died over a decade ago. While his mother was alive, he always had work as a general and kitchen assistant in hotels and kitchens.

This man was made redundant from his last job about nine years ago. He signed on for jobseekers’ allowance and has been put through the DWP’s usual Work Choice/Work Programme mill, with no results whatsoever. He has not found work again. His health has deteriorated to the point where he needs to apply for Employment and Support Allowance. Members of the Kilburn group are helping him with his forms.

Since his mother died, housing has been a major challenge for this man.

So.

There are two main problems for people in this sort of situation.

The first is accommodation itself – finding places in the private sector which people can afford to rent when they rely primarily on housing benefit. Continue reading →

Benefit cap arrears and eviction threats for women and children. Already.

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Another short post on impossible situations:

Here’s a rent arrears demand recently received by a woman who lives in a Basildon flat with her three young children (the arrears have increased since she received this letter).

It appears these arrears have come about because of the recently-lowered benefit cap.

This woman’s benefits exceeded the Out of Greater London limit of £384.62 by about £100 a week. As a result, at the end of last year, her housing benefit was cut by about £100 a week from about £188 a week to to £87 a week (think the sums are correct, looking at the paperwork. Give me a shout if you think the totals need looking at. Maths problems with these things are not at all uncommon).

Basildon council recently gave this woman a discretionary housing payment of £20 a week to cover some of the rent shortfall. That helps a bit, but only a bit. She only gets the DHP for the short term, too. After that, she either finds the full whack each week, or moves house again (this time with a serious arrears history) and takes the kids out of school again (she was recently in temporary accommodation in another borough)… or she ultimately gets evicted, I guess:

“I don’t know what to do,” she says.

I don’t really know what to do either, if I’m honest. Which is not particularly helpful.

What I do know is that I spend an awful lot of time these days with people in different parts of the country who show me demands for rent money they can’t pay and/or which say court and eviction are on the cards. As I write this, an email about a looming eviction in Haringey has landed in my inbox. I go to foodbanks and foodbank-lunches and inevitably end up talking to at least one person who is clutching a folder of letters about rent arrears.

Continue reading →

More views outside the bubble: Hating the government, hating the left, and liking Brexit

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Another perspective from outside Zone 1:

Posted below is a transcript from a recorded interview with Paul, 47. This interview was recorded in mid-January in Oldham.

This is a story about resentment. On one level or another, a lot of the interviews on this site are. I speak mainly with people who rely on social security systems. They have not thrived as attitudes towards people who receive benefits have hardened. You find a blistering anger a lot of the time. People say they resent government. They resent being patronised by the officers they must deal with in the social services bureaucracies they must use. They resent people who they perceive as activists, do-gooders and meddlers. They resent, poisonously, their lack of power over any of these things. As you would.

So. Anger.

Paul said he was on Incapacity Benefit (the benefit may have been the Employment and Support Allowance). He lives in a housing association flat in Ashton. He said he worked as a painter and decorator when he was younger. He receives his benefit for stress, anxiety and depression.

Paul doesn’t vote in general elections, but he did vote in the EU referendum. He voted Leave. He voted Leave, because he wants “proper border control… because [what we have ], it’s non-effective… I voted Brexit, because it is not about fundamentalism. It’s about not wanting to be taken over. It’s about the fear of being taken over, of being a foreigner in your own land…I feel a foreigner in my own land. Ridiculous, isn’t it…it’s a league of nations here.”

Paul resents this government – “the prime minister. She doesn’t live in the real world.” He dislikes the “patronising” left – “they have just bought into this philosophy – of all feel sorry for us.” He is angry about benefit sanctions and at people being forced to steal when their benefits are stopped – “it’s a shame that [people] have to burgle, because most of them have been sanctioned.”

I post this conversation, because it is one of many that I and others have with people on similar themes. I also post it because the views of people who rely entirely on benefits at this point in history should be recorded and heard. There’s a great deal of talk in the mainstream about (politically useful) Jams and Squeezed Middles and the rest, but I feel that we hear less from people who must exist completely in the system and who are not thought relevant because they don’t always vote, they don’t make money and they’ve been thoroughly dismissed as scroungers.

I often think there’s a feeling out there that if you ignore people who are already marginalised, they’ll ultimately go away. Actually, people don’t go away. They get angry:

“Leftwing liberalists, liberalism,” Paul said when I asked him what he thought was wrong with the world. “They have just bought into this philosophy – of all feel sorry for us…they buy into this philosophy of – “Oh, show a real caring heart, because they like to. They’re hell bent on patronising people, these liberal lefties. They don’t just want to patronise us. They want to patronise the foreigners as well.”

and:

“…the prime minister. She doesn’t live in the real world. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown [and] when it was a coalition – Clegg. He’s another one.”

I’d say this, too, just by the way. Stand Up To Trump coalitions and Pro-Europe marches can seem a very long way away when making and transcribing these interviews. That’s not to say Trump and Brexit should not be stood up to. They should be stood up to. It is simply to say that when you’re out and about, campaigns you see discussed all-out on Facebook seem a long way away.

We recorded the interview below in January at an Ark voluntary action lunch in Oldham. The Ark group puts on a free meal at the Salt Cellar each Tuesday. There’s the food, prayers, sometimes a bible reading, a thought of the day, music and, in the middle of the room, a popular pool table. People who are dealing with addiction, homelessness and other issues attend. It’s a social place. Paul travels to the Salt Cellar from Ashton each week by bus to meet and chat with others. I go along every few weeks to record interviews. People give their views on topics such as politics, benefits, sanctions, Brexit, immigration, work, housing, religion and sport.

Here’s Paul, 47, on 17 January 2017 at the Salt Cellar with his perspectives:

“[The big problem today] is leftwing liberalists, liberalism…. They have just bought into this philosophy – of all feel sorry for us. Feel sorry for us… gone too soft… [They] buy into this philosophy of, “Oh, show a real caring heart,” because they like to… they’re hell bent on patronising people, these liberal lefties. They don’t just want to patronise us. They want to patronise the foreigners as well. They are hell bent on patronising foreigners, because that’s how they get off. Their egos. It’s their personal own private egos, because they’re on an ego trip.

How does [the left] patronise?

Paul imitates. [Lefties say] “Oh, what a shame, isn’t it, I feel sorry for them [poor people], but we’ve got to keep in with the church, haven’t we. We got to create jobs for these people who are in these foodbanks. We’ve got to be seen to be doing something” – when really, it’s that personal fucking ego that’s driving all that. You know what I mean – sort of, “let’s integrate everybody into this big bubble.”

What does England need to do now? What are the problems?

Proper border control, because it’s non-effective [as it stands]. Continue reading →

Councils, housing associations and the DWP are crushing people with debt

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While Brexit and Trump hoover resources and headlines, the state and so-called social landlords continue to get away with screwing people into the ground:

Last week, I spent several hours at the South Chadderton foodbank in Oldham speaking with people who’d come in for groceries.

We talked about the reasons why people needed to use the foodbank.

One explanation in particular came up, as it does a lot: Debt repayment plans are leaving people with no money.

People on benefits and low incomes are repaying arrears or loans money to councils, housing associations, the DWP, bailiffs and god knows who else – but they can’t afford it. The loss of the fivers and tenners that authorities deduct in repayments make a tolerable life impossible. People certainly don’t have the hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of pounds that are really needed to shift these debts. Simple equation, when you look at it. Debts grow and penalties grow, but income does not.

Still, we have these repayment plans.

At South Chadderton, I talked for a long while with a young guy called Neil (name changed. There’s a transcript from the interview we recorded at the end of this post).

Neil needed a food parcel, because Oldham’s First Choice Homes housing association and the DWP were taking cuts from Neil’s benefit for rent arrears and loan repayments. Other authorities were queuing up for a share: Neil had been summonsed to court for council tax arrears. Neil couldn’t afford the repayments, but he had to pay all the same. You’ll see from the letter above that First Choice Homes is taking £30 a fortnight for rent arrears (out of a benefit total of about £130).

Neil said that talking to the housing association was hopeless (I offered to make a call).

“They say the lowest they can go is £30…they’re on the phone, going on with themselves.. I said, “hang on a minute.” They said, “can you make a payment now?” I said, “I’ve got nothing to give you.” (I’ve had plenty of similar conversations where I’ve tried, fruitlessly, to convince organisations to go easy because people can’t meet their debts).

It should come as no surprise that Neil was recently done for theft. He did a stretch last year for theft by finding – “[it was] a load of slates in the alley. They’d been there for two year.” This sort of story is very common indeed. I’ve met a number of guys in the area now who’ve been in and out of jail in recent times. (Two out of the three people I spoke to at the foodbank last week had done time).

The problem is life when people get out. Neil lost his housing benefit while he was in prison. He ended up with rent arrears. That total has gone up again, because he didn’t make repayments over Christmas and New Year. Neil decided to keep hold of his benefit money instead. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, etc. I’d take the same view myself. Neil couldn’t stand another call with the council or the housing association on the topic. I find this all the time these days as well. Every contact with the bureaucracy is a bitter fight. People don’t even want to talk to an officer to ask if calculation mistakes have been made, or to question sums they don’t understand, or if letters are correct, or if there are other options for help.

Continue reading →