Another story from recent leafleting outside Stockport jobcentre with Stockport United Against Austerity:
JSA and Universal Credit claimants say the jobcentre is presently forcing claimants to attend the jobcentre at least once a week to sit at computers and apply online for job after job. Jobcentre advisers watch while they do this.
People say they weren’t told why they had to attend these sessions in the first instance. They were just instructed to get to the jobcentre at a set time, or else.
Such regimes are not new. Most people who sign on are forced into these compulsory attendance activities. I interviewed people at North Kensington jobcentre who had to attend the jobcentre every single day to sign on. It really is Big Brother stuff – the DWP forcing claimants to a location where they can be seen. Can’t be long until government decides that people who sign on should be tagged.
None of this is about helping people find work, of course. It’s about a government department standing over people who are already trapped.
At these compulsory onsite jobsearch sessions, people just sit at computers and send off one job application after another. They literally never hear back about any of them. Often, they don’t know if the jobs they’ve applied for actually exist. People have to engage in this perfectly meaningless activity on work programmes and at work courses as well. I’ve sat with people as they’ve done it.
“Petty tyranny” is the phrase.
The depth of this pettiness (if there is such a thing as deep pettiness) never ceases to amaze. Jobcentres find any excuse for it at any level.
At Stockport recently, I spoke with one woman who’d just started these compulsory attendances.
She was on edge as it was. Her son had autism. His ESA had been stopped. So had her carer’s allowance and housing benefit. She was signing on for JSA to try for some income.
Now, she had another problem.
Her jobcentre adviser had set her next mandatory jobsearch-at-the-jobcentre session at exactly the time when she had to collect her ten-year-old daughter from school.
She said the jobcentre knew perfectly well that she had a schoolage daughter, but refused to change the time for the compulsory session:
“I’ve got to come here at three o’clock – but how am I supposed to pick my daughter up? They [the jobcentre] don’t care.
This is the only jobcentre [in Stockport]. If I walk, it will take me about 45 minutes. It took me an hour today on the bus, because of the traffic. What I’m going to have to do is take my daughter out of school early to come here. She’s missing out on her education.”
I’ll have to make some excuse up [to tell the school].”
I have a great many conversations like this with benefit claimants: stories about the DWP making already difficult situations even more difficult for people in agonising ways. Still, the DWP gets away with it.
This woman had problems enough. She was appealing the DWP’s decision to stop her son’s ESA. She was trying to sort out problems with his PIP and carer’s allowance.
Now, she had to drag her child out of school, and lie to the school about the reasons why, to get to a jobsearch session that in itself was pure charade. Non-attendance at that session would very likely mean a sanction.
This incident may sound small, but it absolutely wasn’t. It was part of a picture. Once the DWP has people, it never stops putting the boot in. Every part of their lives is fair game.
This makes me angry. The mum/home dad/single parent should be on a benefit with NO conditionality until the youngest child is at least 12 years old. As a society, we have lost touch with the value of the role of BEING A MUM.
up to 16years of age or older – tax free – like it used to be,,, i agree it is completely reasonable. for parents to parent,, without conditions,sanctions & ricdiculous childish so called “compulsory” ideas,,, why are tax payers ignoring this issue “” its obvious that peolpe/families need to see positive change:) people power – leads the way:) no consent = no power
power to the peolpe……. however private businesspeople are making £140,000 per wk out of housing homeless in b&b”s here in edinburgh uk ??? corruption of tax payers money….!!!!
I totally agree with you, d.v.
I don’t remember getting a vote on whether the government should completely abolish the notion that being a parent is a full-time job. They just plough on like everybody agrees with them. Babies in institutions for 14 hours a day. Children leaving school early to go sit in the Jobcentre with mum. Has anybody assessed whether the Jobcentre is a child-friendly or even child-safe environment?
There should be no conditionality other than the conditionality that applied when the Welfare State was established in 1947, and that is being available for work and seeking work. This idea that there are masses of people sitting in idleness due to an over generous benefits system is purely the distorted fantasy of Daily Mail readers. This isn’t to say that there aren’t hundreds, if not thousands of people trapped on benefits because the disgustingly low state sanctioned pay rates (commonly called the minimum wage) make it economically stupid to get a job, but that’s hardly the fault of the unemployed. No job that pays less than £10 an hour (outside London) should be considered anything like adequately paid, and even then, it mus be considered that a wage such as this would only be adequate for a single person, and would amount to an annual income of £19,500 – hardly a king’s ransome, and not even enough to apply for a mortgage in most of the UK. Let’s not forget that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation determined that a single person would need to earn at least £17,900 a year as a minimum income in order to enjoy anything that could be described as a decent life. That figure puts into stark contrast the wages offered by thousands of vital caring jobs where employers consider that the minimum wage is adequate, or supermarket workers where their exploiters offer them share options and discounts instead of paying them a decent wage in the first place.
Alison, you have a very pertinent point when it comes to parenting, and I have long considered that the UK is one of the least child/family friendly places in Europe. Parenting is hardly regarded at all, and child care is something that we, as a society really suck at. To see how things could be done in a much better way, we would need to look to Scandinavia, particularly Norway where government policies are very family friendly, as they actually do understand the correlation between and orderly and prosperous society and the bringing up of children to become well socialised rounded human beings who have been educated to a high standard.
I don’t think it’s so much that we’ve lost the value of being a mum, but that we’ve lost the valuation of decent parenting. To my mind, parenting the next generation of workers, the next generation of wealth creators is possibly one of the more important roles that anyone can have.
Padi, as regards wages, I agree that property is out of reach for Londoners and the prices are so absurd we really need to look at making housing affordable, not raising wages to meet the housing costs on the open market.
When I first started work, I earned £18,000pa before tax/pension and I shared the bills 50-50 with my mum. I had money left over every month. However, I was sitting in the office next to people whose wages were supporting a whole family: single mum and two or three children. At that time, the tax credit system supported parents to meet the extra costs associated with raising a family. I think we need to retain government subsidy for families, or else vary the tax paid by workers, depending on their family situation. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to get a minimum wage that meets everybody’s cost of living without going over the top for the young and single.
I also agree with you that Jobseekers’ Allowance should be paid if you turn up at the Jobcentre and sign on, regardless of whether you applied for 5 or 50 jobs the previous week. What I find particularly worrying is that a system of conditionality and sanctions that was designed for a single person without children is being extended to people with children of all ages. From what I have read, the Jobcentres are not always good at understanding all the requirements on parents, e.g. to turn up at the school gates at a certain time and care for a sick child at home all day. There is no official recognition of these things within the benefit system.
Another thing is that a single person with children can be expected to spend up to 35 hours per week looking for work. Yet real life is very different. As a single parent, most of your waking hours are spent on housework and childcare. Some parents do manage to fit in more than others, but I think we need better, more official limits to what can be expected of a single parent claiming benefits.
Also, I’d like to see this raised in Parliament and I’d like to see the government try to defend it. I’m sure they’d say it was a “mistake”, but what should a good mum do in this situation? What would the government recommend?
But Alison, who is going to raise it in parliament ?
Labour seem to be deliberately ignoring the whole welfare debate.
And the longer this goes on, the more embarassing it is for the Labour Party.
So is everything Labour’s fault? What about the Tories? Perhaps they should raise it. Or the LibDems. Or the Greens. Or the SNP.
They are the main opposition party Alison.
So it is their role to oppose the government in these matters. Jeremy Corbyn has been weak on welfare from the start. Whether this is his own idea or his advisor’s is not clear. But the longer it goes on, the less people are going to believe in Labour as an alternative government.
If it rains tomorrow, you’ll blame the Labour Party.
Labour are not doing themselves any good by sticking their head in the sand on welfare like an ostrich. Get in there Corby for goodness sake !
At this rate, we’ll be relying on the Scottish parties like the SNP to make any sort of criticism of government welfare policies.
While Labour stand by and do nothing.
This is looking like the Miliband Method, all over again.
Labour people can’t have it both ways. Either Jeremy Corbyn offers the prospect of a genuine, humane social security system, or he does not.
Why should everybody else do Corbyn’s job for him ?
He is the Leader of The Opposition, it’s up to him.
All these anti-Corbyn comments are only helping the Tories. We know who’s responsible for the state of the country and it’s not Jeremy Corbyn. So, if you’re as true to Labour as you say you are, try sticking up for our leader for a change.
AndyBurnham on Sunday Politics just now said Government policies, particularly Universal Credit, are to blame for the increase in homelessmness.
He did well in the leadership election, didn’t he? I can’t say I’d trust him over Jeremy Corbyn, whatever he says. Politicians’ lips move all the time. The hardest thing to judge is what they will actually DO.
I’m glad somebody spoke out about Universal Credit, though. The more the better.
Corbyn is remarkably silent over the whole Welfare Reform issue, which is very worrying. I’m not a Corbyn supporter, (I live in Wales, and support independence) though I am sympathetic to much of what he stands for, and would very possibly vote for him if I lived in England. Though I voted Labour in last year’s General Election, I would not be able to bring myself to vote Labour again as the Labour government in Wales has just handed back devolved powers to the Tories in Westminster, seemingly in opposition to what Corbyn himself has suggested shoufd be the case.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand and sympathise with a lot of what Corbyn stands for, and I am often quite aghast when people describe him as ‘loony left’ , ‘extreme left’ or communist – he is none of those, and for much of the 60s and 70s many Tory politicians would have shared similar viewpoints. I would be in favour of far more radical policies that anything that Corbyn has so far suggested as I believe that the people of the UK nations need their lives radically improving.
However, we must all be aware that we only have nasty, poisonous people in government because there are people who are prepared to vote for them. It’s time to start to look beyond the perceived silliness of the individuals and start to concentrate on the core values of what our politicians stand for in terms of the kind of society they will establish. For the past 40 years the Tories have won that argument, but there is now much evidence to suggest that it’s high time for a huge change, a change of similar magnitude to that resulted in the Labour victory in 1945, though where we will find the politicians of the stature and quality as well as vision as that of Aneurin Bevan I don’t know.
On 9 July 2016 I and a number of other delegates to Welfare Action Gathering in Manchester organised by Boycott Workfare met and spoke with Andy Burnham who was then still an MP and in the same building.
As I later reported: “Andy Burnham MP said that he knew of benefit sanctions death names that could be added to Maggie and Gill’s banner — “constituents whose cases I’ve been working on” — and said emphatically that he did not think Universal Credit to be a good idea: ‘I’ve seen the mess it has made of people’s lives in Wigan where it was trialled.'”
Source: Kwug delegate’s report on having attended Boycott Workfare Welfare Action Gathering in Manchester on Saturday 9 July 2016
They had to abandon this ‘supervised signing’ stuff before, under IDS.
When it was part of the Work Programme.
It cost something like £4million and came to nothing in terms of results.
But it’s typical tick-box DWP. People sitting there doing 1-Click Applications, one after another. In the end the start applying for anything from dog-walking to deep-sea diving, just to keep the DWP off their backs.
or deep sea dog walking (I’m sure I applied for that one last week on Total Bollocks, or was it on Bollocks Indeed, Can’t remember now)
Trev, I don’t think people who haven’t sat there being supervised like some sort of criminal realise what it’s like.
It symbolises a basic attitude to claimants. That they don’t want to work, and so must be ‘frustrated’ off benefits.
I know, it does my head in. I apply for all sorts of crap just for the sake of it, week in, week out. Nonstop. It never fucking ends. And going to sign on is like waiting to be shot. Very stressful, frustrating, demoralizing, and utterly futile.
About 90% of computer terminals in my local library are used for jobsearching. Go in there any day, and see one after another of them with UJ or Find A Job. Or one of the agency sites, clicking away, apply. Like morse code.
But this is Social Justice, as conceived by Duncan Smith. You as a working-class claimant should be made to sweat for your benefits.
Just to make sure you are not skiving, while IDS and his upper-class friends pay taxes for you to live on.
Only what taxes they haven’t “avoided” or abolished already.
It’s very annoying for the people who want to use the computers in the library for other things.
Might have been Bollocks Library, BollockSite, or Monster Bollocks.
I remember that Jeff. And it was also used as a punishment, if you got sanctioned you could get a month’s daily signing.
Complete waste of time.
And Duncan Smith sits there in the Work & Pensions Committee and pretends that the DWP is the kindest, most caring organisation you could have.
Who only want what is best for claimants, to help them improve their lives.
Where did you watch IDS saying all this? It wasn’t on the BBC.
If any of you would like to watch Iain Duncan Smith at the Select Committee hearing in Parliament, it will be shown on BBC Parliament at 1.20-3.15 am on Monday morning. After that time, you will be able to watch it on the BBC iPlayer website.
It’s time this bullying by these self declared slave masters is put a stop to. Perhaps a union of Jobseekers, and other Claimants could find a way to turn the tables on these power drunk nobodies. There’s strength in numbers after all
Yes, I think a union of unemployed people would be a good idea. Trouble is, there’s no money in it!
Unemployed people can join Unite union.
“Unite Community have now changed their slogan to stop Universal Credit, which is half a step forward towards what most major campaigners against Universal Credit are asking.”
https://thepoorsideof.life/2018/05/24/i-want-to-die-i-cant-carry-on-being-treated-like-this-the-dwp-is-cruelunfit-for-use-and-punishes-people-for-their-own-poverty/
Trev, this is a very interesting, very sad article. I was struck by one particular excerpt:
“I spoke to a man who had worked for the same company for 20 years. He became unemployed so he made an application for Universal Credit. He did everything correctly and attended his first appointment as requested, bearing in mind that he had to travel miles to reach the Jobcentre and it cost a small fortune on the bus. His advisor didn’t inform him of any future appointments and he was waiting for a letter to arrive to confirm an appointment.
“Guess what…. The letter didn’t arrive, of course he didn’t attend the appointment which was only two days after his initial appointment. Yes two days. His advisor should have notified him of this appointment either at the initial appointment or by telephone or text. As a result he was sanctioned before he had actually received his first payment.”
THIS IS DREADFUL!!! The man would be forgiven for thinking the Jobcentre had it in for him!
I wonder how many other people are affected by exactly the same sequence of events. How many other people attempt to claim Universal Credit but are then either sanctioned or have their claim closed immediately because the DWP makes use of the time delay of the post to CATCH THEM OUT.
I did think Universal Credit was refusing to send letters to people. I thought everything had to be done on the internet or telephone. It’s interesting that letters are used to communicate immediate appointments – a simple text and someone might have a chance to attend! Yet Universal Credit refuses to use letters where they would be useful to the person claiming. I can’t help thinking it looks more like a scam than a government benefit!
Please note this DOES mean you have to provide a REAL address where you will actually check your post. Any old address in any town will not do because the DWP will send your appointment letter there. If you don’t attend your appointment, your claim will be closed.
Alison if you trust someone that lives out of town to contact you via mobile,pager,carrier pigeon when your post arrives at any old address wherever you have chosen then it is an option but not ideal.
Obviously this is a going to be a what if they have no phone, blind ,deaf ally so rather than falter on the first hurdle it is better to offer up some advice or are saying the homeless cannot sign up for benefits at all ?
When you sign on you are informed of your next appointment face to face not by letter.
I know Alison, the situation over there in Ashton is terrible, but probably really just representative of what’s happening all across the country. Charlotte Hughes has been protesting outside the Jobcentre there for 4 years I think, and posts her blog (The Poor Side of Life) every week.
They can also join the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) and be full members of a union, with voting rights and control of their union. You can’t do that as a member of Unite Community, which basically exists to make money for central funds from the subs paid by the unemployed whilst doing sweet FA for claimants other than the odd tokenistic demo. The IWW subs are cheaper too, at £1 a month!
The problem is that claimants are usually at the financial mercy of the Jobcentre. All the unemployed could go on strike, and refuse to sign-on. But that would only lead to cheers from the DWP.
If the Tories get up your nose, picket.
Yes, unemployed people have very few rights.
Mind you what would happen to all the Jobcentre staff if everyone just went on strike ? Mass walkout from all the workfare schemes and placements.
Yes, the staff ought to say no more often.
We keep them in a job, they ought to remember that.
There is a lot to be said for a reverse sanction system. So if an advisor sanctions someone and it is overturned on appeal. Then the advisor ought to get the sanction themselves instead.
Yes, exactly. Fines for poor decision-making. Fines for expecting women to attend the Jobcentre when they need to pick up a child from school.
Now the government are increasing the badger cull to include low-risk areas.
Badger Trust chief executive Dominic Dyer accused ministers of unleashing “the most expensive and cruel slaughter of a protected species in living memory”
Disgraceful and cruel.
The Government needs to be culled.
I hate the Jobcentre with every fibre of my being. The gits who work in there are class traitor scum. A plague on all of them.
Tough times. I struggle to get work. And some of the Dwp staff are so far up their own backsides. And arrogant. This country is in a terrible mess. Always the poor who suffer.
The TUC could do a lot more on the Universal Credit situation as well.
Well most of the unions rolled over for the 2012 Welfare Reform Act, workfare, zero-hours and all the rest of it.
A lot more Rob. This has all been left so late in the day. After years of ignoring sanctions and hardship, now UNITE are finally doing something. And the same with the PCS.
2012 would have been a good time to start.
2012 was hugely disappointing, I thought the world was supposed to end. I was bracing myself for a Pole Shift but nothing happened. Bloody Mayans.
And then the Rapture Trev. I waited for ages in the back garden, making sure to keep clear of trees overhead. But nothing happened.
They shouldn’t keep putting people’s hopes up every year like this. It’s false prophecy that’s what it is.
Well I don’t know about you Stanley, but I’m not climbing up on a cardboard box with my arms spread out again, for nothing.
I remember people on this forum said the world would end last month. 😁 Another good reason not to listen to them about Jeremy Corbyn.
All made worse by the culture of targets, ‘Ways of Working’, and continual
HR evaluation of the Jobcentre staff.
It must be one of the most micro-managed jobs in the civil service. The DWP have the worst absence record too, for sick-leave and stress.
I see Corbyn is still on about Ireland. Why not look a little closer to home Jeremy ? Like Universal Credit for example, the WCA, or the increasing number of homeless ? Or have you bottled it since Cameron shouted ”Welfare Party” ?
What I find useful when looking at Corbyn is the 30-second rule. Don’t just keep looking at him on the TV feeling sick. Limit yourself to 30 seconds and then switch off. You’ll feel better for it.
I can’t stomach Theresa May for even one second.
It’s about time people on this forum started picking on the Tories for a change.
Why because Corbyn is so useless ?
Remember Alison we told you so, and all the people in Momentum.
We need another election for leader.
#StayInLabour
Proportional voting. One election for the MP’s.
One for the Party members. One for the Unions.
Total it up – winner is the Party Leader.
We need to move forward in the Labour Party.
We need Progress. #StayInLabour
What do you believe Progress would have a Labour government do concerning the Jobcentre issues highlighted in Kate’s report? Is there any Labour MP Progress supports who has so far commented on these issues or offered any solution?
Spot on, Trev.
Anyway, all this blaming Labour for what the Tories did…I don’t see anybody buying that one, except the Tories.
Ushanka I adore you !
There, I’ve said it plain,
I know I’ll never find a hat like you again.
Fondly I remember the moment when we met,
I bought you in the hat-shop, and outside it was wet.
But as soon as you were brought to me,
And I held you in my hand,
I felt a thrill of pure delight,
That I couldn’t understand.
How wonderful to find a hat,
And kindred spirit too,
A true hat, a loving hat, as beautiful as you !
Ushanka you’re always cheerful,
Bringing joy into my life,
I’d rather my sweet Russian Hat,
Than any human wife.
We never quarrel or argue,
We never disagree.
It’s like two spirits joined as one,
My Russian Hat and me.
For who can ever part us ?
My hat, my heart, my friend.
I know we’ll be together until the very end.
Lovely Norman, one of your best.
Another wonderful Russian Hat poem Norman.
Love to you both. xx
Very sweet Norman, and truly inspiring.
Every time I read one of your poems Norman, I feel that I am visiting an oasis
of beauty. A moment of sweet contentment in this busy world.
I think every jobseeker should go on strike, we should picket the job centres and third party providers and refuse to job seek until they change jobseeking conditions.
With public support through gifts and donations it would grind the whole economy to a halt and only then would they recognise the true value of the jobseeker.
I agree. I have already told JCP Advisers more than once that if they ever sanction me I will do no jobsearch whatsoever and will happily live on Hardship payments for the rest of my life until I Retire, I have even asked them to sanction me in order that I do so and that really stumps them!
Sorry to put a dampener on things, Trev, but be warned a Hardship Payment does not go on forever. The reality is that you can appeal sanctions and succeed, but only if you have continued to follow the rules of the benefit. They are under no obligation to give you a Hardship Payment either. Sure, it’s a pain to do what the Jobcentre tells you to, but I wouldn’t want to see you put yourself at risk.
I was just testing the water when I said that to them, calling their bluff becauseII was at the end of my tether, and I t did seem to take the wind out of their sails. On another occasion I successfully appealed a sanction.
Yeah. Got to think of your own health as well Trev. Being without food or any money isn’t going to improve it. And as Paul says they don’t have to give you the Hardship on JSA, on an ongoing basis unless you are in a vulnerable group. On UC it’s even worse, the Hardship is a loan.
Glad to hear you are onboard trev, the only problem is you have to re-engage with DWP else you will incur another sanction and therefore lose 100% of your money again for a further 2 weeks without access to a hardship payment unless you fall into the vulnerable category.
I feel vulnerable but the DWP disagree.
yes ,,,act now & strike
I’m sure that all the enforced sedentary time of sitting at a computer terminal to apply for jobs ‘on the spot’ creates loads of stress that cannot be helpful to one’s mental health.
I know that improving mental health is not REALLY what the Health & Work Programme [sic] is about, but how about introducing an Esther McVey or Theresa May darts board or punch bag for stress release purposes?
or a toilet with IDS’s face at the bottom.
Postal claimants
Overview
1. Postal claimants are those who are exempt from attending the Jobcentre
for Work Search Reviews and are required to provide evidence of their
work search by post instead.
2. Postal claimants must meet the same conditions for receipt of Jobseeker’s
Allowance as claimants who are required to attend the office by showing
that they are Available for and have been Actively Seeking Work. To do
this they must provide a signed declaration and written evidence of their
Work search activity.
3. Postal claimants are required to attend Interventions.
Eligibility criteria
4. Claimants MUST be offered postal status if:
they have caring responsibilities and are unable to make arrangements
for short-term care to cover their attendance. For example, for a child
during school holidays.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/389433/response/943646/attach/html/5/Postal%20claimants%20562.pdf.html
Won’t let us use the European satellite eh ?
Stuff it then, lets build our own.
Her Majesty’s Satellite – HMS Brexit
And let them watch that going round and round
from Brussels.
We need our own space army or will are going to be left behind.
There are trillions upon trillions of pounds worth of resources out there waiting to be grabbed and exploited, diamonds the size of planets, seas of molten gold, moons made of cheese.
And that is assuming that any of this is real, and not just a computer simulation. Like the Matrix. We could all be characters in Planet Earth 2, for all we know.
All it needs is for some bored alien teenager to turn it off, and we’re gone.
01001001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01110000 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01110111 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111
Sorry glitch in the matrix I posted in binary.
I was saying… It all depends which pill you swallow.
Much the same for politics I guess.
I thought you were posting the Rendlesham message.
Yeh that spurned the terms big-endian, little-endian when referring to the representation of data.
I had my own UFO experience in broad daylight coming from school,there was no one else around to see it but I can only describe it as silver ocean liner in the sky, it was huge, my heart started pumping and I ran and knocked on the nearest door, by the time they answered, it had gone, I felt pretty stupid to be honest, ran over in my mind over the years what it was I saw but I do not dismiss it could have been real.
I think time traveller would be a more likely explanation than alien if UFOs were ever proved to be real.
The laws are still there to prevent a lot of the abuse but the work coaches do not understand half of them themselves, and a lot wouldn’t offer the advice if they did, so the customer has a cat in hells chance and just suffers when there is no need to.
And the knock on effect the child also suffers.
With all due respect to the Labour supporters on here, it is bad that Corbyn
is going over to Belfast to talk about Ireland. Or going on about the railways.
Or getting rid of the House of Lords. But nothing about what disabled people are going through, or Universal Credit. Labour styles itself as a socialist party, concerned about ‘the many not the few’. So why doesn’t he do something about the many people who are suffering in the welfare system ?
Perhaps we are considered as constituting “the few” in the grand scale of things?
Because he’s not in power, Adam, that’s why.
Ask the Prime Minister.
Alison that is just a Labour cop-out from the real fact that Corbyn has done sweet F.A on benefits. And he’s hauled Debbie Abrahams, a determined critic of the Tory welfare system, off stage. Because she was showing up the Labour leadership as cowardly and useless on welfare reform. So lets have some facts in this, and not the Momentum excuses. If I want to hear those I can go to one of Lansman’s meetings/
Too right Tom. It would be something if we heard from Momentum about welfare reform. Corbyn is nothing more that the puppet of Momentum.
They are the puppet-masters.
That is the real reason Debbie Abrahams has gone. She wouldn’t tone it down on attacking the Tory welfare system. Kept going off-message.
Be a lot better if she was Labour Leader.
A lot better, David. #StayInLabour
How long must we endure Corbyn ?
Is it really too late for Tony ?
Yep. Too late for Tony.
Tom, if we have to hear from Progress members all the time on this forum, then I have every right to have my say as well.
What you said about Jeremy Corbyn and Debbie Abrahams is opinion and conjecture, not fact.
The only fact is that Jeremy Corbyn can’t do anything about Universal Credit because he’s not in power. Fact.
What I say is my personal view. I do not speak for John Lansman or anybody else. I am entitled to have a view, whether you agree with it or not.
But he could say something about Universal Credit , the WCA tests and all the rest of it, Alison.
He is not saying anything about it at all, not a single solitary word. And that’s a fact.
I don’t want anyone leading this country who is not prepared to sit down and eat a bacon sandwich like a man.
That’s an anti-semitic, Islamophobic comment, if ever I read one!
And a proper bacon sandwich too, with tomato ketchup.
Not some ponced-up artisan stuff.
Or a proper Chip Butty.
A great British Tradition.
One of our NOT-so-great traditions!
French fries, very “British”.
French fries are thinner than British chips. McD’s sell French fries. The chippy sells British chips.
Alan, I’m a man and I don’t eat bacon.
I like the fact Jeremy Corbyn poses with healthy foods like vegetables. I have no time for all the politicians doing photos with token British junk foods like bacon sandwiches, chip butties and beer at 11 o’clock in the morning. We have an obesity crisis. I think politicians should try to lead by example.
A real man does not need to prove himself by what he eats.
As for artisan, I love artisan. I respect the artisan bakeries because they make QUALITY breads that contain wholemeal flour, which is better for people’s health. Sadly, they come with a hefty price tag.
If every bakery in the country started selling artisan breads, the nation’s health would improve.
Surely a real man starts the day with something that he can really get his teeth into. That says hunter, man of action, master of his destiny ?
Hunter-gatherer-forager.
Trev, how can anyone seriously not eat bacon ?
Is there such a thing as discrimination against vegetarians?
I have several veggie friends and my half-sister is a Jew, so I’m on Trev’s side on the bacon debate.
I’m not keen on bacon myself. Too salty.
What about bacon-flavoured crisps for example ? Or vegetarian burgers ?
I don’t like flavoured crisps anyway. Just ready salted.
Tortilla chips are tasty. So are Nachos.
A veggie burger could be tasty, though I’ve never tried one.
I liked my mum’s vegetarian shepherd’s pie, made with tinned brown lentils, instead of beef. (My mum wasn’t a vegetarian, but she tried to limit her red meat.)
I do not defile my body with the flesh of murder victims. I believe that killing is unjust. I don’t recognize meat as being food.
That is quite an extreme position Trev.
I know a couple of vegetarians, but they’ll eat fish for example if there is nothing else available.
I don’t Trev’s position is “extreme” at all. I don’t think you are being fair to him, Pete.
A fish-eating “vegetarian” is a pescatarian.
Trev is a true vegetarian, as are a great many of my friends and acquaintances.
Most of the Hindus of the world eat no meat, poultry, fish or eggs: no animal products at all, except milk and yoghurt. Are they “extreme”?
What about vegans, Pete? Veganism is increasing in popularity all over the Western World. Bill Clinton became a vegan and said he felt healthier as a result.
Veganism is a strict dietary regime, which requires careful planning and a Vitamin B12 supplement. I wouldn’t label it as “extreme”, though.
But what’s the point of being at the top of the food chain, if you can’t eat everbody else ?
Suppose the animal died of old-age, would you eat it ?
No Colin, I don’t see dead bodies as food. Even if the animal had died of old age I would no sooner eat it than I would eat my dead grandma.
I eat mainly offal tongue,liver,heart,kidney but will not touch pig offal at all, you are what you eat as they say and pigs are notoriously unfussy, not forgetting all the chemicals that are pumped into them before and after slaughter.
Latest medical advice is eat no bacon at all if you want to avoid health issues.
If I was in the wild I am not sure if I could kill anything, I feel guilty when I step on a ant.
If push comes to shove then I guess I would only eat animals that given the chance would eat me, so lions,tigers,crocodiles and shark would be my staple diet, and pigs would fit the bill here but still would not eat Bacon.
Why is it that some people are shouting common-sense, but other people are just mumbling stupidity ?
That’s the internet for you, Gordon.
He gave his back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off
the hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)
Anyone see that old episode of star trek where the last 2 inhabitants of a planet were fighting each other, one was black with white stripes the other white with black stripes.
Fascinating !
Reminds me of badgers. And look what’s happening to them.
It’s Kill Bill all over again, only with badgers.
Yes I do vaguely recall that episode. In essence it’s a variation on the Liliput theme, a war over which way up an egg should be cracked.
Me thinks a fine metaphor for the this silly progress v momentum debacle.
Do you see any connections here in all this political activity ? As if some hidden power were acting behind the scenes ? T.R.C.
Hidden power? T.R.C.? Yes ofcourse,The Rosicrucians!
Yeah, I’ve noticed that John. Strange coincidences happening. But you feel they are not really accidental. People saying things that seem strange at the time, but then later you think, how did they know ?
It makes you wonder who is paying for all this secret stuff, and why.
Where is the funding coming from, and how are they able to influence things like this ?
Our time will come. #StayInLabour
your time has been & gone,NewLabour isover.
Never Say Never Again. #StayInLabour
A great day for the Irish people after the referendum just hope they do not fall into the trap arguing over if it should be a hard or soft liberalisation.
It’s time this Tyranny was put a stop to !
Very true Christine. All of this welfare reform stuff has got completely out of hand.
Is there going to be another Rapture, or is that the end of it now ?
Just wondering, because I had time off work for it this time.
Bit of a let down really.
Graham, I wouldn’t worry too much about it in all honesty.
Let me ask you this. Do you believe the story of Jack & The Beanstalk ? You know the one, where a young lad called Jack, plants a magic bean which grows into a huge beanstalk that stretches up into the sky. Then Jack climbs up this beanstalk and reaches a magic land of giants. He steals a goose, which conveniently lays solid-gold eggs. This isn’t literally true of course, it’s just a story.
‘Farmers will be allowed to kill badgers across England with a bounty of up to £50 for each corpse. It comes after the government decided to extend its controversial culling programme to most of the country.
The Government published new guidance last week allowing badgers to be culled even in areas deemed to be at low risk for the spread of bovine TB (bTB).’
Cruel and unnecessary.
not to mention illegal Gerald. Badgers are supposed to be protected. Another issue for Labour to attack the Tories over. This despicable government seem to be getting away with doing anything they want.
Badgers have been spotted round here (inner London)! One got run over in the road.
Probably trying to find sanctuary. Nasty piece of government cruelty, none of it is based on science.
Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/michael-gove-stop-the-nationwide-cull-of-badgers
“The government is planning to expand a badger culling program and offer farmers up to £50 bounty for each animal killed. The killing of these animals is wrong and it would have a disastrous impact on the ecosystem. That is why it must be stopped.
I’m an ecologist, a zoo keeper and a teacher of agriculture and environmental science – I know how important badgers are to our environment. They disperse seeds which help plants grow, and they build tunnels which end up being used by foxes, rabbits, otters and other animals.
Over 50,000 badgers were culled by farmers in the last 2 years (1), and if we keep on going this way it will have a serious impact on our environment. In the past, wolves, lynxes and wild boars were hunted to extinction and are now having to be reintroduced – why are we repeating the same mistakes again with the badger?
The government says this is part of a program to stop the spread of bovine TB, but previous trials of culling badgers have not successfully stopped the disease. Vaccinations would be a far more ethical way of stopping TB, along with increased hygiene measures in farms.
Badgers are an iconic symbol of the British countryside, and killing them will leave a huge hole in the ecosystem and do long term damage to our environment.
The news is currently reporting that the cull will start in the Autumn. That only leaves us a few months to change the Government’s mind, so we need to act now!
Please sign now to stop the cull happening.”
https://www.change.org/p/michael-gove-stop-the-nationwide-cull-of-badgers
Thanks for the link, Trev. I signed the petition.
Terry, it’s the Capitalists you need to worry about, not some mythical shadowy group. The Rich are our enemy.
Further Universal Credit hell, this time from Norfolk:
‘Disaster’ or making work pay? Lessons from Great Yarmouth in Universal Credit
“Great Yarmouth Food Bank has seen a 90pc increase in use since Universal Credit was introduced in April 2016. But the DWP said it was wrong to link the rise to the benefit changes.”
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/universal-credit-great-yarmouth-benefit-reform-two-years-later-1-5539533
and here:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/universal-credit-in-great-yarmouth-food-bank-has-seen-a-90pc-increase-in-use-since-universal-credit-was-introduced/
It is well known we are a nation of scroungers so obviously the DWP are right to say that the rise in food bank use may not be down to the changes in the benefit system.
After all with record levels of employment strong and stable and work pays what else could it be ?
“The DWP said “significant improvements” had been made to Universal Credit since it was introduced.”
Translates as :We have no clue what we are doing and making it up as we go along
Yeah right. I’m not even on UC (still on JSA) & not sanctioned, but I’ve got just one tin of beans, a tin of soup, & two slices of out-of-date bread to last me ’til Friday when I get my JSA. If your Benefits are stopped then obviousy Youre screwed. The Tories don’t have a clue how poor people live andw what’s more they don’t care.
Same here trev the last few day leading up to getting paid never have any food left.
If I ever got a interview due to my location it will always cost £5-£10 to get there and back and my weekly budget for food is £27:50 after bills are paid I cannot afford it.
So yeh it is not in my interests to get any interviews at all or I face starvation.
There is no help towards travel costs and I am aware I can claim travel back if I show I have been to interview. But sometimes that is not possible unless you ask the interviewer to write you a note like some naughty schoolboy but that involves another bus trip to the job centre and they wont refund the travel costs for that.
Wheels to work scheme is a joke you need to show you have a job before they even consider you for a loan and it can take 4-8 weeks to arrange it, no employee is going to wait that long for a menial work placement.
I don’t know how they expect anyone to be able to live on 70 quid a week, it’s ridiculous. Mind you, there are people in work who aren’t much better off. The other evening my neighbour got back from work & knocked at my door asking if I could lend him a bit of baccy as he’s skint ’til Friday and smoking fag ends cos he’s no money. I had to say no sorry I’m in the same boat. But after he went I thought shit this guy is working full time and he’s no better off than me, wtf? something seriously wrong in this country. The rich have all the wealth and the rest are struggling to get by. So much for “making work pay”.
And then they expect you to keep yourself for the first month until payday. Travel costs, clothing, food & lighting. Then emergency tax taken out of the minimum wage payment.
They know Trev. For Duncan Smith and his like, the poverty is the stick which drives people into work.
From the first article, I want to highlight the following story:
Jade Warren, 23, moved over to Universal Credit from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) 17 months ago.
But last month she and her partner, who have a 17-month old daughter, were overpaid by £300, as her partner had worked more hours.
“When we tried to give them the money back we were told that we could not do so,” she said.
“They said they would have to put us into debt and then contact a debt agency to get the money back but this could take months.
“They have forced debt upon us through a mistake of their own.
“We asked if we could contact the debt agency and offer to pay back the money but HMRC told us we could not even do that as it would take months for the DWP to tell the company about our debt.
“We would have to spend months in debt watching our credit score go down.
“I went to Brandon Lewis’ office. They said it was happening quite a lot.”
SO THIS COUPLE WILL HAVE THEIR CREDIT RATING DAMAGED AND THEY WILL HAVE TROUBLE TAKING OUT A MORTGAGE, A CAR LOAN OR ANY OTHER DEBT IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE OF AN ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR BY DWP. It sounds very unfair indeed.
Of course, the DWP will earn money by selling this couple’s debt to a debt recovery company. It’s not ethical to force them into debt when they are willing to pay the money back. It’s a convenient way for the DWP to make money, at the expense of the couple involved.
Debt is an industry in itself. The whole world operates on credit & debt. Nations are in debt. Someone, somewhere, controls all the Capital. Satan probably.
Or might the true reason be a little nearer to hand ?
T.R.C.
The Ruddy Capitalists!
Sill all these deaths, hunger, homelessness and welfare conditions all seems to pale into insignificance now I have just realised my Gravatar is no longer displaying.
Technology will save us all. Think I might as well eat my phone.
Paul, you are lost, drifting in the inter-dimensional abyss.
A prisoner of the swirling vortex of electronic particles.
For goodness sake hang on !
Debt is an industry in itself. The whole world operates on credit & debt. Nations are in debt. Someone, somewhere, controls all the Capital. Satan probably.
The New World Order Trev, they are the ones using the flow of capital to control humanity.
I’m in the library doing jobsearch and I don’t know what’s going on with this Find A Job website but I just tried applying for 3 or 4 jobs (for the sake of it – all totally unsuitable as usual) but none of them would send?!
Trev, try a few other sites. Remember it’s not evidence if you haven’t got the application confirmation back.
Used to get this all the time on Universal Crapmatch. You applied for stuff and it didn’t show up. If it was a notified vacancy that the Jobcentre had ordered you to apply for, it usually meant going onto one of the agency sites and , if you were lucky, you’d find the same job with same description / hours etc.Then apply for that as a reserve in case the UC application was useless.
Never leave yourself open to a sanction.
yeah I get your drift Rob. I applied for a couple on Total Jobs & CV Library. Don’t know what was up with that Find A Job crap, none of the applications would send. Weird.
Dr. Voronoff’s first monkey-testicle-to-man-testicle xenograft occurred in July of 1920. He is said to have taken a small scrap of young monkey testicle just a few centimeters wide and a few millimeters thin, and sewn it right into the patient’s scrotum. Voronoff contested that the procedure could do everything from return youthful energy to curing senility and schizophrenia to radically prolonging life.
Sounds like a load of bollocks.
How is this relevant?
Now I see that Sainsbury’s is sharing CCTV footage with the DWP. Along with a number of the other supermarkets.
Why? What of, purchases or shoplifting?
So far it’s been more about proving how disabled people are, or not. For DWP fraud cases. Obviously if someone is supposed to be unable to walk, then if Sainsbury can provide CCTV proof that they were instore, shopping without difficulty, able to reach up for items, carrying a full basket etc. This is likely to lead to trouble for the person concerned.
There is where my pip-chip would come in handy, using motion sensing and GPS it can monitor all aspects of the wearers daily lives and directly feed the data to the DWP laboratories who can then make adjustments to the amount of benefit they receive without having to go through the invasive medicals.
Don’t use your bank card at Sainsbury’s or they broadcast your PIN number live on CCTV!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/27/sainsburys-customers-privacy-compromised-cctv-footage-pin-entries/
Use cash only, don’t swipe your Nectar card, wear a wig and sunglasses…or play it safe and carry that stick you took with you to ATOS.
Tesco are at it as well with the PIN number TV:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/6338659/tesco-installs-cctv-at-self-checkouts-to-crackdown-on-shoplifting/
DWP is asking leisure centres and theme parks for CCTV for the same purpose.
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/03/05/dwp-no-denial-of-blanket-harvesting-of-cctv-or-fake-friending-of-disabled-people/
Big Brother is watching you.
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/05/29/the-dwp-has-been-colluding-with-sainsburys-to-spy-on-disabled-people/
If you’re worried about it, use a different supermarket. Only Sainsbury’s has a policy that mentions DWP.
Apparently they are all doing it. Under the law, if the DWP or police make a request for CCTV, the supermarkets have to hand it over.
This government is completely obsessed with the notion that everyone is claiming Benefits they’re not entitled to, and with trying to stop anyone from claiming any sort of State Benefits. The amount they spend on chasing fraud is disproportionate to the amounts being fiddled, which is infitismal compared to what those at the top get away with, theMPs expenses, the Rich tax dodgers, but they won’t go after them, oh no, it’s the small man every time.
With many reports coming out such as http://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/british-psychological-society-opposes-benefit-sanctions amongst others the evidence is now stacking up to what we have known all along.
A sanction can lead to death, is that a justifiable consequence when the only crime they committed was being late for an appointment.
All we need now is someone in power that relies on hard evidence as opposed to blind faith.
Labour should be making use of all these reports & facts & figures that are coming to light. What are they waiting for? And the mainstream media too, it should be headlinenews.
Sadly Trev that is absolutely true.
Jeremy Corbyn is not above criticism, and there are many people who despise the Tories, but who want to see far more from Labour on the whole welfare issue.
That doesn’t mean they are supporting the Tories. Or that they want Momentum clones shouting ‘traitor’ at them. It just means that as left-wing people, they want Jeremy Corbyn to stop playing politics on the welfare issue, and get in there with some attacks on Universal Credit and all the rest of it.
Labour should be doing ten times more on welfare. And I’m saying that as a party member not in Momentum. And I don’t care if they hear it or not.
Finally, some Labour criticism of Universal Credit:
Universal credit changes will bar 2.6 million children from free school meals
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-change-free-school-meals-benefits-labour-angela-rayner-a8380921.html
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/universal-credit-changes-will-bar-2-6-million-children-from-free-school-meals/
Another thing, the BPS are critical of Sanctions yet people on the Work & Health Programme can be referred to CBT & Psychologists to try convince them they’re not really ill and that work is good for them. Any Psychotherapist collaborating with this scheme should be struck off. And why are GPs refusingsick notes to. people with psychological disorders?
They are too scared to accept that mental health issues cannot be fixed by the miraculous healing power of Work or the whole country would sign on sick.
My ergophobia would be recognised and possibly open the flood gates.
Really the truth of the matter is you would have to have some sort of problem if anyone chooses life on benefits the money you receive is not enough to survive on.
Charities and organisations along with many other so called helping hands are all in collusion with each other in my opinion, this misery they heap upon a minority is their bread and butter so although they appear to talk the talk, there seems little to suggest they are prepared to walk the walk.
Lets say overnight they scrapped welfare conditionality,closed jobcentres, stopped funding for CV and bully factories, just kept the call centres open and allowed GPs, patients and employers decide who is fit or not work, thus ending all this WCA fiasco.
That would not only solve the obvious issues but also fix the hidden costs sanctions are bringing
Homelessness, mental health issues, reduce the strain on the nhs , prisons courts and police services to name but a few.
These savings alone would run into 100s of billions of pounds overall and easily pay for 10 million new council houses new towns and cities and whatever else.
So why not do that ? damn forgot the so called professionals would in the same boat as us.
They would save Billions £s just by shutting down the Jobcentres.
I watched IDS before a committee of MPS on catch-up and I was disappointed that they didn’t really push him on these issues. I felt they just allowed him to waffle on about his vision and how he has a plan to cure all of society’s ills.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b69z71
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b69z71/select-committees-universal-credit-rollout-committee
I knew this would happen Alison.
Like water off a duck’s back.
He’s an egotist, narcissist, and probably a psychopath, and a mass murderer in my book. Serial killers like him should face charges but knowing how this sick country operates he’ll probably end up with a Knighthood. But even if nothing can be pinned on him personally (which it ought to be) why can’t charges of Corporate Manslaughter be brought against the DWP?
Well yes to all the things you just said there, Trev.
New Orleans televangelist Jesse Duplantis says people have misunderstood his reasons for wanting to buy a fourth private jet.
The pastor angered many Americans earlier this week when he solicited donations for a $54m plane. “If the Lord Jesus Christ was physically on the earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey,” he told his followers in a video posted on his site. “He’d be in an airplane flying all over the world.”
Jesus wouldn’t need to use a plane.That guy must be a con man.
This is one of the many things wrong with religion.
David, don’t judge ALL RELIGION on the basis of ONE GUY!!!
Surely Christians have been doing that for the last 2000 years ?
The only donkeys here are the ‘Christians’ who keep giving him money.
Arkley, how does your comment relate to anything we have been saying so far?
Bill Badger, if you’re out there anywhere, I hope you’re okay.
How very kind of you to concerned Darren, and yes I am perfectly fine. It will take a lot more than some sneaking sniper or pathetic decoy to catch Bill Badger, I can tell you. They don’t call me The Invisible Badger for nothing.
The whole issue of this disgraceful attack on innocent badgers is entirely wrong. Typical of a situation where one species evolves to become dominant, and then turns on those other beings, such as badgers, with less technical knowledge.
We as badgers, haven’t any chance to put our side of this, or produce any evidence of our own. Instead human beings take it on themselves to decide what to do, without bothering to consult any other species.
And they call this being advanced. Hah!
Nevertheless we are very grateful for the support we have received from our many human friends during these dreadful times. I only hope that those responsible for these dreadful actions will see reason, and stop this savage behaviour.
I always thought of myself as left-wing. But I don’t belong to any political party.
Basically I’m like most people I suppose in that respect. I don’t like the Tories, they always seem so cold and cruel to me, uncaring. But I’ve got to say that I have been very disappointed in Labour’s lack of any sort of response to Universal Credit and the welfare crisis. What are they doing ? It’s like stepping over a dead body and pretending it isn’t there. This horrible silence from Jeremy Corbyn is getting right on my nerves. It can’t be justified by any genuine, caring socialist. So what are Labour doing by staying silent on these issues ?
This is politics Peter, political tactics at work. There are still probably some years to the election. Labour were damaged politically by being seen as the ‘Welfare Party’, and poor on the economy. However unfair this was.
Then Miliband tried to beat the Conservatives by copying their policies. It didn’t work. Now Labour are gun-shy of the whole welfare issue. They seem to have decided not to risk it again, at least not this far out from the next election .
Well here I am in the Library again this sunny warm Sunday afternoon, have just searched on ‘Find A Job’ and there is bugger-all I can apply for, it’s pathetic, the job situation is totally screwed where I live and the Jobcentre must know it. I will now trawl through the other job sites to see if there’s something, anything, I can apply for just for the sake of it…(*sigh*)
I guess the Jobcentre don’t believe in giving you Sunday off, yet most jobs nowadays do give employees at least one day off in every seven.
Well, I’m just trying to get some applications in to stay ahead of the game really, so the Adviser can’t have a go at me next time I sign on. It’s all just a game. I apply for all sorts of crap that I’m never going to get, or would be able to do or even get to, just for the sake of it. there’s never anything much that is suitable. But you can’t afford to let your guard down, you have to keep applying spread out through the fortnight rather than leaving it ’til last minute and sending off a dozen applications the day before you sign (which is what I used to do a few years ago).
OK then. I’m glad they don’t mandate you to sign into your Find a Job account 7 days a week.
I did hear that someone got a sanction for failing to log into Universal Jobmatch on Christmas Day…
That wouldn’t surprise me with this evil Government, they’re certainly not Christians.
Amazed libraries are open Sundays, around here the only library to be found is only open 5 days a week and that earmarked for closure.
My local library opens for 4 hours on a Sunday and is closed all day on Tuesdays.
my local community library opens odd part time hours, inc. 3 hrs Sunday afternoon. Used to open more often but is short staffed & under threat of closure.
In another world, ‘My pension dilemma: £40,000 a year for life, or £1.3 million now.’ ( Sunday Times )
Can’t be bad. But how long is this person hoping to live? You’d have to live for another 30+ years for your 40k p/a to exceed £1.3 M ! I’m only expected to live another 12 to 18 years (according to my previous GP) and I’m not even pension age yet!
You only have to look at the Royal Family to see how closely longevity is linked to wealth.
As for “my pension dilemma”, it’s obscene.
“DWP ‘has no record’ of whether it showed WCA death documents to reviewer | Disability News Service”
“The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claims it has no record of whether it showed vital documents linking its “fitness for work” test with the deaths of benefit claimants to the expert it hired to review the assessment.
Even though DWP possesses the documents, it is claiming it holds no information in its records on whether they were passed to Dr Paul Litchfield.
Litchfield (pictured) published the final two independent reviews of the work capability assessment (WCA) in December 2013 and November 2014, but neither of his reviews mentioned the documents linking the WCA and the deaths of claimants.
The documents include at least seven internal “peer reviews” – reports written by civil servants following the deaths of benefit claimants – that mention the WCA, and two “prevention of future deaths reports” written by coroners.
The existence of the documents was only revealed in the years after Litchfield’s final report was published.
If they were not shown to Litchfield, the suspicion will mount that DWP and its ministers took deliberate steps to cover up evidence of the fatal impact of the assessment on sick and disabled people.”
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2018/06/03/dwp-has-no-record-of-whether-it-showed-wca-death-documents-to-reviewer-disability-news-service/
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-has-no-record-of-whether-it-showed-wca-death-documents-to-reviewer/
Very convenient for them Trev. They knew perfectly well the misery, hardship and distress that all these welfare cuts would cause. They knew the humiliation that disabled people would be put through again and again, under the WCA tests. But in the view of IDS and his pals, all the suffering and misery was worth it, to change society and achieve Social Justice. A cheap, basic welfare state, and low taxes for the wealthy.
Further proof if any were needed that McVey is unfit for the job:
“McVey messes up again on the meaning of PIP descriptors. Expect ANOTHER review of old cases”
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2018/06/04/mcvey-messes-up-again-on-the-meaning-of-pip-descriptors-expect-another-review-of-old-cases/
“The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (SSWP) has for the second time this year acknowledged an error in her department’s approach to the meaning of the Personal Independence Payment Regulations 2013. Coming after an error relating to the mobility activity ‘planning and following journeys’ which may have caused 220,000 individuals to be underpaid, the latest error affected individuals with chronic conditions needing regular monitoring or medication, such as diabetes and epilepsy…..”
https://gcnchambers.co.uk/secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions-acknowledges-getting-law-wrong-again-on-meaning-of-pip-descriptors-will-have-to-conduct-review-of-old-cases/
Thanks for another interesting link, Trev.
There is already general agreement as to which crafts and professions are suitable
or unsuitable for free citizens. Occupations that incur unpopularity, such as
customs-officer or money-lender, don’t meet with our approval.
It’s also sordid and unfit for a free man to earn a living by selling his labour,
as opposed to a skill. A wage in this case is merely a reward for slavery.
Marcus Tullius Cicero – De Officiis ( On Duties ) 44 BC
I must remember that next time I’m signing-on. Then I can just say to the Work Coach that I’m not doing any more supermarket applications, because the whole thing is sordid and unfit.
Which it is really when you think about it. Same as in 44 BC.
I’m not a slave.
Sadly the semi-literate wonk who is your advisor is unlikely to have a clue what you’re on about. Their last job was probably conning OAPs into buying replacement double glazing or overpriced orthopaedic beds.
I’m sure the rules from 44 BC would negate all the welfare legislation introduced since then, Andy.
Context is everything, James.
Con-text is DWP speak for guidelines.
The knives are out for Theresa May….
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2018/06/06/weak-pmqs-performance-will-only-fuel-tory-plans-to-backstab-theresa-may/
Thing is, who will replace her?
Someone from the establishment.
Yeah no doubt. But Mogg says he doesnt want the job, & I don’t think Boris does, so who else is lurking in the background. We might end up with bloody Gove!
Civil servants are always lurking in the background with their own agendas regardless of leader /party.
The whole closet needs clearing out and a start from afresh.
I expect another major landslide victory for the Anarchy party whose metrics are judged by voter apathy.
Non voters are by far the largest single block and is set to rise again.
To the researchers’ surprise, they found that from around 1990, non-voters made up the single biggest block — in stark contrast to the past
https://www.nature.com/news/the-rise-of-political-apathy-in-two-charts-1.22106
So technically, if you founded an Apathy Party, and nobody could be bothered to vote for it, it would win hands down ?
A powerful idea – a party which gets no votes and yet is still unbeatable.
And not a single drop of blood will be spilled.
But then you’d get a Prime Minister that nobody voted for, running a party that nobody wanted, and making policies that nobody cared anything about. Wouldn’t that be ridiculous ?
It would Don and yet it still continues.
It would be a terrible thing if May was discovered to have been an android all along. Sent back in time like those ones in the Terminator.
Or someone from T.R.C. They have no party allegiance, simply a desire for unlimited power. To control things from behind the scenes. Unknown, yet all-powerful. Unspoken, yet ever present within the most secret councils of the state.
‘For that which encloses also makes strong’.
Those Ruddy Capitalists again Ralph!
Time for the 48 Letters of Doom.
Another reptilian entity, using molecular compression to pass itself off as a human being.
It must be like existing in a high-gravity environment. Very tiring and stressful.
I recently asked Neil Couling director general of Universal when he said during a recent commons select committee meeting “The criticism I receive from our people is that the roll out isn’t coming to them soon enough. They have heard how good the system is and ‘feels’.”
I asked yesterday do you still hold that view ? evidence now suggests that is not the case.
His reply.
“For sure and if you don’t believe me just pop into your nearest jobcentre and ask the folk there”
I do ask each and every fortnight I attend the job centre work coaches view is on Universal Credit and 8/10 Work coaches I ask say it is a mess.
So DWP part time staff cannot wait soon enough to be policed by their fellow cohorts, for sure Chris for sure.
eh think I am getting that there oldtimers disease don’t even know a Chris Doh ! Neil that’s the guy
One thing you’ve can say about Neil, he’s certainly got a sense of humour. And he can say these things dead-pan, with a straight face, like a real professional. It’s brilliant, always cracks me up.
One saving light in all of this is that as Universal Credit slowly rolls out again across the country after the last freeze all the MPs from every party will be bombarded with cases and soon will become evident to even the most optimistic proponent of
Universal Credit it is not only broken but outdated after being conceived 10 years ago and since then there has been a radical shift in the world of work.
It was always just a punishment programme. To boot the unemployed off benefits and into temporary & low-paid jobs instead.
Universal Cruelty more like.
Exactly so in a effort to recoup from the poor what the wealthy lost
Britain’s billionaires have seen their net worth more than double since the recession, with the richest 1,000 families now controlling a total of £547bn.
The richest 10000 assets have increased from £258bn in 2009, a rise of more than 112%,
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/26/recession-rich-britains-wealthiest-double-net-worth-since-crisis
Where is the trickle down from all this wealth capitalism generates and promises, with benefits frozen massive rises in the cost of living and the worst is still yet come, foodbank vouchers will be the new currency.
There is no such thing as ‘Trickle Down’ Paul, as they know very well. It’s like doing a rain-dance and waiting for rain.
We’re supposed to pick up the crumbs tha t they drop.
Sounds like the pigeons across the road. They haven’t got the dexterity to perch sideways and peck the seeds out of the bird-feeder, so they waddle round and round underneath it, hoovering up the seeds that the other birds have dropped.
And frankly Paul, the Archbishop of Canterbury could do more to condemn Universal Credit as unholy. A couple of stiff sermons about the Good Samaritan and that other one about making a camel go through a needle, wouldn’t go amiss.
The Sermon of The Claimant and the Unjust Sanction.
Or, the Sermon of The Claimant Left Without Food And Shelter.
Good one Zac ! I like that one about the Claimant and the Unjust Sanction . Most of them are unjust.
Given that this welfare regime is driven by the puritan work ethic I hardly think the church has a place to be critical of anything.
In order for social justice to exist, there has to be a ruling class to mete out that social justice. If there is an elite ruling class, then there is no social justice. So the concept of social justice always collapses in upon itself.
“As Universal Credit is Rolled out: Crime scene-style body outlines on Jobcentres across Birmingham.”
Sites in Kings Heath, Sparkhill, Selly Oak, Ladywood and Longbridge were all targeted.
Pictures from the scene showed a chalk body outline painted on the ground at the entrance of the centre, with a bloody trail to a foot detached from the body.
“The Department for Work and Pensions, which manages job centres, hinted that the graffiti might have been done for the purpose of protest.”
A spokesman said: “Everyone has a right to protest peacefully, however vandalism is completely unacceptable. We’re in contact with the police.”
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/as-universal-credit-is-rolled-out-crime-scene-style-body-outlines-on-jobcentres-across-birmingham/
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/crime-scene-style-body-outlines-14745616
Also here:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2018/06/07/pictorial-protest-at-birmingham-job-centres-shows-body-outlines-from-murder-crime-scenes/
Basic Income Earth Network News
https://mailchi.mp/basicincome/bien-newsflash-may-1389929?e=ba64379221