565 thoughts on “When you’re older and unemployed, the DWP actively takes the piss. More interviews from the jobcentre”

1. Older unemployed are a serious problem that has not been covered by the mass-media. Nobody cares, it’s like the homeless. People look the other way.
   At my local Jobcentre there are many older unemployed in their 50’s and sixties.
   You see them shuffling miserably in for another sign-on.
   Under the old system many would have out at 60 on Pension Credit.
   Now they are forced to jobsearch for another 6 years, along with the WASPI women, and the unlucky disabled who have failed their WCA test.
   These people are trapped by this government propaganda that somehow they can all get jobs. When they and the DWP know full well that the reality is very different.

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   • Jeff, when my wife and I were unemployed for 18 months a couple of years ago, we were applying for hundreds of jobs, and it was blatently obvious that age was a factor.
     At my last company, I had to train younger staff, and when they were trained up the company let me go.
     Where my wife works now, she is the oldest by twenty years and she is pretty much excluded by the other staff hwne they go out socially.
     The other relevant fact is that when you get older, you invariably slow down, but on the other hand you have experience and the ability to perform tasks correctly.
     Unfortunately, speed and youth seem to be more desirable than accuracy and experience.

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     • There’s no excuse for socially excluding your wife, Andy. I’m sorry to hear that.

       I go out with old people and volunteer with them and we all have a good laugh!

       There are also stories of people who get jobs and find they have no one to socialise with at work because all of the other staff are speaking foreign languages and only socialising with those from their own countries at break times.

       I went on a computer course and the Polish trainers used to converse in the classroom in Polish. I felt sorry for the one English trainer who, like me, had no idea what was being said. Once upon a time, it was considered bad manners to speak foreign languages in the presence of others. I notice that piece of etiquette has conveniently disappeared (not that many European immigrants demonstrate great manners anyway).

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       • Wow, my wife went on a teacher training course when she was unemployed, and half the class was from Poland. They didn’t speak to her during lunch. She passed the course and went to our local school as a teaching assistant.
         There was a Polish teacher in the class where she assisted, and my wife said that the children could not understand her, so she raised her concerns with the headmistress.
         The next week, my wife was dismissed – she wasn’t even being paid!
         Our local GP surgery has a checkin computer, and the first option is Polish – unbelievable!
         We are in Kent.

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         • This is England. The first option should be ENGLISH and they ought to LEARN ENGLISH before they come over here to use our NHS.

           In order to teach a class of children, you need to have VERY GOOD English. It’s no good if the children start speaking with a Polish accent!

           I’m sorry to hear what happened to your wife. It is a pertinent example of the insidious way the foreigners are doing us out of our own jobs.

           We’re being invaded. We’re losing our national identity and turning into an overseas territory run by the EU.

           Sadly, too many people are preoccupied with “fighting racism” perpetrated against others. They fail to see that it is being perpetrated against us.

         • My Pakistani neighbours just gave me some Eid food, they do every year, which is nice of them. I always accep it graceously as I don’t want to insult them, but then I give it to the woman in the fla t above because its meat & I’m vegetarian.But it’s the thought thatcounts.

         • Nice one Trev!

         • Hm. Padi. I wonder if you’re really from Pakistan?

           Like it or not, you are living in a Christian country.

       • It’s only bad manners when it’s being done to exclude you from the conversation. If the conversation is between two people who speak the same language, and it doesn’t include you then it’s fine that they speak to each other in their own language.

         I’m a speaker of Cymraeg, (Welsh) and have in the past had people complain when I’ve been conversing with a colleague or friend in that language, as we both spoke Cymraeg, and no-one else was involved in the conversation, otherwise we would have been speaking English, unless we knew that other person also spoke Cymraeg. Mostly, it seems that people felt excluded, but they were already excluded, as they weren’t included in the conversation in the first place.

         A variation on this theme is that some people, upon hearing others speaking a ‘foreign’ language, (Cymraeg isn’t a foreign language) automatically assume that they are the subject of that conversation.

         I guess that it’s similar when people are speaking any language that isn’t English. It may surprise those who have issues with others speaking another language to their colleagues and friends in your hallowed presence, but unless they are deliberately excluding you them you really have no cause for complaint. Of course, if you are to be included in the conversation, then of course practicality and courtesy would dictate that a common language is spoken. You could, of course, avail yourself of an ideal opportunity to learn another language.

         On a final note, you make a sweeping claim that not many European immigrants demonstrate good manners, I should counter that by saying that there are significant numbers of English people who likewise demonstrate a lack of manners towards Welsh people, especially if they speak Cymraeg, especially if they do so in their presence. Many of that group also complain bitterly of their former homes in England having become ‘swamped’ or ‘overrrun’ by people with a different skin colour, thus ‘forcing’ them to move to Cymru (Wales) where they then expect to be made welcome.

         It’s always a little challenging when faced by others speaking a different language that you don’t understand, but say, if you came across a situation where every breaks out laughing in response to a joke, you could always ask what is so funny – most would only be to happy to explain the joke to you, so that you could share it, and that could be your way in to be included, and also to get them to shift to speaking English. As I said, you could also learn some of their language, and thus really benefit. It’s been shown time and time again that being at least bilingual delivers not only substantial health benefits, such as less susceptibility to Alzheimer’s and later development of dementia, but also better cognitive skills, even better mathematical skills as well as making learning subsequent languages easier

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         • Padi, I take your point about learning languages. I have nothing against people speaking Welsh (I started learning it once, but I didn’t get very far). I can speak a bit of Spanish and French with native speakers who are friendly towards me.

           Trouble is, London has totally changed now. It used to be that I only heard English being spoken – now it’s mostly foreign languages. I wouldn’t mind if there were just a few foreigners, but it really feels as though
           I’m in a different country now!

           Why is this a problem? Well, firstly, we’re very overcrowded. Housing, schools, roads and transport can’t cope. Secondly, it does nothing for community cohesion. A few foreigners can integrate with the locals, but there’s now no “local” community left. Instead, we have the British people, the Spanish, the French, the Polish, the Slovakians, the Italians, the Romanians… They tend to come here in a group, work together and share a house together, so they exist in a bubble of other people who speak the same language.

           Some East European immigrants are VERY RUDE! They come from countries, e.g. Poland, where manners on the street are not well understood. They stare and glare and try to intimidate you if you’re walking on your own. Some of them will go into a shop or cafe and be very demanding and rude to the staff, just for the fun of it. Young couples walk hand-in-hand, spread right across the pavement, so that it is impossible to get past. Their young people are inclined to tell off people twice their age, e.g. bus drivers, if they don’t get their own way. They are also inclined to barge into you if you happen to be walking towards them – they have no concept of slowing down and letting others pass. If you smile and say hello, they act like you’re crazy!

           No, Padi, this is not all of them. But it has happened to me time and time again. The staring and glaring and barging into me is so exhausting to deal with every time I’m out. I went to the Citizens Advice Bureau and a Polish couple (asking for a council house) overheard my enquiry and laughed at me! Several times, these East Europeans have stared at my clothing in the way that school bullies do, making me feel like there’s something wrong with what I am wearing.

           Of course there are a few British people who aren’t very nice, but, on the whole, British people are obviously British because they are POLITE. They smile. They stand aside to let you pass. They say thank you, even to people whose job it is to serve them. These values of courtesy and decency are not universal in Eastern Europe.

         • Having read your other posts, Padi, I do wonder if you’d really understand what I mean by manners anyway. You don’t seem to rate them very highly yourself.

   • Jeff, this is quite true, It’s all just tick-boxes and going along with DWP propaganda. Many of these people will never work full-time again.They know it, the Jobcentre knows it.

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2. The plight of these older claimaints shows the real cruelty of the so-called welfare reforms. Made to perform an endless ritual of token jobsearching. With the threat of sanctions and destitution held over their heads. And the worst part is the DWP know that it is all largely ridiculous, but they just carry on anyway.

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   • John, from my experience I think some of the DWP/Jokecentre staff actually get pleasure out of seeing older people struggle, particularly when the older people are probably more qualified than them.

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3. But of course a lot of these older claimants will be swept up into Universal Credit.
   Then any sort of work, even a couple of hours a week, or a work placement, and they will be counted as fully employed and disappear from the unemployment statistics. Expect to see the DWP boasting soon about they have solved the problem of unemployment amongst older and disabled workers.

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   • Yep, that will be the next thing. The smug DWP and how they solved the unemployment problem.

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4. This is the neo-liberal philosophy of the new system. Never give anyone on benefits an even break. Instead if they can’t find work, they must be made to search desperately for it like the holy grail.

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5. Dreadful to see this, but all these people are paying the price for the austerity cuts and the new methods of Duncan Smith.

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6. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter if they find ‘decent work’ under the new system.
   Particularly Universal Credit. It just matters that they conform to the ideology of the new system and get some work of any kind. This is the propaganda of the DWP. Work is the ultimate good not only for the individual, but also society.

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7. All the ones left on JSA are really just in the Universal Credit waiting room.
   Once they get on that, their jobsearch problems will be magically ‘solved’.
   By the power of Duncan Smith and the force of Social Justice.

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   • Perhaps the reason more people find a job faster on Universal Credit is because the hardest to help are still on Jobseekers Allowance.

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     • No, it’s because Universal Credit forces people into work from day one. You have absolutely no choice in the All Work Group.

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       • JSA is like being shouted at because you won’t get a job. Universal Credit is more like having your arm twisted behind your back, and your head banged on the desk, because you won’t get a job.

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     • Seriously, you don’t believe the government’s bullshit about UC do you? At least open your eyes if you can’t use your brain!

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       • Use your own brain, Padi, open your eyes and read the thread – or do we need to translate it into Welsh for you?

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   • And he still couldn’t care less about what he did to the welfare system. All the hardship, homelessness and suffering.
     And he calls himself a Christian !

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     • IDS is a Roman Catholic. He should be excommunicated for promoting & brutally enforcing the PWE.

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8. Baby Boomers create system that has screwed Millennials, express shock when they fall victim to it

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   • Please explain.

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     • It’s like my neighbour. He wants disabled people’s benefits to end after a year on the basis that young people need a good kicking, but, as soon as Theresa May suggested charging pensioners more for social care, he started waxing lyrical about “vulnerable people”.

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       • That’s a common disconnect that you’ll find with people. Inconsistency is something we are all guilty of, and is something that makes us human. Of course, it’s completely illogical, as Spock would say, but he was just pointing out this endearing, though sometimes frustrating quality of human beings. We ain’t rational or logical, we’re human!

         However, I do think that some kind of joined-up thinking is needed when it comes to social welfare. For one thing this onslaught against the sick and disabled needs to be massively challenged, especially the biopsychosocial model approach which seems to me to be the latest quack form of divination after, variously, psychometrics, graphology and voice analysis, and will itself soon(ishly) face the day when it becomes thoroughly discredited. There are already huge question marks over the ethics of such a system, and certainly many commentators have pointed out that the model is wide open to abuse.

         Whether or not the the UK government deliberately set out to harm sick and disabled people in the ways they are doing is probably debatable, and would in any case ignore the fact that it is hurting people. It is also clearly not working, and no amount of changing the name of something or applying CBT theories to it is going to change the fact that someone who is disabled is still disabled, and if they have been determined as incapable of work by medical specialists, then no decision by a failed medical secretary based on a dodgy computer tick box form should be allowed to trump that.

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   • I don’t think the Baby Boomers themselves have created the system John, it was created by the neoliberals that some of them got conned into voting for over the last 39 years.

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9. “I’m not against creed, or race, and I would never insult a person, but I’m sorry – there’s just too many foreigners and they’re all piled up in London.”

   Too true. I walk down the street and sit on the bus and seldom hear the English language.

   “That’s one thing, but two – they’re not producing enough jobs here in this country. This is why the benefit craze has gone off.”

   The more jobs we create, the more foreigners will come over here to take them. Therefore, we will never have “enough” jobs until we do something about immigration.

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   • Unfortunately Alison, the MSM will describe this situation as – “the jobs which the British worker doesn’t want to do” – something which makes me extremely angry.
     My wife was managed out of her job (scientist – masters degree) three years ago, and then replaced by someone from Eastern Europe @£10K less per year.
     If the government allows unchecked immigration, then it will result in even more pressure on the job market, and we will inevitably see older people forced out of jobs and wages forced down in many sectors.
     Maybe we should ask the politicians and BBC presenters, if they think it would be a good idea to replace them with people from Eastern Europe on NMW and zero hours.

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     • Very true. It will be the older unemployed and the disabled that will bear the brunt of all this.

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     • Andy, I’m so glad to hear from someone who agrees with me on this!

       I too get FURIOUS when I hear people (mainly company bosses) claiming British people won’t do certain jobs. They say British people won’t do care for elderly people, yet I cared for my late mother until she died.

       The truth is that they can charge fees to foreign workers for flights, housing, etc. They can withhold pay, undercut the minimum wage, etc. That’s the REAL REASON they hire foreigners.

       Every time they say they can’t get people to pick strawberries, I find myself yelling at the TV that I want to do it! All they need to do is lay on a minibus.

       I even heard someone say that Brits won’t be fishermen, yet it was the British fishermen who voted to leave the EU!

       Sometimes I’m tempted to get a job cleaning toilets, just to prove a point.

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       • Try replacing the word foreigner with human being it is much nicer phrase and has less of a xenophobic tone.

         But then I guess if you did most of your points would pale into insignificance.

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         • My wife is origunally from Iran, speaks very good English and has been here for thirty five years. She has always worked for exactly the same money as her English colleagues.
           However, unchecked, encouraged (by employers and politicians) immigration particularly from Eastern Europe, has added a completely new dynamic into the workplace – employees who are willing to work for half (or frequently far less than half) what English/home grown employes can work for.
           In many sectors, the immigrant workers are living six or more to a house designed for two to four, or in caravns controlled by gangmasters. The immigrant workers never intend to buy a house in this country, because a) they cannot afford one on NMW and b) because they send their money back to their own country where it is worth a small fortune.
           The average wage in many Eastern European countries is around 4500 Euros per year (£4250) which is one third our NMW.
           Can you see a problem with this, and the way in which it is driving down wages?

         • Absofuckinglutely I can see the problem in all of this, human beings forced to leave their own countries and families in order to survive.

           Cramped and living in poor conditions in order to survive.

           Undervalued and underpaid attacked and abused in order to survive.

           We should all stand up for our fellow human beings rather than blame them for doing something to improve their lot in life, if the tables were turned people who moan about immigration would swiftly change their mind.

           Call it aspiration not immigration, but then I have nothing to lose so why should I care.

         • You describe it very well, Andy.

           I went to the shops today. Lots of people were talking, but very few of them were using the English language.

         • How dare bilinguals speak their mother tongue in front of you Alison, do you think they might be plotting something ?

         • Sourchimp, I like your style!

           But, to those of you rightfully concerned about having jobs undercut by employers employing people from EU countries with much lower wage rates the answer is really quite simple, and is called solidarity. One thing to do would be to firstly join a union. Unfashionable, I know, but they do still have their uses, and at the very least make you far less likely to lose your job in the first place. Decent unions even step up to the plate over EU nationals brought in by employers to undercut wages. For example, the IWW, (Industrial Workers of the World) is a union that has a very welcoming approach to foreign workers, and stresses that they are workers, just like UK workers, and as such should be treated just like UK workers, AND PAID THE SAME GOING RATES as UK workers.

           I wonder how many of these EU workers lured here for wages that to them appear to be huge realise that they are not only being exploited, but are also displacing UK workers?

           Maybe some don’t care, but I would guess that the majority understand the dynamic well, and they, as well as the UK workers they displace are victims of a vicious system.

           By standing together, not only would EU workers get the same rate of pay as their UK colleagues, putting both on an even keel, but it would take the wind out of the sails of those on the far right keen to exploit the fears of UK workers through stirring up xenophobia.

           But it’s my guess that those on here spouting quasi-xenophobic nonsense are already something of a lost cause, who are just looking for a platform to wail about their misfortunes. It’s capitalism, stupid!

         • Padi, what the East European immigrants think is that we have been OVERPAID for far too long and that it’s high time they got some of our money. It’s OK if we lose our jobs because we’re over-privileged. As a Polish school-leaver said on TV, “We need these jobs more than the British people do because we’re sending money back home.”

           As for Sourchimp’s style, what you both have in common is that you are both inclined to single me out and post insults. If the whole country took your stance on foreigners, we’d be a district of Germany by now.

         • Get over yourself Alison. One TV report is enough to satisfy your xenophobic prejudices? How do you know that ALL Eastern European workers think we’re being overpaid? Most of them would be more than happy to be paid the same rate of pay as UK workers. Only an idiot would work for less if they could earn more.

           Most Eastern European workers these days seem to be recruited by dodgy recruitment firms playing on the ignorance of workers from those countries, so they are not aware what the going rate is, and of course, it’s in the corrupt employers interests that those workers remain ignorant. Exploitation of immigrant workers is nothing new at all.

           Blaming people from other countries for the ills in this country is pretty low. People in the UK are responsible for the state of our countries and it is those with the power who are to blame, the politicians, the capitalists and the corporations.

         • Padi, whatever, whatever, whatever. If you find me so unpleasant, why are you so keen to talk to me?

         • Alison:

           “If the whole country took your stance on foreigners, we’d be a district of Germany by now.”

           That’s overstating it hugely. Immigration into the UK isn’t actually having that much of an impact, and most of the people who come here are needed. Sadly because of Brexit our countries are now losing thousands of vital staff from the NHS. And the impact of EU citizens moving to the UK isn’t that huge anyway. Cymru has a far bigger problem with immigration, and it is having a huge impact on our society, it’s even changing the language of whole districts in some places to what could be argued is a foreign one. Thus far, almost a quarter of the population was born in a different country – England. And, no, sadly most of them don’t integrate.

         • Well Padi it sounds like you have a massive grievance about English people. So you’re like the pot calling the kettle black.

           As I said before, you’ve made your point. I don’t think I should be subjected to your abusive condemnation over and over again.

   • That’s how Capitalism functions, they have to have more workers than jobs to regulate wages and maintain the power balance. Immigrants are just a convenient scapegoat for Reactionaries looking for someone to blame.

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     • I wonder why the capitalists want to flood our country with immigrants… Oh, that’s right. So they can get to a situation where there are far more workers than there are jobs.

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       • Of course. That’s why they opened up the Commonwealth,and what the Commonwealth is actually for in the first place. Then it was the EU, all about movement & exploitation of the workforce. Social Engineering that goes back at least 500 yrs to the Inclosures, now extended globally.

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10. This system of excessive fees for renewing badges needed to work…it seems to me that someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of good people desperate to work. There ought to be some regulation of such fees – or they should be banned.

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11. I’m in my later 50s, a little bit older than ‘Brian’ in the report, and I’m on JSA. I’ve come to realize that whatever you do or say the JCP Advisers are never satisfied and never will be until you either sign off or die. No matter how much jobsearch you do or how many applications you make, no matter how much voluntary work you do, or how many schemes & courses you attend, there can be no pleasing them, and there’s no point trying, you just continue to do all this pointless bullcrap simply because you have to do in order to continue receiving your JSA, and there is no end to it until you finally either Retire or snuff it.

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    • They are relying on that great vacuum cleaner of the unemployed, Universal Credit. To suck up all these people into the dust-bag of zero-hours and crap part-time employment.

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      • Good one Malcolm ! That’s just what it is, the Universal Vacuum Cleaner of the unemployed. and once the DWP really start hoovering then a lot of people are going to be abruptly sucked into work, or workfare.

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        • unless the belt snaps like on my old Hoover!

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          • Or the dust-bag gets full, and then what ?

          • Empty the dust bag?

        • It’s going to be like 7 million dust-mites, sucked up out of the old, worn-out JSA carpet, into the dust-bag of Universal Credit. Yes, they’ll try and hang on with their little claws. Burying themselves deeper into the pile, trying to escape.
          But it won’t work. They’ll be pulled out one by one. Caught in the vacuum of austerity.
          Only a few will be left, in the corners of the room, and in the awkward small places where the cleaner can’t go.

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          • Unless Jeremy Corbyn manages to reach the vacuum cleaner in time, and turns it off ?

          • A new broom sweeps clean. Or maybe Corbyn can use some Shake n Vac and put the freshness back.

          • That’s a horrible image. A giant-sized McVey with a Universal Credit vacuum cleaner. Moving from room to room, sucking up all the unemployed.

      • That’s right, Malcolm. They want the everybody to sign up with Deliveroo and Uber.

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12. And where is Mr.Corbyn on the subject of Universal Credit ?
    And what’s more where is Debbie Abrahams ? I think party members are owed an explanation of the current leadership position on welfare.

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    • They are Tom. It’s just not good enough. #StayInLabour

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    • Where is Debbie Abrahams? Stepped down due to an allegation of bullying, that’s where.

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13. I have also realized that jobsearching is a fine line, you have to do just enough so they don’t get on to you for not doing enough, but don’t do too much or you’re shooting yourself in the foot, as I have just done. Over the last fortnight I got a bit carried away and applied for more jobs than usual, all crap jobs many miles away that I’m not likely to ever get.My Adviser, rather than being satisfied, interpreted this as if I’m applying for all these jobs and still not getting shortlisted for interview then that must mean that my CV needs re-writing. So now I have to go to some bullshit place where some clueless twat can get paid taxpayers money to fabricate some bullshit CV for me YET AGAIN! A CV that I will end up disregarding and reverting to one of my own choice and wording. They always want to put loads of ponced up bullshit about how great I am at teamwork or time management, problem solving and working to deadlines blah blah etc. etc. But leave out all details of my previous work history and experience because it’s from too long ago, so I end up with some totally fabricated personal statement that embarrassingly “sells myself”, and nothing else but odd bits of voluntary work and a list of Academic qualifications. Total shite. The Jobcentre will never admit or accept the truth. The reason I don’t get these jobs is because employers can take their pick and are obviously much more likely to hire younger people with more recent work experience and who live closer to the job, not people in their late 50s with health problems, no recent work history, no transport, no specific skills, and who live 15 to 20 miles away.

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    • It not your CV needs rewriting its your Life , are you on JSA trev because you do not have to attend this course if you do want to and yeh don’t ever use your job search to impress work coach always end up bad

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    • Never give the Jobcentre a free go at you Trev. The Advisors are target-driven and they are under a lot of pressure from management. Every day to get ‘off-flow’, which to you and me is claimants off their list. They are trained to see things from a very literal, fixed point of view. So too many applications equals new CV needed, or perhaps completely new type of job applications . As it will seem to them as if you have exhausted all the possibilities of whatever type of work you are currently applying for. So as you have discovered, you can cause yourself problems by being too keen.
      If you haven’t done something you were supposed to do, never admit it. What they don’t need to know won’t hurt them. People are so frightened of them they confess to things before they have even been asked about it. And probably wouldn’t have been.

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      • They’re like human robots. I don’t know how anyone can do that job.

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        • Maybe they ARE robots, Trev. Programmed by IDS himself.

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          • Scary thought!

        • Have you ever noticed that slight shimmer in the air around a Work Coach. A sort of blurring around the edges ? A sure give away of a molecular compression field. And who uses those ?
          Reptilian Overlords from the planet Drakos 4.

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          • Or Alchemists. That’s how Fulcanelli was said to have looked when he reappeared 30 yrs later, shimmering & alternating between male/female, andlooking 20 yrs younger than when he disappeared! Tru th can be far stranger than fic tion!

          • No actually I cannot say I have have tried visiting an opticians or had a glucose test recently it is more than likely a eye problem as opposed to an alien invasion?

    • Trev, they do have a point about recent work experience, though. Anything that shows commitment and regular attendance within the last 5 years. Then the prospective employer can phone up and ask for a reference. Attending an evening class, volunteering, etc. It all counts. What they DON’T like is a BIG GAP on your CV.

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      • I have plenty of voluntary work on my CV, but I’ve seen some job ads that specify that applicants must have been in employment for last 2 yrs, or some that say must have 5 year checkable work history. They don’t care what you did 30 or 40 yrs ago. All the firms I’ve worked for in the past don’t even exist anymore, and you can’t include all the casual cash-in-hand work you’ve done, so it looks like you’ve been sat on your arse for years. Plus periods of sickness, and several years in F.E. & H.E. as a mature student. Massive gaps in my CV !

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        • Don’t you have any certificates from your further and higher education? I would have thought they should go on your CV.

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          • Yes I have Academic qualifications on my CV, probably makes me more unemployable. They don’t necessarily want people who think too much.

          • I’m no expert, but presumably you would say, either on your CV or on your covering letter, that you studied for x qualifications and then worked for x no. years in x industry until you had to give up due to ____ (health?) and now you have been volunteering at the food bank and attended x and x and x courses and you’re looking to return to paid employment.

            I think qualifications do show that you have a brain and you’re willing to learn. I don’t think they count for nothing.

          • Never put volunteering down on your CV it means nothing in the real word of work and can surprisingly negatively impact your chances.

          • Sourchimp, that is not true at all. Voluntary work is valuable work experience, from which you can get references and get into paid jobs that require experience.

            When I left school, it was my year of customer service at a charity shop that qualified me for my first full-time job.

          • If you are over 24 and you have volunteering on your CV in place of real work experience you might as well paint a sign on your head this person has some sort of problem.
            I know you will disagree but that is the sad reality.
            Sure put in under hobbies interests but not in place of actual paid work.

          • Sourchimp, voluntary work is better than a great big gap on your cv. At least it shows you weren’t in hospital or prison. And that you have a work ethic.

            Don’t take it from me. Take it from anybody else who doesn’t have a 30-year gap on their cv.

          • Its better to lie and just say you worked for X until they closed down to fill a gap in CV rather than put volunteering, lets face it unless your young and unable to get experience over 24 if you have to fill a gap with volunteering then that marks you out to recruiters as someone who may have issues.

            Just add it as an hobby or interest but not as actual employment or just part of your skill set maybe why , because it in no way reflects the real world of work.

            All these years unemployed I could run most courses I am offered.

            And do not take it just from me, this was after a conversation with a Area manager responsible for recruitment who made a presentation while I was on the work program he was burnt out after working 25 years for Tescos.

            Basically the name of the game is lie like a bastard to get anywhere.

            I refuse to do that.

          • Yes, Sourchimp, many people who volunteer are disabled, recovering from mental illness, etc. So why not come out and say so? It beats sitting at home smoking weed for 30/40 years, surely!

            I know several people who obtained paid work at the workplaces where they used to volunteer. It’s how real people with imperfections get on in life.

        • Most of the jobs today never existed 10 years ago let alone 30-40, notice how white collar workers are now losing their jobs Rolls Royce recently announcing 4000 is the tip of the iceberg as AI takes over middle management and professional roles, the last 11-15 years will seem like a walk in the park compared to what’s coming.

          Unless this country wakes and embraces a guaranteed basic income without conditions the old skool punx will have no choice but rise out of our armchairs don our leathers and safety pins and show the yooot of today how real change is done,

          ClubX 50-65ers #pogotoparliament protest followed by a light buffet.

          Reply ↓

          • Haha,don’t think I can pogo anymore, & when I sit down inthe armchair I fall asleep!

          • For those that cannot pogo or walk would still serve as useful projectiles just bring a crash helmet.

          • Oh I’ve got one of those, Can’t afford a bike anymore but still go t the crash helmet, migh t come in handy one day.

      • I have a 30 year gap on my CV and they don’t like it one bit.

        I have no references and no previous checkable work history.

        As I tell my work coach when they mention some scheme or course for CVs or Interviews, you cannot polish a turd.

        Reply ↓

14. The single over 24 JSA/UC group are one of hardest hit when it comes to finances and feel the full brunt of the JCP madness and sanction regime, yet they seem the least represented in the media, I am over 50 and totally see where the guy was coming from in relation to the JCP however ex soldier and blaming foreigners tainted my sympathies .

    Reply ↓

    • Well, Sourchimp, I presume your stance will be that no one is to blame except God.

      Reply ↓

      • If I blamed imaginary entities I would be a simple minded as those that believe in them, I blame those who follow these imaginary entities and force a belief system that has been drafted by human hands not gods over the centuries to suppress others.

        And it is this belief system that still sits right in the very heart of the evil empire still pulling the strings

        Reply ↓

15. There’s another guy I often bump into down the jobcentre a bit older than me, he’s 64 and coming up to Retirement later this year, been unemployed for a long time, and it was only a few months ago that they sent him on some back-to-work course, sat in a bloody classroom at some private company doing basic skills, jobsearch and CV writing, interview techniques etc. at age 64! What’s the point? It makes no sense.

    Reply ↓

    • Its waste of public funds they should be held accountable but they do do not follow the guidelines they are corrupted by the power the hold.

      Reply ↓

      • As long as folk let them keep getting away with it they will continue, use the complaints process stand your ground and fight back turn the tables and let them feel the pressure.

        Use your MP to make the complaint on your behalf thats what they are there for !

        Reply ↓

    • True, we came across that a few years ago, with someone who was due to retire in a year. She was forced onto a course by the Jokecentre, and made to take English and Maths tests – what a total waste of public money!

      Reply ↓

    • We encountered that on the “skills” course we were sent on a few years ago. There was this poor woman with under six months to go to pension age, and they were putting her on a cycle of courses.
      It is cruel, it is pointless and it is a waste of taxpayer’s money.
      They tried to get me to apply for jobs in the DWP, so I just said no, why would I want to end up like them.

      Reply ↓

      • That just shows Andy what the real motivation is for all this.
        No-one with less than six months to retirement should be forced onto courses of this type. What can be the point if this lady intends to retire ? A waste of money and a waste of time.

        Reply ↓

        • I agree with you, Rob. Six months to retirement or even with two years to go, it’s not worth charging the taxpayer to retrain somebody.

          Reply ↓

    • Next they’ll be offering him an Apprenticeship . The Jobcentre still keep up the ‘never say never again’ mantra with the nearly-retired.

      Reply ↓

16. In windy woods I walked,
    Ushanka on my head,
    It was early , and not long,
    Since I had left my bed.

    But I could rest no longer,
    On such a day as this,
    So I put on my Ushanka,
    After giving her a kiss.

    The sky was bright above us,
    An iridescent blue,
    And I was truly happy my love,
    To be out here with you.

    As we walked through nature’s beauty,
    Down paths of verdant green,
    Past sleepy dells and bubbling brook,
    Bright flowers in between.

    I wondered how it came to be,
    That on that special day,
    I bought you in the hat-shop,
    And then I took you away.

    Is there a God, some secret power,
    An unknown force above ?
    That led me to my own sweet hat,
    My furry Russian dove.

    Can there be joy to equal this ?
    Companionship divine,
    Wearing you proudly on my head,
    And knowing that you are mine.

    Reply ↓

    • Another lovely poem Norman, Bless you.
      You have brightened up my day. xx

      Reply ↓

    • Poet wanted 9 – 5, pays National Minimum Wage, extensive portfolio required (toilet walls do not count), should be able to demonstrate knowledge of rhyming couplets. Apply today.

      Reply ↓

      • I walked to town the other day,
        The rain was pouring down,
        And I wore my Ushanka,
        Like a soft and furry crown.

        We went through many crowded streets,
        Into our favourite shops,
        The people were happy, and all was well,
        Despite a few raindrops.

        Then we came outside a single shop,
        Where everything cost a pound,
        There were voices raised,
        And people standing all around.
        For an angry woman was shouting at her man,
        And their shopping lay scattered on the ground.

        Behind them stood a security guard,
        Who could be heard to say,
        That they had better not come back in the shop,
        For the police were on their way.

        The man was in a tracksuit, with no apparent hair,
        He looked quite sad and beaten down,
        Or as if he didn’t care.

        The woman herself was fiercesome, eyes flashing bright,
        Her temper up, she cursed the man with all of her might,
        He was a fool she said, idle and worthless too,
        Not even able to buy what she asked,
        And what he had bought wouldn’t do.

        With this she kicked out at a tin,
        And sent it flying down the street,
        It had the single word ‘Spam’ on it,
        Which I think is a type of meat.

        Then I heard some sirens wailing,
        The police were on their way,
        I didn’t want to get involved,
        So it seemed unwise to stay.

        And in my heart I thought,
        How lucky I had been,
        To find my dear Ushanka,
        My silent Russian queen.

        Reply ↓

        • Strangely moving and profound. A view of the many dysfunctional elements in society.
          Yet one feels a spirit of cohesion. Layers of meaning
          intertwining within the changing patterns of the verse.

          Reply ↓

      • Toilet walls don’t count? What a shame!

        Reply ↓

    • Norman, you are the undoubted master of the Russian Hat poem.

      Reply ↓

    • Norman I love your poetry. Ushanka is so lucky.

      Reply ↓

    • Thanks Norman.

      Reply ↓

17. Norman, you sweet dear man. You’ve made me cry.

    Reply ↓

18. ‘The National Audit Office effectively demolishes ministerial claims for universal credit, concluding that the much-delayed flagship welfare programme may end up costing more than the benefit system it replaces, cannot prove it helps more claimants into work and is unlikely to ever deliver value for money.’

    But the Tories have managed to hang on against all the evidence, and get UC launched. Which is what they wanted all along. They don’t really care about the cost. If they did, it would have been scrapped £1.9 Billion pounds ago. This was never really about money for the Conservatives, but about social change.
    Preventing as many people as possible from being on benefits long-term.
    Developing a system which forced people back into work as quickly as possible.

    Reply ↓

    • Yep, you said it Jeff. This is so true. The Tories try to spin UC as being all about saving money.
      But as you say, it’s all about getting people off benefits by hook or by crook. Always has been. That was the great dream of Duncan Smith.
      Shoving a great army of working-class off benefits and into what is mostly low-paid, insecure employment.

      Reply ↓

      • Too right Darren ! Universal Credit has always been about clearing out the unemployed. All the rest is just spin and propaganda.

        Reply ↓

    • The evidence against Universal Credit is mounting. It’s undeniable. How much longer can this charade continue?

      Reply ↓

      • Duncan Smith and McVey have both got a lot of serious questions to answer regarding Universal Credit. And they need to be held to account. Not given the usual soft-soap from Frank Field.

        Reply ↓

      • Trev, I honestly don’t think they are going to just scrap it.
        Not after £1.9 Billion pounds. The political damage to the Conservatives if they put that down the drain will be massive. Labour would be dancing in parliament.
        It’s gone too big to fail now. Like Concorde and the Channel Tunnel, or the new F35 Jet Fighter.
        The best you’ll get out of the Conservatives is a few more changes. Maybe cut out the waiting time. Give a bit more back to the disabled, that sort of thing.

        Reply ↓

        • Absolutely no way can they stop it, it was designed from the start to be irreversible once the ball started rolling.

          Any tiny change in UC has wide ranging consequences and unknowns due to the unwieldy way it has been designed so fixing it is probably harder than implementing it in the first place.

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          • Yep, that’s the way of it. I wouldn’t bank on Universal Credit going anywhere, not after all this.

          • There was a report on the problems with Universal Credit on the BBC news tonight.

          • Hitler

            t hought the Third Reich was unstoppable.

          • Even the Beeb? About time too.

          • Better, and cheaper in the long run just to scrap it and replace it with an unconditional basic income.

            Automation will remove many millions of jobs worldwide, and in order to remain a viable system, capitalism will have to adapt, and this probably makes the implementation of a universal basic income an inevitability as otherwise capitalism will come to a grinding halt, as there won’t be enough people with money to support it. Even the richest person only needs few pair of shoes or trousers etc.

            I’d love to see UC scrapped, but sadly it’s unlikely to happen, though I think it could be interesting to see what happens when all those on tax credits are finally moved onto UC and the system fails massively, which it could well do, as it is mostly still manually administered behind the scenes.

            Maybe it’ll be this government’s equivalent of the Poll Tax, in which case we need to be sure we aren’t duped into accepting something nearly as bad as a replacement. We need to be ready to demand a system of unconditional basic income, as only then will an economy based on a national minumum wage and zero hours contracts in insecure employment begin to make any kind of sense.

          • Yep you pretty much summed up the current state of affairs as I see it.

            We need to rip this dog eat dog ,winner and loser mentality out of our system and start caring for each other as human beings not commodities.

          • You’re both very dog-eat-dog on this forum, though.

        • BUT it’s unfit for purpose,and money is no object to Governments, they throw it away like confetti.AAt least £16 Billion down the drain onUC,written off like it never existed, God knows how much on Bankb bailout all those yrs ago, untold Billions on Iraq & Afghanistan….etc. The human cost, and detriment to Society, means that UC cannot continue.

          Reply ↓

          • I agree with you, Trev. The politicians and the government throw around money like confetti, yet there’s “no money” for us when we really need it.

      • A full public apology needs to made by the Department of Work & Pensions regarding Universal Credit. For all the needless suffering they have caused.

        Reply ↓

19. This is about saying to someone – ‘This is not an easy life any more chum.’
    Iain Duncan Smith

    Reply ↓

20. I think Esther McVey should, like Lady Godiva, ride naked on a horse through the streets of Coventry, in order to get the cruel system of Universal Credit repealed.

    Reply ↓

    • I don’t really want to see the words “Mcvey” and “naked” in the same sentence.

      Reply ↓

21. It should be a Boomerang Sanction System. If the Work Coach launches it, and it doesn’t stick, it comes back on them. And they get it instead. Make them think twice before launching a 3-month sanction with 80% overturned on appeal.

    Reply ↓

    • Excellent idea Des when you consider the potential consequences a sanction can have on someone’s life and yes the number of unlawful sanctions that get turned on appeal are shocking but the harm as already been done and difficult to recover from when it can take months weeks even years to get financial redress.

      Costs them £100 to challenge appeals so those that just accept a sanction without question actually pay for DWP to challenge those do appeal.

      One thing you can say about the DWP they are sly bastards.

      Reply ↓

    • Are 80% of sanctions overturned?

      Reply ↓

      • between 1 August 2015 and 31 January 2018, 29% of Universal Credit mandatory reconsiderations ended in the sanction decision being overturned. At appeals, this figure was 83%.

        So the correct figure is a whooping 83% who have gone without money unlawfully and the suffered the consequences that brings.

        Reply ↓

        • It’s not 80% of all sanctions. It’s 80% of those sanctions that get appealed to the tribunal. Only a very small percentage of all sanctions ever get appealed to the tribunal.

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22. If the DWP had published the first reports on Universal Credit in 2013, when the programme had to be given a complete new restart. That would have been it.
    The enormous cost and problems would have stopped it then and there.
    The then Chancellor George Osbourne was opposed to it on the grounds of cost, as was the Treasury.
    But the DWP managed to keep the true facts about UC quiet. And then fought through the courts for four years, to keep the details secret. Giving them time to put enough of Universal Credit in place, and spend enough, so that it could never be reversed.

    Reply ↓

    • Yes, I agree 100% Malcolm. The DWP have manipulated the whole Universal Credit system from the first. They knew it would have been stopped years ago if people knew about the cost and the millions wasted on it. But by keeping quiet about the problems, with Duncan Smith & Co. denying everything, they have managed to patch it together. At great cost. Now it look like we are stuck with it.
      The Tories can’t politically write-off £1.9 Billion, and Labour don’t seem too bothered about Universal Credit.

      Reply ↓

23. It will be interesting to see what the Labour response will be to the NAO report
    on Universal Credit. Will Corbyn now say something about it, or is he going to just do nothing ?

    Reply ↓

    • The Politicians are probably all holiday now, chilling on their allotments or on a foreign beach, all thoughts of running the country removed from their minds. Who gives a toss about the poor & unemployed when you’ve got £78 grand to blow on slap up dinners, fancy cars, booze drugs & prostitutes? The Political classes don’t give a flying fuck about the rest of us so you might as well go out shoplifting.

      Reply ↓

      • Turn on BBC Parliament and you’ll see them in Parliament Monday-Thursday. They’re on their weekends now.

        Reply ↓

      • Shoplifters of the world unite !

        Reply ↓

        • Shoplifting is bad. Try getting a (legal) job to earn your keep instead.

          Reply ↓

          • I have a Job, I am a tax payer, I am a Job Seeker ! admittedly low pay repetitive work and long hours but non the less according to our dear leaders job seeking is a full time occupation and someone has to do it or the economy collapses.

            I shouldn’t be criticised for taking the back of the queue when you consider the sheer delight and health giving wonders real work can bring, I and others like me should be given a freaking medal !

            That is true altruism right there.

          • Frankly Alison, some people are forced to shoplifting by destitution. I think that is arguably justified. Which do think is better ? For a child to go hungry or the mother to shoplift a couple of food items to feed it ?
            I know I would do so without hesitation if I had to.

          • Britain has become a nation of shoplifters since the introduction of self service checkouts.

            One store reported selling over 500,000 Avocados in the past year but only stocked a total of 100,000.

            But yep no way would I starve to death facing a store full of food and big pockets, Much the same I would not freeze to death in a doorway of a empty property.

            Desperate times require desperate measures.

          • I see your point Helen, but I didn’t think that was the sort of shoplifting Sourchimp was referring to when he said, “Shoplifters of the world unite!”

    • Universal credit was paused in my area for 5 months so far and due to start rolling out again in July.

      It has taken 5 months so far to make what appears seemingly minor changes to the system so anything major could see it paused for years.

      2022 was the expected end for legacy benefits which has now been extended to 2023 and after all the recent reports I expect legacy benefits to be around until at least 2025

      JSA or ESA are the gold card of the benefit system while those on UC are 10 times more likely to get a benefit sanction, 35 hour job search per week as opposed to 3 steps or more, no entitlement to holidays unlike JSA where you can have 14 days, only 7 days self certified sickness JSA is 2×14 for a total of 28 days, hardship payments have to be repaid JSA they do not the list is endless.

      Now any sensible person could see that it would be suicide to naturally migrate to UC by taking up on offer of work while on JSA.

      I did a online calculation recently and after travel costs if I got a Job for 35 hours PW I would be £10PW better off.

      Reply ↓

      • The whole rotten system is fucked. I become very despondent about the Sorry state of affairs we’re in. It’s hard to maintin any faith in Politics & Democracy when Youre onthe sharp end of the stick and nothing ever changes, it’s just the same shit every day, & nobody even bloody cares or says or does anything.

        Reply ↓

        • Demonocracy and politricks they can all fek off as far as am concerned I only follow the shit watching for the cracks to grow wider waiting for it all come tumbling down, and it will you do need to be a prophet to come to that conclusion.

          Look at this Billy Caudwell case Cannabis could save his life but oh no they choose to ignore the and evidence and rely on blind ignorance, a 21st century government still entrenched in blind faith.

          Lets hope the pressure the home office are under today they finally crack and make some changes.

          It could actually be landmark day today to get this miracle plant legalised

          Reply ↓

          • After all theresa mays husband has invested heavily in a UK producing medicinal cannabis.

            The UK is the world largest exporter of medicinal cannabis and yet refuse to treat a dying child

          • Well no sooner I posted this the government caved in and supplied billy his medication now technically are they not dealing cannabis themselves lol

          • I do think it’s time they legalized it, especially for medicinal.

        • Fancy badgering your MP at his/her surgery over the weekend?

          Reply ↓

        • Trev, don’t let them get you down. As they say this too will pass.

          Reply ↓

          • Yes,Youre righ t Helen, thanks. Nothing lasts forever. Bu t I don’t think it will change soon enough to benefit me.

      • maybe the unemployed middle-aged should form gangs & go around stabbing each other to get some media attention. We could have our own genre of music, call it Hip-Op.

        Reply ↓

        • lol trev I used to play the drums many years ago and still enjoy making music using digital instruments/studio.

          That is another hidden cost of these welfare reforms 500,000 young people completely off the radar turning to the black market to survive.

          All the young people my son knows 16-26 have never signed on nor ever worked.

          And I do not blame them.

          If you want to hear of a successful thriving business then look no further than the black market cannabis high strength weed has dropped from £240 per ounce to £140 per ounce in the last few months.

          Reply ↓

          • What kind of dad would encourage his son to deal drugs instead of earning his keep on the right side of the law? What a shame your son doesn’t go out to work or college or volunteering (or church…perish the thought!). Then he might make some decent friends.

          • Cannabis is saving the life of a young boy today Alison because this corrupt system could not ignore the evidence any longer.
            Cannabis=Emergency Medication

          • I can look forward to weeks more of your commentary, Sourchimp, until nobody talks to you any more and you change your screen name once again.

          • Alison I changed my screen name and Avatar after brushing down an old twitter account, I have not mentioned or hid the fact and I am sure my first post as sourchimp it would have been self evident who I was and I am using the same Email address as always.

            There is multiple account tom foolery going on at times on this comments section but can assure you I am long past that as a form of entertainment.

            I use the avatar so it can help to help prevent people masquerading as whatever name I am using I have no idea if there is many trevs or Alisons or you all one and the same person.

            I am well used to speaking to myself so no worries there and if I bore or offend you then not sure how you can remedy it without a mute button or unsubscribe so my comments do not show up in your Email.

            I will endeavour to be more engaging but I cannot promise it.

        • I like the “Hip-Op”! I’m not so keen on the stabbings, though.

          Reply ↓

          • we ‘d have to use bendy rubber knives.

          • True story: When I was young (and mobile phones were still quite new), I saw a guy standing at the counter in the T-Mobile shop. He whipped out a gigantic bendy knife, the size of a machete, with which he proceeded to remove his wallet from his pocket!!! He balanced his wallet on the point of this bendy knife while he held it upright above his head…until eventually the wallet fell on the counter in front of the sales assistant, who looked absolutely terrified!!!

          • Alison are you living in another dimension ? no where did I ever say I encouraged my son to deal drugs perish the thought, I was making a social commentary based on my observations.

            Yes he does indeed smoke cannabis and I am happy he does rather than hang out with the pubbers, he despises alcohol use much the same as I do.

            And the law can fuk off I never signed any agreement with anyone to be policed I am quite able and capable to police myself.

            Before you lump in Cannabis with these so called Drugs I suggest you direct your energies towards educating yourself first.

            He earns his keep his way, he does not harm or hurt or steal, he like his friends are entrepreneurs serving the community.

          • Spare a thought for all the young people who die in drug wars trying to bring you your cannabis.

          • Just get the notion that Cannabis is a drug out of your head it is a medicinal plant and
            I can assure you one was harmed in producing my Cannabis but more impotently probably more people die each year supplying you with your Milk than die dealing drugs.

            It is the war on drugs that is causing all the misery not the actual drugs themselves admittedly there is some dangerous shit out there such as synthetic cannabis but again this is due to criminalisation.

            No one is forcing you to take anything Alison I respect your rights not to but you should also give equal respect to those who choose to.

          • Tha t’s a weird one Alison, what an idiot! There were no mobiles when I was young, we didn t even have a landline phone ’til about mid 70s.

          • We had a landline phone that you dialled by winding dial round and round for each number. It took forever to ring 999! My mum kept that phone until there were too many numbers she needed a modern phone to ring: when you press 1 for this and 2 for that, you have to have a phone that makes a beep for each number. So she had to get a new phone.

        • Or go round on scooters Trev, with hoodies and helmets with black visors.
          Ride to Work do scooters.

          Reply ↓

          • Ride to Work scooters? I didn’t. Know that, the Jobcentre have never mentioned it to me. But who pays for the insurance?

          • Oh, you mean that kind of scooter? Ha-ha-ha!

      • It’s one step forward, two steps backwards, in a Babylon…

        Reply ↓

        • Babylon’s burning, baby can’t you see?
          Babylon is burning with anxiety
          You’ll burn at your work
          You’ll burn at your play
          It’s positively smoldering
          With ignorance and hate

          Reply ↓

          • “By fire nature is renewed whole” – Fulcanelli

          • I’m a firestarter – Prodigy

          • I saw them live a t Glas tonbury 97 or 98

          • Went Glastonbury 84 not seen prodigy live but got a lot of their tracks.

        • C’est Le Cercle Rouge.

          Reply ↓

          • C’est le cercle bleu.

          • Die Rooi Sirkel

          • You’ve lost me there!

      • They are going to have to force most of the migration to Universal Credit. It’s got a bad name already amongst claimants. 35 Hour Jobsearch, All Work Group, Built-in Workfare, vicious sanctions. Delays with payments. Non-payments, you name it.
        People know full well if they take a meaningless two-week temporary job from JSA, then it means a new claim for Universal Credit and misery from day one.
        The Jobcentre will lose some when UC comes in, because people will rather take their chances on temping and tell the Jobcentre where to stick UC. The rest will be dragged onto it like they did with Mandatory Work Activity.

        Reply ↓

        • Managed migration is due to start July 2019 but they still have not released details of how it will progress I think they hoped most people would have naturally migrated from legacy benefits by now.

          But only 10% of all claims at the moment are UC a massive 90% are still on legacy benefits so the chaos has not even begun yet .

          Reply ↓

        • There’ll be more suicides.

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        • I did Mandatory Work Activity abou t 6 or 7 yrs ago. We had cuppas whenwe liked, fag breaks, & told on first day to smoke spliffs outside,not in the building (& i t was opposite mail police station!), and we finished early every day a t 1.00 or 2.00pm & time sheet was signed as fiveo clock finish.

          Reply ↓

          • Main police station,no t ‘mail’, thisphone is knackered.

          • Presumably they thought you were smoking tobacco?

            What was the work you were supposed to be doing?

            I guess the employer didn’t believe in workfare!

          • It was a recycling operation run as a sort of community project, I think they might have had charity status.

          • What did you recycle? Did you get any recycling done? Or was it a complete farce?

          • Oh yes, we got the work done, that’s how we got away early. You could make a cuppa & have a quick break when you wanted rather than everyone knocking off all together for a set break time, and we worked staright thru’ without a lunch break so we could get away by maybe half one or 2.00pm, otherwise if we had all had proper breaks and lunch we’d have been there ’til 4.00pm and the woman who ran the place wanted to be off herself by 3.00. We were recycling household paint (emulsion) from the Council tip for resale to poorer members of the public, so it was very messy, everyone and everything covered in paint!

          • It sounds like you did work hard then, Trev. It sounds similar to many jobs in real life. Many people take no lunch break in order to leave early, perhaps to collect children from school.

    • The NAO Report:

      https://www.nao.org.uk/report/rolling-out-universal-credit/

      Rolling out Universal Credit
      Background to the report

      “The Department for Work & Pensions (the Department) is introducing Universal Credit to replace six means-tested benefits for working-age households: Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

      In doing so, it aims to:

      encourage more people into work by introducing better financial incentives, simpler processes and increasing requirements on claimants to search for jobs;
      reduce fraud and error; and
      reduce the costs of administering benefits.

      Content and scope of the report

      In order to assess the value for money of the Department’s introduction of Universal Credit, we consider:

      how the Department’s plans for Universal Credit have evolved (Part One);
      whether its adaptive and incremental approach is ensuring Universal Credit works for claimants and the organisations supporting them (Part Two); and
      ultimately, the prospects for Universal Credit achieving its aims (Part Three).

      Report conclusions

      We think that there is no practical alternative to continuing with Universal Credit. We recognise the determination and single-mindedness with which the Department has driven the programme forward to date, through many problems. However, throughout the introduction of Universal Credit local and national organisations that represent and support claimants have raised a number of issues about the way Universal Credit works in practice. The Department has responded to simple ideas to improve the digital system but defended itself from those that it viewed as being opposed to the policy in principle. It does not accept that Universal Credit has caused hardship among claimants, because it makes advances available, and believes that if claimants take up these opportunities hardship should not occur. This has led it to often dismiss evidence of claimants’ difficulties and hardship instead of working with these bodies to establish an evidence base for what is actually happening. The result has been a dialogue of claim and counter-claim and gives the unhelpful impression of a Department that is unsympathetic to claimants.

      The Department has now got a better grip of the programme in many areas. However, we cannot judge the value for money on the current state of programme management alone. Both we, and the Department, doubt it will ever be possible for the Department to measure whether the economic goal of increasing employment has been achieved. This, the extended timescales and the cost of running Universal Credit compared to the benefits it replaces cause us to conclude that the project is not value for money now, and that its future value for money is unproven.”

      “Universal Credit – Rubbish (Official). National Audit Office Report.”

      https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/universal-credit-rubbish-official-national-audit-office-report/

      Reply ↓

24. Alison during our short debate about cannabis there has been a major shift in the Governments attitude after taking advice Cannabis was the best and only option for Emergency Treatment.

    Cannabis not only cures it prevents illnesses, it eats cancer cells it is a medicinal plant not a drug.

    So I understand it might be difficult for you at this stage to comprehend the implications at the moment but it does put a blunt edge to most of your points would you not agree .

    Reply ↓

25. Stand by for the new ‘caring’ Universal Credit. With shorter waiting-times, and a small increase in the amount paid. But with the rest of it still staring the unemployed in the face like the teeth of a great white shark.

    Reply ↓

    • Do not forget part time workers or those on low pay who will be swelling the ranks, and guess who has many part time workers, the DWP and JCP. So now even Work coaches will be on the other side of the desk facing the same “encouragement to increase their hours.

      Reply ↓

      • It’s chaos now,but is only gonna get worse – absolu te chaos. Tory bastards are wrecking the country. I think it’s all about population reduction, kill millions of poor people. Enslave the rest.

        Reply ↓

    • Caring? Tories don’t know the meaning of the word!

      Reply ↓

26. This is very sinister and worrying.

    “NHS Mental Health Recruiting 300 Employment Coaches as “Work as a Clinical Outcome” returns.”

    https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/17/nhs-mental-health-recruiting-300-employment-coaches-as-work-as-a-clinical-outcome-returns/

    “The NHS is to hire 300 employment coaches to find patients jobs to “keep them out of hospital.”

    https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/the-nhs-is-to-hire-300-employment-coaches-to-find-patients-jobs-to-keep-them-out-of-hospital/

    Reply ↓

    • Is the NHS se t to become the Nudge Harassmen t Service?

      Reply ↓

      • I haven’t noticed any change on the ground, Trev.

        Reply ↓

27. This Find A Job website is a pile of shite. After putting in words to exclude in the search terms it only came up with 11 jobs within 10 miles of my area of West Yorkshire, posted in last 3 days. It won’t allow you to search 15 miles, you can only put it up (from 10) to 25 miles, so I did that then selected show “most relevant”, and it came up with jobs in Greater Manchester/Lancashire that are 2 hours travel away! So it obviously doesn’t take distance into consideration of what is “most relevant”.

    Reply ↓

    • Most sites have 1.5 million Jobs whereas Find a job has roughly 170,000 jobs which is true reflection of the job market.

      When I do a search for the last 3 days maximum10k I only get 5-10 Jobs show up and those are out of town and impossible to get to for 6:00am starts.

      Most menial work is located out of town on the borders for the cheap rent.

      Reply ↓

    • Try searching in Polish. You never know…

      By the way, did you ever get Find a Job to work on your phone?

      Reply ↓

      • Yes Alison,it works if I open it in Chrome but not in the default browser.

        Reply ↓

        • Oh good. You don’t have to spend quite so long at the library, then.

          Reply ↓

    • Actually come to think of it some of those jobs I saw would have taken more than 2 hrs, that was the time from thetown centre & it takes me half an hour into town, so that’s 2 & half hours not including waiting time or any delays for traffic/roadworks, so could easily take 3 hrs or more & then you’ve to get back home again, completely unfeasible. And out oft the original 11 jobs it came up with within 10 miles half of them were part time cleaning jobs an hour a day. Hopeless.

      Reply ↓

28. “It’s not an illness if I can’t see it. Want to know what Universal Credit is like? Read this.”

    https://thepoorsideof.life/2018/06/14/its-not-an-illness-if-i-cant-see-it-want-to-know-what-universal-credit-is-like-read-this/

    Reply ↓

    • Interesting article, Trev. It makes me wonder if there’s any disability awareness training at the DWP and where they find staff who don’t seem to possess any common sense.

      Reply ↓

29. Sad how others can be treated because they want to make a better life for themselves.

    https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/06/19/children-crying-as-theyre-torn-from-their-parents-heres-the-sound-of-trumps-america/

    Reply ↓

    • I saw that on Newsnight, and Trump is somehow trying to blame it on the Democrats!? That’s some twisted logic. The man is a c***. First class.

      Reply ↓

      • I think Trump is going too far by taking children away from their parents. They will become vulnerable to abuse and many will be psychologically affected for the rest of their lives.

        Reply ↓

30. Way things are looking by 2022 if not before I can be sat in my flat growing my own medication while claiming unconditional benefits.
    JC has always said Cannabis should be legalised for recreational use.

    This would help the over 50s no end they could be self employed home growers supplying a unique product think micro breweries.

    Reply ↓

    • Unconditional Benefits? I certainly hope so, but pigs might fly.

      Reply ↓

      • They do trev you not seen them in helicopters ?

        Reply ↓

        • Haha yep, and at Pink Floyd concerts.

          Reply ↓

          • Timely comment about pink Floyd just waiting to see the results of the division bell in parliament.

            Love nothing more than walking through the countryside on a dark night listening to Echoes with my headphones on and some for of stimulant lol

          • I saw them live a couple of times back in the 80s, once at Docklands Arena London and another time at the old Man City footie ground, Maine Road. I’m not really into big arena/stadium gigs but they were fantastic visually and musically. It was a farce tho, as you had to sit in certain seats, and only buy beers on way in at rip-off prices in plastic bottles which they then opened all of them at once when you bought them so you couldn’t throw bottle tops around (as if), and then some one just in front of me got dragged out by security & police for smoking a joint at a PINK FLOYD concert!

          • There are a lot of bands I regret never seeing live, pink Floyd is amongst them.

    • Unconditional benefits? You’d have to have a severe disability first, Sourchimp. Even then, you know how tough the DWP can be.

      Reply ↓

      • Alison unconditional benefit as in available to all regardless of health.

        Reply ↓

        • Totally agree. And some serious action on Ergophobia from the DWP. A proper scientific study on the whole thing.

          Reply ↓

          • The intellectual case for Ergophobia being a legitimate mental health issue is overwhelming but for obvious reasons the political case is not and probably far to frightening for them to even contemplate recognising.

            They fear the whole country would go on sick.

          • I think you mean medical research, Zac.

          • Medical research requires fundamental scientific principles.

          • Yes, Sourchimp. Thank you for defining scientific/medical research for us.

          • Thank you.

        • No reason why disability benefits couldn’t be dealt with by that person’s doctor. In a civilised way, without all this stress of the Atos tests. Doctors and hospital consultants know far better than the DWP how much someone is going to be affected by an illness or disability.

          Reply ↓

          • And lets not forget the patient who views in my opinion should hold the most weight when deciding if they are able or capable to work at any given moment in time.

            It is hardly a life of luxury living on benefits with a daily budget of £2-50 for food and toiletries, no holidays, no nights out, no clothes, and no respite from the daily struggle just to survive that is the consequence of not going to work right there and the motivator for the general populace to work.

          • I totally agree with you, Henry.

31. A recent FOI regarding claiming benefits without an address.

    To be eligible to claim Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) a person must lawfully be
    in Great Britain but there is no requirement for them to have an address. A
    person can make a claim to JSA if they are a person without accommodation
    or of no fixed address.

    JSA is usually claimed online. When completing an application online an
    address status is required. The options are:

     I have a regular address
     My address changes on a daily basis
     I am homeless

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/483602/response/1163343/attach/html/3/2299%202322%20and%202323.pdf.html

    Reply ↓

    • That’s interesting, Sourchimp. I remember Kate did a post about the difficulty of claiming Universal Credit without a fixed address. Either that problem has been fixed or Universal Credit is different from Jobseekers’ Allowance in this respect, or else it’s the required correspondence address that’s causing problems for homeless people. Perhaps someone else out there can clarify the situation?

      Reply ↓

      • The only clarity needed is for DWP staff and benefit advisors who frankly sign post folk in the wrong direction due to ignorance.

        Reply ↓

        • So experienced benefit advisers with in-depth knowledge of the benefit system are “wrong”, but, you, Sourchimp, are always right? Is that what you want us to believe? What makes you so exceptionally gifted? 40 years smoking cannabis?

          Reply ↓

          • If you think researching information rather than relying on blind faith makes me gifted then so be it.

          • Sourchimp, I wasn’t talking about faith. I was talking about benefit advisers, who carry out internet research and page through vast textbooks of regulations, as well as getting feedback from everybody who comes to them. As a man of science yourself, you must be able to see that there are times when other people have a bit more knowledge than you?

          • Alison I say something that folks might not know which could help others then get berated by you for saying so, I produce the evidence to back it up, and still your berating me.

            I have spent my whole life as an activist and have RTFM twice maybe 3 times over.

            A good nights read for me at the moment is the decision makers guide.

            That does not make me an expert in anyway shape or form nor do I regard myself as gifted because I can read and digest information.

            BUT I do speak from 35 years experience of dealing with the benefit system and learned early on how to survive and fight back against such a system.

            Along the way I have helped many others as I have been helped myself, not for profit or reward or even to stroke my ego, I do it because it is right.

            Again just to reiterate I am no expert, I merely stand on the shoulders of giants.

          • Sourchimp, nobody is berating you. In fact, if you re-read your own comments, you will see that it is you who are berating everybody else: charities, volunteers, hospital staff, Christians… Are you really saying that Trev is lying or conspiring against the poor just because he volunteers at a food bank? Listen to yourself, Sourchimp.

            I have many times put up with considerable abuse from you, particularly about my religion, but you appear to interpret quite gentle commentary as vile abuse on the part of others!

            What I am suggesting to you is that sometimes we find information on the internet but fail to acquire the full story because we do not have the life experience of homeless people themselves and those who work with them day in and day out. Have you ever tried claiming Universal Credit as a homeless person, Sourchimp? If not, it’s great that you are providing links to information that might help other people. However, if someone else’s life experience does not align exactly with everything you read on the internet, it doesn’t automatically mean they’re an evil, lying conspirator. It’s more likely that…perish the thought…once in a while it might be you, Sourchimp, who gets it wrong.

          • Do you actually sign on Alison? The idea that there are significant numbers of ‘experienced benefit advisers (sic) with in-depth knowledge’ is risible.

            Many, many claimants are more knowledgeable about the benefits system than advisors in JCP are. Most advisors, or ‘Job Coaches’ as they are called in Newspeak know very little apart from that conveyed ot them by their line managers who tend to present things to them as things that claimants must do. I well remember when JCP started to use the electronic pads for signatures, and it was presented as something that was compulsory to sign up to. Sure enough, my advisor one day informed me that I’d have to start signing electronically, but fortunately for me, I was aware of an FoI that informed that using the electromic pads was voluntary, and that claimants were free to continue to sign on a paper form. My advisor asked me if I could send him the link to the FoI and I happily supplied that, as my advisor seemed eager to get one over on his line manager, who had supplied him with the duff info that it was ‘compulsory’.

            Maybe in the dim and distant past Jobcentre advisors were knowledgeable and genuinely helpful, but those of that era have either moved on, disgusted at the way that the DWP treats people, or are still working for the DWP and are those who still treat people with respect and do try to help, but are increasingly constrained by a system where any deviation from the script is to be punished with a sanction for the claimant, and a review by a line manager for the advisor. Plus, those who are of that era from before where the Jobcentre also handled your claim are rapidly approaching retirement, and thus only young people who previously worked for dodgy double glazing companies, (or their like, often featured on Watchdog Rogue Traders) now work for the DWP in JCP. I don’t wish to sleight all those young people, but there is ample evidence that many of them who work for the DWP would have made excellent recruits for being SS death camp guards. I know, I exaggerate somewhat, but only by degree, and they are on the edge of the slippery slope, but I think you get what I mean.

            Compassion isn’t a word in their vocabulary.

          • Padi, a job coach/work coach is not a benefit advisor. A benefit advisor gives advice to people about their benefits, usually in a voluntary advice agency, e.g. Citizens Advice.

            There was a guy who was a benefit advisor and he told sourchimp, when he was posting as “Paul”, that what he said was incorrect. Sourchimp/Paul sent him a string of insults in response.

            Padi, I don’t see why you want to know my personal situation when you have just accused me of coming on this blog to “wail about my misfortunes”. It strikes me that you have come on here to attack me and Sourchimp serves as a convenient ally. So, in short, you’re a bully. Now why don’t you bully off and give us a break?

          • I no longer support most charities since they blotted their copybook by becoming involved in the slavery called Workfare. Never forget, never forgive. There are still one or two that I will support, namely the Ambiwlans Awyr Cymru (Wales Air Ambulance,) which is a great organisation that funds air ambulances in our small country, and receives no government support. That is anarchy in action, though I doubt that many involved see themselves as anarchists!

            Some Christians are fine examples of human beings who stand up for the the weak and oppressed, but sadly most so called Christians are on the side of the oppressor. Was not that grand Christian organisation, The Salvation Army involved in Workfare, recommending people for sanctions, which jepoardised health and threatened homelessness? Where was the condemnation of that from other Christians?

            By all means have your religion, but if you don’t want something used against you, don’t mention it in forums like this. It would also help somewhat if you didn’t have such a sanctimonious respect for the law because it’s the law.

            Many laws are framed merely to prevent the likes of us enjoying a decent life free from having to pay some capitalist piece of scum, (like a landlord) for the privilege of having somewhere to call home way past the time we have paid the cost of it’s building.

            We also have to remember that IDS is a Christian, and that Theresa May attends church every Sunday, and that the Church of England is also know as the Tory Party at Prayer. Speaks volumes. And Christians don’t come out smelling of roses, do they?

          • Padi, give us a break from your endless abuse! I don’t care what you think of my religion. I’m not trying to hide it and there’s nothing wrong about it. What you are is a bully. You can’t be a Christian because you’re full of hate!

          • Very well said Padi and not because your agreeing with some of my points although it is reassuring I am not alone in some of those points, but more that you see the venom and sometimes veiled but often open racialist attitude underpinned by intolerance that seems deeply ingrained in Alison psychological make-up.

            There are still diamonds in the coal mine unfortunately Alison doesn’t appear to be one, unless they are willing to purge this venom with a open mind I fear this one is lost.

          • I don’t think I’m the intolerant one, actually.

            I do wonder if we get any moderation on this forum, or if it’s considered OK to abuse me because I’m a Christian.

          • Alison surely you can see you are the only one actually throwing childish insults some of things you say are truly awful.

            But I am an adult and this a forum I can take it and do but you apparently cannot without bleating for moderation

            We or I are not abusing you at all, I can see no evidence of that at all, critical yes but not abusive.

            I will refrain from commenting on your posts any longer and will ignore you entirely from now on to avoid being accused of bullying and singling you out.

            Final words then I am done.

            Do not believe everything everyone tells you especially if they seem to be clueless as in the case of your advisor friend who I presume you know on a personal level or how else could you know they were who they claimed to be.

            And lets face if they were worth their salt they would have returned and shown me the error of my ways, I know I would.

            I will ignore your comments from now on if you do not want to be bullied and singled out I suggest you do the same to me.

          • Sourchimp, before you go tell the psychiatrist that we’re all conspiring against you, I shall remind you that the guy WROTE on his post that he was an advisor.

            I would also suggest you re-read what Padi wrote. She posted A LOT of very long comments directed at me and some of them were very unpleasant indeed.

            Thankfully, I know NOBODY from this forum in real life. Trev’s the only one who’s even friendly! I think his friendly disposition must’ve been a real asset to him and his colleagues when he was working. It’s like one of the people at gardening. He’s always upbeat, never rude, never insulting. I aspire to be like that, but, as you can see, I fall short.

          • Also, Sourchimp, the benefit advisor (George, I think) kept replying to you and trying to talk some sense into you. All he got from you was rudeness and your views on charities, voluntary groups and churches. I think he just gave up.

          • George was not what he said he was you just accepted it on blind faith.

          • Sourchimp, you don’t know whether he was what he said he was or not, so you ought to give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure he was telling the truth.

            You are the intolerant one here, Sourchimp. You are always bringing up my religion and saying that what I say is less worthy because I happen to be a Christian. That’s discrimination. It’s a bit like saying someone’s comment is wrong/not rational/based on “blind faith” because they are an atheist, a black person or a Muslim. I could say that you only doubt what George said because you’re paranoid after 40 years frying your brain with cannabis. How would you feel about that?

          • Alison:

            “If the whole country took your stance on foreigners, we’d be a district of Germany by now.”

            That’s overstating it hugely. Immigration into the UK isn’t actually having that much of an impact, and most of the people who come here are needed. Sadly because of Brexit our countries are now losing thousands of vital staff from the NHS. And the impact of EU citizens moving to the UK isn’t that huge anyway. Cymru has a far bigger problem with immigration, and it is having a huge impact on our society, it’s even changing the language of whole districts in some places to what could be argued is a foreign one. Thus far, almost a quarter of the population was born in a different country – England. And, no, sadly most of them don’t integrate.

          • That is an excellent point to make when folk from this country play the victim.

            And how many middle class kids go abroad each year for gaps years from so called first world countries are they also considered immigrants.

            As a white person coming from a country that dominates others I cannot really grasp how it really feels to be the victim of racism, intolerance or conquest but since the welfare reforms I know now exactly what it is like to be among a minority and under attack for the first time.

          • Ever since conversing with you and with Padi, I have been reminded of how lucky I am to be living in a country where I am allowed to worship God if I want to, in the church of my choosing. If I were living in Pakistan, for example, I’d probably be shot dead by now.

          • Also, Sourchimp, you describe the UK as “a country that dominates others”. Which is the country that we are dominating? It seems to me that the British Empire is long gone and we’re still being run by the EU, i.e. Germany. Where is this little country that is desperately fighting for independence from our “domination”?

          • Alison – I have, I think, stated my position on religion somewhere on this forum, but I shall recap. I don’t personally subscribe to any religion, and regard myself as an extreme agnostic, (would be atheist, but I can’t prove a god doesn’t exist for obvious reasons) but I think that religion, like politics, is a personal choice, and a matter for the individual, and for what it’s worth, I am against the persecution of people for their beliefs, even if I think they’re completely ridiculous. I wish that superstition were less widespread, but there are more important things for me to concern myself with.

            I’m sorry if you feel that I have had a go at your religion, but I think if you re-read what i wrote you will find that all I have done is outline a few things that ‘Christians’ or ‘Christian’ organisations have done. Not fabrications, but checkable facts. In no way was anything I wrote meant to reflect negatively on you. I made a specific point that there are Christians who are exemplary human beings, but I also know some so called ‘Christians’ who are pretty nasty examples of human beings by any measure.

            I am not a bully. If you cannot take criticism, then perhaps robust discussion isn’t for you. You certainly seem able to dish it, with your various stereotypical comments about Eastern Europeans and your general xenophobic attitude. Again, that’s not a judgment but an observation.

            I wouldn’t want to be a Christian, or any other religion, and I find it extremely difficult to get my head around the notion of believing in an imaginary being in the sky. I am not full of hate, I don’t believe in wasting emotional energy on that – totally pointless. I certainly don’t hate you: it is you who seems to harbour some hatred for anyone who isn’t English/British.

            The question about your employment status was a rhetorical question. Your employment status is immaterial to me.

            As far as religion is concerned, I can recommend a reading of “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. It’s a long read, perhaps over long, but I think he has it about right, but that’s only my hateful opinion!

          • Padi, this is not a discussion about religion.

            You have posted a vast amount of abusive commentary aimed specifically at me. It’s time you either address other people or put a sock in it.

          • @Sourchimp – no worries, it’s good to see someone else with a similar outlook. Sadly I think you may be correct about Alison, she does seem to express some worrying opinions. But she’s still here, and if she really opens her mind, and starts to think for herself I think there is still hope.

            If there is a message in what Kate is trying to do here, then I think it is to say ‘Hey, this isn’t right, people deserve to be treated so much better than this, simply because they are people’

            I think that Alison and a few others commenting on here need to think about that. And isn’t Kate herself an ‘immigrant’?

          • I am indeed an immigrant 🙂

          • Padi, stop trolling and harassing me. We’ve heard all about how much you dislike me already. As I said before, get lost.

            Kate, I know we’re all adults here, but could you consider limiting this one? Otherwise I’m just goung to get endless personal abuse from her.

          • Alison – I don’t dislike you, I don’t know you. I just dislike some of the things you say. There is a difference. I have not abused you, but rather come up with robust critiques towards some of the things you say and seem to subscribe to.

            You also seem to have some confusion as to my identity. At one point you assumed that I was a Pakistani, and now you seem to be under some kind of impression, (though good ness knows where you got that from) that I am female.

            I guess I could come over all clever and say that who or what I am is immaterial, which, of course it is – I’m human. But, for the record I’m a 61 year old white Welsh male who happens to have a very European outlook and who loves living in a diverse society with people from lots of different cultural backgrounds.

          • I think like a leap of faith Alison tends to leap to conclusions.

            As far my drug addled brain is concerned looking through this cloud of smoke I have read nothing but interesting thoughtful considered opinions from Padi over the weeks and said nothing that can even remotely to be considered abuse.

            And if me saying that is me being abusive or singling someone out collaborating and conspiring then I am guilty of all charges your honour.

    • Oh right, well I spoke to a homeless man a few weeks ago who was saying that he couldn’t claim because of no address, so either he has been misinformed or maybe he was telling porkies and hasn’t even bothered to try claiming or doesn’t want to, which I can’t blame him for as it is all a nightmare and some people just cannot handle dealing with the system, I only just cope with it myself but haven’t got the guts to sign off and walk away from my flat and live homeless.

      Reply ↓

      • trev he probably had bad advice from these so called volunteers charities churches mickey mouse outfits that permeate and thrive on others misery.

        Reply ↓

        • Sourchimp, you’re entitled to your opinions, of course, but are you sure that all the charities volunteers are REALLY engaged in a conspiracy of lies intended to harm the poor? It seems to me more likely that the FOI document doesn’t fully reflect what’s happening “on the ground”, as they say.

          Reply ↓

          • Not all Alison but the majority of them do more harm than good.

            Charities simply should not exist to pick up the responsibilities of our Government and the sooner they fucked off the better for all.

          • Well I certainly disagree with you there, Sourchimp. I’ve had a lot of very useful help from charities, including Citizens Advice, local free legal advice, Shelter’s housing helpline, and of course my church. I’m very grateful for all that they do.

            My late mum was very grateful for the work of the St John’s Ambulance, whose volunteers spent ages very patiently helping her to get into a wheelchair and an ambulance, while she was having panic attacks due to a mental health problem. She received expert end-of-life care at a local hospice. She also received help from the Red Cross, who loaned her a wheelchair, a walker and some other equipment that enabled her to get about at home.

            Sourchimp, perhaps you have had some bad experiences with charities, but most of them are good and most of their volunteers only want to do their best for other people.

          • The charities didn’t do themselves any favours by supporting workfare under Mandatory Work Activity. Particularly those charities whose work involved some of the most vulnerable in society. For example Oxfam, The Samaritans, Age Concern etc. Though they were all under considerable government pressure to take part. It was wrong, in view of the fact that they might have to sanction a workfare participant. But it is an exaggeration to claim that all charities are somehow evil. The Cats Protection League, The Donkey Sanctuary, The PDSA, and others, are mainly concerned with genuine charitable work. And who could reasonably object to that ?

          • Oh those charities that constantly plague the good nature of folk who donate with endless phone calls and emails begging for more,.

          • Exactly, Ken. I even spend a few of my benefit pounds supporting the local animal shelter. If it weren’t for the charity, hundreds of animals wouldn’t be with us any more.

            I have to say, though, I would prefer to work for Oxfam/Age Concern/Samaritans/my local library, rather than be forced to do workfare for McDonalds or A4E. Although I disapprove of workfare, the reality is that a choice of placements is helpful to the jobseeker, who is otherwise faced with the choice between a sanction and unpaid hard labour for some ruthless corporation.

          • The reality should be they have a choice to do either or neither there should be no conditions placed on anyone’s entitlement to receiving benefits.

            Do you agree with that point ?

            How many people end up working in the care industry that actually do not care at all but had no choice.

            And at the end of the day most if not all the work for your benefit schemes have been scraped as for voluntary work the clues in the fucking title it is voluntary.

          • Yes, Sourchimp, I agree. I’m not in favour of workfare.

      • But then again Trev, why should you have to ? And what does it say about a system that reduces people to thinking that they would be better off homeless than dealing with the Jobcentre ?

        Reply ↓

        • Yeah, orbetter off dead. Thousands have commited suicide becauseof the DWP.

          Reply ↓

          • Trev, you may not like me saying this, but the solution to life’s problems is not to make yourself homeless, nor to commit suicide. The solution to all of this really is to try to find yourself a job that isn’t too demanding but that can get you an income of some sort to help you get by. As this is proving very difficult, there are many third sector schemes that may help you find and keep a job when you suffer from health problems. From what you have posted already, it sounds as though your GP may be able to refer to some sort of scheme.

          • Yeh trev get a job you shirker you know work is good for your health Alison has hit the nail on the head and your probably too stupid to realise

          • I’m not saying Trev is a shirker or stupid or anything else like that.

            Sourchimp, work is not always bad and people are not always insulting people or murdering anybody or conspiring to lie to people or whatever else.

            It would be better for Trev to find some work suited to his health, rather than commit suicide or give up his flat. I’m sure you wouldn’t disagree with that, would you, Sourchimp?

          • ?

            :/

          • OK, Trev. All I’m trying to say is that there might be hope out there that doesn’t involve suicide or homelessness. So please don’t give up. That’s all I’m trying to say. Does that make sense?

    • Universal credit homeless
      https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/217803/response/544505/attach/html/2/2743%20final.pdf.html

      If a claimant reports that they are of NFA as a change of circumstances they will be asked for a
      safe correspondence address, the UC claim continues as normal

      A safe address is somewhere that post can be delivered without risk of interception/theft. i.e. a
      house that is split into two flats may share one letterbox, this could be classed as an unsafe
      address by the claimant. The claimant will inform UC if their address is unsafe.

      The claimant can use the address of friends or family if they are unable to provide a safe
      address. The claimant not being able to provide a safe address would be managed by
      exception. This means that if such a case arose, the Department would deal with the case on
      an individual basis ensuring reasonable and proportionate action was taken to support the
      claimant.

      Reply ↓

32. Artificial Intelligence and the DWP: Synths to Replace Job Coaches?

    https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/artificial-intelligence-and-the-dwp-synths-to-replace-job-coaches/

    DWP to increase role of AI
    Department’s head of data strategy highlights potential for machine learning, natural language processing and image processing plans

    http://www.ukauthority.com/data4good/entry/8295/dwp-to-increase-role-of-ai

    They might as well as the Advisers are like bloody robots anyway!

    Reply ↓

    • 456 elderly people lives were intentionally shortened at gossport hospital prescribing drugs that were inappropriate.

      And folk wonder why I refuge to engage with the No Hope Surviving.

      I am worth £100,000 in body parts when dead and fuck all when alive.

      Reply ↓

      • Sourchimp, you’re implying murder here. Have you got any information to back up your allegation? Or is this another one of your opinions? (Your own version of faith, perhaps.)

        Reply ↓

        • I am screaming murderers Alison not just implying it, rather me present you with the overwhelming evidence go look it up.

          There is a criminal investigation underway as we speak.

          Another reason why opiate based Medicines should be banned entirely.

          I watched my mum struggle to fight these drugs they had given her and within days had passed on, basically they put her down.

          So first hand experience based on observations.

          Reply ↓

          • My late mum passed away on an opiate drip as well, Sourchimp. However, she was dying from terminal cancer and was no longer able to walk, eat or even sit up on her own. I am very grateful that she died high on morphine, rather than screaming in pain, like people used to do in the old days.

          • So basically your in favour of euthanasia as you must be aware the use of opiates in some regards is to shorten life as in the case of your mothers.

            I would not refuse anyone the right to shorten their own lives if they so chose.

            It is one of those taboo subjects that this practice has been allowed to go unchecked
            in the No Hope Surviving and now thankfully and finally it is being exposed.

          • I don’t think of it as “euthenasia” if someone receives pain relief or has a life support machine switched off or something like that. You hold some unique views about many things, so perhaps you would consider it “euthenasia” to administer pain relief to a dying cancer patient? I know I would prefer to receive pain relief than to have a slow and painful death.

          • Switching off a life support machine is not euthanasia they die of natural causes but administering opiates with the full knowledge it will that shorten lives is a form of euthanasia and not a natural death.

            This is not a new subject it is just a taboo subject that hardly gets aired.

            Hopefully now with this recent case light will be shed on this awful practice.

          • Now that I’ve caught up on the news (!), I would add that there’s a difference between my mum getting pain relief for cancer pain and the Gosport case, where patients were given pain relief when they had no pain. It appears that the medical professionals involved in the Gosport case were using pain relief when it should not have been used, not to meet a medical need but to sedate patients whose behaviour was not easy to manage.

          • The latest scandal is just the top of iceberg.

            Many people have rose tinted vision of the NHS but the real truth is they are along with the drug industry are killing thousands if not millions each year by various means.

            I saw a guy the other day with a compressed sciatic nerve and he had roughly 30 odd tablets he had to take each day after an operation to relieve it.

            Simply put if head not had the treatment and had regular sea salt baths for a few months and rested he would have become right as rain but due to the fast pace of a modern world he needed treatment fast, now he is in right bad state.

            Chemotherapy kills 80% of patients with cancer not the actual cancer itself, Folk can be riddled with cancer and it only becomes apparent during an autopsy

            The majority in hospital are there because of the treatment they are receiving not the illness they are suffering.

            High risk of dying in hospital contracting other illnesses than the illness you were in for in the first place.

            The use of opioid based drugs.

            Overuse of antibiotics leading to super bugs.

            A lack of understanding of many functions of the human brain and body.

            The list is endless.

            The body knows how to die it has been doing it long enough, hormones/chemicals are released which alleviate things like pain or discomfort.

            In cases where the pain is so intense and death is inevitable then shortening life as long as consent is given I do not have a problem with. But it has got out of control and seems to have become standard practice and families and patients are not fully informed.

            This is euthanasia which ever way you cut it which was my original point and just wondered how you felt about it being a Christian.

          • “Many people have rose tinted vision of the NHS but the real truth is they are along with the drug industry are killing thousands if not millions each year by various means.”

            Sourchimp, a lot of people owe their lives to the NHS, including me.

          • Yes I do not doubt that.

          • “I saw a guy the other day with a compressed sciatic nerve and he had roughly 30 odd tablets he had to take each day after an operation to relieve it.

            Simply put if head not had the treatment and had regular sea salt baths for a few months and rested he would have become right as rain but due to the fast pace of a modern world he needed treatment fast, now he is in right bad state.”

            Sourchimp, how do you KNOW that rest and sea salt baths would have cured this man? It sounds like wild speculation to me.

          • “The majority in hospital are there because of the treatment they are receiving not the illness they are suffering.”

            Sourchimp, I’m sure a FEW people do end up in hospital due to things like botched operations and medication side-effects, BUT IT IS NOT 80% OF ALL PATIENTS!!! The vast majority of people in hospital are the frail elderly, who are there due to AGE and the fact they develop disease due to AGE. Then there are patients undergoing cancer treatment. They had the cancer before they started treatment for it, so, no, the treatment did not cause the disease. Then there are people in hospital due to drinking too much, smoking, eating too much… Don’t forget the people recovering from car accidents and heart attacks, both of which happened before the treatment began.

            Sourchimp, I hope you can see that your statement does not seem at all credible. Perhaps you ought to revisit your research on this subject.

          • I was talking about chemotherapy 80% please reread.

          • Point taken: you were referring to chemotherapy.

            It is true that chemotherapy makes people very weak and ill, but the reason is because the person will die of cancer without the treatment. It is not because the medical profession is somehow evil or trying to kill them.

          • “A lack of understanding of many functions of the human brain and body.”

            Sourchimp, I hope you can see that a person with 7 years at medical school knows more about their subject than the rest of us.

            I really think you ought to do a bit more study yourself, before you make what seem to be very outlandish claims about the NHS.

          • What is 7 years study compared to 200,000 years of Evolution.

            In another 100 years time we will look back and be shocked how primitive today’s medical practices truly were.

            The health care system is corrupt greedy broken and needs fixing not with money but with changes in the whole system.

            The average wage is 3 times higher than manual workers and can run in to £100,000s of thousands of pounds for doctors, surgeons and other so called professionals.

            WHY ?

            How many deaths have occurred due to political agendas and financial greed by suppressing the use of not only medicinal cannabis but also within the cotton and paper industry to line the pockets of the pharmaceutical and chemical industry who make billions selling pesticides we would not normally need if it were not for cotton replacing hemp.

            Hemp is a far superior longer lasting product takes up less than 10% of the same land required to produce cotton and paper and is naturally pest resistant.

            How many over the counter drugs kill each year or cause long term side affects.

            Cannabis derived medicines could replace many of these products.

            Cannabis has killed zero people it is safer than the air we breath and most foods we eat and impossible to ingest enough to cause death.

            If you watched question time last night Ella Whelan touched on the subject about the NHS and how doctors hand out excessive prescriptions which is another scandal you hear very little about.

            Saying the NHS is the best we can do is not good enough, it , like everything else it is run from the top down and those at the top only have one thing in mind, lining each others pockets.

          • I read the article on Wikipedia about euthenasia. It says:

            “Similarly, Emanuel argues that there are four major arguments presented by opponents of euthanasia…b) alternatives, such as cessation of active treatment, combined with the use of effective pain relief, are available”

            As you can see, in this passage the use of pain relief is presented as NOT being euthenasia.

            The intention of pain relief is to relieve pain. It is not intended to be a lethal dose. Therefore, the intention is not murder, nor euthenasia. My late mother received pain relief. She did not receive a lethal dose intended to kill.

          • If they died as a result of the drug that was administered intentionally to shorten lives then it is either murder or euthanasia relieving pain or not.

            ‘I can see you’re in pain, let’s start a morphine drip,’ ” a patient may not realize that the pain medication will shorten his life. ”I can imagine a great many patients who would say, ‘I don’t want this pain, but if the medication is shortening my life, I can live with the pain,’ ” she said.

            https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/28/us/passive-euthanasia-in-hospitals-is-the-norm-doctors-say.html

        • Personally I think we are very lucky to have the NHS in this country. We forget how unusual it is in this world to be able to access free medical care. Try getting free medical care in the USA, or Asia.
          Yes there are problems with the NHS, and unfortunately there are mistakes, and instances of poor judgement. As in any human organisation. But these are far outnumbered by the many excellent outcomes of operations and procedures by dedicated staff. Most of the problems with the NHS come from political interference. New Labour and the disastrous Lansley ‘market’ system. New Labour and the PFI fiasco, which has left so many hospitals in debt. The Conservatives and their deliberate underfunding in order to make way for privatisation. I believe that the NHS is the single greatest achievement of the post-war Labour Party.
          And something that needs to be defended from those that would prefer the American private-insurance system.

          Reply ↓

          • Too right Jeff ! If you are in an accident or you’re sick, at least you don’t have to worry about how you are going to pay for the treatment. The working-class couldn’t afford doctors before the NHS.

          • Leading cause of bankruptcy in America ?
            Medical bills.

          • Yes, they’ll keep you alive until you die trying to pay the bill!

    • It is very vague indeed. The only specific thing they say they can do with a robot is identify whether several benefit applications use the same phone no. That sounds fairly straightforward. What else they will do is nothing but waffle.

      Reply ↓

33. All this Work / Jobcentre / Benefits stuff has got completely out of perspective.
    It’s not worth people being made destitute, homeless and hungry over it.

    Reply ↓

    • That’s right, Rob. I’d like to see a return to a proper safety net. People need their £72 EVERY week, not every six weeks, nor only as long as they never do anything wrong.

      Reply ↓

34. You only have to look at Esther McVey and her blunt refusal to see anything wrong with Universal Credit, to see the real motives behind it. Forcing people off benefits whether they like it or not.

    Reply ↓

35. Universal Credit may be an expensive disaster, but to the Tories it’s an expensive success.

    Reply ↓

    • A “price worth paying”?

      Reply ↓

36. Esther McVey: Universal Credit, an “agile, adaptable system, fit for the 21st century.”

    https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/esther-mcvey-universal-credit-an-agile-adaptable-system-fit-for-the-21st-century/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-dwp-esther-mcvey-work-pensions-benefits-commons-nao-report-a8409881.html

    Reply ↓

    • People think it is ignorance that drives these comments but really it is mockery.

      Reply ↓

      • It takes the piss mate.

        Reply ↓

    • ‘Ministers are producing myth-busting guidance to help jobcentre advisers explain to unemployed Britons the benefits of spending the summer in a polytunnel harvesting strawberries’. ( The Times )

      After you with the fruit basket, mate.

      Reply ↓

      • Well I suppose I do have some transferable skills in that respect as in my youth I spent all Autumn picking a certain variety of wild mushrooms, something I wuldn’t hesitate to mention at the job interview, that’s bound toi impress any prospective employer 😉

        Reply ↓

        • Did that do your mental health any good?

          SourChimp says opioids (poppies) are bad but cannabis is good. I wonder where he stands on mushrooms…

          Reply ↓

          • I said already in earlier post that psychoactive medicines such as magic mushrooms LSD and ecastacy (mdma) should be taken by everyone at least once their lifetime, they are far safer alternatives to the powerful drugs used today and they have swift long lasting affects from a single dosage and non habit forming or addictive.

          • At school, we watched a video about a girl who died from trying ecstasy. So no, I don’t think it’s safe.

          • We saw a video about how many folk die each year chocking on food.

            Should we ban eating ?

          • I enjoyed smoking opium at one time but it is scarce nowadays in my circles anyway as but as a pain killer Cannabis is far safer non addictive alternative to what we have on the market now.

            I believe heroin and cocaine should also be legalised.

            I used to sniff a large tin of Evostick everyday for 2-3 years until around 17 was fantastic stuff the hallucinations or dreams as we use to call it were real compared to LSD and Mushrooms where you are aware what is happening and why but glue when sniffed right in a bread bag lol takes you to another time and space.

            Touched gas once never again.

          • It seems strange that you have such a negative view of the NHS and prescription medicine, yet you are so strongly in favour of recreational drugs. Cocaine is far more dangerous than anything you get at the pharmacy. As for heroin, it’s the SAME THING as the opioid painkillers used at Gosport, which you say you want to ban!!!

          • Alison my negative view of the NHS and prescription medicine and the ruthless slaughter of millions for profit have no bearing on the merits of any medicine or drug.

            Most when used sensibly can be useful but many are not and cause side effects more harmful to the patient than the condition they were intended to treat.

            Look how many scandals over the years that come to light and how many have yet to be exposed.

            Natural occurring medicines are out there, synthetic replacements are far more toxic but earn trillions each year.

            The NHS like everything else needs scrapping and replacing with a fresh approach to medicine and not motivated by money.

            How many lives could have been saved like the recent case with Billy Caldwell who would have died had he not been given Cannabis, he is not unique 40,000 others today will benefit from the same treatment, when the truth is out how many have died in the past for political and financial greed it will shock you when the figures are finally added up.

          • “the ruthless slaughter of millions for profit”

            Sourchimp, it is stunning to hear you describe the NHS in such terms, but then, I suppose 40 years avoiding it wouldn’t give you much to be impressed with. I know from experience that none of the doctors I have ever dealt with have EVER attempted to kill me. I expect most other people out there would also look at what you wrote and wonder about you.

            Prescription medicine is not that different from recreational drugs. In the case of Gosport, heroin was the drug used unnecessarily on the patients.

            Sourchimp, you are entitled to your own opinions. However, I do wonder whether you have a phobia of doctors, hospitals or something like that. What you say about them is not rational, especially when contrasted with what you say about very dangerous recreational drugs, whose dealers are very much motivated by profit.

          • Then we shall agree to disagree on this subject I am not on a mission it is up to
            the individual what they do with their bodies.

            When I was 5-6 years of age all the schools in my area had a in house nhs dentists at this time any sign of tooth decay they would drill out good tooth and just fill it.

            Obviously not aware of this at the time but first time I needed any dental treatment they gassed me, Still vividly remember the dream it was one of those dandelion seed heads you blow, she love me, she love me not, thing anway it had 2 sticks and was playing my teeth like a xylophone.

            Very funny and enjoyable experience at the time.

            A few months later I needed some more treatment and was and looking forward to the dreams and the next second they were trying to put a needle in my mouth, no idea why, they had not done that last time.

            Still waiting for the mask the next moment they started working on my teeth due to clamps and whatever I could not speak out and when I struggled they just held me down, it traumatised me, I distrusted the whole establishment from that moment on.
            As I got older I was glad I did.

          • I’m sorry to hear you had bad experiences at the school dentist, but I hope you can see that’s no reason to accuse medical professionals of killing people for profit.

          • No negative effects whatsoever. Liberty Caps are completely harmless.

        • I have the same problem when I tell them I transferable gardening skills.

          Still if Cannabis is legalised for recreational use and folk are allowed to grow their own and sell on the access to the public regulated much the same way as a micro brewery then I would definitely not be a jobseeker any longer.

          Reply ↓

          • Nei ther magic mushrooms nor cannabis are addictive.

        • Mushrooms were the staple diet during my Freud,Jung,Leary days first time ever had mushrooms my mate brought roughly 1000 dried off some hippy for £10, Used them all and made a pot of tea between 4 of us pretty rank to drink but heck what a day that was talk about breaking on through to the other side lowered the dose next time.

          Reply ↓

          • I used to work in a council Drug Action Team. It was full of people who thought they wouldn’t get addicted, and whose lives had been completely wrecked by drug use.

          • Addiction to anything is not good but lets face the facts addiction to opioids and prescription pain pills causes more harm and death.

            And my point is Cannabis is a far safer NON ADDICTIVE replacement.

          • Opioids are the same as street drugs, Sourchimp. Look up heroin on Wikipedia.

          • I am aware of that Alison I fail to see your point ?

          • My point is that it seems odd for you to condemn the use of heroin in a hospital but advocate legalising it on the street.

            I’d like to hear you praise the good work of our NHS staff once in a while. There’s no excuse for calling them murderers.

            However, as you acknowledged earlier, we have discussed this long enough and it’s time to agree to disagree.

          • I am criticising the establishment called the NHS not all the individuals that work within it.

            The NHS is too big and too unwieldy like the government to be effectively managed and too deeply entrenched in political, financial greed and agendas.

            They dish millions of drugs each year that could be replaced by safer treatments that do not have the associated addictive and life threatening / shortening consequences but again down to the great cash cow that is the pharmaceutical industry we have no choice unless we turn to illegal drugs.

            The whole thing needs dismantling along with everything else and replaced.

          • I don’t want to see the NHS dismantled and I don’t believe the NHS is dangerous. It’s NONSENSE to suggest illegal drugs are safer!!!

      • Trev, have you seen any strawberry-picking jobs on Find a Job?

        Reply ↓

        • No funnily enough.

          Reply ↓

          • Someone posted on a Londoners forum that she can’t eat healthy because she can’t find enough Japanese food! Honestly! People will find any excuse, won’t they?

          • If you knew sushi like I knew sushi oh! oh! oh!

          • They say we won’t do those jobs, but the truth is they won’t hire us.

          • Talking of Londoners and healthy eating:

            “Why are Londoners relying on food-banks and soup kitchens?
            Food bank usage is rising quickly, including among working people on unpredictable zero-hour contracts.”

            https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/londoners-relying-food-banks-soup-kitchens-180622180813207.html

        • I just searched on Find A Job for frui t pickers in all UK, showed 2 jobs, 1 in Arbroath & 1 in S tafford, searched strawberry pickers & it shows just one job in Sco tland, doesn t say where so could be ame one in Abroa th, and tha t’s i t, in wholle country.

          Reply ↓

          • Yet they said on the Beeb that our strawberries are rotting on the bushes because they just can’t get the staff these days…seems they don’t even try!

          • presume Farmers must just advertise in local papers then, rather than Find A Job?

          • Almost all of the large-scale farmers rely on employment agencies. The Beeb had a report on agencies recruiting for strawberry-pickers. What they do is get on the back of a horse-drawn trailer and cruise through the streets of Romania, stopping to ask people if they want to work in the UK. Agencies from countries all over the EU go to the same places at the same time and try to recruit the same people.

          • Not sure if it still done but years ago a common thing to do was thousands UK migrants would follow the sun thorough Europe crop picking.

          • No chance nowadays. I expect we’ve been replaced by migrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. BUT it does prove that British people WILL do these jobs!

          • Londoners used to go hop picking in Ken t. An old mate of mine (now dead) used to go hop picking in Bavaria every year.

          • I’d go apple-picking in Kent if I made some money from it or got to keep the apples.

            There’s a pick-your-own farm just 2 buses from me, but what you pay to keep your pickings is more expensive than if you just nip to the supermarket!

    • Utterly shameless Trev. This kind of thing gives hypocrisy a bad name.

      Reply ↓

37. Denial of truth and refusal to admit defeat or accept reality. The same mentality as Trump, or the Nazis in WW2, or the frustrating non-logic Alice encountered. Perhaps I’ve inadvertently fallen down a rabbit hole.

    Reply ↓

    • that was meant to be a reply to Alan btw.

      Reply ↓

38. I reckon we are stuck with Universal Credit, crap or not.
    There is absolutely no real public opposition to it. Or much political opposition either. The end result of all the Tory years of skiver propaganda against the unemployed. Joe Average in the street still thinks that the unemployed are skivers who have finally been sorted out.

    Reply ↓

    • I agree Terry however much I would like to see it abolished it was intentionally setup to be unstoppable once the ball started rolling.

      Reply ↓

    • Not entirely, Terry. Public opposition to this ruthless approach to welfare is growing. There are indeed people who think as you describe – I know a few – but more and more people are aware of the suffering and have formed an opinion against it.

      Reply ↓

39. One of the articles about the strawberry picking had a picture of an elderly lady sitting down to pick strawberries, with her basket beside her ?
    You can’t do this kind of work like this.

    Reply ↓

    • No, I don’t think rich pensioners are going to pick strawberries in Spain. I don’t think Brits would be able to compete with the enormous influx of young immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, many of whom will work for virtually nothing.

      However, the farmers and their agencies have been complaining they can’t find staff to pick fruit in the UK. So we might have a chance at one of our own jobs, if we believe this staff shortage is real, not just propaganda because they want us to continue with free movement.

      Reply ↓

40. I know in Spain working in the poly-tunnels all day is regarded as one of the worst jobs you can get. Many are unskilled immigrants who don’t speak Spanish. People who can’t get any other job. It’s hard, sweaty work. The idea that you are going to get English pensioners to do this is stupid even by the standards of the DWP.

    Reply ↓

41. Alison this link gives some information some of the healing properties of Cannabis far be it from me to educate you but I hoped you might have had a open mind to maybe rethink your stance on Cannabis.
    https://www.green-flower.com/articles/66/50-life-enhancing-benefits-of-cannabis

    Now why would a simple plant that does all that be denied to those who would benefit at the cost of having to rely on far more dangerous alternatives ?

    I fear I am doing a disservice to Kate’s blog with my ramblings and distracting from the subject matter.

    Always happy to continue this conversation elsewhere I have a forum if you click my name where I chat to myself more often than not.

    Reply ↓

42. If the DWP want to do something sensible why don’t they offer courses in shoplifting, so that people who have been sanctioned could still get food ?
    Say a three day course to cover all the basics. Scoping out the premises, what to wear. How to deal with CCTV cameras and security guards. Use of distraction with shop assistants. Solo shoplifting or team. Emergency procedures, making an escape. What to do if arrested. Advice on plea bargaining and the Magistrates Court .
    And maybe have a certificate at the end ? Something like Active Shoplifting Level 2.

    Reply ↓

    • Good one Barry ! There must be a few old lags in the system could help them out with that one.

      Reply ↓

    • The DWP wont pay for it they expect everyone do it off their own backs !

      Reply ↓

    • And what do you bet that there would be providers making money out of giving the course ? It’s an ill wind, as they say.

      Reply ↓

    • Ha Ha ! Barry right on there mate.

      Reply ↓

    • Alison wouldn’t approve!

      Reply ↓

      • No I wouldn’t approve, Padi. As you’ll see, I said that at the time this post was made.

        Now go find someone else to troll.

        Reply ↓

43. Yeah, that’s how people get caught.They don’t know what they are doing.
    It’s not as simple as stuffing something up your jumper and walking out.
    There is a knack to it, like anything.

    Reply ↓

    • I do wish people would put as much effort into earning money the legal way. Job-hunting. Bin-diving. Foraging. Starting your own business. The possibilities are endless.

      Reply ↓

      • I don’t think theft is a good way to live a life, but for the life of me I can’t condemn a poor person from doing it when the whole capitalist system is predicated upon theft. Theft from us the customers because we end up paying over the odds so they can have profits, and theft from the workers who create far more wealth than they receive in wages.

        Reply ↓

        • Padi, theft is bad. It says so in every major religion.

          Reply ↓

44. Worried about Universal Credit then have your say,
    https://ssac.blog.gov.uk/2018/06/22/universal-credit-next-steps-have-your-say/

    Listening might be another matter.

    Reply ↓

    • DWP just going through the motions. As if they care what claimants and welfare organisations think about the plans to transfer everyone to Universal Credit.

      Reply ↓

      • Total hypocrites. And even if the DWP do get some criticism, like the NAO report they will just ignore it. Or think of ten reasons why it isn’t so.

        Reply ↓

    • If there was an justice, they wouldn’t be able to transfer existing JSA / ESA claimants onto Universal Credit, without a change of circumstances.

      Reply ↓

      • They have just released the first drafts of how managed migration is expected to proceed.
        https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/moving-claimants-to-universal-credit-from-other-working-age-benefits

        The day your claim ends and Universal starts is called ( happy) “migration day”

        Reply ↓

    • I’ve just submitted my twopenneth worth (& managed not to swear!) , so let’s see what the lying Tory bastards & the fucking DWP set of kuntz make of that before they take their Universal Credit and stick it up their Rightwing neoliberal universal arse.

      Reply ↓

      • I am sure they will be grateful for your thoughts trev hopefully that should be the last we hear of this modern agile system they call Universal Credit.

        If they fail to take your views into account then it is just a case of clinging on to JSA until the soon to be dreaded (happy) Migration day card from the DWP arrives.

        All these middle managers civil servant office workers etc could work 10 hours per week and be free of Universal credit while us menials only escape at 35 on NMW.

        A lawyer Doctor surgeon and the rest probably do it in less than 2 hours.

        CEOs time it takes to put on a sock without lifting a finger.

        Reply ↓

      • Did you use your real name Trev ? Don’t forget about the men in the black suits with strangely short haircuts.

        Reply ↓

        • I did. Perhap s I shouldn’t have. But then again I’ve been half expecting the MIB to turn up ever since my first UFO sighting.

          Reply ↓

45. They have taken the Universal Credit vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard.
    Now they are waiting to plug it in.

    Reply ↓

    • And once it is plugged-in they will turn on the electricity. Then switch on the cleaner. Then that’s it, Universal Credit sucking away, chasing after the legacy claimants….

      Reply ↓

46. We need to stand up and say you can stick your Universal Credit where the monkey hides it’s nuts.

    Reply ↓

    • I do not hide my nuts I have them openly on display, speaking of which I used to be a high wire juggling act until I lost my balls.

      Boom Fekin Boom

      Reply ↓

47. Just imagine it, people wishing each other Happy Migration Day !
    There is something sick & spooky about it at the same time.

    Reply ↓

    • Agreed seems like a half decent title for a dystopian sci fi novel set where a government goes rogue and a plots genocide against it’s own people.

      Reply ↓

      • A novel based on current events & Tory policy. I think that’s what is happening now. Wait ’til they impose Martial Law after Brexit and we’re tripping over bodies in the streets. I think we could be about to witness the total breakdown of Society – food shortages, poverty/destitution, redundancies, starvation, deaths, riots, looting, and no Social Security system to speak of. The country is screwed.

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        • Trev, we still live in the same country, whether we leave the EU or not! We’re not going to turn into a warzone overnight!

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          • I think it’ll be like the French Revolution, the Miners Strike, Peterloo, the Peasants Revolt and WW2 all rolled into one = Torygeddon.

          • Well hopefully I will be able to dust down my mad max jacket and really put my urban hunting skills to the test, but I agree when all things considered we heading towards a shitstorm like no other.

      • Logan’s Run becomes reality… Don’t tell the Tories!

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48. Transfering 2 million people over to UC, along with thousands of new claims due to post-Brexit job losses, will cause utter chaos on a massive scale. The foodbanks are struggling to cope as it is but the poverty & suffering we’ve seen so far is the tip of the iceberg compared to what’s to come over the next couple of years. The resulting fallout will bring down the Tories.

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    • “Brexit job losses” means people who would have come to Britain to find work will go somewhere else or stay home. So there will be fewer jobs AND fewer workers.

      More jobs in agriculture should become available to US once the agencies find they can’t staff the farms with Romanians, etc.

      There is also a fair amount of scaremongering. The banks have been threatening to leave for decades now.

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      • There are companies that rely on imports & exports happening easily & cheaply. It could also affect food supplies. We’ll see….

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      • Your missing an important point Alison.
        Automation is taking the jobs away from mankind so we can relax and enjoy life we do not need to work like we once did nor will we able to.

        http://harvestcroorobotics.com/

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        • They’ve been saying that for years but it hasn’t quite happened. All this technology was supposed to result in increased leisure time but as. been used to maximize profit instead. EF Schumacher discussed this in his book Small Is Beautiful in 1972.

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          • Not quite there yet I agree but the world has moved on since he wrote that book I wonder now if he would come to the same conclusion.

            To take his quote,
            “Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.”

            I would argue he is wrong on that point and not fully accounted for the progression towards the commercialisation of space which opens up the infinite worlds of possibilities.

            Visionaries and anarchists like Elon Musk are driving us towards this Utopia.

            Do not fear the rise of the machines.

        • So they say, but my experience of technology is the opposite. Everything becomes harder and takes longer and still requires human intervention. Take Universal Credit. In spite of the automation, it’s created a lot of work for a lot of people in the DWP.

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          • Which is why we need a system of unconditional basic income. Everyone receives it, everyone gets the same amount, so very little bureaucracy, so costs of administration are minimal.

          • Believe it or not, Padi, I agree with you here. Universal Basic Income could be a good idea. It would certainly be cheaper than running the current system.

      • No Alison, agriculture will just become even more mechanised and automated than it already is. Let’s not forget that in the first place agriculture became mechanised largely because of the exodus from the land after the widespread enclosure of common land left the rural poor with little option but to move to the new industrial cities in order to sell their labour to subsist as it was no longer possible to do so in the villages in which they were born. This created a labour shortage, and this accelerated the development of agricultural mechanisation. Already it’s being noted that even with ‘decent’ pay, i.e. over £10 pounds an hour, are UK workers attracted to many of the jobs that EU migrant workers do, (for the same £10 plus per hour) which will drive further automation.

        There may have been scaremongering, but I think there is little doubt that automation is going to have huge, currently unimaginable impacts on our lives.

        Take look at this long, but very absorbing video for a starting point for a discussion:

        https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/will-work-for-free-2013/

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        • Padi, get lost.

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          • Ouch!

            Seriously though Alison,I think you need to open your mind a bit, and learn something.

            Watch the video, it’s actually quite interesting. Read or watch videos of some of Guy Standing’s or Yanis Varoufakis’ stuff on YouTube.

          • Padi, go find somebody else to pick on.

    • Universal Credit chaos is happening already due to IT problems and Government assumptions that all poor people have a Driving Licence and a Passport:

      “Universal Credit Registering Online (Gov.Uk Verify) Causes Chaos”

      https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/06/24/universal-credit-registering-online-gov-uk-verify-causes-chaos/

      “Thousands of Universal Credit claimants unable to use Gov.uk Verify to apply for benefits”

      https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252434188/Thousands-of-Universal-Credit-claimants-unable-to-use-Govuk-Verify-to-apply-for-benefits

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      • All you’ll get from this is the usual DWP flat denials.
        They know all this is true, but they don’t really care, because they are looking at the final glorious outcome. All benefit claimants firmly in the grasp of Universal Credit.
        How soon will it be I wonder before we hear the magic words, ‘Arise, Sir Duncan Smith’ ? Knighted for services to welfare reform.

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        • Just one slight slip with the sword is all it would take…

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          • Ha Ha ! Good one Trev.
            As they say, if you live by the sword…

        • The government ought to subsidise the cost of a passport for the poor. It’s no longer only a holiday document.

          What happens when we all get transferred to Universal Credit? Millions more people won’t have photo ID. It sounds like it will prove difficult to put in the claim we need for our benefit money.

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      • There is no requirement to use the verify service to claim Universal credit and would advice not to personally.

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    • This is so true Trev. Like you say, we haven’t seen the half of it yet.
      They are expecting 8 Million claimants on Universal Credit by 2023.
      The system is at breaking point now, the foodbanks can hardly keep pace with demand. Soon we’ll all be eating Soylent Green.

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      • Yes you can follow the roll out of universal credit as each area affected there follows a shout out for help from foodbanks and agencies who are straining under the pressure.

        My area is to be unfrozen after recent changes to UC and the local council wanted to set aside X millions of pounds to help cope with the demand and a conservative councillor blocked it saying it might not be as bad as people think.

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      • We won’t even get Soylent Green because the plankton will all eat plastic and die.

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      • My previous comment was stupid because Soylent Green wasn’t really plankton anyway.

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    • I live in hope Trev, I live in hope. Aneurin Bevan was correct when he opined that Tories are lower than vermin.

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49. “Vulnerable man constantly sanctioned, when will this Universal Credit hell end?”

    https://thepoorsideof.life/2018/06/21/vulnerable-man-constantly-sanctioned-when-will-this-universal-credit-hell-end/

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50. I signed on this morning and the Adviser mentioned finding me some “Provision”,I asked what that means and she said going somewhere to do “intensive jobsearch”. FFS it never ends.

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    • My day was equally frustrating trev as always when signing on.

      I constantly battle them every fortnight I was asked to go sit in a long queue today which led to a room called “the job room” where they had some vacancies pinned on the wall and a few third party providers milling about.

      I explained to the staff member I was not informed about this job room and was only here to make a deceleration that my circumstances remained the same and to show I had been actively searching for work and discuss the steps I had taken, at this point the security who was stood next to us then tried to explain to me that to get my money I have to job search.

      A security to explain the benefit regulations was a new one on me, after asking why he presumed this was the case the old if you continue on this I will have to ask you to leave.

      I am calm and in control when I confront anyone but I do make the point those within earshot know exactly what I am saying, I could see the look surprise amongst those waiting and instinctively knew they expected this to end in disaster for me.

      So I asked the member of staff to see the manager I explained my issue who I must say was very polite listened to my complaint and reasoning and took me to a work coach who signed me on straight away no mention of this course at all.

      The look on the faces of those sat waiting including the security guard was priceless as me and manager breezed past chatting away quite happily I signed on and left.

      But was told by the manager next fortnight I would have to go in to this room and have a look and would I go and see them and provide feedback because they want to hear the customers views, looking forward to that I said, I like to give my opinion.

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      • Tune in next fortnight to see if I go in the “jobroom” lol

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        • A job. After 30 years, it must be a scary thought.

          So I’ll resist the temptation to say, “That sounds interesting! Did you see anything you liked the look of?”

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      • unbelievable. It’s none of the security guard’s business. Who the fuck do they think they are?

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        • Exactly trev the security guard was well out of order got too much power, if I had persisted in tackling him he would have thrown me out.

          But what he does not realise I am a avid complainer and go straight to the top and do let things drops until I get answers.

          Do not know if it the same at your JCP but we have about 12 of them everywhere like shit they are always looming over folk.

          They get bored and look for the slightest for a bit of action.

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      • Sourchimp, maybe they’re doing a psychological assessment on you. Seeing how you cope with change.

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        • I was on the work programme and they ran a positive mental attitude course.

          Clearly the person running it was reading from a pre planned speech and had no knowledge of what they spoke at all.

          I started off by saying a positive mental attitude is not a ideal state of mind and those with a more negative view of life are generally happier and live longer !

          That put a stop to that course.

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    • In theory, that could be helpful. In practice, some things the Jobcentre refer people to are better than others. Let’s hope this is a good one! It sounds like you could do with a job, some income and an end to the endless jobsearch…

      Roll on Sourchimp and Padi and the howls of incredulity! A job? Someone get a job? Work for someone? Christian idea? Perish the thought!

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      • The word “intensive” worries me. They’re going to have me sat there doing jobsearch all day long, could be 5 days a week, and for how long? Could be for 6 weeks, I don’t know yet. While some idiot gets paid to sit there & watch me. And I already do lots of jobsearch anyway & provide evidence of all the jobs I’ve applied for, so why do I need to be supervised & made to do this?

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        • It is called botherbility but telling you one thing then actually doing it is another, be very surprised if they went through with it normally reserved for new signers and they have to into account all your circumstances and show how it will benefit you and also pay your travel costs each day plus they also have a duty to the public purse as it would be a waste of money you know how to effectively job search, got all the tools and there has never been a doubt raised on your claim or criticism of your job search.

          I would fight it if they tried that on with me for sure, I will have a look at that one, been a while since it popped up on my radar and worth refreshing just in case they thinking of starting it up again in my area

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        • That sounds more like they’re just watching you do what you’re already doing. Sadly, it sounds rather punitive. It would seem to me that they ought to discuss your health more and either help find something that suits your health or let you move onto a health benefit. I expect there are charities that know more about health than the Jobcentre.

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        • Is it JSA or UC that you’re on Trev? If it’s JSA you could have some hope challenging it, as if you are already doing what you consider enough (and with JSA, if you’re taking at least 3 steps per week that is enough, and falls within the test contained within the Jobseeker’s Act 1995, which is pretty much a statement of the law, despite what people are led to believe about the Claimant’s Commitment, which the DWP tries to hoodwink people into believing trumps the JSA Act – it doesn’t and many thousands of people have been unlawfully sanctioned as a result) As you are already doing a lot of jobsearch, you have evidence to support that.

          They have to be able to justify doing these things if you are on JSA, so it’d be quite possible that insisting that you attend these sessions is unreasonable – which of course it is, but especially so for someone in your position.

          I don’t know what the score is with UC, as I understand it the DWP seem to have people all trussed up for slaughter. It’s just plain wrong.

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      • I already have a job Alison, I work for myself. I am fortunately in a position where I don’t have to be a wage slave, and I think far too much of people to consider exploiting them.

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        • This comment was not addressed to you, Padi.

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          • I quote:

            “Roll on Sourchimp and Padi and the howls of incredulity! A job? Someone get a job? Work for someone? Christian idea? Perish the thought!”

            ‘Nuff said.

          • Except that wasn’t the comment you replied to. You hit “reply” under a comment I wrote to Trev about his current job-hunting.

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