Update Monday 13 May:
I rang the Universal Credit helpline (0800 328 5644) to ask if the Flexible Support Fund could be used to help people on Universal Credit with childcare costs when they found work.
After 20 minutes (yep) on hold, the person who answered the phone said that the Flexible Support Fund couldn’t be used for childcare costs. That was interesting. You’ll see in the tweet copied below that Universal Credit CE Neil Couling said that it could.
I asked the helpline specifically if the fund could be used for childcare costs and the officer said No. I explained the upfront and first-month childcare costs of about £300 that the woman in the original post below faces. The helpline said that advance loans and budgeting loans could be used for childcare costs, but must be paid back.
So, I tweeted Couling and asked him to tell me what the right answer is. Can people use the Flexible Support Fund for childcare costs or not? If they can, why does the Universal Credit helpline say they can’t?
People in poverty can’t afford upfront childcare costs when they get work. If Couling says the Flexible Support Fund can be used for those costs, then people should be told about it and how to apply for it.
What a circus. I swear to god.
Update Saturday 11 May:
Universal Credit grandee Neil Couling tells me on twitter that the Flexible Support Fund can indeed be used to fund childcare if people who claim Universal Credit can’t meet childcare costs.
It’s an absolute travesty that jobcentre advisers don’t tell people that. I’m finding this unreal.
As I replied to Neil – he needs to fill the airwaves with news of this fund and instruct his jobcentre advisers to damn well tell people that they can apply to the FSF to pay for childcare when they start work. It’s disgusting that people aren’t told about this fund.
The woman in the original post below tells me that she’s actually lost the carer job she was due to start on Monday, because of the childcare funding problem. Her employer “got funny” about things when the woman asked if she could work 8-2.30pm for the first week while she sorted out childcare and payments.
She has another interview next week for another job.
Here’s Couling on twitter on the subject. He needs to spend less time on twitter and more time making sure Universal Credit claimants get the money they’re entitled to:
Needs to go further afield. The dwp needs to put out a press release on Monday telling everyone that money is there for childcare and that it’s a grant they don’t have to repay. Also want to see a bulletin go to jcp advisers instructing them to tell claimants the money’s there
— Kate B (@hangbitch) May 10, 2019
Original post from yesterday:
To Essex now – where a young woman whose problems with Universal Credit I’ve previously written about gets in touch to say that her new job is at risk because of problems funding childcare.
The woman has found work and starts on Monday.
She has a little girl, so needs a childminder to pick the child up from school and to look after her until her mother gets home from work.
The woman found a childminder (after school club was already booked out).
Universal Credit said they’d fund 85% of the costs.
The problem is that the woman has to pay this in advance (it’ll be about £300 a month) and have the money repaid.
This will be a real stretch – for the first month in particular.
Like so many people who are starting in work, this young woman doesn’t have £300 lying around:
“Universal credit said they can pay 85% of childcare… but I have to add the amount to my account each month. The first month, I’d have to pay in advance and be refunded for it. I can’t get an advance payment, because I had one last October.”
It looks like this woman will have to borrow from family, or friends (assuming someone has £300), or take out a loan elsewhere.
She’ll end up in (more) debt. That’s inevitable. As the woman says in the quote above, Universal Credit won’t give an advance loan for the childcare costs, because she had another loan recently. That loan was to cover debt brought about by deductions that the DWP was taking from her Universal Credit payments. Chief among these were deductions for tax credit overpayments which the woman insists she didn’t owe.
So – “I have to find £300 just to start work.”
Needless to say, the government says it pays childcare costs in arrears to prevent fraud. I just love that. This government’s obsession with appearing tough on people in poverty literally knows no bounds. Government is so damn hung up about fraud that’ll actually shove low-paid parents into debt when they do the “right” thing and find work.
Why the DWP can’t accept a letter from a registered childminder stating charges in advance and pay costs up front I do not know.
In my less charitable moments, of which I have many, I find myself thinking that government wants to keep single mothers in poverty, rather than in work that might let them get ahead.
Suggestions and input welcome.
Update Friday 9 May:
Gail Ward on facebook has alerted me to the Flexible Support Fund, which should be available to people in exactly these situations.
The problem is, as usual, that Universal Credit and jobcentres don’t tell people that these funds exist. This is criminal.
The Turn2Us site actually centres its Flexible Support Fund information around a criticism of the DWP for withholding information about the fund (a fund I’d never heard of).
“A number of organisations are concerned at how little is known about the FSF.
One Jobcentre adviser in Bolton likened the FSF to the illegal boxing clubs in the film Fight Club, in that they don’t talk about it.
This is highlighted by the fact that the budget set aside for FSF has been underspent in every year since it was introduced.”
Isn’t that just great.
The whole universal credit system is just not working yet rather than loose face and admit that it’s literally starving and killing people they try to baffle everyone with their bullshit and convince us that it is working. Kate you are bang on about the government wants to push and keep people in poverty. Every time I see or hear an advert saying “ universal credit it pays to work “ it makes my blood boil because it isn’t is it? It’s stopping those that are in work not want to work overtime because it will be taken off them. It’s making people on benefits not wanting to work because of having their money stopped if your already on the poverty line it’s just not do able. The government must think that we all have thousands of pounds stashed away like they have, they haven’t got a clue about real life of the working class, we are on the way back to Victorian times if it’s not stopped, but in the meantime people are starving loosing their homes and dying. The way universal credit is paid is wrong your paid monthly so it should be based on your monthly income not how many paydays are in the month, if your paid weekly the same amount your universal credit payment should be the same ( not sure how it is monthly) but they managed to turn February into a 5 week month. It’s a nightmare and from what I’ve read and heard if your self employed it’s worse do they not see that if your eligible for universal credit that your struggling anyway.
It’d do your head in. My last couple of interviews have been with people who’ve done exactly as the government has instructed – they’ve found jobs etc and can build up working hours – yet they then get clobbered with delayed housing costs, or delayed childcare costs or whatever. It only makes sense if you see things in a context of government wanting to keep people in debt.
This is totally fucked up! Okay, so the government wants single parents to go out to work, fine, (quite apart that I’ve always considered care giving to the upcoming generation to be real work in and of itself that should be recognised as such – and paid) but surely if that’s what it really wants, then perhaps they could learn a thing or two from the situation that existed in the GDR. People remember the bad stuff, but never the good. Child care for mothers going out to work was universal in the GDR, and was free. Mothers were encouraged to go out to work, as there was a labour shortage. The situation was similar in most, if not all of the Soviet aligned countries, and we could learn a lot from the positive aspects of those societies. Maternity leave was generous, for the first year, it was full pay, and for the second, half pay and the job was guaranteed to still be there when the mother decided to return to work.
I really don’t see what the problem is in providing comprehensive state funded child care facilities that are free at the point of use – though knowing the Tories, they’d contract it out to someone like G4S, or fund it like they’re underfunding the education and health systems at the moment.
We really do need to get serious in discussing the basics of what our society needs to run efficiently, one is a decent and humane social security system that isn’t stigmstised, and one that is universal, i.e. no private healthcare. Ditto with education and child care, as there is one sure fire way of raising standards in these things, and that’s to ensure that the elite have to use those same services as everyone else.
Agreed. The childcare funding one is a really big thing for parents across the board. I’d be happy to pitch in for state funded childcare at the very least. This shit is illogical. Might as well be £30,000 up front for this woman.
I guess poverty can be used as a tool, for a means of control, maybe that’s what is going on ? And without wandering into the realm of conspiracy theories there is also the possible agenda of population reduction, which used to be kept in check via warfare, now by Class War. It’s what the Freemasons call ‘Statecraft’.
I’ve just returned from my first meeting with my ‘coach’ for Universal Credit. I’ve still to do the Claimant Commitment bit, which I’ll do next time. Evidently meetings are supposed to be once weekly for the first three months, but I was told that this is largely up to the advisor. My next appointment is in two weeks. Today was more about confirming who I was, which was a bit of a farce as the advisor knows who I am from when I was last signing on two and a half years ago. Anyway, that all went well, no problems. He then spent some time explaining the system to me, which I’d pretty much worked out anyway. I got access to the JCP+ wifi sorted out too, which will be useful when I need to use my tablet when I go for the meetings. He also explained the intricacies of applying for Council Tax relief, which in Wales means that the Welsh government pays the 10% that isn’t covered. However, I won’t even be able to claim that until I’ve had my first payment on 11th June. I was told that this is because the council needs confirmation that I’m on UC as the DWP doesn’t send stuff through the post, and there isn’t a joined-up electronic system in place… Who’d have known!.
The advisor also pointed out that the payments were monthly and I was asked how I’d manage. It was also pointed out to me that I could ask for an advance, which I did, as I do need to pay the housing association some rent, even though I don’t know exactly how much I’m supposed to pay, as I’ve had two notifications of rent rise this year, one of double the inflation rate, and one of four times the inflation rate – housing association rents are increasing at these kinds of rates in Wales, wheras they’re not increasing by so much in England after Osborne decreed that there should initially be a rent reduction and then an increase of no more than 1%. My rent has increased by about 33% in the past 5 years. The advance payment has to be repaid, of course, but again there are a number of options, it can be paid back as little as three months to as much as twelve months, and I’m guessing that it is the claimant who decides, well, at least that was true in my case. I’ve opted to repay over 10 months, which I can comfortably do. I can’t quite live on fresh air yet, but I’m close 🙂
So, from my experience today it would seem that JCP+ advisors have a fair amount of leeway in the way that they treat people, it’s just that some seem to take it as carte blanche to abuse the power they wield. Over the years I’ve found that the advisor I have to be professional and genuinely personable and helpful. Judging from the way he emphasised using the journal to let JCP+ know about issues, he at least makes sure he looks at it.
Stop Press: The advance payment has hit my bank account, after just over an hour – pretty impressive, though the advisor did say that it might be Monday if it wasn’t today..
I’ll keep up commenting on my experience as it progresses, as I always think it’s helpful to have a range of experiences to draw from. I did ask about some of the more contraversial elements of UC, such as how it’s supposed to work seamlessly with HMRC, and whilst he was careful, he didn’t deny that there were issues and mentioned in particular that the system can’t cope with people who are paid every four weeks, as it was set up for monthly payments that are the same. Something else that was interesting, if someone earns £338 or more per month there is no longer any need to visit the JCP+, even though they would remain on UC. That works out at less than 10 hours a week at minimum wage. Maybe there are other hassles, but the advisor seemed to suggest that basically once someone has reached that threshold they are basically left alone – though of course, once again there seems to be growing evidence of different policy approaches being adopted in different areas.
Rumours of UBI being trialled in Scotland:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/universal-credit-replaced-new-system-16248127
Though if Esther McVey becomes PM anything could happen (don’t laugh!):
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/09/now-esther-mcvey-wants-to-be-the-next-tory-leader-theyre-going-from-bad-to-worse/
When I first heard of UBI, I loved the idea – and then I thought of how it would affect people like me – chronically ill, with no hope of recovery – and I changed my mind.
The sums quoted in the article may be fine for those who are well enough to work, but would be entirely inadequate for the chronically ill, and the disabled, who can’t work either.
For myself, recently widowed, and without a support structure, I have to pay for every bit of help I need, for my own personal care, and to keep my home and garden kept to a minimal decent state. Unfortunately, £200 a week would barely cover the cost of my rent, and my water & electricity bills, let alone the oil-fired heating I need to have, if I’m not to live in total agony – and no way would it cover food, or the necessary household goods everyone requires to keep healthy and clean, let alone keeping clothed.
So it wouldn’t even cover the bare necessities, let alone everything else needed by all of us who suffer through illness and disabilities.
The government would then still be in the position where they would have to provide us with the means to cover all the extras – which would bring us back to the same kind of tiered system in place right now, which worked quite adequately, until messed around by our present government!
Thinking about it, with our present government, opening up workhouses would probably be suggested as an alternative to helping us! ☹
Katy, you’ve highlighted the problem with the ‘one size fits all’ approach, however there is little indication that UBI would be so restrictive that those with extra needs would not have those extra needs taken care of. UBI is just that, a basic income. Those whose needs are greater should of course have those needs taken care of, and if you read most of the more detailed outlines about what a system of UBI would include you’d see that most of the more thought out ones stress that people with extra needs, such as disabled people, would have those needs taken care of.
Also, most systems of UBI purposely leave out housing costs, stressing that these need to be assessed separately as they vary so much – but even here there is a huge need for reform, and the issues of housing supply and land use radically altered. Taxation needs to shift towards land value taxation, which would inordinately affect the rich, as they tend to own more land, and they can’t put that in a bank on an offshore island like they can cash. Maybe those offshore tax havens could be sorted out too, whilst we’re about it. Most of the tax havens in the world are pretty much British territory anyway!
I think UBI is something that anyone can get behind, which throws up its own issues, and you’re correct to voice your concerns, as there are indeed people on the political right who do see UBI as a way of dismantling the wider social security system. Those of us on the Left who are supporters of UBI are adamant that the sick and the disabled would need to have extra, as would many other people in special circumstances – such as new parents, or new couples who do have extra costs. UBI is simply a base line sum for those of us who are able bodied. Even then, as you say, £200 a week is just about adequate for a single person. It would provide a basic income, but they could also go out to work if they wanted more, or start a business and start to pay income taxes etc.
And it is a big concern that anything put in place by any enlightened government would eventually be overturned by the Tories, but I think you’ll find, (well I hope they won’t be THAT incompetent this time) that progressive governments in the future will try to enshrine these payments in a constitution, so that having the basics is a fundamental right as a human being. In fact, it already is, as it’s part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which the UK not only signed up to, but ratified, that is, made it the law of the land, in 1976.
Yes I’m not sure how it would work but I presume Unconditional Basic Income would be a type of supplement paid on top of, rather than in place of, Disability Benefits for example, after all it would be paid on top of any wages a person earned. As for Unemployment Benefits such as JSA or UC it would probably replace them, but there might still be a need for some level of Housing Benefit as well, which could vary depending upon peoples’ circumstances and amount of rent they pay. It will certainly require some careful thought, not a job for the likes of IDS. Personally I’d be happy with just a little more than I get now in combined JSA+HB+Council Tax Reduction IF it meant that I no longer had to sign-on or waste my time doing jobsearch for the sake of it.
More here on UBI :
https://blueannoyed.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/will-ubi-be-the-right-solution/
The DWP have killed an elderly woman in Wales:
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/woman-who-wrongly-stripped-pension-16249553
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/10/woman-jumped-to-death-in-a-quarry-after-uncaring-dwp-wrongly-stopped-her-pension/
Another family failed by Universal Credit , this time reported in The Sun:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/8962529/universal-credit-delays-left-me-in-caravan/
I had never heard of the Flexible Support Fund either. Having just had a quick look on the net it seems to be very discretionary and could apply to a range of needs including travel costs to interviews, and perhaps could have paid for travel to the Jobcentre for those poor sods who were put on daily signing for example, entirely at the Jobcentre’s discretion of course, so maybe a bit of a lottery. Not sure if or how it would apply to child care costs though but it would be worth inquiring. It’s difficult to tell exactly what it would cover or apply to, maybe interview clothes or a pair of work boots, that sort of thing?
Couling of Universal credit hq said on twitter that the fund could be used for childcare upfront costs whatever that means. I aim to find out more next week.
Questions need to be asked about the secrecy, why aren’t people being informed of the help available? What are JCP ‘Advisers’ for if not to give relevant advice? It seems their only role is to ‘advise’ people to “get a job”, not to advise people of what Benefits they are entitled to claim or what help is available to apply for. Could it possibly be that the DWP has no interest whatsoever in helping people? Surely not.., that would mean that everyone from IDS to McVey to Rudd to Couling have all been lying all along and they really don’t have peoples’ best interests at heart. Can that possibly be true? Who’d have thought.
It’s been around for years on JSA. But the problem with the Flexible Support Fund is that it is discretionary. You can apply, but they don’t have to pay it. And it is like trying to get a loan from Scrooge.
I know people who have been turned down flat for work clothing, boots etc. There is something of a DWP culture of preferring not to pay it if at all possible. So you need a determined claimant, a good reason, and a more liberal Work Coach to have any chance of success.
This is relevant to some of the discussion here:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/12/labour-would-trial-universal-basic-income-if-elected-john-mcdonnell-says
“In Liverpool, Sheffield and the Midlands”
Looks like I’ll be moving to Sheffield then…
Forewarned is forearmed as they say….
‘Smartly-dressed’ fraudsters are targeting families on benefits in a new scam, the Citizens Advice has warned.
The conmen, claiming to be from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) prey on people as they leave from job centres, with the promise of offering ‘government loans’.
Instead, the victims are unwittingly signed up to universal credit with the scammers applying for an advanced payment which is paid to the person’s bank.
The cheats then charge the victims for the ‘service’ which is normally half of the payment advance – at an average cost of about £400.
The warning about the scam has been issued by staff at the Gosport branch of Citizen Advice
That’s a new one. I won’t fall for it as I never sign up to anything with someone who I don’t know, particularly if they approach me in the street or whatever, or on my doorstep. But thanks for the warning anyway. If approached it might be a good idea to take their photo, see how they react to that.
P.S.
I think there’s a few fraudsters working inside the Jobcentre too, you know, the ones that insist they’re making work pay and that there’s lots of great jobs for everyone, and Universal Credit is the best thing since sliced bread.
Truth
Have you got a link for that Alan? It’d be good to find out more.
It’s on Welfare Weekly:
https://welfareweekly.com/smartly-dressed-fraudsters-target-benefit-claimants-in-universal-credit-scam/
I bumped into someone I know who is an unemployed single parent claiming JSA, consequently he has to do a limited amount of jobsearch and can only apply for part -time jobs. He’s just winging it basically and has no intention of getting a job until his kids are older, so has a comparatively easy time of it where the Jobcentre is concerned, but he told me that the JCP laccy he sees recently asked him if he wanted to (voluntarily) transfer over to UC, and was really trying to sell it to him. Naturally he declined, but it just goes to show how bloody desperate they’re getting! As if anyone in his position would fall for that, oh yeah great idea, get into debt /arrears and rely on the foodbank to feed your kids then end up on a system that pressurizes you to take any shit job or get Sanctioned. Yeah, right. Fuckwits.
Talking of which:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/05/13/pressure-grows-and-grows-for-changes-to-universal-credit/
Yeah, seeing a lot of that in my local jokeshop Trev.
The DWP seem to be desperate to shove as many people onto UC as quick as they can. Easier for them of course. They don’t like this two system thing with JSA still running.
I’ve just got back from signing -on, PHEW! Got through that one by the skin of my teeth. ? Turns out that the wankers at Right Steps To Work have told the Jobcentre that I allegedly declined their offer of help with jobsearch because I said I’m not ready to move into work, and that’s after a “confidential” chat with my ‘Key Worker’ during in which I was assured that I could “be honest, this is just between us”. Trust no one, especially twats who work for these Back -to-work programmes. I managed to talk my way out of it but am feeling very betrayed, and stressed after all that. Working out what my next move is. It’s like a never -ending game of chess. Wish to fuck I could Retire.
It always pays to be a bit cautious with the Jobcentre staff, and that goes double for the advisors from these so-called training providers. Remember what their job is, to get you off
benefits ( The Jobcentre), or onto one of their profitable ‘training schemes’ ( Providers).
I’ve got a new Adviser at the jobcentre and she’s really on my case, I’ve only seen her twice but she is ramping up the pressure. I don’t think I can take much more of it. Not happy or satisfied that I am doing my own jobsearch (which I am perfectly capable of), not interested in the job application evidence or the amount of jobs I’ve applied for, just displeased that I never get interviews and haven’t yet got a job. Not pleased that I am doing Training, not interested in my voluntary work. I just can’t win with her. She is making my life hell. She doesn’t accept that age, health/fitness, length of unemployment, lack of transport, and lack of local vacancies, are in any way barriers to employment. This woman is off her head.
Touch luck Trev 🙁 Though I’m a bit surprised you let yourself get taken in by the snitch at Right Steps to Work – I guess you must have been having a bit of an off, vulnerable day and fell for their trap.
Still, it doesn’t help with the feelings of betrayal, and I hope those feelings dissipate soon.
I’m sure you’ll think of something to keep the buggers quiet.
Well I’m in a difficult spot, I’m on the Right Steps programme until sometime in August and their job/mission is to help get people into work, but I can’t afford to get a job until after August when my DRO for insolvency is completed and my old debts are written off. If I have any increase to my income before then my DRO will be revoked. Rock and a hard place. Meanwhile I have to satisfy the jobcentre to avoid Sanctions and continue receiving my JSA, which is my only source of income. The Right Steps dude appeared to be sympathetic and said he wouldn’t be doing jobsearch sessions with me as he didn’t want to waste my or his time. And the fact that Right Steps wasn’t mandatory made me feel more relaxed about it, but I should have bloody known.
Well the reality is Trev that so long as you’re taking ‘two steps or more’ per week towards gaining employment there really isn’t a lot the DWP can do about it, though I know that’s easy to say, and it doesn’t stop the bastards making it their role in life to spoil your day. No matter whether they like it or not, the law is the law, and if they hassle you to the point that it’s stressing you, it becomes harassment – which is a crime for which perpetrators can face a six month stretch.
It sounds to me that you’re being harassed by your JCP+ advisor. Do you have anyone who can accompany you to the JCP when you sign – it sometimes has a remarkable effect on the snotty ones if you turn up with a potential witness. It also discomforts them quite a bit, which is always nice to see. Might be an idea if you can to surreptitiously record the session, though that can be hard if you’re on your own.
I hope things get better for you Trev, as you seem to be having a bit of a hard time at the moment.
You’re right there Padi, as long as I m doing what’s required (which I am) the rest is irrelevant, I just need to remain focused and don’t let her opinions get to me. She doesn’t even look at my job evidence, on this latest occasion she asked me to read it out but butted in half way through to give me more of her bullshit. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had an Adviser like this one, usually it’s a formality – present the jobsearch evidence, they have a quick look, a short irrelevant discussion, confirm that I m still attending Right Steps, still doing voluntary work, then provide a signature, here’s your next appointment and off you go. I will find my through somehow without losing it if I just remember the basics of what I’m there for and what is legally required , the rest is just bullshit. But it’s like they goad you into blowing your top, or for some it might make you break down in tears, or worse jump off a bridge. Keep calm and carry on shall be my motto!
According to this parents can claim an element of Working Tax Credits to pay for childcare, I guess the problem with that is that you wouldn’t get the money up front:
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Extra-help-when-entering-work#SupportParents
UK mental health treatment tantamount to torture?
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/uns-torture-committee-probes-uk-on-grim-and-unacceptable-truths/
Yet more shenanegins about Universal Credit – it seems the DWP is spending £250,000 x 9 for wraps and features for the Metro to make UC seem wonderful. Oh, and evidently the BBC are going to do something they’re increasingly good at, creating propaganda, only this time about UC…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/14/universal-credit-department-work-pensions-pr
Yes that is really really bad
I feel like I’ve woken up in an alternate Reality where Hitler won.
Andrew Coates is also covering this story on Ipswich Unemployed Action:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/05/16/dwp-propaganda-campaign-for-universal-credit-gets-off-to-a-rocky-start/
And now on Vox Political too:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/17/homicidal-dwp-launches-covert-campaigns-to-spread-universal-credit-propaganda-frustrate-it/
Tories have exacerbated poverty:
https://welfareweekly.com/tory-benefit-cuts-will-double-the-number-of-children-living-in-poverty
http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/child-poverty-facts-and-figures
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/14/child-poverty-set-to-have-more-than-tripled-due-to-tory-benefit-cuts-since-2010/
Amazing really. How have we come to this point over the last ten years ?
The Tories and their acolytes the Lib Dems have wrecked the social security net.
Caused untold suffering and misery, and now the DWP have the cheek to spin this as the start of some wonderful future for people on Universal Credit.
Its like some sort of science fiction film.
Trump likes to call it “fake news”, usually in reference to things that he is in denial about, but what seems to be happening is that the Right wing are indulging in some bizarre Reality reversal whereby Universal Credit is fantastic, the Tories have fixed the economy, Corbyn is an antisemite and a supporter of Terrorism, Farage is not a Fascist but a defender of democracy, black is white, war is peace. It’s no different to the type of propaganda that the Nazis went in for, and its resurgence can only be blamed on 40 years of neoliberalism.
Some of the Tories are expressing outrage and shedding a few crocodile tears over the tragic suicide of a man due to some crap daytime tv show, yet have never for one moment expressed any guilt or sorrow, or even admitted and acknowledged, that their policies have been responsible for tens of thousands of suicides. Fucking hypocrites.
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/15/suicide-if-the-jeremy-kyle-show-had-a-duty-of-care-to-guests-what-about-the-governments-duty-to-benefit-claimants/
Am just doing a spot of obligatory jobsearch and clicked on a email job alert I received for a Order Picker / Packer in Leeds, which states under Required Skills & Experience; “Fluent in Polish would be an advantage”. Wonder what my JCP Adviser would say to that when she’s asking me why I don’t have a job? Not that I would want the bloody job anyway, but it struck me as being a bit of a cheek. The job is advertised through an agency called Know How Resourcing.
https://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Know-How-Resourcing/reviews
Cracking article here, well worth reading – as are the comments, though some leave one very worried about some people’s comprehension abilities!
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/may/16/dont-talk-about-food-poverty-jay-rayner
Quite a few comments blaming the problem on peoples’ inability to cook!
I know how to cook, have done so since age 10. Sometimes in recent years I have been so skint that I have eaten food I found in the street or that my neighbour threw in the bin. A few years ago I chiefly lived on cheap pasta and homegrown spinach for several months because half of my JSA went to Npower and the rest on Council Tax, Bedroom Tax, Water and phone/internet, leaving nothing for food. So yes, it wasn’t “food poverty”, it was POVERTY!
Talking of poverty; the Poor Side of Life:
https://thepoorsideof.life/2019/05/16/you-didnt-use-the-correct-words-so-we-didnt-process-your-request-universal-credit-is-torturous-dont-believe-the-dwps-propaganda/
Yes, there are a lot of idiots who have nothing better to do than suggest that it’s some kind of personal failure. Most of them have been told to stop being so silly though, and to read the article.
Yes, it’s about poverty, nothing else, no need for a prefix.
Seems that people are beginning to ask awkward questions of Amber Rudd about the forthcoming UC propaganda campaign. It was published yesterday on Wales Online, and none of the comments were at all positive – so I think it’s not too early to suggest that the campaign is a massive fail even before it starts.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/16/mps-demand-details-of-dwps-universal-credit-advertorials
Yep, the cat is out of the bag with the planned DWP whitewash propaganda campaign . Frank Field is asking questions and DPAC are calling for Direct Action:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/05/17/mps-demand-answers-on-dwp-newspaper-propaganda-while-disability-activists-plan-direct-action/
But having said all that, and I can only speak for myself, I can just about handle the poverty, I’m used to it, what I can’t handle is the treatment from the jobcentre, the conditionality and the unrelenting pressure of having to answer to those bastards every 2 weeks in return for being kept in perpetual poverty.
I keep getting “508 Resource limit is reached”, whatever that means?
Get that from time to time. It’s highly irritating. I have my technical adviser investigating.
UC yet again. Interesting article, and again, with some very interesting comments – mostly highly critical of UC.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/17/universal-credit-dwp-jobcentre-visit
I don’t have direct personal experience of UC, but as a JSA claimant and therefore JCP client I can safely say that the majority of Jobcentre staff are in cloud – cuckoo – la-la – land, like Stepford Wives meet the Lotus Eaters, and talking to them is like banging your head against a brick wall of denial. Fuck the lot of them. With bells on.
I’m really struggling to find anything to apply for this week, there’s absolutely fuck all, nothing in my town that I haven’t already applied for (apart from jobs for which I don’t have the required skills/experience), just a few jobs that are 15 – 20 miles away with 6.00am starts. Then the JCP Work Hound asks “what’s preventing you from getting a job?”. I’m trapped in a waking nightmare.
Trev, the 1995 JSA act does allow for your situation, the two steps rule can be deferred if there is literally nothing you can genuinely apply for, as long as it’s ‘reasonable’ in your circumstances. From what you’re describing you have more than enough evidence to support that argument this week. The Work Hound probably won’t like it, but ask to see her line manager and point out the law – and hope that they have more sense about things. A bit anorak-ish maybe, but it’s always worth having the actual legislation to hand 🙂
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/18/pdfs/ukpga_19950018_301114_en.pdf
As far as them asking about what is preventing you from getting a job, you could suggest that it’s a stupid bloody question that if they thought about it for a milisecond or two they’d realise how utterly stupid that question is. As you say, they don’t have a clue.
Brutally unjust Benefits Cap law upheld by uncaring out-of-touch Establishment wankers in the Supreme Court:
https://welfareweekly.com/82-of-households-hit-by-the-tories-callous-benefit-cap-are-unable-to-work/
Soon we might be seeing evening and weekend sign-ons, as they extend Jobcentre opening hours. Your Work Coach will be with you 24/7. It will be like being married to your Work Coach.
God help us. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is? Maybe to catch out people they suspect are working part time jobs on the side? Erm…or what,
Ah, I found the story in the Daily Mail, it’s to “help older workers change career” apparently:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7043249/Job-centres-stay-open-later-evenings-weekend-help-older-workers-change-careers.html
Is there no end to their fucking nonsense?
There’s more about it here:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/job-centres-to-open-in-the-evening-and-on-saturday/
If all the 600 Jobcentres go over to this, they’ll be able to chase people round and round 7 days a week. People will be so fed up they’ll be glad to work.
It’s absurd. Since when did the jobcentre provide careers advice? When did the jobcentre EVER “help” anyone with anything? I suspect like most JSA claimants I attend the jobcentre for one reason only – to provide my signature in order to continue receiving my Benefits, anything else that might happen in there is of no interest to me whatsoever. Helping older workers to change careers smells like bullshit to me.
The irony is Trev, that in the 70s and early 80s they actually did provide such services, and did a wonderful job of making sure you were claiming everything you should and also providing careers advice, such as suitable courses available, decent, worthwhile courses that were well funded and accredited – and not the mickey mouse on the cheap stuff we have now.
You smell bullshit about that stuff about older workers because that’s exactly what it is. Most older workers, i.e, those of us over 50 find that it’s hard to get another job, which is basically what it means, and it’s even harder once you’re in your 60s. Even ten years ago under New Labour, people of 60 and over were eligible for Pension Credit, basically acknowledging the reality for people over 60. The whole system needs a radical shake-up, retirement for everyone being set at 60 and far more support for younger workers – i.e. decent training from a young age, even to the extent of it being an option for those 14 years old and on who choose a non-academic, or partially non-academic route. Of course that would require huge investment in industry and R&D, but not before time.
It would be expensive, but nothing the UK can’t afford.
There used to be proper Apprenticeships for young workers, lasting 3 or 4 years, not these Mickey Mouse ‘apprenticeships’ of today.
The flexible support fund was of no use to me when I secured a job offer and isnt a sufficient solution. Because although this may have helped pay the first month (If granted), it would be paid directly to the childcare provider and thus no receipt for the parent to claim it back for the next month. So then the following months fees would be due upfront but UC is paid in arrears. Thus flexible Support fund is just pushing the problem on a month. Advisors have no clue about how to get round it and seem untrained. I feel forced to wait until 30 hours free eligible- and even then processing delays, awarding eligibility is only possible after starting work, and fees are due before starting work. And dont even get me started on what happens when the bill goes up for summer holidays. Only the rich can work? If I had a spare grand I’d not be claiming universal credit. It’s a mess but the government are deliberately ignoring the problem…..
And if I want the 30 hours free to save the day. I best hope I dont get a job mid term or after a term starts because it wont kick in for months…. and I’ll be paying the private childcare provider with what until then???