Am gracing you all with the tweets below, because I can’t stand the Labour intra-party bitching I’m seeing on twitter and facebook (could be a certain irony in going on twitter to attack people for being on twitter, but let’s do it).
Labour failed for a million reasons, supreme among which was and is a poisonous and self-indulgent factionalism that couldn’t be less interesting to 99.9% of the rest of us.
The main moral of the teachings below: get off fucking twitter and go and do something useful for the many people in poverty who really will need support when Boris Johnson gets going (those already making such contributions are of course excused from this instruction. Go well).
The harsh truth: outside of lefty and Labour circles, nobody gives a damn what goes on in those circles. I’ve been talking to people at jobcentres and foodbanks for over 10 years and literally nobody has ever said anything along the lines of, “how about that Owen Jones then,” or, “isn’t Margaret Hodge a witch,” or “yay, Novara media,” or “oh, Jeremy Corbyn,” or, “can I get involved in my local Labour branch,” or “how do I join Unite,” or anything remotely near those. People say things like, “I’m in arrears and they’re going to evict me,” and “I’m at court next week for council tax,” and, “I only got 2 days’ work this week and they didn’t text me this morning, so I’m fucked.”
So:
I’m not a Labour party member which puts me in a good & bad position to say this – the bitching and fingerpointing in the party on here atm is exactly what alienates people. The thing failed for a host of reasons and so what. Nobody outside the circle cares.
— Kate B (@hangbitch) December 14, 2019
It’s frustrating. Nobody outside the party circle gives a fuck what Margaret Hodge did or didn’t do or whether Milne exists or what Novara media is. Maybe get off twitter & go lend a hand at a community centre. Seriously. Lefty petulance is a luxury that the world can’t afford.
— Kate B (@hangbitch) December 14, 2019
If there’s one lesson that people MUST take away from this disaster it is that the really serious problems of our era – homelessness, poisonous poverty etc – are not solved by calling your own party members cunts on twitter. That approach really isn’t working out.
— Kate B (@hangbitch) December 14, 2019
I’ll end this teaching by saying – Labour lost & it’s already time to get over it. Many people are really going to need a hand at jobcentres, housing meetings, etc. You’re needed as a buffer, not as someone who calls Owen Jones or Hodge or whoever a cunt on twitter all day.
— Kate B (@hangbitch) December 14, 2019
So that’s twitter told. Simple stuff, I know, but surely no less sophisticated than a tweet in which some thinker calls Jonathan Freedland a prick, or Owen Jones a cock, or Watson a fanny, or Corbyn a bellend, or whatever.
How you can help
Going to add to this list – here are some activist groups that I work with and you can get involved in. Leave your politics and views (and goddamned phone) at home, and put people who need support at front and centre:
Kilburn unemployed workers’ group – user-led benefits support group which holds a weekly meeting and clinic for people who are struggling with what remains of the benefits “system.” Leaflets regularly at jobcentres.
Stockport United Against Austerity – same as above, in Stockport.
Charlotte’s weekly leafleting, advice and food parcels session at Ashton Under Lyne jobcentre.
Focus E15: weekly leafleting session outside Wilko on the Stratford Broadway. Hand out leaflets. Talk with the many people who have shocking housing problems. Offer to go to housing meetings at the council if people want that.
There will also be your local foodbank(s) – usually plural. If there are limits to the time you can spare, make donations.
Etc
PS – took the Get Over It out of the heading because misinterpretation. The rest of it – carry on. Am in the last couple of weeks of finishing my book, so normal service will resume in the New Year.
Yet another family forced into debt by Universal Credit:
https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/joiner-forced-to-sell-all-of-his-tools-and-give-up-work-permanently-to-feed-his-children-on-universal-credit-1361104
Remind me again why Iain Duncan Smith deserves a Knighthood.
2000 terminally-ill people have died whilst waiting for Universal Credit review:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/universal-credit-delays-terminally-ill-17546450
What does “Sir” Iain Duncan Smith think about this appalling situation? Absolutely nothing, because he doesn’t give a flying fuck.
It really does take the biscuit doesn’t it when, a decade since it was announced, and some seven years since it was introduced that hardly a day goes by without some serious shortcoming with Universal Credit being highlighted in the mainstream media. Even the sectors of the press that have helped demonise recipients of the benefit find it impossible to put a positive slant on the failings of UC, but still the government persists in rolling it out.
Surely they should now call it a day and accept that Universal Credit is the complete disaster we all know it to be, despite the relative few of us who have experienced no issues with it thus far.
And now the DWP are to target homeless people with the hope of bringing them into the fold, despite the fact that many of them have become homeless because the Benefits system is impossible to comply with, or is so punitive and dysfunctional that it lead to the rent arrears that caused them to become homeless in the first place:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2020/01/13/jobcentres-to-target-homeless-people/
Yeah, it gets increasingly farcical. There has been some comment on this plan on (The Real) Nye Bevan News group on Facebook, including a by a couple of ex DWP workers who point out what you’ve just pointed out Trev, and added that the DWP don’t have the capacity to deal with the workload they already have at Jobcentres, let alone the training they need to cope with the challenges presented by homeless people who have multiple issues such as drug and/or alcohol dependency or mental health issues, as well as, presumably, maybe not having a particularly positive opinion of DWP staff.
Yes those are all very good points. My Jobcentre is short staffed, JSA is group signings because of that. They are not trained to deal with such problems. There is a skeleton staff of Council and charity outreach workers already struggling to help the homeless. And all the homeless people I’ve spoken to have dropped out of the Benefits system and given up on the DWP. It’s a total non-starter.
DWP Press Release
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jobcentres-to-receive-new-3-million-fund-to-support-homeless-people
Benefits underpayment increase:
https://welfareweekly.com/dwp-slammed-over-rising-number-of-benefit-underpayments/
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/14/the-dwp-simply-refuses-to-pay-benefits-properly-why-so-many-underpayments/
More than 100,000 disabled people denied motability:
https://welfareweekly.com/more-than-100000-disabled-people-lose-motability-vehicles-when-reassessed-for-pip/
More on the Motability scandal:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/13/how-the-tories-used-motability-to-attack-more-than-100000-disabled-people/
Being wealthy adds 9 years to life expectancy:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/15/being-wealthy-adds-nine-years-to-life-expectancy-says-study
Surely that’s a good enough argument for lowering State Pension age to 55/60 then?
Poor people getting sicker:
https://beastrabban.wordpress.com/2020/01/21/i-poor-people-getting-sicker/
Rural poverty:
https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/dec19_hunger_in_the_countryside/
‘Appliance poverty’ – Thousands of people living without a fridge, cooker, washing machine:
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/scale-appliance-poverty-yorkshire-and-humber-revealed-new-report-1363863
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/About-Us/News/Millions-across-the-UK-are-living-without
This is what people voted for. Man with serious brain injury declared fit for work:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/16/man-with-worsening-brain-injuries-has-benefits-slashed-while-duncan-smith-gets-a-knighthood-video/
The Welfare State is being unwound:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/14/welfare-state-unwound-services-communities
This is what Tory voters have given their support to.
The Poor Side of Life (on Benefits in Ashton Under Lyne):
https://thepoorsideof.life/2020/01/16/disabled-man-told-to-apply-for-work-at-the-same-place-he-used-to-work/
Universal Credit stories:
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/11-faces-universal-credit-stories-3744628
As the Labour Leadership contest continues and Boris practices his Big Ben impressions, people continue to suffer at the hands of the DWP….
https://welfareweekly.com/woman-who-can-collapse-at-any-moment-due-to-a-rare-heart-condition-is-denied-benefits/
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/woman-rare-heart-condition-causes-17586402
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/19/campaigner-who-embarrassed-dwp-was-forced-into-15-month-benefit-battle-with-dwp/
Universal Credit: Does it’s monthly design work for Claimants?
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/social-policy/welfare-pensions/universal-credit-does-the-monthly-design-work-for-claimants/
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2020/01/19/universal-credit-monthly-design-unpredictable-and-seemingly-arbitrary-variations-in-payments/
Personally, I think it was much better and easier to budget in the days when Unemployment Benefit was paid weekly.
Or even every fortnight as it’s a far more regular time period than every calendar month, which being variable, can make budgeting a bit difficult. Of course, the biggest issue is that the payment is simply not enough at the best of times, and it’s even worse if you’re paying back loans etc.
Yes, Benefits are underpaid to begin with, sometimes delayed, in many cases deducted from, and have been Capped and frozen, plus are now expected to cover Council Tax payments and rent shortfalls in some cases. All in all a dysfunctional and inadequate mess for a great many of claimants. Give that man a Knighthood.
Hull Council to trial Universal Basic Income:
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/universal-credit-every-person-100-3755741
Maybe I should relocate to Hull !
yep let’s go!
I’ve never actually spent any time in Hull, just gone there to board the North Sea ferry way back when, but I always thought of it as being a poverty-stricken place with no jobs and low life-expectancy ( though I think they were City of Culture a few years back), So I don’t know how they plan to fund Basic Income.
This is from last May…
UK on the brink of replacing Universal Credit with Basic Income:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/universal-basic-income-uk-pilot-16246474?
“A few billionaires own more wealth than 4.6 billion people, says report ahead of Davos”
https://politicsandinsights.org/2020/01/21/a-few-billionaires-own-more-wealth-than-4-6-billion-people-says-report-ahead-of-davos/
Talk about bureaucracy and red tape, this is unacceptable, if you complain to the Independent Complaints Examiner about the DWP it takes a year before your complaint is even looked at and at least another 6 months before it has been investigated:
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/4152-claimants-wait-over-a-year-for-ice-to-even-begin-investigations-into-dwp
Universal Credit regional divide:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/universal-credits-regional-divide-exposed-21323330?
More here on the inequalities of Universal Credit, uncovered by a report by the Resolution Foundation:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2020/01/22/new-resolution-foundation-report-blasts-universal-credit/
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/22/universal-credit-is-another-tory-postcode-lottery-making-poorer-people-even-worse-off/
Morning Star too
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/tories-disastrous-universal-credit-scheme-to-make-low-income-families-to-be-worse-off-report-warns
The main stream media have done little to nothing to highlight this stuff.
Damn them for that.
Out of the MSM it’s mainly the Daily Mirror that regularly reports this stuff, and the Guardian and Independent to some extent too but it’s not front page news, as for the rest they are complicit, inc.the BBC. They all did their best to misrepresent Corbyn and the Labour party too:
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/jeremy-corbyn-is-the-most-smeared-politician-in-history/18/07/
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/its-media-stupid
Actor Simon Pegg has spoken out about inequality:
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-01-23/actor-simon-pegg-calls-for-higher-taxes-on-the-rich/
Another DWP death:
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/the-death-of-errol-graham-man-starved-to-death-after-dwp-wrongly-stopped-his-benefits/
‘ When bailiffs broke in to his house to EVICT him, they found him dead; he weighed four and a half stone’.
All I could do for this poor bloody sod was cry; it was the fact that ‘he just starved to death/four and a half stone’.
FUCK THE DWP THUGS.
It beggars belief that this can happen in 21st Century Britain. There is no safety net.
Guardian now reporting this tragedy:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/28/disabled-man-starved-to-death-after-dwp-stopped-his-benefits
New BBC documentary series about Universal Credit and the Welfare State:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f1xj/episodes/guide
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f1xd
Not sure if the upcoming documentaries are the ones referred to in this article:
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/propaganda-concerns-over-dwps-second-jobcentre-fly-on-the-wall-series
More about it here:
https://beastrabban.wordpress.com/2020/01/28/new-bbc-series-next-week-on-universal-credit/
The daily misery of Universal Credit – Ipswich Unemployed Action blog:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/the-daily-misery-of-universal-credit-rent-short-falls-draconian-sanctions-waits-for-already-miserly-payments/
Poverty in Oldham caused by Universal Credit:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/universal-credit-in-oldham-people-describe-feeling-suicidal-and-surviving-on-one-meal-a-day-in-town-used-as-a-pilot-for-controversial-benefit_uk_5e2ab781c5b6d6767fd2136e?
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/25/universal-credit-isnt-just-harming-people-it-is-damaging-the-entire-uk-economy/
Half of Oldham children living in poverty:
https://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/139/main-news/127860/nearly-half-of-kids-in-oldham-are-living-in-poverty
Same story on the other side of the Pennines:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/universal-credit-branded-a-jaw-dropping-failure-as-investigation-shows-its-toll-in-yorkshire-1-9792935
And across the country:
Table 1 Top 25 parliamentary constituencies with highest levels of child poverty across the UK
Constituency % of children in poverty 2017
(after housing costs)
1. Bethnal Green and Bow 54.18%
2. Birmingham, Ladywood 53.06%
3. Poplar and Limehouse 52.75%
4. Birmingham, Hodge Hill 51.46%
5. Manchester, Gorton 47.97%
6. Birmingham, Hall Green 47.82%
7. Manchester Central 47.52%
8. Bradford West 47.26%
9. Bradford East 46.73%
10. Oldham West and Royton 45.58%
11. Edmonton 45.39%
12. Glasgow Central 45.06%
13. Blackley and Broughton 44.66%
14. Leicester South 44.58%
15. Westminster North 44.41%
16. Newcastle upon Tyne Central 44.30%
17. East Ham 43.99%
18. Holborn and St Pancras 43.89%
19. Leeds Central 43.57%
20. Hackney South and Shoreditch 43.29%
21. Birmingham, Perry Barr 43.18%
22. Blackburn 42.83%
23. Tottenham 42.57%
24. Walsall South 42.56%
25. West Ham 42.37%
https://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/more-than-half-of-children-now-living-in-poverty-in-some-parts-of-the-uk/
Remind me again why Iain Duncan Smith deserves a Knighthood, and why anyone gives a flying fuck about Big Ben Bongs.
The indignity of PIP assessment:
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/living-with-ms-is-painful-but-ive-never-felt-indignity-like-a-pip-assessment-1374404
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/01/28/ms-sufferer-nails-problems-with-pip-and-delivers-petition-to-put-them-right/
Multiple stroke victim and Universal Credit claimant begged supermarkets for food:
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/universal-credit-claimant-who-just-3742543
DWP clawed back £50 Million in Universal Credit loan repayments in one month:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/dwp-clawed-back-50million-universal-21379998
What sort of system is it that has to create that amount of debt just as part of the way it functions?
The Tories don’t care how much poverty they create, but hey let’s all keep voting them back in anyway…
Tories deny knowledge of poverty caused by Universal Credit delays:
https://leftfootforward.org/2020/01/tories-deny-knowledge-of-poverty-caused-by-universal-credit-delays/
A new petition against Benefit Sanctions:
http://bit.ly/37AzAfO
Continued growth in homelessness caused two-thirds of Councils in England to break their homelessness budget:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/29/homeless-families-putting-budgets-under-strain-say-councils
Last time I looked (recently) for my area’s timetable for full transfer to UC it said that ‘managed migration’ was to take place from late 2020 to late 2023, but now they seem to have extended that to 2024.
Full implementation of Universal Credit has been delayed again, to 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51318730
BBC Universal Credit documentary starts tonight:
https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/as-universal-credit-documentary-airs-tonight-system-completion-not-expected-until-2024/
Well that was thoroughly depressing.
It was indeed Trev. But then, I don’t think we could have realistically expected anything different from something where what criticism there was, was of the extremely mild variety. However, by the end when we see the DWP advisor working in the pound shop more or less stating that this is just the way things are I did get a little annoyed, especially when that same advisor was filmed earlier being more than a little hypocritical when she visually insulted the protestors through the jobcentre window whilst at the same time claiming to be a trade unionist. Class traitor was what was going through my mind. Her claim that protestors don’t know the truth about UC was also risible.
Then we come to Phil, the JSA claimant. We didn’t really get to the bottom of why he had been sanctioned, which left me wondering if in fact he’d been unlawfully sanctioned, as we know has happened far too often. I’m glad he got the job, and that he’s feeling better as a result, but I can’t help agreeing with him about the prospect of a future as part of the working poor. How on earth is paying out two thirds of his income on rent and council tax in any way fair?
It’ll be interesting to see if any of the reviews in the media take the programme to task and question the editorial approach to the documentary, and if they get a response from the film makers about the kind of compromises they had to make in order to have access to the government’s side.
Yes, I felt really sorry for that guy, I think they said he’s aged 61, hounded into accepting a crappy low-paid cleaning job that leaves him just £30 p/w better off than on JSA. I would have made sure I flunked the interview somehow. And that other chap who was homeless for a couple of weeks and then having to claim UC and go to a foodbank. Also the woman with two children, left with bugger-all to live on for a month. It’s disastrous. One thing though, it showed that guy being referred to the foodbank by the Jobcentre, which I was under the impression they had stopped doing some time ago, unless it varies regionally?
I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that quite a lot in the DWP is now decided on a regional basis, as well as individual advisors having quite a lot of discretion.
However, as you say Trev, that still doesn’t make a bad system good, and there still needs to be a huge amount of change, and I keep wondering how long it will be before the twin concerns of escalating costs, plus the sheer complexity of the system forces a rethink and the introduction of a universal basic income scheme as the most cost effective solution to the fundamental issue of low pay. The current system is complex, and won’t really start to work until sufficient AI is introduced, which opens up another can or worms, as this article in today’s Guardian reports:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/welfare-surveillance-system-violates-human-rights-dutch-court-rules?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR2MmSraY90_JXnb3YIymrTjg2iv2akO88n4rrAaSRLdtF9iZp81rXBJbro
Considering that in the light of another report today that the EU will insist that the UK retains all the European human rights legislation or face non-cooperation from European police and courts it could be interesting times ahead, as it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the Dutch court’s finding could find its way into European law through the ECHR to which the UK isn’t just signatory, but a founder member.
That throws the whole drive for a digitized Welfare system into question, let alone the costs (both financial and human) and the timescale involved. There was nothing wrong with the Benefits system as it was, and even that could have been simplified and done cheaper simply by shutting down the Jobcentres and introducing yearly signing either online or by post, much in the same way as they currently send out annual forms to confirm that your circumstances haven’t changed.
On the subject of Jobcentre foodbank referrals, there was this from 18 months ago:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-banks-universal-credit-dwp-jobcentres-uk-a8769921.html
I think the over 60s in Ireland have yearly signing. And yes, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the old system. Sure, it was complex and a bit unweildy, but that was due to the nature of the beast and that people’s lives are complicated – but people understood it, so if anyone did have difficulties they were never far away from someone who could help.
UC is complex and I don’t think anyone really understands it properly and besides, it’s far too reliant on AI even at this relatively early stage, so it really is a case of ‘computer say no’ with a system that isn’t geared up to be challenged by a human operative even if they wanted to, or even cared that much as they are now so far removed from any kind of decision process
DWP Disability Shenanigans:
http://politicsandinsights.org/2020/02/05/dwp-accused-of-altering-disability-assessment-reports-to-cut-successful-claims/
The Far-Right solution to the homeless – chuck them in the bin:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/multimillionaire-invents-bin-pods-rough-21397084
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/02/05/this-right-wing-millionaire-is-mocking-rough-sleepers-with-plan-to-make-them-sleep-in-bins/
Universal Credit Sanctions:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/universal-credit-sanctions-rules-how-17696097
No more Vivaldi – DWP to change its on-hold music to alleviate Anxiety?!
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/benefits-anxiety-dwps-hold-music-1390253
The DWP have tampered with Benefit applications:
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/02/07/how-many-people-died-because-the-dwp-tampered-with-their-benefit-applications/
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/fury-secret-dwp-checks-see-21401428
Arbeit Macht Frei: 10 Cases of Starvation and Freezing Under Universal Credit in “Civilised” UK
“A system of welfare that allows people in the world’s 5th largest economy to starve and freeze to death can only be described as a crime against humanity.”
Michael East by Michael East
— February 5, 2020
9 min read
b
Arbeit Macht Frei: 10 Cases of Starvation and Freezing Under Universal Credit in “Civilised” UK
“A system of welfare that allows people in the world’s 5th largest economy to starve and freeze to death can only be described as a crime against humanity.”
https://redrevolution.co.uk/2020/02/05/arbeit-macht-frei-10-cases-of-starvation-and-freezing-under-universal-credit-in-civilised-uk/
DWP Suicides:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/07/dwp-benefit-related-suicide-numbers-not-true-figure-says-watchdog-nao
The fear, threat, and possibility of Benefit Sanctions can affect claimants Mental health:
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/benefits-sanctions-dwp-universal-credit-people-with-mental-health-problems-too-terrified-walk-into-jobcentre-1378916
Complying with UC requirements is a bit of a lottery and it is always fraught with fear that a sanction could be applied for some obscure reason. Every visit to a jokingly called Jobcentre, (where there are no jobs) is a nerve wracking experience. It’s a pity that the Mind survey was just of people who had accessed their help and not of people supposedly without mental health problems as I suspect that many of us are developing mental health problems as a result of constantly feeling under pressure.
Claiming JSA can also be stressful in my experience. I’ve sometimes lost sleep worrying about signing on and I always feel anxious before hand, even when I know I’ve done the required amount of jobsearch and technically shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Trouble is you just never know which Dole clerk you’re going to get, what mood they’re going to be in, and if they’re going to be awkward or not, or whether they’re going to spring something on you such as weekly/daily signing, or yet another employability course. Recently I’ve been alright and had no problems, though they did have me attending that Interserve course for 5 weeks before Christmas. Having to go through the fortnightly showdown is a real bind, and so bloody pointless.
In total agreement with you there Trev. I guess because of the language situation I’m fortunate as there are only two advisors who are able to see me. This new one seems to be a bit of a ‘do it by the book’ person, but he isn’t that interested in my jobsearch info, and hasn’t even looked at it these past two sessions though he is a bit pushy about getting work – which I guess is after all his job, but even having said that, he’s respectful.
Do you have someone who could accompany you to Jobcentre interviews and signing on Trev? I guess you’re aware that you have a legal right to be accompanied, and though the JCP+ will hate it, they will comply. The Scottish Unemployed Workers’ Network has some useful information about claimant rights:
https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/know-your-rights/
Though I did notice there is a part in the Non Full Service area leaflet that is a little misleading when talking about the JSA Claimant Commitment, especially if still on a legacy claim: no matter what you’ve signed up to in the CC it’s still only the law that you as a claimant has to respect, i.e. taking two or more steps towards gaining employment each week, and even then there are reasonable exceptions – and if you want to wade through the actual act you will see that it specifically mentions that test – the DWP can try and make you believe that they can force you to do 35 hours of jobsearch, but the law says something different. If push comes to shove, and you are threatened with a sanction by one of the bastards, a word with one of the managers should sort it out pdq.
It’s ok Padi, I always manage to get through it somehow, I arrive a bit early so I’ve time for a quick fag and say a prayer before going in, seems to work. Yes I’m aware JSA is ‘steps-based’, I think some of the staff sometimes forget that, but as long as I’ve done some jobsearch and applied for a few jobs I don’t think there’s anything they can do, hence there’s still loads of us still clinging on to legacy Benefits.
The way things seem to be going with the roll out of UC it seems that even the extended 2024 deadline for full roll out is optimistic.
According to Benefits & Work, only 13 people have been moved from legacy benefits onto UC in the first 6 months of a pilot scheme… Does this indicate there are yet more problems with the roll out? Or maybe that people are getting wise to how bad UC is, and refusing to be transferred where they can?
However, at least one charity seems to still think that UC is basically okay, but needs to be tweaked… Where have we heard this before? Personally I think it’s pretty obvious that it just isn’t fit for purpose. If it were a horse, it’d be shot!
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/11/universal-credit-could-steamroll-vulnerable-into-poverty-salvation-army
So the Salvation Army are critical of Universal Credit but don’t want it scrapped. They also participated in Workfare schemes whereby people had their Benefits Sanctioned, or placed under threat of Sanctions, as a condition of doing enforced unpaid work in Salvation Army charity shops.
Universal Credit is completely unsuitable for people with mental health illness and conditions.
https://www.mind.org.uk/media/23359303/mind-briefing-mental-health-and-sanctions-in-universal-credit.pdf
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/universal-credit-mental-health-anxiety-depression-benefit-sanctions-a8805411.html
https://inews.co.uk/news/dwp-benefits-universal-credit-assessment-mental-health-90742
The rise of in-work poverty:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/09/how-poverty-has-become-the-scourge-of-those-in-work
https://thirdforcenews.org.uk/tfn-news/in-work-poverty-on-the-rise-study-finds
https://workplaceinsight.net/majority-of-people-living-in-poverty-are-in-a-working-family/
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/in-work-poverty-rise-due-to-benefit-cuts-for-low-wage-earners-says-think-tank
https://www.jrf.org.uk/work/in-work-poverty
Contrast all of the above with the DWP mantra: Making work pay
Another Graun article on the rise of in-work poverty:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/07/uk-live-poverty-charity-joseph-rowntree-foundation
Makes a mockery of the Tories’ claim that work is the best route out of poverty.
I read that Trev and steam started to come out of my ears. Of course the report tells it like it is, but still seems to be under a misapprehension that the government isn’t aware of the impact of their policies, or that somehow they don’t genuinely believe that the Tories could be as sanguinely callous as to impose further poverty on people already in poverty.
The TUC’s approach hardly seems to be much better in demanding an end to zero hour contracts and an immediate introduction of a £10 an hour minimum wage. Certainly exploitative zero hour contracts need to be outlawed, but the minimum wage needs to be at least £12 an hour now the way even social rents and council tax are going up – and none it will happen anyway unless the government is pushed into doing it by the trade union movement, if it finds its lost backbone.
If even a fraction of what has been implemented here in the UK had been even attempted in France I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that there would have been yet another revolution, considering the recent solidarity actions over an attempt, (now failed) to raise the state pension age to 64 from 62.
The French don’t stand for any nonsense!
So now we’re going to have a bridge to N. Ireland…and a ‘Garden bridge’ across the Thames, and a High Speed rail network, and the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, and loads of new hospitals, thousands of extra Police officers, thousands of new buses….is there no end to Tory lies? All pure fantasy. Meanwhile, soaring poverty, a dysfunctional Social Security system and over a Million people relying on foodbanks. Boris can make all the ridiculous promises he likes, anything but tackle the real problems.
Never mind Trev, if he keeps on like this even the idiots who voted for him will begin to twig that it’s all lies… And they said that Corbyn’s promise of free internet for everyone was pie in the sky!
An account of life on Universal Credit from last year:
“Universal Credit is a nightmare, the stress is overwhelming”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/mar/02/universal-credit-is-a-nightmare-the-stress-is-overwhelming
The latest BBC documentary about Universal Credit is attracting some attention, and negative comments about UC:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/viewers-slam-universal-credit-systematic-21479609
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/02/12/viewers-of-bbc-universal-credit-documentary-deride-it-as-systematic-genocide/
It does seem that the DWP have rather shot themselves in the foot with this. Lots of people don’t seem to think they’re credible. I wonder why?
In Part 1 we saw a 61 year old man being hounded into a minimum wage job, and in Part 2 we see a 62 year old woman being hounded into taking on 3 jobs, and who is still struggling to the point that they aren’t really adequately feeding themselves.
And yet we’ll no doubt still have some morons trying to claim that people too easy!
At 60 people should be able to claim their state pension, or at least, like in the Irish Republic, only ‘sign on’ once a year.
The Poor Side of Life:
http://thepoorsideof.life/2020/02/13/pip-appeal-failures-redundancies-homelessness-and-universal-credit-this-weeks-blog/
House of Lords daily allowance is more than a month’s Universal Credit (and JSA)
https://welfareweekly.com/lords-allowance-more-than-universal-credit/
The SNP’s Mhairi Black calls for devolution of all welfare
https://welfareweekly.com/mhairi-black-calls-on-uk-government-to-devolve-all-welfare-powers-to-scotland/
DWP under pressure to halt UC… Again! When will they learn that it really isn’t fit for purpose?
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/02/13/dwp-faces-even-more-pressure-to-halt-universal-credit/
It appears to be an old petition that is still live, but I signed it anyway. It’s addressed to Prime Minister Theresa May.
I hadn’t realised it was that old, strange that the Canary is linking that article to such an old petition.
The Tory plan for population reduction and social control seems to be on track….
Starvation in Plymouth:
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/families-plymouth-poor-theyre-actually-3839516
The lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum. This is what one of Cummings’ “misfits and weirdos”, one Andrew Sabisky, believes in:
Mandatory universal contraception given like vaccines to prevent the growth of an “under class”.
That womens’ sport is comparable to the Paralympics.
Children should be given mind-altering drugs as “the benefits to society would be worth one dead kid a year”.
Who the fuck is this guy, Dr. Mengele ?
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/news/109931/new-downing-street-adviser-called-universal
Oh, and concerns about FGM are just a “moral panic”, apparently, according to Number 10 adviser Sabisky
Sabisky forced to resign his post at No. 10 , and I should bloody well think so too, unfortunately the Government have declined to comment as yet and Boris has not condemned Sabisky’s sick views:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51538493
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51535367
Eugenicist adviser leaves eugenicist government of ‘misfits and weirdos’
By Kitty S. Jones
https://politicsandinsights.org/2020/02/18/eugenicist-adviser-leaves-eugenicist-government-of-misfits-and-weirdos/