Sanctioned because you had covid… Great.

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Another cracker from the the DWP’s We’ll Get You If Covid Hasn’t files:

We’re back at the Stockport jobcentre on Wellington Road and talking with Doug. Doug is in his late 50s and ready to rumble by the looks of things. Doug’s just had covid and had his benefits stopped for missing a meeting because of it. He’s here today to argue against the sanction with some work coach or other. Safe to say that we’ll know which adviser it was by the end of the week. It’ll be the one with covid.

“How are you?” I ask Doug about the covid.

“If they stopped sanctioning me, I’d be fine,” Doug observes. He says that he is okay to go into the jobcentre by himself: “I can argue with these people all day.” That at least is good to hear, not least because he’ll have to.

After that, Doug thinks he’ll probably need to clear the diary to root around for food. Doug says he’s got 2 tins of beans, a bit of mince and, from the sounds of things, an ageing berg of frozen chicken cemented to the back wall of the freezer which I guess he could try and make last until close of play Friday (It’s Tuesday morning).

The DWP, of course, will tell Doug to go to a foodbank, doubtless firm in the belief that joining the rest of sanctioned Stockport in this week’s race to whichever local foodbanks still have food is an excellent way to work off covid. Ditto for a rugged gnaw on a rock-hard bollock of snowed-in chook. Where you and I see hardship, the DWP sees a chance for people to grow, or at least to improve their fitness. The bin lorry will be out and about dribbling crap tomorrow, so maybe Doug could enter the spirit and trot after that with a plate.

Another possible plan, of course, would be for Doug to die – bit final maybe, but certainly one way to steal back his own narrative. Looks like Doug might ahead of the game on that one, too – he pulls his shirt aside to show me the scar under which his pacemaker resides. Which, now that I think about it, is probably not something to flash around these days. If Doug does keel over, the Tories will have that pacemaker out of his chest in under 5 and hosed off for takers on Marketplace. Although – what am I thinking. If they know Doug’s poor and claiming benefits, and getting older, they probably won’t even wait til he keels.

34 thoughts on “Sanctioned because you had covid… Great.”

  1. There’s probably a recycling initiative these days, run as a Social Enterprise providing min. Wage jobs for a few lucky unemployed people and of course voluntary roles for the unworthy, salvaging wires and microchips from pacemakers after someone’s croaked.

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  2. Can’t turn up because of Covid Laws & get sanctioned. Perhaps the DWP wants people to break Covid Laws to turn up at the Job Centre, either way it is costing & breaking Laws. Equality Laws have been broken by the DWP & they know it. How can a WCA medical prove you don’t have Covid? By not turning up & if you did turn up with Covid you will be found fit for work because the WCA medical says you don’t have Covid. Yet in the real world it is Covid & Equality laws that have been broken. Broken like the DWP & their customers.

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  3. UBI is am increasingly important idea that’s starting to gain traction amongst those of progressive thought. Not much hope of any change of approach from Sunak or, predictably, Starmer.

    Received a notification about this petition in my inbox this morning. Might not change anything, but still worth signing I think.

    https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/put-in-place-a-universal-basic-income-to-protect-everyone-in-the-uk-before-the-next-crisis-hits?link_id=1&can_id=7add70bc85ad9cb6d857da0a06fc9c47&source=email-the-time-for-ubi-has-come&email_referrer=email_1732363___subject_2223854&email_subject=action-join-the-call

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  4. The problem with Universal Credit is the cost of living crisis. If it was not for the cost of living crisis Universal Credit would be perfect. Well done Tories, yet another contradiction in policy & spokesperson said, “We can not talk about individual cases”. Now the Tories are showing up to be criminals & bullies, which we have known since 2010, being above the law is Tory policy or is that Brexit !!! Hiding behind Brexit as Tory failures begging for votes & begging for all the wrong doings that our party has inflicted upon all our voters. Be careful Tories when Bird Flu will spend to humans. Now the countries moaning they can’t get eggs & turkey.

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  5. Today I have to walk about a mile & half into town in torrential rain to sit in a classroom at Reed ‘Better Working Futures’ in order to attend “Training” on the subject of confidence in an interview setting. This lasts from 1.00pm until 3.30pm. Oh well, at least they’ll have the heating on.

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    • Mel Stride the new DWP Sinister wants to sanction everyone to force them into work or die. Mel said ‘We are going to overhaul the DWP in JAN 2023 with our new DWP sanction policy. Mel Stride is part of DWP Pre Meditated State Sponsored Murder breaking Equality & Human Rights Laws like every other Tory DWP Sinister since 2010. Or course I can’t say that in a failed dictatorship, so I will say it because we do have a democracy or are the Tories saying something different !! Oh yes of course that it why it is called a failed dictatorship because they can’t admit they are a dictatorship until the UK Bill of Rights can be used under Brexit Laws. So good luck with the Good Friday Agreement & the rest of the Brexit disaster meaning Tory disaster time & time again. Jeremy ‘Cunt’ Hunt at the NHS again. The Tories are War Criminals funding Russia for the past 12 years & then turn around saying we built up the Russian Economy so they can start a war against us. Wait a minute Tories, so you are at war with Russia !!! Hypocrites !!!

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  7. DNS is ‘vexatious’ for seeking secret DWP death reviews, information commissioner rules

    Disability News Service – John Pring – 17th Nov 2022

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dns-is-vexatious-for-seeking-secret-dwp-death-reviews-information-commissioner-rules/

    Universal credit: System’s flaws left claimant in despair and mired in debt
    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/universal-credit-systems-flaws-left-claimant-in-despair-and-mired-in-debt/

    Universal credit: ‘Chaos, fear and preventable deaths’
    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/universal-credit-chaos-fear-and-preventable-deaths/

    Woman took her own life after trauma caused by daily demands of universal credit
    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/woman-took-her-own-life-after-trauma-caused-by-daily-demands-of-universal-credit/

    A fantastic advert for Universal Credit & the DWP

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    • “”vexatious because it either caused “distress or irritation without justification” or was “aimed at disrupting” the department’s work.””

      The DWP talking about the DWP again. Now John Pring is Public Enemy No. 1 to the DWP. What next intimidation from the DWP or are disabled people intimidating the DWP. Make up your mind Tories, don’t let people know Universal Credit is a Sanctions Policy. Oh dear oh dear Tories time to kill more people off on Universal Credit Sanctions called a safety net.

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  8. “Perhaps Hunt’s one meaningful acknowledgment of the social damage the pandemic highlighted was the decision to uprate working-age benefits in line with inflation. But we should also bear in mind what he said about “a sharp increase in economically inactive working-age adults since the start of the pandemic”, and its context. Sanctioning people on benefits – in other words, threatening them with hunger and destitution – was effectively suspended during the first phase of the Covid crisis, but has now come roaring back: whereas in December 2019 the monthly sanctions figure was about 15,000, the opening months of this year saw a peak of nearly four times that number. When Hunt says he wants hundreds of thousands of people currently on universal credit “to meet with a work coach so that they can get the support they need to increase their hours or earnings”, this is the kind of cruelty that comes into view.”

    They said we would ‘build back better’ after Covid. What breathtaking deceit
    John Harris

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/20/build-back-better-after-covid-deceit-more-hardship

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  9. My week ahead…. Reed in Partnership aka ‘Better Working Futures’ are now pressurising me into doing soul-destroying, insecure, low-paid agency work and of course all under the unmentionable but ever-present threat of Sanctions, as part of their Work and Health Programme, despite the claim in their blurb about helping people to realise their full potential. Don’t know how I’m going to get out of this one.

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    • I do not believe this. I got a text message from my Doctors surgery asking me to register for the Diabetes Prevention programme, and to ring a number to do so, which I presumed would put me through to either the nurse at my surgery itself or to some relevant branch of the NHS for my area but it kept putting me through to Reed and a recorded voice message. I tried two or three times and was trying to work out what was going on, thinking there’s something wrong with my phone or it’s redialling the last number to ring me (which was bloody Reed yet again, who run the Work and Health Programme that I’ve been mandated to attend). Anyway, I rang the number one more time and listened carefully to the message, “Hello, welcome to Reed…”, which then tells you which number to press to register for the Diabetes Prevention Programme! I Googled it and discovered that Reed, the very same company running back-to-work schemes for the DWP are ALSO running health programmes for the fucking NHS!!!! Reed in Partnership, part of the Reed group, etc. must have their fingers in all sorts of lucrative government pies. Well fuck that then, I’m not voluntarily signing up to the Diabetes Prevention if it’s being run by those twats. What next, Reed undertakers?

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    • I tried leaving a review but the NHS sent me an email saying they couldn’t publish it as it may be defamatory. Blooming cheek.

      Here it is:

      “Reed in Partnership is the latest in a long line of profit making companies riding the lucrative Welfare-to-Work gravy train and branching out into other areas of public service providing via government contracts. As an unemployed 60 year old man I have been mandated to attend the Work and Health Programme, another back-to-work scheme run by Reed who purport to be helping people to realise their full potential, but in reality are pressurising vulnerable people into applying for insecure low-paid agency work under threat of Benefit Sanctions. Imagine my surprise then, when I received a text message from my Doctors asking me to register for the Diabetes Prevention programme and upon ringing the number provided found myself talking to, you guessed it, Reed! As a result of their involvement in delivering the Diabetes service I shall most definitely not be taking part as I want as little to do with this company as possible.”

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  11. At one time not all that long ago a company called Interserve was flavour of the moment, getting contracts for DWP Unemployment Schemes as well as building Schools and Hospitals, staffing them with Interserve cleaners etc. They seemed to have a finger in many government pies and could do no wrong, and where are they now? On the verge of bankruptcy last I heard. Let’s hope Reed in Partnership goes the same way.

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  13. The Still Face Paradigm and the DWP

    Kitty S Jones

    https://politicsandinsights.org/2023/02/23/the-still-face-paradigm-and-the-department-for-work-and-pensions/

    In a case of unintentional role reversal the ‘still face’ is a strategy that I adopted when dealing with a particularly unfriendly and officious Dole Clerk. Just sit there in silence and let them have their rant, say their little piece, resite the official line, and you know they’ve only got 10 mins. to get it off their chest and have a go at you then they’ll have to make your next appointment and off you go. I learned a long time ago that’s there’s little point in letting them goad you into answering back or arguing. Just keep shtum til they’ve finished.

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