One question came up: you have to apply for it on-line so how can everybody do this?
The Minister for Work and Pensions replied that 80% of claimants were on-line at home, and another 5% had access through their mobile devices.
As for the rest?
They all had ways of getting on-line, through local libraries or the Job Centre.
80%?
He might as well have said that 80% of claimants eat foie gras for breakfast and are willing to work on the mines of Pluto.
As for mobiles. Is he seriously suggesting that we fill in a complicated set of forms on a hand-held phone?
Apart from the cost, that is.
I would not like to have to do some serious form-filling in the Job Centre either.
The terminals in Ipswich, Silent Street, are where crowds assemble waiting to sign on.
There are frequent ‘incidents’ there.
Not to mention that, as people here have pointed out, not everybody is able to use computers, and even those who are familiar with them will find that giving long lists of their personal details and getting all the entries right, is not so easy ‘on-line’.
In a more sinister vein Ian Duncan Smith says the new system is about “changing people”.
“What we have to do is to start changing people, and that’s what this system is about.”This engineer of the human soul wants to tell us what to do, and we will bloody well have to follow orders.
80% of claimants have the Internet at home… what a card you are Ian!
Ipswich Unemployed Action.
