From the facebook page – Justice for Herbert – stop cutting our benefits, 18th September 2013:
Many of us have had the experience of having no money arrive when it us due, or being sanctioned, when we are already barely surviving.
One of our members, Herbert, went in to the Job Centre last Wednesday to find out why his ESA had not been paid. He was promised it would be in his account that afternoon – that his allowance was being “amended”.
Between 2-5pm he checks and checks, and nothing. He goes in the next day, and has to make the call to Belfast again. This time, they decide they need to know his bank Sort Code which they have never asked for before, so he has to go and get it. During a heated argument on the phone where Herbert is told there is no emergency payment that can be made, security staff think it is their job to ask him to quiet down, Herbert tells them where to go.
Herbert goes back to the reception desk and talks to a staff member. Joking, he says “no wonder people come in to places like this with a shot gun”. The staff member says, “you’re stressing me out and it’s not even lunch time”. Herbert replies, “well take your lunch now”.
From this conversation, Herbert goes to his doctor. Herbert’s mental health problems have been made a thousand times worse by the ATOS regime, and the lack of support from the Job Centre. Our group has asked several times about the Mental Health advisor who no-one seems able to see. He goes to the Salvation Army to sit down before his hospital appointment but it is closed.
Walking back past the Job Centre, three police rush out and jump on him, shouting “where’s the gun”.
Herbert says “look at me, where am I keeping a gun”. He is handcuffed and forced to the ground.
Coincidently one our elderly members, himself disabled, physically intervened to stop the arrest! He reported back to our weekly meeting that afternoon, and phone-calls and a visit were made to the police station.
While in the back of the police van Herbert fell and vomited. He was handcuffed behind his back and hurt his shoulders and wrists. He was released without charge after 8pm in Wembley.
Rather than apologise to Herbert, Kilburn Job Centre management have banned him! On Friday 6 of our activists met to discuss the case. We had to go in and get the Hardship Provision form, which no-one saw fit to tell Herbert about last Thursday. When Herbert went to drop in his sick-note after the weekend, they refused to take it, gave him an envelope and sent him to Willesden.
We are literally sick of this treatment by the Job Centre. One of our former members committed suicide after being evicted when he had his money stopped. People tell us about the formal complaints that have been brushed aside, of mocking and physically threatening behaviour by advisors.
We insist that:
• Herbert receives an apology for his treatment, the insult added to injury, and the ban be lifted!
• That the Job Centre reviews its treatment of all claimants but especially for those who are already suffering from Mental Health problems. We insist the right to be seen by the Mental Health case worker.
What we are fighting for:
• An end to sanctions and delays to payments. We receive means-tested benefits because we have nothing else to live on. We believe benefits are a basic Human Right, and must be unconditional, a right for All.
• Solidarity: Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group and Unite Community are part of the trade union movement. Job Centre advisors and security staff we meet across Brent and Camden have openly expressed their sympathy and understanding for the anger that claimants feel; they also know that their safety is put at risk as people react to the injustice of the DWP policies. We support the activists in the PCS Union (which represents Job Centre workers) who want the union to organise and support workers in refusing to implement sanctions. It is a brutal and brutalising job. And that is unacceptable.
Herbert made a dark joke about the increasing violence surrounding the Job Centre. One claimant drove a car through the Job Centre window, computers are regularly thrown. The other side of the coin is the injury claimants inflict on themselves under stress and poverty, self-harming and committing suicide. We want an end to the violence and bullying of the Department for Work and Pension and the Job Centre. We want and to join with other claimants and Job Centre workers to stop sanctions and conditionality.
To find out more, and how to join the group, follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/465029290271587/?ref=notif¬if_t=plan_edited
