Thursday 11th September 2014
End Bedroom Tax; No Sanctions for Claimants – No Targets for Staff
On 11th September the Anti-Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Campaign is holding a day of protest: say no to claimant sanctions, bedroom tax and benefit cuts.
Government attacks on benefits mean hunger, debt and fear. Ex-soldier David Clapson died hungry and destitute after his benefits were stopped, the latest in a string of deaths and suicides related to sanctions and benefit cuts. The overwhelming majority of referrals to food banks are due to claimants being sanctioned.
Government attacks on benefits mean hunger, debt and fear. Ex-soldier David Clapson died hungry and destitute after his benefits were stopped, the latest in a string of deaths and suicides related to sanctions and benefit cuts. The overwhelming majority of referrals to food banks are due to claimants being sanctioned.
Sanctions cutting benefits of disabled
people on Employment and Support Allowance, rose by nearly 580 percent
between March 2013 and March 2014, and total sanctions rose to over a
million last year, from 100,000 in 2010 (DWP figures).
PCS union is supporting the 11 September protests.
Research by PCS members working in the DWP revealed that 82% of members
felt ‘pressured’ into sanctioning claimants, and 62% said they had made
‘inappropriate’ sanctions decisions.Protests have forced Government to
promise changes: see Review report. But
sanctions remain a vicious plank of the Government’s punitive welfare
reforms, and are still supported by Labour in parliament.
Join us on one of protests below or
organise your own. Demand an end to the Bedroom Tax and link it to the
slogan: ‘No sanctions for claimants, No targets for staff’. Build links
with local PCS members - contacts for local PCS in DWP and PCS regions.The Bedroom Tax is almost dead – we will demand MPs kill it now and up the pressure to beat the sanctions regime too. Let us know any actions you are planning so we can promote them.
End Sanctions, Bedroom Tax and benefit cuts11am Old Palace Yard Westminster SW1P 3JY
and 1pm DWP HQ Tothill St SW1
and 1pm DWP HQ Tothill St SW1
