Welfare-to-work firm banned over ‘sham’ qualifications

A BACK-TO-WORK training company with taxpayer-funded contracts worth more than £1.3m has been disqualified for “malpractice”.

Bright International is one of 1,500 subcontractors the government relies on to retrain unemployed people as part of David Cameron’s pledge “to get Britain working again”, and it boasts of a 100% pass rate.

However, an investigation by a body that certifies these courses found evidence that Bright was handing out qualifications to people who had failed the course or never completed it. It has disqualified the firm from using its courses.

The disqualification follows a Sunday Times investigation of Bright last year amid allegations that it provided “sham” courses. The case also highlights a lack of monitoring of such training companies

One manager turned whistleblower said Bright’s disqualification would not prevent further malpractice.

From the Sunday Times (rest of the article behind paywall)

Community work placements are offensive - not to mention unworkable

There is no evidence that the Help to Work programme will move participants any closer to getting a job; charities should boycott the scheme, writes Kevin Curley

The campaign Keep Volunteering Voluntary has attracted support from charities large and small. Launched in response to the government's new Help to Work programme, the campaign offers an appealing definition of volunteering: "People independently choosing to give their time freely to help others and make the world a better place." This is contrasted with schemes such as Help to Work, which, the campaign says, "force unemployed people to carry out unpaid work or face benefit sanctions that cause hardship and destitution".

Help to Work is a Department for Work and Pensions scheme that requires anyone who is still out of work after two years either to sign on daily at a Jobcentre, take part in further training or carry out a community work placement. The placement is for 30 hours each week for up to 26 weeks and is unpaid. Anyone who refuses to take part or who fails to turn up will lose their benefits. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently explained the thinking to Channel 4 News: "Doing compulsory community work will help people get into work."

But what is the evidence for this? In a pilot scheme last year, the DWP took 15,000 claimants and placed them in either community work placements or a control group. It found that by the end of the pilot 18 per cent of people in the control group had found employment - exactly the same result achieved by community work placements.

In other words, Help to Work made virtually no difference. No wonder the DWP avoided publicising these findings. Yet £300m is now being spent on a nationwide programme with six huge contracts awarded to G4S, a company discredited in some of its previous contracts.

So here we have an expensive programme that won't work. But what about its compulsory nature? For 30 hours' community work, someone on this programme will receive their Jobseeker's Allowance of £57.35. That's less than £2 per hour. The statutory minimum wage is £6.31 and the living wage, outside London, is £7.65. If people are forced to work, surely they should receive at least the legal minimum?

Another objectionable feature of the scheme is its impact on people from minority ethnic communities. Andy Gregg, chief executive of Race on the Agenda, made the point forcibly to me: "It will affect black and minority ethnic communities disproportionately, given that levels of unemployment in these communities are higher, because of racism in the labour market'."

It seems to me that Help to Work is not about undermining volunteering. It's about forcing people - and especially black people - to work for much less than the statutory minimum wage, with no evidence that the experience will move them any closer to getting a job. But let's get behind Keep Volunteering Voluntary and do what we can to persuade charities to boycott this odious scheme.

Kevin Curley is a voluntary sector adviser

Third Sector

PCS Union Campaigning against attacks on welfare (not satire)

Attempts by the government to make the poorest and most vulnerable pay for a crisis not of their making were condemned at PCS DWP group conference.

Campaigning against attacks on welfare

The group's first motion this morning (19 May), proposed by Mandy Priest of DWP Dorset branch and seconded by Glasgow benefit centre branch, opposed the "implementation of a system based on punishment".

The motion also said the "widest possible campaign across the trade union movement" was needed to defeat the government's attacks on benefit claimants.
National crisis

Gerry McMahon from Glasgow benefit centre branch said: "The welfare state has been under attack in Britain for many years. Huge cuts have been made that make life on benefits much harder."

Gerry highlighted the fact that a group of religious leaders have said that hunger is now a national crisis and said our union needs to take up its welfare campaign "like never before".

Nick Parker, from our Lincolnshire and Rutland branch, called for a united campaign involving "as many people as possible to defeat attacks on welfare".

Tony Church, speaking on behalf of the group executive, said: "In the 90s John Major, the Tory prime minister, said we were living in a classless society. It was a lie then it's a lie now. The current coalition government is probably the most divided ever."

He said that welfare reform was just another name for screw the poor.
Concerted campaign

The motion instructed conference to campaign for:

• Fair, decent levels of benefit
• The repeal of the Bedroom Tax and benefit cap
• A mass council house building scheme
• The abolition of the work capability assessment
• The abolition of workfare and removal of the sanctions regime
• A publicly-run, fair and decent social security system as part of a welfare state based on people's needs.

The motion was passed unanimously.

PCS Union

Man took own life after being worn down by JobCentre

Martin Hadfield, 20, is said to have refused benefits while he desperately searched for work since he was made redundant in April last year. But despite applying for around 40 jobs in the space of three months, he failed to get any response for almost every application. The rejections have been blamed on employers choosing less-skilled and cheaper workers and Martin increasingly felt disillusioned about his future.Just 24 hours after a Job Centre meeting, he was found by his flatmate hanged in their home in Tottington, Greater Manchester. An inquest today confirmed the cause of his death as suicide.

His stepfather Peter O’Gorman said today: “Martin was the kind of guy who was industrious but too proud to tell us if anything was wrong. On the day he died his mum gave him some money for the bus home and instead he walked the 5 miles home and saved it for something important. That was the kind of boy he was, hardworking and with so much potential.”

His mother Annie, a former prison officer, put Martin’s death down to “a tragic moment of madness” as he was not able to discuss his problems.

Martin left school with GCSEs and achieved NVQ qualifications as well as working as a car valet and a landscape gardener. He found it difficult to adjust to life without working and earning his own money.

Peter said: “Martin was heartbroken by it and heartbroken every time he walked passed the gardens he used to tend and see them in disrepair. He took such pride in his work. He wasn’t fussy, he would have taken anything just to be working and on the employment ladder. But I have heard from so many people that the job centre experience is very demoralising. The bureaucracy is ridiculous.”

Peter added: “Martin never claimed any money or benefits in his life as parents we could help him out until he got on his feet. He got nothing off the government and was proud not to. He hated the idea of going to the job centre because he had heard what so many other his age had said. Many people go in with a sense of self-worth – they really do want a job – but come out feeling demoralised and putdown.”

Read more...

Rising ESA sanctions: punishing the vulnerable for being vulnerable

Originally posted on kittysjones:

Details originally posted on the Benefits and Work siteon May 15, 2014.

The number of sanctions applied to ESA claimants rose 334% between December 2012 and December 2013, according to new Department of Work and Pensions statistics.

The report shows that since the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) sanctions regime was introduced on 3 December 2012, there has been a steady increase in the number of sanctions applied, from 1,102 in December 2012 to 4,789 in December 2013.

The total number of adverse sanction decisions over the period 3 December 2012 to 31 December 2013 was 28,702:

5,889 were applied for failure to attend a mandatory interview and

22,814 were applied for failure to participate in work related activity

In addition, the statistics show that, of the 28,702 decisions:

13,994 were reviewed and in 8,508 cases, the decisions were overturned. This equals a “success” rate of…

View original 592 more words

Some Welfare related deaths

From the Facebook page ‘Disabled People against  Cuts’ (DPAC)

Nick Barker – RIP
Former sheep farmer, Nick had a brain haemorrhage which left him struggling to walk. The father of two shot himself after the DWP claimed he was fit to work. Recording a suicide verdict, coroner Michael Oakley said the benefits assessment was key to the tragedy.

Robert Barlow – RIP
Robert worked as a Government scientist but gave it up when diagnosed with severe cardiomypathy. The DWP deemed him fit to work. He died penniless under 2 years later.

Cecilia Burns – RIP
Cecilia had cancer. Atos called her in for one of their assessments. The DWP declared her fit to work, but she appealed the decision. She died shortly after winning her appeal.

Chris Cann – RIP
After losing both legs & a finger to diabetes, Chris was housebound. Despite this, the DWP insisted he travelled outside and go in for one of their fit to work assessments or they would cut off his benefit. The letter shook Chris up badly. Despite the DWP changing their minds about him going in, he died of a suspected heart attack soon after.

Leanne Chambers – RIP
Leanne had a degree in business studies from Teeside University, but she battled depression for a number of years. She had taken a turn for the worse after receiving a letter telling her to go to Atos for one of their ‘fit to work’ assessments. Leanne walked out of her home some time after midnight. Her body was later found in the River Wear.

David Groves – RIP
David stopped work after 40 years on doctors orders after astring of strokes & a heart attack. Atos called him in for afit to work assessment but he died the night before. His widow says he was in a terrible state and it was the stress that killed him.

Stephen Hill – RIP
Stephen suffered heart problems & was waiting for major heart surgery. Atos found him fit for work after a ten minute check. He died of a heart attack.

Edward Jacques – RIP
Edward fatally overdosed because he was not given a proper assessment by the DWP, an inquest heard.

Brian McArdle – RIP
Brian was paralysed down one side, paralysed in one eye, he couldn’t speak. He died the day after being found fit to work by Atos.

Mark Mullins – RIP & Helen Mullins – RIP
Mark and Helen died in an apparent suicide pact. Former soldier Mark, 48, and Helen, 59, who had learning difficulties, ‘slipped through the net’ and were found side-by-side in their home after not having access to the correct benefits.

Tim Salter – RIP
Tim, aged 53, was partially sighted & suffered from mental health problems. Tim was found hanged at his home just days before he was due to be evicted over rent arrears. At an inquest, coroner Andrew Haigh concluded: “A major factor in his death was that his state benefits had been greatly reduced leaving him almost destitute and with threatened repossession of his home.”

Mark Scott – RIP
Mark, 46, was passed as fit to work by the DWP despite a medical record of severe anxiety, epilepsy, panic attacks & alcoholism. He died shortly afterwards from pneumonia. But his father’s troubles didn’t end there. To add insult to death, his father who is called Clifford Scott received a letter from the DWP containing major errors and obviously wasn’t checked. The letter stated: “We are sorry to hear about the death of Clifford Scott. We will make a payment of £186.87 into your chosen account for the death of Clifford Scott”!

Karen – RIP
Karen had failing vision & required a kidney transplant yet she was declared ‘fit to work’. She later died.

Elenore Tatton – RIP
Elenore was diagnosed with a brain tumour at 15 years old. She also had epilepsy. The DWP said she was fit to work after one of their assessments. Two weeks later, she was dead.

Colin Traynor – RIP
Colin was a lifelong epileptic. Atos found him fit to work. He appealed, but later became depressed and lost weight. He won his appeal but didn’t live to see it as he died the day before.

Mark Wood – RIP
Mark had obsessive compulsive disorder, Aspergers syndrome, cognitive behavioural problems, phobias of food & social situations. Atos & DWP ruled him fit for work. Mark then starved to death. DWP claim they obtain evidence from claimants’ GPs. Mark’s GP revealed the DWP did NOT contact him and if they did he would have told them Mark wasn’t fit for work.

Linda Wootton – RIP
Linda was dying in a hospital bed when the DWP removed her benefits. She died nine days after being found ‘fit to work’.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DPAC2011/permalink/704003536322570/

H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw and the Parlour Room Blood Lust of The Fabian Society | By Thomas Sheridan

By the end of the Great War of 1914-1918, one organisation that was very influential on the global stage and whose actions and implementations directly led to the rise of the totalitarianism of both Fascism and the Bolsheviks was the Fabian Society. Based in London and formed in 1884, and which still exists and remains influential in global politics to the present day, this think-tank was and still is essentially an aristocratic cult out of which formed the British Labour Party, the London School of Economics and the influential New Statesman journal, as well as having a huge influence on the creation of the League of Nations in 1919. 

The Fabian ideology is driven by incremental social Darwinism and scientific socialism, and until the 1940's did nothing to hide their totalitarian psychopathic agenda. In fact, they openly boasted about their horrific agenda which, today, is now hidden behind a façade of celebrities and climate change fronts. The same aristocratic families which championed the ethos and rise of both National Socialism and the Bolsheviks are very much still moving the Fabian rudder and maintaining their utopian course behind the scenes just as much as they ever have as you read these very words.

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was a Fabian who openly called for scientists to develop gasses to murder races and groups who did not want to be controlled within the Fabian utopia. Later, IG Faben would cater to his wishes with their 'pesticide' Zyklon B; poured upon European Gypsies, in an attempt to eliminate the last non-controlled indigenous people in Europe. Shaw also demanded a system whereby humans were to sit in front of a committee and justify their existence to a panel of civil servants who had the right to decide a person's fate. If people could no longer demonstrate that they were productive before this panel of bureaucrats, they would be 'humanely murdered' according to George Bernard Shaw. 

The influence that the Fabians had on the creation of National Socialism and the Bolsheviks cannot be downplayed, as they were significant in generating a degree of acceptance of totalitarian regimes among intellectuals and academics in the years leading up to 1919. Hitler and Stalin could not have risen to power without the social conditioning of the Fabians; that a cold, scientific control of humanity was the only method of government for the 20th century. The Fabian Society was ruthlessly atheistic and scientific, and this was perhaps what made them so very dangerous, in that they assumed that human existence is nothing more than chemical and electrical bodily functions, and that humanity has no soul or spirit. 

DARK THINGS TO COME 

Among the more psychopathic—if not psychotic—members of the Fabian Society who used his popular influence to sow the seeds of the totalitarian scientific oppression in the name of reason, was the British author H.G. Wells. Known mainly for using his science-fiction novels such as The Time Machine and Things to Come in order to future-proof the expectations of present generations towards political objectives (which is why sci-fi remains a core aspect of the Psychopathic Control Grid to this day), Wells and his warped philosophy played a huge part in the creation of both Hitler and Stalin in terms of their acceptability among more scientifically inclined thinkers in the decades leading up to 1919. 

Wells was perhaps the most perfectly pre-formed National Socialist who wasn't a German. Like so many of the intelligentsia of his day, he took the Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' concept to a completely literal level, in that some humans were just not fit to live in the scientific and reasoned New Order of the 20th century that he and the other Fabians had envisioned. Wells, carrying the ethos of the Fabians into a literary narrative, declared that 'The Base' of humanity was unfit to live because, culturally and intellectually, their need to be free and have free will had to be removed from society as 'congenital invalids', as they only represented 'an antagonism to the State organisations.' His solution, as was also that of the Fabians, was for the Utopians to eliminate 'The Base'. 

This was to be achieved by means of mass starvation and robbing these people of both their ability to survive and their will to live. Precisely the same methods used by the Nazis with the Nuremberg Racial Laws and which led to the 'silent holocaust', whereby Jews and others declared unfit to live in the Reich chose suicide in their countless thousands as they were shunned, made unemployed or mocked and chased out of schools and universities. The Nazis adopted these methods directly from H.G. Wells and the other British intellectuals of the Fabian Society. There is no difference at all between H.G. Wells' 'congenital invalids' and Adolf Hitler's 'racial tuberculosis'. The same use of weaponised black magic language was being unleashed to create pre-formed opinions in the minds of their audience, while at the same time serving notice to the victims that 'the hunt is on'. 

H.G. Wells' elimination of 'The Base' classes included forbidding the undesirables from building boats, as islands off the coast were to be used as concentration camps while the Utopians arranged their extermination. Just like the Nazis, Wells and the Fabians demanded that malformed children and disabled adults should be murdered, as they would affect the finances of the state and may contaminate the bloodlines of the Utopians with malformed strains. Wells (on behalf of the Fabian Society) demanded uniformity of attire and uniformed clothing, that all marriages be arranged and decreed by the state with total bureaucratic control of family diets and recreational facilities. 

Read the full article at: thomassheridanofficialblog.blogspot

Bedroom Tax Was Never About Freeing Up Housing

Originally posted on michellekent1:

I knew it You knew it and the people faced with ‘Bedroom Tax’ knew it!!!!!!

The BEDROOM TAX was not about freeing up houses at all. It was simply about saving money!!!!

Never mind all those poor souls that have moved and now regret doing such!!

Please take time to watch, and listen very carefully to PMQs on Weds 14th May. (27mins 30secs in)



Cameron was asked by Jonathon Reynolds MP

“As the Prime Minister has acknowledged, the number of people who are in work but who have to claim housing benefit to make ends meet is growing, but the cost of that will be an extra £5 billion over the course of this Parliament. Does the Prime Minister consider that a sign of success?”

To which Cameron replied: “……. in order to make savings housing benefit should not be paid in respect of spare rooms that people are not using….”

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VIGIL TO FIGHT THE INJUSTICE OF THE WCA

Work Capability Assessment Judicial Review for Mental Health Claimants Substantial Hearing 7, 8 and 9th July 2014, Royal Courts of Justice, London.

The Mental Health Resistance Network, supported by Disabled People Against Cuts, are holding a vigil at the front entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday, 8th July 2014 at 12 noon to 2 pm to highlight the important issues around this case.

May 2013 Ruling in favour of MHRN

Two people who claim benefits on mental health grounds initiated a judicial review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), supported by the Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN). In May 2013, the judges presiding over the case ruled that the WCA places mental health claimants at a “substantial disadvantage” and that the DWP should make “reasonable adjustments” to alleviate this.

Often mental health claimants struggle to provide further medical evidence to support their claim for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and may not be able to accurately self report how their mental health conditions affect them, either when completing forms or at face to face assessments. Many claimants are wrongly found fit for work and subjected to the stress of appealing the decision.

The claimants who brought the case, DM and MM, asked the court to rule that the DWP should be responsible for obtaining further medical evidence at every stage of the process to improve the chances of a more accurate decision being reached about whether a person is able to work or to start preparing for work and to avoid the need for a face to face assessment in cases where this would be especially distressing for the claimant. In addition, claimants who are at risk of suicide or self harm would be more likely to be identified. In such cases, regulations 29/35 would apply. These regulations are intended to reduce risk of harm but the DWP often fail to identify who they apply to.

The DWP Appeal Fails

The Department of Work and Pensions appealed the judgement. Their appeal arguments were mainly concerned with legal technicalities but in December 2013 the judges issued a ruling that upheld the original judgement in May. The DWP did not launch a second appeal.

Reasonable Adjustments to WCA

Under the Equalities Act of 2010, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required to make “reasonable adjustments” to mitigate any disadvantages experienced by disabled people. The forthcoming hearing will be concerned with establishing what adjustments the DWP should make to the WCA process. We already know from the original hearing that they plan to run a pilot study to assess the “reasonableness” of obtaining further medical evidence. We want to ensure that any study will be fair, honest and approached with an open mind. Unfortunately we find it hard to trust that this will happen.

In his witness statement of July 2013 Dr Gunnyeon, Chief Medical Advisor and Director for Health and Well-Being at the DWP wrote, “ESA was designed to be a different benefit from Incapacity Benefit (IB), being a functional assessment rather than a diagnostic one. The face-to-face assessment is a key part of this process as the only truly independent part of the process. Moving away from this would, I believe, be a retrograde step which would seriously undermine the way in which the assessment process has been conceived and designed. It would represent a return to the position in Incapacity Benefit (IB), where claimants were “written off” on the basis of their diagnosis”.

Most people would be amazed to learn that the DWP are fighting tooth and nail against having to consider a person’s actual problems when assessing them for benefits!

Come and Support the Vigil at the Royal Courts of Justice

From 12-2 pm, on the second day of the court case, Tuesday 8th July, 2014, at the front entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice, a vigil will take place to highlight the important issues around this case.



The address is Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London WC2A 2LL.

Buses 4,11,15,23,26,76,172 and 341 all stop at the front of the Royal Courts of Justice, 171, 188, 243, 521 and X68 stop at Kingsway and Aldwych Junction nearby.

Nearest underground station is Temple (District Line), Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Line) and Chancery Lane, (Central Line)

Please come and share your stories of how you have been affected by the Work Capability Assessment and support DM and MM, in the fight for justice.

If you can’t make the vigil, show your support on twitter and facebook

If you are unable to make it to the vigil in person, you can show your support on twitter and social media, #wcamentalhealth

Watch out for further announcements about how you can show support on social media

The MHRN have been low key about publicising this case. We have been too cautious about declaring that we have been vindicated. As a result, few people know that the WCA has been found by a court of law, involving rulings by a number of senior judges, to be failing mental health claimants so badly.

We believe that it is vital that people do know about this victory. After all, outrageous lies about disabled benefit claimants have been shouted from the rooftops in much of the national press. Yet where have the front page headlines about this victory been? Nowhere! We now want to rectify this by making as much noise as possible about the truth: that the WCA does not fairly assess people with mental health problems and there has been terrible suffering as a result.

Please spread the word about the MHRN/DPAC vigil, and about the court case, far and wide.

DPAC

Coalition has deliberately financially trashed the NHS to justify its privatisation

Originally posted on kittysjones:

In the years before Cameron’s Health and Social Care Act, the National Health Service (NHS) ran a combined £10 billion surplus. Now it faces bankruptcy.

In the 6 years before the Tory Health and Social Care Act became law the NHS ran a budget surplus of a combined total of more than £10 billion. This is shown in the table above and can be confirmed on page 9 of the report document “Tough times, tough choices - An overview of NHS finances.“  Of that £10 billion surplus, more than £2 billion of the surplus came from NHS Trusts in the years preceding 2012.

After the passing of the Tory Health and Social Care Act, however, the combined surplus in the NHS Trust Sector has declined sharply. For example, in the most recent year, the NHS Trust surplus halved. This is confirmed on page 20 of…

View original 704 more words

Another Shambles At The DWP: Community Work Placements Fail To Launch

Originally posted on the void:

 

 Despite a high profile launch of the latest mass workfare scheme two weeks ago, DWP documents confirm that in fact it hasn’t started yet.

  The unpaid Community Work Placements are one element of ‘Help To Work’.  This is the latest draconian scheme concocted by Iain Duncan Smith as part of his increasingly desperate attempt to prove that unemployment is caused by unemployed people.  The £300 million initiative involves claimants sent on six month’s full time workfare for ‘community organisations’ under the threat of benefits being stopped.

The scheme is mired in chaos with sources at the beginning of the month saying that no-one who works in Jobcentres has “been told anything about it”.  This is confirmed by a DWP newsletter which says that “the first claimants will be referred onto Community Work Placements from the end of May 2014″.  It is even unclear whether daily signing, or mandatory interventions –…

View original 561 more words

Ending the Undead: Time to Bury the ‘Zombie Parliament’

The Mother of Parliaments: Now paralysed because Tories and Lib Dems hate each other so much.

One of the questions put to the panel on last night’s Have I Got News For You was about the strange state of the British parliament. Like Schrodinger’s Cat, it is apparently neither alive nor dead. Unlike the great quantum physicist’s moggy, this apparently has nothing to do with the collapse of probability wave functions to determine the result of a physics experiment. No, this is more about chemistry – particularly, the composition of the present Coalition. Just as certain elements don’t mix, so the period of harmony between the Tories and the Lib Dems when they both worked together to wreck the nation, grind the poor, the unemployed and the disabled even further into the dirty and make themselves and their corporate paymasters even more obscenely rich has come to an end. The two parties now have so little in common, that they have effectively run out of legislation to pass. They thus have nothing to do for the next year before the elections in 2015, except for minor pieces of legislation. Hence the description of the current administration as a ‘zombie parliament’.

This is extraordinary, as it appears to mean that the government has effectively broken down...

Read more...

ESA Deaths: How can new govt expert claim he knows nothing?

Originally posted on Vox Political:

Dr Paul Litchfield, here pictured giving evidence at another committee meeting – so it’s probably another load of tripe.

An evidence session on Employment and Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments was held by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday – and was notable for the fact that the ‘expert’ hired to review the system claimed to know nothing about the thousands of deaths taking place because of the current system.
Dr Paul Litchfield OBE was hired to take over from Professor Malcolm Harrington to carry out the fourth annual independent review of the assessment process. It seems Prof Harrington was replaced amicably, but evidence has come to light that he was not happy with political decisions that ran against his findings.
A claim that the government was taking “appropriate steps” in areas singled out for improvement by Prof Harrington was disproved when it was revealed…

View original 597 more words

Ipswich Labour Party (& Council) Against Workfare.

Originally posted on Ipswich Unemployed Action.:

fwd from
John Cook
Secretary/Agent
Ipswich Labour Party
www.ipswich-labour.org.uk

Ipswich Borough Council will not take part in Government unpaid work schemes

Ipswich Borough Council has confirmed that it will not offer unpaid work under the Government’s ‘Help to Work’ schemes, ramped up versions of which came into force at the end of April.

Under the schemes, known as ‘workfare’, there are mandatory work activity and community work programmes in which benefit claimants are placed on 30-hour a week jobs without pay and with the threat of their benefits being removed. The mandatory work activity programme is for 4 weeks and community work placements for 6 months.

It has also emerged recently that there could be sanctions for those who refuse to take a job on a zero-hours contract.

Campaigners have been calling for the government to remove the schemes, which they say are not working and which lock people deeper…

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Benefit reforms: One year on, universal credit is not working

‘The people of Warrington have been feeling like Iain Duncan Smith’s guinea pigs. For most of the past year, the town in Cheshire has been a testing ground for the Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s pet project, universal credit, and those people involved are losing patience.

Peter Fitzhenry, director of Warrington’s biggest social landlord, Golden Gate Housing, is unequivocal in his assessment of IDS’s latest welfare reform. “This is what I think of it,” he said, turning around his computer to show a picture of York’s ancient market street, The Shambles.

Payments have been so haphazard that 92 per cent of those on Golden Gate’s books using the new benefit are in rent arrears, and two have been evicted since moving on to it. A further 13 are on suspended possession orders or notices seeking possession. Typically, around half of housing association tenants on housing benefit are in rent arrears, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). “The problem seems to be that the scheme is running but they’re making it up as they go along”, said Mr Fitzhenry.’

Read more …

Sorry you can't contact the jobs helpline we've all been sacked: Taxpayer funded hotline is unstaffed for hours because advisers have been made redundant

‘A taxpayer-funded hotline to help the unemployed get back to work is unstaffed for hours every day – because its own advisers have been made redundant.

Bosses at the National Careers Service reduced the hours that remaining staff were available by more than a quarter after job cuts – but still advertised the helpline as open for longer.

Then other staff were told to lie to callers about why they couldn’t get through to an expert – claiming ‘all our advisers are busy’ when in fact there was nobody there.’

Read more …

Tom Watson blasts police failure and demands urgent inquiry into Tory cabinet minister accused of rape

‘Campaigning Labour MP Tom Watson has called for Jane’s case to be urgently investigated in a letter to Director of Public ­Prosecutons Alison Saunders.

Mr Watson told the Sunday People police failed to ­follow proper procedures by not putting rape claims to the ­alleged attacker.

He also questions whether police are seriously pursuing the ex-minister, who has been under investigation for well over a year.

And he describes the ­decision not to proceed with the inquiry into Jane’s ­allegations as “highly irregular”.’

Read more …

Tory cabinet minister accused of rape 'protected from arrest in a murky establishment cover-up'

‘The woman who accuses a ­budding Tory star of raping her ­believes he is being protected from arrest in a murky establishment cover-up.

She became so concerned about the failure of police to act on information she gave them that she angrily confronted a senior detective involved, reports the Sunday People

Her experiences left her convinced that ­officers looked for excuses to shelve their investigation and shield the man – who had gone on to become an MP and Cabinet Minister.’

Read more …

Corporate funding of all‑party groups ‘next big scandal’ after huge rise under the coalition

‘Corporate funding of all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) should be banned, according to a senior MP who has warned that the unofficial Westminster bodies “are the next big scandal waiting to happen” after a huge rise in their numbers under the coalition government.

Labour’s Graham Allen said that vested interests and lobbyists funding these groups – however worthy their cause – raises understandable concerns among voters. Politicians who care passionately about particular issues are “perfectly capable” of running APPGs themselves, he added…

… The Independent revealed last week that Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, co-chair of the APPG on Kurdistan, recently led a delegation of MPs to the region which included a visit to an oil field run by a company in which he has publicly declared he holds shares. That group’s secretariat services are provided for by Gulf Keystone Petroleum International whose parent company is a major oil player in Kurdistan.’

Read more: Corporate funding of all‑party groups 'next big scandal' after huge rise under the coalition

Can A&E units spot the malnourished?

Originally posted on Ann McGauran:

Mark Bothwell, who’s on jobseeker’s allowance (JSA). He says he hasn’t been eating properly for years.

Mark Bothwell (above) came into the London food bank today. He’s had a painful problem with his shoulder for some time that leaves him unable to accept many types of physical work, and he also has depression. He’s been waiting for months for his claim for employment and support allowance (ESA) to be processed. Not that this 29-year-old is likely to be better off financially by transferring over from JSA, but he would at least be relieved of  some stress. He says: ‘It’s a job-stopping illness, so the positive thing (about changing benefits) is not having to worry about job hunting.’

Last week, he described two recent trips to the accident and emergency (A&E) unit at the local hospital – the Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich. He says that terrible chest pain drove him to…

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'Shameful and wrong': UK welfare system makes people suicidal [Video]

Stigmatised and shamed - Simon Duffy of The Centre for Welfare Reform explains how the welfare state is letting down those that need it most, and says changes need to be made soon.

Protestors installed their own complaints desk at job centre

The SLRCG took to streets of Peckham again yesterday, and held a protest and an info-stall outside the Peckham Job Centre.

Peckham Job Centre is notoriously sanctioning more people than any other Job Centre in London. In the hour or so we were there, the number of people who came out of the Job Centre saying they'd been sanctioned grew to 10.

The Job Centre staff really didn't want us anywhere near them and came out to remove the messages from their windows, threatening to call the police if they were put up again. Shamefully, they refused to speak to any of us but just shouted their piece, took off the 'offensive' messages and ran back inside, to carry on sanctioning people.

The stories of people coming out of the job centre, on the other hand, were truly distressing. People were being sanctioned for spurious reasons, including for being minutes late for their 'interview'. None were told a word about their right to appeal let alone given any advice about how their loss of JSA would impact their housing benefit, ability to survive, nothing.

The SLRCG made plenty of noise about the scandalous profiteering on the backs of the vulnerable (recently, a whistleblower stated staff are given targets for how many people should be sanctioned), and gave out leaflets with information on how to fight back. Their next meeting is on Wednesday 21st May, 14:00 at the Old Dispensary pub on Camberwell New Road (Camberwell Green, next door to the GP surgery). If you are in any way affected by the cuts to the benefits and need support to do something about this, please come along and/or spread the word.

Also on Wednesday 21st, from 09:45 - 11:30, Southwark Benefit Justice Campaign will be outside the London Bridge Job Centre, Coburg House, 63-67 Newington Causeway SE1 6LS, with leaflets about the benefits and sanction cuts. If you can join them, please get in touch with them directly by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

peoplesrepublicofsouthwark

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The Peckham job centre gave double the number of sanctions against benefit recipients as the rest of London. The inhabitants of inner city borough of Southwark were so outraged they installed their own functioning complaint desk outside the centre.

With Pictures…

Demotix

Claimants don’t have equal human rights or citizenship

desperate MEASURES: Food bank volunteers have also dismissed the idea that take-up has been driven by supply, not demand. 

When Neil Couling, director of benefit strategy at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), told MSPs recently that Job Centres often receive thank-you cards from people whose benefits they have stopped, it provoked gasps of amazement among many of those who work with claimants.

In fairness, he was responding to welfare reform committee deputy convener Jamie Hepburn, who asked if offices were "inundated with thank-you cards". "Yes, that is not unremarkable," Mr Couling replied.

He had previously been talking about how many jobseekers "welcomed the jolt" such sanctions gave them, and rejected claims there is a causal link between food bank use and the benefit sanctions, which can see claimants losing payments for weeks, months or even years.

The comments certainly provoked dismay at the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) in Alexandria. One of its volunteers, Linsey Close, co-authored a recent report on sanctions, Unjust and Uncaring, which was scathing about their use.

Ms Close became a volunteer after using the service herself. Now she helps clients who she says are often given little detail about why payments are stopped.

Although the DWP says jobseekers should be told why sanctions are being applied, CAB advisors still regularly see people who are confused or completely in the dark about what has happened, Ms Close claims.

"People don't get a letter saying 'you have been sanctioned because you failed to put in 15 job applications'. Instead they are told 'over this period you are deemed not to have fulfilled your jobseeker's contract'."

This leads to problems for those who want to appeal against decisions, she adds. "How do you appeal when you don't know why the payments were stopped? People end up saying 'I think it was this...'."

Fairness is undermined by this aspect of the system, she says: "People's work search criteria can be given verbally, so how do you prove you were ever told to apply for 10 jobs a week, say?"

The idea that cutting payments is welcomed by those affected gets short shrift from her. "If an MP or any of us were five minutes late for work, would you expect to lose your money for four weeks?" she says. "Benefit claimants just don't have equal human rights. They don't have full citizenship as far as I'm concerned."

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Privatise child protection services, Department for Education proposes

‘The power to take children away from their families could be privatised along with other child protection services under controversial plans the government has quietly announced.

The proposal from Michael Gove’s Department for Education (DfE) to permit the outsourcing of children’s social services in England to companies such as G4S and Serco has alarmed experts. They say profit-making companies should not be in charge of such sensitive family matters, and warn that the introduction of the profit motive into child protection may distort the decision-making process.

A DfE consultation paper published last month argues that enabling local authorities to outsource children’s social services will encourage innovation and improve outcomes for at-risk youngsters.’

Read more: Privatise child protection services, Department for Education proposes

PIP: Doubts over disability figures - another complaint upheld

A vision for radical reform – built on hard facts. That’s the promise of Iain Duncan Smiths’ ambitious reworking of the welfare state.

And it all comes down to facts and figures – how many people are on benefit, who’s getting it that shouldn’t, how many are moving back in to work?

The numbers matter.

But it’s clear that the figures – or at least how the secretary of state for work and pensions and his department present them, have been controversial.

Iain Duncan Smith himself has already been brought to task over claims made last year that the benefit cap had seen 8,000 people move into work.

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) upheld a complaint about Mr Duncan Smith’s proud boast with the rather blunt phrase , “unsupported by the official statistics.”

It’s not the only time the authority has taken issue with the way the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is using figures about benefits.

Complaint upheld

We can reveal the latest complaint put to the authority about DWP figures has been upheld.

This time it was to do with a key claim underpinning Mr Duncan Smith’s decision to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and replace it with a new benefit, the Personal Independence Payment.

The DWP literature – and minsters in interview – argued that “more than 50 per cent of decisions for Disability Living Allowance were made simply on the basis of a claim form alone, without any additional medical evidence.”

Implicit – and sometimes made explicit – was the notion that people were getting the benefit too easily – that “something for nothing” culture the government often talks about.

But the campaign group, Parkinson’s UK , said they knew – from the department’s own statistics funnily enough – that the 50 per cent figure was wrong.

They complained to the statistics authority and their complaint was upheld.

The UKSA said the claim was “ambiguous” and that a more accurate statement would be that that only 10 per cent of claimants  had received DLA on the basis of a claim form alone.

Donna O’Brien, who submitted the complaint on behalf of Parkinson’s UK said: “The Department of Work and Pensions has a long track record of misusing statistics when it comes to the benefits system, and it’s clear this was a tactic to vindicate further welfare cuts.

“People with Parkinson’s who claimed DLA have told us supporting medical evidence was crucial due to a woeful knowledge of the condition amongst assessors, and it is absurd that the Government was trying to imply that anyone going through the system had an easy ride.”
This is not a recent blip.

As far back as 2011, the work and pensions select committee warned the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) needed to take more care when releasing and commenting on benefit statistics, to make sure media stories were “accurate”.

Three years on, and the question being asked is whether the problems with statistics are down to incompetence or wilful attempts to mislead?

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Campaign to save the Independent Living Fund

Please help us save the independent living fund!

You can use this picture as your twitter or Facebook logo to show your support.

“I got up this morning, brushed my teeth, showered, ate breakfast, got dressed, checked my e mails, went to work, had lunch with colleagues, met with friends on the way home from work, popped in on my mum to see she was alright before coming home to do a couple of hours work on my open university degree before bed. I was able to do all this because of the money from the Independent Living Fund that helps pay my Personal Assistant to support me to do the things I can’t manage to do directly because I have a condition that means my hands do not work and I get around using a wheelchair” – ILF recipient.

The money from the independent living fund helps pay for a personal assistant, and enables disabled people who need support to have a quality of life to do the same things everyone else can do. Live.

The government says “ILF recipients will be reassessed by their local authority, and will be funded by the local authority” The money given to the local authority to meet a disabled person’s support needs will not be ring fenced. The local authority can spend that money meant for disabled people and their support needs on other resources. Disabled people who need the support fear less or no support at all and then being placed into residential care, far from friends and family.


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Anger as McVey denies foodbank use linked to welfare reforms

‘Charities and politicians have reacted with anger to a claim by the Employment Minister that the dramatic rise in the number of people using food banks has nothing to do with the Government’s welfare reforms.

In a letter to the Scottish government, Esther McVey said “the rise in food banks predates most of the welfare reforms this Government has put in place”, adding that there was “no robust evidence linking food bank usage to welfare reform”.

Figures from the Trussell Trust, Britain’s biggest food bank provider, have shown that demand has increased by more than 300 per cent in the past year.’

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MPs employ 151 people on controversial zero hours contracts – including those ‘opposed’ to it

‘MPs are employing 151 people on controversial zero-hours contracts, Parliament’s pay and expenses watchdog has revealed.

Scores of those casual arrangements are with Labour MPs, who have campaigned against the exploitation of workers not guaranteed a set wage or hours.

Conservatives issued 77, Labour 62 and the Lib Dems five – with MPs from the other parties handing out seven.

Unite union spokesman Steve Turner said: “It will appal ordinary people to discover that the country’s lawmakers are using ‘hire and fire’ contracts.’

Read more: MPs employ 151 people on controversial zero hours contracts – including those 'opposed' to it

SEN: Why we are boycotting Community Work Placements scheme

Here at SEN, we have decided to boycott the government’s new Help To Work scheme, including the Community Work Placements programme. This is why. 

There has been a lot of discussion across the Liverpool City Region and across the country in recent months about the merits of the government’s new Community Work Placements scheme. As you may know, it is a new programme that has recently been launched by the DWP aimed at the long-term unemployed.

For an individual aged 25+ in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), after twelve months without work, they may be mandated to take part in the government’s Work Programme. In the Liverpool City Region, this Work Programme is run by two firms – A4E and Ingeus.  The Work Programme is, briefly, a scheme of support, training and work experience for the long-term unemployed. There are problems with it, but they can be left to one side for the moment.

For people who are still without work after having completed the Work Programme, the government has now introduced their new Help to Work scheme, of which the Community Work Placements scheme programme is one of three strands. And it is this strand that we at SEN cannot support.

The details are as follows: Under the terms of the Community Work Placements scheme, JSA Claimants are mandated to work for 30 hours a week in a role that will “benefit the community” for a minimum of five months. In return for this, they will continue to receive JSA. If they refuse, they run the risk of their JSA being withdrawn. No wages will be paid for the 660 hours of work that they are forced to do.

We have been approached by the government’s contractor for the Liverpool City Region to take part in the scheme ourselves and to promote it to our membership. We have refused to do so.

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New DWP proposal will trap people in their homes, and in debt

New DWP proposals to protect landlords’ rental incomes are in danger of trapping people in their homes, creating a modern day version of a debtor’s prison.  

Last year Lord Freud committed to protecting landlords’ rental incomes under Universal Credit.  To do this, DWP propose that tenants in rent arrears have 40% of their core benefits deducted until rent arrears are cleared – that’s 40% taken from JSA, Income Support or  Standard Allowance under Universal Credit.

DWP have not put forward a rationale for the 40% rate.

But the 40% rate should definitely ring a bell, because it’s the same punishing rate people are sanctioned by if Jobcentre Plus decide they aren’t trying hard enough to get a job. So is it the case that people in rent arrears simply aren’t trying hard enough to pay their rent?

Housing benefit claimants hit by the bedroom tax are expected to make up the shortfall from other income, but with JSA just £72 a week for a single claimant, this is a genuine struggle.  Half of those hit by the bedroom tax are now in rent arrears.

People also move into arrears because of the welfare system’s inefficiency - many of the rent arrears cases Shelter see at the court desks are caused by housing benefit delays.

The proposed debt rules will take no account of household circumstance, which is risky both for the household and the landlord.

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The Sinister Shadow State

PRISON privatisation has been a disastrous failure and must end. That’s the only possible conclusion from a damning litany of chaos, cock-ups, lies, fraud and cruelty so staggering that it takes the breath away. 

There is no justification for paying hundreds upon hundreds of millions of pounds to the likes of G4S and Serco to make such a shambles of running our criminal justice system.

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry while leafing through the Howard League’s report. For every Keystone Kops farce — £900 million given to a privateer which bought vans too big to fit into court entrances — there’s an act of barely conceivable brutality.

A man with terminal cancer kept waiting in handcuffs in the street while his guards buy lunch at Greggs. 

A 14-year-old boy who took his own life after being unlawfully restrained and beaten — including the “nose distraction technique,” a slimy piece of PR-speak which translates as “punched in the face hard enough to make him bleed.”

A woman who says she was forced to clean up the blood from her own miscarriage. Which country is this? What century is this?

You’re left asking: Have we got the inside and outside of these cells the right way round? Shouldn’t the people responsible be behind bars themselves?

Not just the foot soldiers of G4S and Serco’s privateer armies but the top brass giving the orders — the executives pocketing vast salaries paid for with our money.

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