Read Part 1 at 2012: A Year of Lies and Blunders at the DWP Part 1
Despite welfare-to-work and DWP favourites G4S almost wrecking the entire show, the Olympics took place in August, ending with the dire closing ceremony which highlighted the all too real danger of leaving pop music in the hands of rich old men. The Paralympics soon followed at which George Osborne and other Tory slime were routinely booed as they pretended to give a shit about disabled people.
Cameron also attempted to use the Paralympics to push a benefit bashing agenda, whilst blundering Employment Minister Chris Grayling took the silly season one step too far by announcing that care homes would soon be staffed with teenagers on workfare.
Unemployment also came into the spotlight – causing yet another tantrum from Iain Duncan Smith – and it was revealed that people on workfare, as well as many of those who have had benefit sanctioned, do not show up in the unemployment figures.
DWP bungling got back into full swing in September beginning with Iain Duncan Smith’s clueless pronouncement that people living on just £41 a week in emergency hardship payments are ‘frittering’ the money away on holidays and nights out.
Then came the shocking warning from Women’s Aid that every women’s refuge in the UK could face closure as a result to changes to housing benefits. IDS and Lord Fraud reacted with such astonishment to this it was almost as if they didn’t know that much of the UK’s supported and temporary accommodation is funded by housing benefits. A fudge was hastily announced, which even today has not yet been adequately explained.
Once again Universal Credit, the all encompassing change to the benefit system, was under threat because incompetent ministers hadn’t bothered to learn about the very thing they are trying to reform. In fact it was revealed in September that banking failure and Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Fraud doesn’t even know how much unemployment benefits are worth!
The workfare farce suffered another setback after long term unemployment rose again and rules were changed which means that workfare must now not lead to a job offer. The ever present brutality which accompanies the DWP’s inept reforms was also brought into sharp focus with the news that disabled people could be forced back into institutions due to the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund.
September’s cabinet reshuffle saw David Cameron fail to sack Iain Duncan Smith, although bungling Employment Minister Chris Grayling managed to jump from the sinking ship into the Justice Department, where his bullshitting may not go down quite so well.
Internet con man Grant Shapps was also promoted, having left behind a legacy of soaring homelessness as Housing Minister, whilst non-entities Mark Hoban and Esther Mcveigh were brought into the DWP as Employment and Disabled People’s ministers.
George Osborne’s benefit bullshitting was exposed in October as he persisted with the lie that people in benefits are better off than those in work. Elsewhere Iain Duncan Smith launched a garbled attack on people with more than two children and began to float the idea of a food stamps style scheme in the UK.
The newly appointed skiving Employment Minister Mark Hoban only made it into the office once in October, to declare that disabled people who have successfully appealed after being found ‘fit to work’ are to blame for the rocketing number of successful appeals against Atos and DWP decisions.
Mark Hoban is also possibly behind the comedy moment when the corporate secrets of disability deniers Atos were published for all to see on a Government website. Showing a worrying yet sadly typical misunderstanding of computers, redacted sensitive information could be read simply by copying and pasting the text into another document.
The DWP leaked tender documents were those which won Atos the contract for the new DLA replacement Personal Information Payment. The tender revealed that in many cases Atos are intending to sub-contract the work back to the NHS. Which could be seen as money for nothing, showing that even the Work Programme contractors could learn a few lessons from Atos when it comes to scamming the DWP.
The much awaited TUC March in October saw hundreds of thousands on the streets, but by far the most encouraging signs were the direct actions taken by Boycott Workfare, Black Triangle and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). Whilst Boycott Workfare shut down workfare exploiters in Oxford Street, DPAC blocked the busy Park Lane, yet again bringing traffic chaos to central London. Both organisations are threatening to step up action against welfare reforms in 2013, along with countless other groups around the UK.
Universal Credit was in yet more trouble in November as research revealed that two million people risk difficulties in managing budgets and possibly falling into rent arrears due to the new payment system. With both the head of IT and Universal Credit’s Programme Director both reported to have left the DWP, the chaos going on behind the scenes appeared to be even worse.
Iain Duncan Smith’s increasingly bizarre behaviour took a turn for the worse with a rant at step or same sex parents, bringing the shadowy Christian think tank he founded into the spotlight. The Centre for Social Justice were shown to not only be employing one of Iain Duncan Smith’s key advisors, Phillipa ‘pray away the gay’ Stroud, but are also funded by some of the very companies who have trousered so much cash due to Iain Duncan Smith’s reforms.
Workfare was in trouble again when British Heart Foundation announced that they were ‘moving away’ from using compulsory unpaid workers in their charity shops. This received a cautious response from campaigners as stories emerged of people still being sent on unpaid placements with the charity.
There was more trouble in store for the Government’s welfare to work schemes as the Work Programme performance figures were finally published. In a humiliating disaster for the £6 billion scheme it was revealed that the Work Programme was performing worse than doing nothing at all! Some startling statistics could be pulled from the information, including that for those on sickness benefits yet in the DWP’s eyes capable of some work, the Work Programme was costing a whopping £60,000 per job.
Whilst homelessness charities finally broke silence and condemned the whole racket, many other charities were once again left with serious questions to answer due to their involvement with the scheme. Pressure on these organisations escalated when it was announced that from December 3rd, International Disabled People’s Day, sick and disabled claimants could now be sent to work unpaid as a condition of receiving benefits.
The brutal reality for those found ‘fit for work’ was also brought into the spotlight with the publication of the Spartacus Report, a document featuring testimonies of sick and disabled claimant’s experiences of the Work Capability Assessment.
November ended with one of the funniest cock ups yet by the DWP with the launch of the Universal Jobmatch website. This time it was recruitment firm Monster Job’s turn to scam the DWP by providing a jobmatching website that doesn’t work for nearly £20 million.
And so as December began adverts for sex workers, MI5 hit men and Mafia drug couriers began to appear on a Government website along with open attempts at identity fraud scams.
George Osborne announced his latest benefit cap, pegging even Housing Benefits below the rate of inflation. With Housing Associations warning less social housing will be built due to Universal Credit, the Chancellor’s announcement could end up being the tipping point which leads to unprecedented homelessness in the UK.
More charities pulled out of workfare, including household names Cancer Research UK, Age UK and, for the second time, disability charity Scope. With the charitable sector having been less than honest about their involvement in unpaid work, it remains to be seen just how sincere these announcements are. Taken at their word however this could be a potentially fatal blow for the DWP’s mass workfare ambitions, leaving them desperately short of placement providers – a problem already identified even before the exodus away from the scheme.
Some charities remained unrepentant over their use of forced labour, despite the announcement that sick and disabled claimants can now also be sent to work unpaid. @PDSA_HQ have been silent on their use of workfare and even won an award from the Queen for their services to fake volunteering, whilst the environmental charity @BTCV even boast of their use of workfare – tell their vice-president @BillOddie what you think.
Also this month Lord Fraud’s plans to charge vulnerable claimants for help with budgeting when Universal Credit is launched came under fire, whilst some stupid Tory twat starting muttering away about launching a food stamps style scheme for benefit claimants.
There was still time in the year for one last tantrum from Iain Duncan Smith as he vented his fury at people mocking his crap job matching website. In one last shining example of the Secretary of State’s stunning arrogance (and failure to do his homework), it became clear that the DWP cannot legally force claimants to have their accounts monitored by DWP snoops or force them to accept cookies on their home computers. Whilst signing up to the scheme will become mandatory in the New Year, there is no requirement to tick the box giving the Jobcentre access to personal accounts – something every claimant urgently needs to know.
With IDS, Cameron and Clegg all launching an co-ordinated attack on the working and non working poor alike over the New Year, it is likely that the fight to save the welfare state will dominate the agenda in 2013. The ongoing comedy show at the DWP will be of no comfort to the hundreds of thousands of people forced into poverty and homelessness due to this Government. But it does show one thing. We can beat these thick posh bastards.
2012: A Year of Lies and Blunders at the DWP Part 1
Boycott Workfare have a review of last year’s struggle against unpaid work at: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1934
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