Vicious Savegery Against The Poorest.

 

        What kind of society tolerates poverty and deprivation, then because of dogma attacks the poorest and most vulnerable of society, who are already struggling to survive on meager benefits, by removing those benefits, leaving them to starve or survive without income in a money orientated society? This is a vindictive and vicious subservience to an ideology of cutting money to social service to allow for greater tax benefits to the rich and the corporate world. These decisions are not god given, they are not the inevitable results of unavoidable circumstances. They are adherence to a dogmatic ideology of plundering the poor to maximise private wealth of the privileged few, in a corrupt system of greed and profit before humanity. This savage policy against the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, is designed and implemented by people with names, sitting in comfortable surroundings, completely out of touch and not particularly interested in, the circumstances of the needy in our society. It is how capitalism works, and we will not see a remedy to this viciousness against the poorest, until we destroy the inhumane system of capitalism.  

This from Welfare Weekly: 

Food Banks, an engineered necessity in the fifth richest country in the world.

          Charities have called for an urgent investigation into the Government’s flagship Universal Credit benefit and sanctions regime, as new figures reveal that over 250,000 people on the new benefit have seen payments slashed.
         Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that a shocking 256,000 Universal Credit claimants were hit by adverse benefit sanction decisions between May 2016 and April 2019.
        The data also reveals that 5% of Universal Credit sanctions have been for six months or longer.
        The DWP insist that sanctions are only ever used as a “last resort” and that claimants are helped to understand what is expected of them in exchange for payments, otherwise known as ‘conditionality’.
          Benefit sanctions have been blamed for pushing the poor to foodbanks.
       However, today’s figures have led some to believe that too many sanctions are being imposed unfairly and unnecessarily.
        From February 2019 to April 2019, 84% of all Universal Credit full service decisions resulted in a sanction, up 13% from November 2018 to January 2019.
        Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) called for an investigation into the sanctions regime and a moratorium on sanctions while this is carried out.
        CAS Social Justice spokesperson Mhoraig Green said: “The Citizens Advice network in Scotland helps hundreds of thousands of people every year and we have long raised concerns about cases where people have had their benefits unfairly sanctioned, leaving them without any income for a sustained period, causing them to require crisis support including foodbank referrals.
       “Today’s statistics show a worrying trend of an increase in the proportion of people facing a sanction since the introduction of Universal Credit.
         “People should never be left with no income at all as a result of a benefits sanction, there should be an urgent independent investigation into the sanctions regime, with a moratorium on sanctions during that period.”

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

The End Of Austerity!!

 

        As usual our political ballerinas are prancing around with their opposing views. On the one side, the opposition spouts gloom and doom, while the group with their hands on the controls, waffle on about "austerity is over", and everything is wonderful and will only get better if you leave them in control. Then through the portal into the real world and we find the truth. The use of food banks in UK has risen by 13% this year, people are still being callously sanctioned for trivial and unjust reasons, and losing their benefits for varying periods from one week to one year, pushing them into deprivation and desperation. This winter it is forecast that their will be an increase in deaths from fuel poverty. Which translates into people sitting in their home during the UK winter with no or too little heating and in some cases dying a slow death.

      What kind of society takes the only means of survival away from poor and vulnerable individuals and families, by deliberate means of "sanctions". What is the outcome for a young family when their income is stopped, in a society where money is your means of survival? This is callous vicious vindictiveness based on an ideology that the poor must be intimidate to obey and be submissive, or at worst, a cull of the poor. 

      How can we claim to be a developed rich modern country when there is an ever increasing number of our people, to survive, are having to seek food from charities?

      While the UK spent. 2016/17, £35.3 billion on defence, the world's 5th largest defence budget, the same government is quite prepared to see an increasing number of its elderly people suffer strokes, heart attacks, pneumonia and death, simply because they don't have enough money to heat their homes.

     This is the real picture of the "end of austerity" a country that has seen, during the ten years of "austerity", the richest section of our community double its wealth, while the rest of us have seen our standard of living rapidly decrease, and we continue to slide down that slippery slope to ever greater deprivation. All of these factors can be reasonably named engineered poverty.

       This is the best that capitalism can deliver, is this the way we want to live, is this the world we wish for our children? The answer is not to look to the very wealth political ballerinas to come to our rescue, they wont. Their corporate buddies need us as a large pool of submissive cheap labour, it helps their profits. The answer as always, is in our own hands, to take control of our own lives, our communities and workplaces, and shape them to the needs of all our people. Don't expect the rich and powerful to come riding on a white charger to sort out your problems, that's up to us, and only the people can and will solve the problems of the ordinary people.  

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Death By Ideology.

      A young woman, mother of four, Elaine Morrall, aged just 38, dies. No doubt in some grand office the details will be recorded, name, address, date of birth, date of death, cause of death, then it will be filed, then forgotten. It will not be recorded as another unnecessary death from this cruel, vindictive ideology of capitalist greed and inhumanity.

      Elaine had health problems, was on benefit, but had her benefits stopped because she missed an appointment regarding universal credit. Why did she miss her appointment? Well because she was in intensive care, in hospital. Elaine died alone, in her home, wrapped in a coat and scarf, she wouldn't put the heating on until her kids came home from school, she couldn't face the bills to keep warm. This is not an accident, this is cruel deliberate punishing the poor and vulnerable. There is not just the fact that Elaine died a horrible lonely death, but what will happen to her kids? Their lives have been difficult up to this moment, living in circumstance where their mother had to choose between eating, heating, now their lives will be shattered by the loss of their mother under these circumstances, what of their future, carrying the trauma of this ideological driven callous blow. No doubt our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will cry "SHOCK", "DISGRACE", then move on to the latest the rapturous news of the new addition to the UK's biggest benefit family, the Windsor mob, the latest sex scandal and how much such and such a football club paid for a player. But, will anything change?

        This unnecessary tragedy is played out with callous vindictiveness, performed by puppets who see fit to carry out the ideology of their lords and masters, regardless of the consequences to those involved. This all takes place to a backdrop of millionaires and billionaires who shuffle their ill gotten gains from tax haven to tax haven, so as to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Our country is awash with wealth, while unfortunate individuals wrap themselves in coats and scarfs to keep warm, because they can't afford to pay the heating bills.

      This is 21st. century Britain, the sixth richest country on the planet, a country where an army of parasites, the few, enjoy private jets, multi-million pound yachts, millions stashed in off-shore tax havens, pomp and ceremony of royalty, and the many struggle with poverty and deprivation, choices of eating or heating in our cold cruel winter.

     Elaine Morrall's death is not an anomaly, it is the pattern of our society, for the vast majority, it is day to day struggles for a decent living, while we are surrounded by wealth plundered from the efforts of the ordinary people. This is capitalism, this is how it has always functioned, centuries of a system that fails miserable to see to the needs of the ordinary people. It would be naivety in the extreme to think that it can function other than it does. For justice for Elaine and the countless thousands in similar circumstance, capitalism must be destroyed and replaced by a system based on mutual aid, co-operation, sustainability and freed from the cancerous greed driven motive of profit. only then will we be able to see to the needs of all our people. Will we wait for another few Elaine Morrall type deaths, how many will it take?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Them And Us.

 

        Language is a tool, poetry is a weapon, it can be a powerful weapon that can stab the heart, open a mind, explode a myth, ram home the truth.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Stay With Us, On The Streets.

 

         It was very heart warming to see the hundreds of thousands of women from across the UK marching against Trumpism. The coming together of all those of different backgrounds to voice their anger at the vicious danger in this new wave of far right authoritarianism. My only concern is, where were you when Libya was being pulverised, where were you when the government was attacking, and still is, the disabled with its "assessment" scheme, where were you when benefit sanction drove people to suicide, and still does, where were you as hundreds of thousands of migrants, men, women and children, fleeing death and destruction, were being herded like cattle all across Europe, and still are. These injustices, and many more, are still with us, now that you have found your voice, please, stay on the streets, please, stay with us, we need you.  

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

You Are Not Working Long Enough Or Hard Enough.

             I sometimes wonder if the general public are fully aware of what is happening to the ordinary people of this country, and if they are, why do they accept the humiliation and insults. Workfare and sanctions are turning us into nation of poverty ridden, low paid and/or slave labour. The full impact of universal credits has not yet hit most of us in the face, but the blow is on its way. This is legislation, that punishes you if you are not earning enough or working long enough hours, and is designed and introduced by a bunch of pampered, privileged millionaires who have never in their entire life had to sit down and try to budget a totally inadequate income in an effort to survive. Their value structure is built round the philosophy that, at their income level, to get the best out of their people you have to pay them lavish incomes, at our level, to get the best out of us, they have to punish us and threaten us with deprivation. Your an idiot if you think that running to the ballot box to replace them with another pampered, privileged cabal will make any difference. 

              This not a problem just for the unemployed, it is not a problem just for the low paid, it is not a problem just for the part-time workers. This is a problem for all the ordinary people in this country, what happens to these vulnerable groups will impact on the whole fabric of our society. Increased homelessness, increased hungry children, increased poverty across our society. Increased mental and physical health problems, putting an ever increasing strain on an underfunded NHS, children's potential stunted by lack of opportunity and proper nutrition. All in an attempt to get us to be a national workforce of subservient, low wage serfs, ever grovelling and thanking our most gracious employers for having the generous heart to giving us a miserable low paid job, or for useing us as slave labour.

          Johhny Void on his Condemned site explains the universal credit system well in his article,

The True Horrors Of In-work Benefit Sanctions Have Not Yet Been Understood
Here are a couple of extracts:

 ---------When Universal Credit is fully introduced (stop laughing) part-time workers on a low income will be expected to constantly look for more, or better paid work as a condition of receiving vital in-work benefits.  Any failure on the part of claimants to prove that they carried out constant job searching in the hours they were not working will mean benefits are sanctioned.
         For claimants who are unemployed the sanction system will remain largely unchanged under Universal Credit.  Those without health problems who are sanctioned will lose all of their personal benefits except what is required to pay for housing costs or children.  This will mean a childless claimant will have no money at all once they have paid their rent – although they may be eligible to apply for emergency Hardship Payments of around £40 a week.  It is this nasty regime that has led to the explosion in foodbanks and been linked to a growing number of suicides.----

and:

---------Take a single, childless person in Bristol working at the current minimum wage for 20 hours a week and paying £120 a week in rent – the local housing allowance rate in the area for a claimant over 35.  Under Universal Credit this person will have a weekly income of £244 made up of £144 a week in wages and £100 a week in benefits.  Once their rent is paid this will leave them with £124 a week.  If they are sanctioned however they will lose £73.10 leaving them with just £50.90 a week to live on.  That’s over £20 a week less than the current dole and just £10 a week more than Hardship Payments.  Universal Credit will therefore not make work pay for those who have been sanctioned.  It will however make work compulsory.----

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

A Right Royal Democracy.

           We are a supposed to live in a democracy, but we have a monarch, a very expensive symbol of British imperialism. You could say that the present monarch landed lucky, as without any effort on her behave, she fell heir to approximately 46,000 acres of land, which generates a considerable income. This is called the Duchy of Lancaster and is held in trust for her personal use. It is referred to as the Privy Purse, a nice name, and at the last reckoning generated around £12.5 million. I suppose she could get by on that, and take care of her brood, but no, there are other incomes to help her get by. There is another Duchy, the Duchy of Cornwall, this is give her son Charles a little income of his own, and last year it is reckoned to have netted him a cool £19.8 million. The royal brood are not afraid to have a wee fling now and again, like Andrew spending £14,692 to see the golf at Muirfield, and Andrew splashing out a wee bundle of £46,198, on a charter flight to a couple of resorts in Europe. Then there was Charles, so overcome with grief at Nelson Mandela's death that he spent almost a quarter of a million on a private jet to be at the funeral.

 Look, pie-in-the-sky, that's what our loyal peasants get.

           Apart from their nice little earners from the Duchies, there is the sovereign grant, tax payers money, to make sure they don't fall short before the end of the month, I suppose you could call this their tax credits. Last year it was a tidy little some of £35.7 million. However, this sum is disputed by the group called Republic, who point out that the massively expensive security bill to look after this privileged bunch, is picked up by the Metropolitan Police, (tax payers) and when they go walk-about and visit their humble subjects, the local councils pick up the tab,(tax payers). Republic state that the actual bill to the tax payer for keeping this family on benefit is about 10 times the stated £35.7 million and comes in at around £334 million annually.
            Another anomaly with this rather large family, although they are all on benefit, none of them have ever been forced to take a workfare placement, nor have any of them been sanctioned. Don't you feel that this is a bit unfair, I think it is because of their connections in high places, but I must be wrong, as we live in a democracy!!!

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Next Stage Of The UK State's Cull Of The Poor.

 

        The British state, under the stewardship of the Oxbridge millionaire cabal, has spent considerable money, time and effort demonising the unemployed by grouping them under the banner of "benefit scroungers". It has attacked the disabled by stripping them of their benefits, under the callous guise of "helping them back to work". Now they are cranking up their attack on those who do work.

        This new element of their class war attack, will now penalise those it deems to be, not working hard enough. You might be in work and because of circumstances, you work part-time, in doing so, because of crap wages, perhaps you receive some form of benefit pittance. This will put you on their hit list, you could face sanctions, if you are deemed not to be looking hard enough for more hours to sell yourself for another pittance of crap wages. So working, but because of the slave labour wages, you get benefits to help you survive, be aware, you are in their sights, work harder, take on more hours, or be sanctioned and lose your benefits.

      This latest attack on the ordinary people of this country must surely convince the majority of people in this country that we are in the midst of a class war, and should organise and respond accordingly.

This from The Herald: 

       THE TORY government been attacked over plans to extend controversial benefit sanctions to claimants with jobs, with critics warning introducing the "shockingly harsh" penalties risks plunging workers into poverty.
      A number of pilot schemes are currently being carried out in the UK – including in Inverness – to assess a new scheme which the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) says is aimed at helping workers on low earnings take on more hours and increase their income.
       Benefits can be stopped if claimants fail to meet requirements outlined by the DWP – such as missing Jobcentre appointments or failing to show evidence of looking for more work for a certain number of hours a week, on top of their usual job. The in-work regime, which is expected to eventually apply to around one million people, is being trialled as part of Universal Credit, the new type of benefit which is being rolled out across the country.
        The DWP says its aim is “redefining the contract between claimants and the welfare state” and helping work to pay. The radical scheme - one of the first of its kind in the world - means for the first time those in part-time employment will have to meet certain conditions or risk losing support from the state.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Britain's Costliest Benefit Family.

        That babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media is wetting itself with excitement, they are all of a dither, why, because the queen is Britain's longest reigning monarch. Switch on the radio, and there it is spewing out at you, how wonderful it is to have sat on a throne, at public expense, for 63 years, the TV is awash with the vomit of pomp and ceremony, with commentators slobbering at the mouth in adulation, at the fact that one woman has managed to survive on public benefit for 63 years. All I can say to the British public is, "shame on you", you should have remedied this anomaly years ago.

 

 On benefit, as far as I know, none have signed on, none have been sanctioned.

       The Royal family are showered with privilege and wealth, beyond the average persons wildest imagination, its affairs are shrouded in secrecy, and they cost you and I the tax payers, millions ever year. This for a family that is really a collection of non-entities, none, as far as I am aware have ever excelled at anything in the arts, music, or the sciences. Though some are pretty good at horse riding, shootin' and fishin'.

This from Common Space:

There exists an ongoing controversey over the costs and benefits of the royal family to the British economy.

Campaign group Republic estimates the average cost of the monarchy to be £300m, around nine times the figure published by the royal household and 100 times the cost of the Irish head of state.

For their part, the royal household (a corporate term for the large royal staff since the family themselves seldom give interviews or communicate with the press) claims that the family’s upkeep is £35.7m a year, or 56p per tax payer, and it’s this figure that is frequently reported by the media.

        Politically, they certainly can't stand up and say they believe in democracy, so where do their political sympathies lie? Well we all know about some of their members being on good terms with Hitler. The affairs of some members of "The Royal Household" and some of their privileged cronies, during that period just before the 2nd world war, is swept under the carpet. An apt phrase to remember, should you ever be allowed inside their palatial homes, would be that John Cleese one, "Don't mention the war".
From Common Space:

The recent appearance of a photograph of the royal family in 1933, including a young Elizabeth II making fascist salutes, caused enormous controversy. But they point to a much darker truth about the monarchy’s past and about aristocratic European society in the pre-war years.

King Edward VIII, who features in the photograph teaching the salute to his neices, was forced to abdicate in part because of the political scandal he had created through his friendship with German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Hitler’s favourite court intellectual, Albert Speer, later said in his book, ‘Inside the Third Reich’, that Hitler viewed Edward VIII as instrumental in attempts to maintain peace with Britain before World War II.

Speer quoted Hitler as saying: “I am certain through him permanent friendly relations could have been achieved. If he had stayed, everything would have been different. His abdication was a severe loss for us.”

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Yes, It Is Class War, And We Are Losing.

       Is there anybody out there who still isn't convinced that we are in the midst of a class war?  For years now we have seen wages frozen/cut, any wage increases have been below inflation, benefits are being cut, attacking the poorest in our communities, those on benefits are be sanctioned, (benefits stopped) on the most trivial and inane excuses, over a million workers are on the uncertainty of zero hours contracts. Then there is the slave labour of workfare, workers forced to work for no salary. All this while the rich get richer.

      These conditions would automatically trigger resentment among the workforce, and should push them to take action to protect their standard of living. However our corporate loving Bullingdon Club boys, who rule the roost at the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are taking action to make sure that anger can't transfer into action. Their new anti-trade union laws will not only tie the hands of the employee by making it almost impossible to take "legal" strike action, it will hand the employer the tool to break any strike action by the workers to defend themselves. Employers will be allowed by law to employ agency workers during a strike action, effectively neutralising the effect of the strike action. Do you consider these action to be the actions of a neutral government, or the actions of a bunch of very rich people with interests in the corporate world, creating a subservient cheap labour force for their corporate buddies, in other words, open and brutal class war.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Culling Of The Poor.

        It is normal practice in this society that when a dreadful cruelty happens, our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spew out a few articles about it, and then it is dropped, no longer “news”. The dreadful cruelty, in all probability continues, but is now no longer worth reporting, it's yesterday's news. One of the things that fall into that category is benefit sanctions. It was “news”, a new chattering issue, but as the viciousness of this legislation grinds on, it becomes normal and boring to the chattering classes. Not only is the cruelty of this vindictive legislation still there, its effects are multiplying.
 

      Over 1 million people on JSA have been sanctioned. These are people living on the barest of income, people who are scraping an existence, in all probability not eating properly, not heating their home, unable to feed their kids properly, and then that meagre income is stopped for a minimum of one month, it could be up to three years. Those punished in this way could be sick, disabled, single parents with kids over 5 years old.
 

     Without a shadow of doubt, this vindictive punishing of the poor and vulnerable has caused widespread deprivation and misery, has ripped families apart, left pregnant women without food. Has seen those with mental health problems deteriorate and has created an increase in suicides. Has pushed families to food-banks and in cases forced them into begging. We can get a measure of the type of society we tolerate when we consciously reduce people to begging, sleeping in the streets or attempting suicide as a cruel and degrading punishment for being poor.
 

      This vile and cruel punishing of the poor and vulnerable is implemented on the flimsiest and most irrational pretext. Misery and deprivation are handed out on a whim, devoid of any humanity. We cannot tolerate this vicious, vindictive punishing of our own people. Over one third of the homeless on JSA have been sanctioned, among the young homeless, it jumps to over 50%. To be homeless in this society is a cruel bare existence, to deprive them of any income, is nothing less than condemning them to ill health and an early death.
 

    Our millionaire Bullingdon Boys, the Cameron cabal, idling away their evenings checking their shares and off-shore accounts, have no conception of what it is in this society, to face life with nothing. Nobody, least of all that bunch of pampered parasites, has the right to inflict that destitution and misery on anyone. Even that sanitised old boys club, the Parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee said, there was evidence that the sanctions caused more problems than they solved, and that the Government had not yet provided evidence that the system was not "purely punitive". The committee said the Government needed to provide more evidence to support its hard-line approach, as the committee’s chair warned that financial hardship caused by the sanctions could lead families being unable to eat. 

 

From the Guardian: The following anonymised list is typical of sanctions reported by food bank clients to the Trussell trust charity:

1. Man who missed appointment due to being at hospital with his partner, who had just had a stillborn child.
   
2. Man sanctioned for missing an appointment at the jobcentre on the day of his brother’s unexpected death. He had tried to phone Jobcentre Plus to explain, but could not get through and left a message which was consequently not relayed to the appropriate person.
   
3. Man who carried out 60 job searches but missed one which matched his profile.
   
4. Man had an appointment at the jobcentre on the Tuesday, was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack that day, missed the appointment and was sanctioned for nine weeks.
   
5. Man who secured employment and was due to start in three weeks. He was sanctioned in the interim period because JCP told him he was still duty bound to send his CV to other companies.
   
6. 
   
7. Young couple who had not received any letters regarding an appointment that was thus subsequently missed. Their address at the Department for Work and Pensions was wrongly recorded. They were left with no money for over a month.
   
8. One case where the claimant’s wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. No leeway given.
   
9. One man sanctioned for attending a job interview instead of Jobcentre Plus – he got the job so did not pursue grievance against the JCP.
   
10. Man who requested permission to attend the funeral of his best friend; permission declined; sanctioned when he went anyway.
    
11. A diabetic sanctioned and unable to buy food was sent to hospital by GP as a consequence.

More inhumane, vindictive, irrational, whimsical reasons used to sink people into destitution, HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Helped By Taking Your Money Away.

       When on Job Seekers Allowance, you are living on/below the bread line, so life is tough and stressful. To be "sanctioned" (having your benefits stopped) is obviously a very serious event, so you would imagine those caring advisers, who are there to help you, would take the matter of "sanctioning" people as a last resort. However, the reality is they don't give a damn and carry out "sanctions" in an arbitrary, vindictive, callous and very mean low-life manner.

      The following are some of the reasons for people being "sanction" pushed into deprivation, taken from the site DWP Uspun:

Cruel, arbitrary and ridiculous reasons why people have their benefits stopped.

    You’re a 60-year-old army veteran who volunteers to sell poppies for the Royal British Legion in memory of fallen comrades. You’ve applied for dozens of jobs – including the supermarket where you sold the poppies – but without success. You are sanctioned for four weeks.

Source: Daily Mirror

    You get a job interview. It’s at the same time as your job centre appointment, so you reschedule the job centre. You attend your rearranged appointment and then get a letter saying your benefits will be stopped because going to a job interview isn’t a good enough reason to miss an appointment.

Source: Daily Mail

    Your gran dies during the night. The next morning your partner calls the job centre and asks if you can come in the following day instead. The centre agrees, and you sign in the next day. Then you get a letter stating that you failed to sign in and would be sanctioned if you don’t reply within seven days. You reply, explaining the situation. The job centre gives you a six-week sanction for not replying.

Source: Mari-claire M at Netmums

     You’ve signed in on time, been to interviews and applied for work. Your job centre advisor suggests you make a two-line change to your CV, which you do, but fail to give the updated CV to the job centre (you weren’t told you had to). You are sanctioned for four weeks.

Source: nciaw36 at MoneySavingExpert

    You work for 20 years and then miss a job centre appointment because you haven’t had the process clearly explained. You are sanctioned for 3 weeks.

Source: Councillor John O’Shea

     You get a job that starts in two weeks time. You don’t look for work while you are waiting for the job to start. You’re sanctioned.

Source: The Guardian

        You are forced to retire due to a heart condition, and you claim Employment and Support Allowance. During your assessment you have a heart attack. You are sanctioned for not completing your assessment.

Source: Debbie Abrahams MP

      It’s Christmas Day and you don’t fill in your job search evidence form to show that you’ve looked for all the new jobs that are advertised on Christmas Day. You are sanctioned. Merry Christmas. 

Source: Poverty Alliance

      You are given a training appointment that clashes with your job centre appointment. The job centre is unwilling to rearrange its appointment and tells you to get a letter from the training organisation. The training organisation says it doesn’t provide letters.

Source: Russell Brown MP

     You apply for three jobs one week and three jobs the following Sunday and Monday. Because the job centre week starts on a Tuesday it treats this as applying for six jobs in one week and none the following week. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks for failing to apply for three jobs each week.

Source: Pontefract and Castleford Express

    You miss your job centre appointment due to the funeral of a close family relative. You are sanctioned.

Source: Derek Twigg MP

        You’ve been unemployed for seven months and are forced onto a workfare scheme in a shop miles away, but can’t afford to travel. You offer to work in a nearer branch but are refused and get sanctioned for not attending your placement.

Source: Caroline Lucas MP

      You have a job interview which overruns so you arrive at your job centre appointment 9 minutes late. You get sanctioned for a month.

Source: jsdk at Consumer Action

      You can’t afford to travel to look for work so you get sanctioned.

Source: Citizens Advice Bureau

      Your job centre advisor suggests a job. When you go online to apply it says the job has “expired” so you don’t apply. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks.

Source: Penny at Yahoo! Answers

         There is more of these cruel, vindictive, callous, brutal actions on DWP Unspun. Though I'm sure if you ask around your friends and neighbours, you'll be ale to come up with a page or two of your own. That's capitalism for you.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

'tis The Season Of------

      As 2014 draws to a close, we should do well to remember that, "'tis the season of-----" sleeping rough and homelessness. Figures for those sleeping rough in England, state that there were 2,414 rough sleepers at any time during 2013, an increase of 5% on the previous year. Government figures, (England) for homeless applications for 2014 were 27,970. Families in temporary accommodation for 2014 was 60,940, up 6.1% on 2013. It is also accepted that 62% of single people homeless is hidden, sofa surfing etc.

         "'tis also the season of-----" workfare, working for no salary. An employer's dream. Government figures state that the so called "work experience Scheme", which is an 8 week placement, usually in the private sector, is expected to put more than a quarter of a million people in work without pay. However the government refuses to state how many of the 850,000 people already on their "work program" have been forced to work for no pay. 

           "'tis also the season of-----" sanctions. Government figures show that sanctions, (stopping of benefit) on Employment and Support Allowance claimants were approximately 4.5 times higher this year than the same period last year. The first three months of 2014 saw 15,955 individuals on ESA sanctioned, up from 3,574 for the same period in 2013.

             This is just some of the "good cheer" that is being visited on vast sections of our community, by the privileged, pampered parasites, that manage the system on behalf of the financial Mafia. At this time of year, those who legislate to bring this penury to our communities, will be sitting and wallowing in unearned wealth, no worries about heating, which one of their homes they happen to be in. No worries about putting ample food on the table, and no worries about the bills after the event. Why do we put up with it?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk