Jobcentres tricking people off benefits

[minxcariad]

OMG - has anyone else seen this, or experienced it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/...fit-sanctions?commentpage=2#start-of-comments

 

[RaverDrew]

Makes me fucking mad, I was sanctioned twice (once just before Christmas) for applying for the wrong type of job ie. one that didn't match the exact job title on my jobseekers agreement.

The amount of grief and stress they put me through over this seriously damaged my mental and physical health.

Knew they must have been on some kind of incentive to cut people off for bullshit reasons and nice to have it confirmed.

I'll be printing some copies to take with me next time I go to the JobCentre. I'll flypost them in and around the building so that people realise what they're up against.

I really don't know how these people sleep at night. They have no fucking morals, but no doubt the DWP employees who post on here will be along at some point to try and defend them.

BIG respect for the whistleblower however.

 

[quimcunx]

There have been 2 or 3 threads on here recently from people who have been 'sanctioned'.

 

[Garek]

OMG - has anyone else seen this, or experienced it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/...fit-sanctions?commentpage=2#start-of-comments

Yep Been sanctioned for failing to properly write out forms despite repeated attempts to inform them of dyslexia. I wrote down all my job searches and stuff I had done on the computer. I put down all the information that the form was asking. I printed it off and was told it was unacceptable. It didn't matter I had answered all the questions. The answers had to be written on the form I was given. They said if I really had dyslexia I should be give them a lter proving it. I am not sure people realise how hard it is to go through all that (getting the lett I mean).

They are fucking cunts that bastards at the JC. Nearly every time I have been there there have been a core group standing aroung just chatting and gossiping whilst people sit there for hours waiting there turn. The JC is an excercise in removing all human dignity. Cunts.

 

[RaverDrew]

They are fucking cunts that bastards at the JC. Nearly every time I have been there there have been a core group standing aroung just chatting and gossiping whilst people sit there for hours waiting there turn. The JC is an excercise in removing all human dignity. Cunts.

THIS.

 

[Garek]

In fact think some more there are only two real ways to get ahead at the JC.

1. Be proper sharp. Learn the system back to front. Know every con and every trick. Be a shark.

OR

2. Be meek as a fucking lamb. Have no pride. Just nod and smile. Say yes sir, say no sir, say three bags fucking full sir.

 

[RaverDrew]

Neither approach works when they have sanction quotas and targets to meet.

 

[Garek]

Neither approach works when they have sanction quotas and targets to meet.

True. But you stand a better chance if you either going in there either expecting confontation or just doing whatever is they tell you. Because they will make up the numbers on those quota by going for anyone who happens to make an innocent mistake and foolishly thought that the JC was there to help. They'll take the easy pickings.

 

[ymu]

It's been bad for a while, but the CAB caseload doubling in a year?

There must be some DA to be done around this. Small claims court for monies owed? Cheap and no lawyer needed.

There's a few magistrates taking direct action themselves over court closures ... would be a neat hook-up at both economic ends of the pissed off spectrum.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

That's a fucking disturbing article

 

[ymu]

Makes me fucking mad, I was sanctioned twice (once just before Christmas) for applying for the wrong type of job ie. one that didn't match the exact job title on my jobseekers agreement.

The amount of grief and stress they put me through over this seriously damaged my mental and physical health.

Knew they must have been on some kind of incentive to cut people off for bullshit reasons and nice to have it confirmed.

I'll be printing some copies to take with me next time I go to the JobCentre. I'll flypost them in and around the building so that people realise what they're up against.

I really don't know how these people sleep at night. They have no fucking morals, but no doubt the DWP employees who post on here will be along at some point to try and defend them.

BIG respect for the whistleblower however.

PM me with some means I can get some money for the printing costs to you.

 

[RaverDrew]

Fuck it, I'm willing to stand outside the jobcentre for a fortnight and hand a copy out to every person who walks in.

 

[Blagsta]

It's been happening for a while now. Clients I work with (homeless drug users) are being told they are well enough to work (despite having DVTs, depression, anxiety, HIV, Hep C, TB etc) and being taken off ESA and put on JSA. When they fail to jump through all the hoops of JSA, they get sanctioned for 3 months. We help them appeal, which they usually win, then get a massive backpayment and relapse on the money.

 

[Garek]

It's been happening for a while now. Clients I work with (homeless drug users) are being told they are well enough to work (despite having DVTs, depression, anxiety, HIV, Hep C, TB etc) and being taken off ESA and put on JSA. When they fail to jump through all the hoops of JSA, they get sanctioned for 3 months. We help them appeal, which they usually win, then get a massive backpayment and relapse on the money.

That's terrible

 

[ymu]

Sounds like the kind of thing Phil Shiner might be interested in class-actioning.

http://www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk/aboutus.php


Any of the potential actioners on the thread fancy getting a working group together and making an approach. I know from personal experience that if he finds a case he wants to take forward, it's very, very difficult to stop him. On the flip side, if he thinks it won't work, he cannot be persuaded.

Get writing?

 

[Part 2]

That's a fucking disturbing article

It is. I've seen this more an more over the past 9 months or so with the kids we work with, often those with learning difficulties who struggle to manage a benefits claim anyway. Same as Blagsta, all go to appeal and get the money in the end but the disruption in their lives in the meantime is completely detrimental in terms of their likeleyhood of finding work.

 

[ymu]

My partner is from South London, and grew up with a lot of troubled black youth. He says they're hard as nails and scary as fuck when they're on the street, but if they have to open a bank account or fill in a form at the Post Office, they go to pieces. It's not illiteracy, just utter fear of a world they know nothing about.

Expect teenage stabbings and gun crime to soar. The older ones will have many fewer ways out now.

 

[toblerone3]

If I end up going back to the JC after my current stint at A4E I'll certainly be printing off that article and putting it under the nose of the adviser at the very first meeting.

 

[RaverDrew]

I'm thinking about some sort of organised campaign where claimants can be made aware of they are up against.

Leafleting and/or flyposting outside and around the jobcentres etc.

Important that claimants know their rights and how to oppose these snide underhand tactics.

I've witnessed 1st hand claimants being sanctioned and then dissuaded from making an appeal, or pressured and rushed into making a sub-standard, on-the-spot appeal under the fear of having any potential payments delayed if they don't.

 

[Voley]

Oh lovely. I have all this to look forward imminently. Been told my current job's going to last till May (which is a month more than expected tbf) but I reckon I'll be sampling the joys of the JobCentre soonish. Cheers for the heads up with posting the link, minxcariad. It'll pay to cross my T's and dot my I's even more than usual when signing.

 

[Plumdaff]

My other half experienced a little of this but "fortunately" due to him being entitled to nothing after six months because I'm in work they've calmed down now he doesn't cost anything. Working in mental health, I'm hearing more and more stories of vulnerable people being "sanctioned" and left destitute due to tiny small print and often deviousness on the part of the Job Centre. Often they win on appeal but their mental health and dignity has already taken the toll. It's happening at a time when mental health services and support are themselves being cut. Inhumane bullshit.

 

[Ground Elder]

There's this to look forward to as well - Mandatory Work Activity Scheme

 

[toblerone3]

Is the information about how many people have been sanctioned from each particular Job centre publicly available. If not. Why not?

Seems like there should be a watchdog organisation set up on job centres to counter these dreadful targets. Could it be done. Might be a lot of work though. Imagine the conversation yes I've set a big society job watching the way that you guys operate.

 

[stuff_it]

They've been doing it for years though, an old friend with very very severe schizophrenia and drug issues got actually kicked out of his council house because the DSS (as it was back then) stopped his benefits (he clearly was 'green carded') and his rent, forgot to reinstate the rent for 6 months, and then evicted him. He went on another massive bender and was dead within two years.

 

[Ground Elder]

Unlawful Sanctions looks like it could be a useful resource, although it would be more use if more than half of their links went anywhere

 

[toblerone3]

Unlawful Sanctions looks like a useful resource.

Great link. Ground Elder

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Wow. Just wow.

 

[Dhimmi]

In fact think some more there are only two real ways to get ahead at the JC.

1. Be proper sharp. Learn the system back to front. Know every con and every trick. Be a shark.

OR

2. Be meek as a fucking lamb. Have no pride. Just nod and smile. Say yes sir, say no sir, say three bags fucking full sir.

OR

3. Fuck off and get work.

 

[pengaleng]

OR

3. Fuck off and get work.

*slow clap*

 

[ymu]

That's the problem though, isn't it. Those who are already the best off - the savvy, the educated, the articulate, the well-informed - are unlikely to be targeted for confusing written forms or late posting of application forms, or just downright lying to get a bonus mark.

And it's because there is no budget allocated for training anyone off benefits any more.

It's sick. Unbelievably sick. Couldn't stop crying for a while after I read it.

Cunts.