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campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

Tipping the Balance ?

http://www.community-links.org/news/pr/tipping-the-balance

http://www.community-links.org/uploads/documents/TIPPING_THE__BALANCE.pdf

Community Links has published Tipping the Balance, our report into the cumulative impact of welfare reform on people in Newham We work in one of the most deprived areas of the country, where many residents have been faced with drastically reduced incomes as a result of the changes implemented 12-months ago.

The report comes one year after the Government’s flagship welfare reforms were introduced and follows a month in which many people, including 27 Anglican bishops and other faith leaders, have expressed alarm at their impact. In response, the Government has continued to emphasise that the reforms are intended to get people out of a cycle of dependency and encourage them into work.

However, the new research from Community Links has found that the complexity and rushed delivery of the reforms and – most crucially – their cumulative effect, has had the opposite impact, pushing people’s lives into chaos and away from the positive outcomes they were intended to achieve.

The report finds that those with significant barriers to accessing the labour market—such as chronic illness or severe mental health problems—are often the most severely affected. The charity argues these people face a long journey back to the world of work and need additional support along the way.
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Too grim for me this fine Sat afternoon tbf :facepalm:
 
The Dark Lord rides again.

Welfare cheats will be forced to sell their homes and pay higher fines to reimburse taxpayers for the money they have wrongly claimed, under plans to tackle benefit fraud.

The reforms include:

:: A drive to recover debts owed by fraudsters. Ministers will work with private debt collection firms “to make greater use of bailiffs to seize assets” and “force house sales where appropriate”, officials said. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) expects to recover at least £414  million as a result of the initiative.

:: Higher fines for cheats caught committing benefits fraud. Officials can already impose a £50 spot fine on individuals who mistakenly and carelessly provide inaccurate information in their claims, and fraudsters face a minimum fine of £350 as an alternative to prosecution. Plans this week are expected to set out new financial penalties.

:: A publicity campaign, including posters urging claimants to report those whom they suspect to be cheating the system, and letters warning individuals to check they are not receiving too much.

:: Existing claimants will be cross-checked against HMRC records to catch pensioners who are receiving extra income than they have declared from private schemes, while also claiming pension credit, a means-tested benefit.

:: A benefit fraud division will be set up within the DWP. The service will pursue people who make false claims, including housing welfare from councils, tax credits from the HMRC, and other DWP payouts.
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More fear and loathing, more division and insecurity.
 
He was going to make a major speech on it, but has had second thoughts as the Miller case rolls on, even in 'benefit scrounger' obsessed Britain, it wouldn't look good to be talking about fraud , etc at such a time.

Smith has said though by the end of the parliament he would have saved(cut) 50bn in benefits, if this is true, its fucking horrendous, that's 50bn from the most vunerable and 50bn form local communities, no wonder many many cheap shops are shutting, but Waitrose is booming.
 
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A publicity campaign, including posters urging claimants to report those whom they suspect to be cheating the system, and letters warning individuals to check they are not receiving too much.
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Shamefully, similar posters under Nl were left alone by left wing fly posters here, often SWP posters were put up alongside!
 
I don't know!
treelover said:
Was this all from the 'review' by the man from Policy Exchange?
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I forgot he'd been involved, Matthew fucking Oakley. It wouldn'r surprise me. There was no way he was going to do a proper review, a bit like asking Ozzy Osbourne to report on the viability of the bat population.
 
10152587_637152013005339_325555492595735879_n.jpg



"i am about 450.00 behind with my bedroom tax, have decided to apologise and offer 50p to the council, i really think they should accept this generous gesture and move on."


plus a comment on the above site
 
The Fit for Work blog 31 January 2014
Fit-for-Work-stories_avatar_1391435852-75x75.jpg

We’re asking for you to share your experiences of the ESA system on our fit for work blog.

Here at Citizens Advice we think that a system designed to determine if you can access support when you are unfortunate enough to get ill or injured needs to be Fit for work itself – and we don’t think that employment and support allowance (ESA), the benefit offered to people who are unable to work due to illness or disability, is fit for this purpose.
We’ve launched a national campaign to call for change on three key issues:
  • how medical evidence is sourced to support claims
  • how claimants are supported financially during the application process
  • how the quality of the Work Capability Assessment itself is monitored
We’d like to hear from everyone who has experienced ESA – including claimants or their friends and family, Citizens Advice Bureau advisers, JobCentre Plus staff and medical professionals. You all have valuable things to say about the problems you see in the system. We’ve created this blog to bring together these stories, and offer you the chance to have your say.
We need you all to get involved!
You can share your story about anything related to ESA in the box below. You could also tweet your story, using the hashtag #FitforWork, or share it on our Facebook timeline. If you’re looking for ideas, we would like to know:
  • what you experienced – did you have problems with your ESA claim, or receive confusing information when supporting a claimant?
  • when your experiences relate to – are they current or past? Have you noticed any changes in how the system works for you?
  • how your experiences impacted upon you – do regular requests for medical evidence hinder you from providing medical support to others, or did you find yourself unable to meet living costs while you waited for a decision on your case?
  • what you think caused the problems
  • how you think your experiences could have been improved
If you need advice about anything related to ESA, you should always speak to an adviser at your local Citizens Advice Bureau or head to the relevant section of our website.
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https://blogs.citizensadvice.org.uk/blog/was-it-fit-for-work-for-you/
Good news, just found this, the CAB are finally wising up to the welfare reforms and robustly challenging some of them, they can't ignore the(human) evidence.
 
treelover said:
10152587_637152013005339_325555492595735879_n.jpg



"i am about 450.00 behind with my bedroom tax, have decided to apologise and offer 50p to the council, i really think they should accept this generous gesture and move on."


plus a comment on the above site
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Actually to be in line with current accepted practice, you'd have to offer £4.50.

50p ffs, you bloody scrounger! :mad :D
 
Awesome Wells said:
The CAB are now partly funded by the DWP so they'll need all the luck they can get once Iain Duncan Mengele puts the thumbscrews on.
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TBF, Josef Mengele was a highly-qualified medical expert, whatever other sick fuckeries he engaged in, whereas Iain Dunked-in Shit has never been a highly-qualified anything, except wanker.
Now if you'd said "Iain Duncan Goering"...:)
 
Media reporting more brutal changes, people will have to sign on each week, present a cv, not sure how much of it all is new, I expect this is now the election campaign, obscene really.
 
Need For Food Banks IS Caused By Welfare Cuts Finds Study
April 9, 2014

The government’s welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks, an academic study has said.
The study, part of a three-year investigation into emergency food provision, was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK.
That report concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK. But Lambie-Mumford’s new study, to be published on Wednesday, says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal “of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered”.
The report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, there is a danger that charity food could become an integral part of the state welfare provision, or even an replacement for formerly state-funded emergency welfare schemes.
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Damning report by the same author who helped write the Govt one which denied there was a link
 
UNPOPULAR face-to-face interviews are to be axed as part of a Government shake-up of their Work Capability Assessment following recommendations set out by a chief medical officer recruited to review WCA testing.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/back-work-interviews-scrapped-after-3384060
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WCA face to face interviews to be scrapped? not clear about this

and having to have more medical evidence isn't necessarily positive, many patients with long term conditions are basically left to rot with no real medical involvement.
 
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treelover said:
and having to have more medical evidence isn't necessarily positive, many patients with long term conditions are basically left to rot with no real medical involvement.
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Discussed this with my GP last year. Asked her if she liked the idea of all her patients on disability benefits constantly badgering her for consultant referrals, just to keep their medical evidence up-to-date. As you might guess, she thought that might put adverse strain on the surgery!
 
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/07/unemployment-benefits-signing-on-culture

Rules on unemployment benefits tightened to end signing on culture.

Culture? Or survival?

And why should this depend on the supposed state of the labour market? This just, again, implies the unemployed are lazy. If people need benefits then just give it tothem.

What if someone can't get a cv together before they canclaim? Isnt this the sort of thing JC+ should be helping with, not using against people who need help?

I don't like the idea of increasing conditionalitybasedon the state of the economy.
 
This is just the Poor Law revisited.

just read that article, seems there was going to be a anti-scrounger offensive launched with measures mentioned each day by the whole of the Govts DWP/Employment ministers, but something came up to scupper all that, though of course the measures will still go ahead.
 
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btw, why do I get the feeling these Guardian journalists like Watt revel in these hard line measures, on the Daily Politics Watt described McVile as "a woman of 'outstanding calibre"
 
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