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campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

I'm telling you, Mastercard must be bunging this Shelbrooke cunt money.

Alec Shelbrooke MP's private member's bill proposing a "welfare cash card" that could not be spent on "luxury goods such as cigarettes, alcohol, Sky television and gambling" has sparked much debate about smart cards (or prepay cards) as a way to control people's benefitsspending.
If a person's benefits are loaded on to a card, it can be blocked from being used in, say, casinos or off-licences. This has understandably provoked strong reactions: the issue of whether the government ought to have a say over how benefits are spent strikes right at the heart of theshirkers and strivers debate.
In all the furore, people may not realise that prepay cards are already widely used for more constructive purposes. About 25% of local authorities are using prepay cards and another 30% plan on doing so this year, mainly to distribute direct payments in social care.
In light of the remarkable spread of this relatively little-known technology,Demos have investigated further with the support of Mastercard. Our report, The Power of Prepaid, to be published on Wednesday, helps explain why these cards are becoming so popular for personal budget distribution – for one, they put an end to the paper-based auditing system associated with personal budgets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/29/welfare-cash-cards-state-control?commentpage=1
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The Demos report is funded by Mastercard. Shelbrooke was using his bill as a means of distracting from a recent twitter fuck-up

http://edinburgheye.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/alec-shelbrooke-ni/

For Alec Shelbrooke:
  • This brings his name forward into the media, makes it more likely that people will talk about him as the MP concerned with the Welfare Cash Card instead of the MP who referred to Northern Ireland as Northern Island, and
  • Given that his constituency, Elmet and Rothwell, has a 1.9% unemployment rate (substantially below the national average) the people who will be voting for him in 2015 are pretty much not going to be people who are unemployed or who know someone who is, certainly not the kind of people who would know anyone on an Azure Card.
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I can see these prepay benefit cards getting parially snuck in on the back of the Universal Credit. Apparently UC has to be paid into a bank account - Those (many) claimants who've only got a post office account, I can well imagine being railroaded into having to have one of these cards.
 
Frances Lengel said:
I can see these prepay benefit cards getting parially snuck in on the back of the Universal Credit. Apparently UC has to be paid into a bank account - Those (many) claimants who've only got a post office account, I can well imagine being railroaded into having to have one of these cards.
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Yep. And you can bet your bottom dollar that whichever company gets the contract will provide the cards free for a limited time only, then they'll start to charge people for the privilege. You may as well whop an arm out and let them suck it dry right now.
 
Frances Lengel said:
I can see these prepay benefit cards getting parially snuck in on the back of the Universal Credit. Apparently UC has to be paid into a bank account - Those (many) claimants who've only got a post office account, I can well imagine being railroaded into having to have one of these cards.
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FWIW I've got a top up Mastercard and would I let the DWP pay my benefits onto it (or VP's card)? Would I bollocks. If the DWP had enough of my details to pay benefits onto that card, they'd also be able to monitor how much I spend and where. :mad:
 
Greebo said:
FWIW I've got a top up Mastercard and would I let the DWP pay my benefits onto it (or VP's card)? Would I bollocks. If the DWP had enough of my details to pay benefits onto that card, they'd also be able to monitor how much I spend and where. :mad:
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I read something recently about Paypal accounts and the DWP but can't remember where?

All I remember thinking was "fuck that" :D
 
ah, here it is

PayPal Gets A Slice Of £25m DWP Identity Contract

UK citizens will be able to register for the new Universal Credit system using their PayPal credentials
On January 21, 2013 by Peter Judge 2​
PayPal has been awarded a place in the Government’s framework for Identity Assurance, so citizens may be allowed to use their PayPal credentials to prove their identity to access government services – particularly the new universal credit system.
TechWeekEurope learned of the deal back in November, but it has only now been made public.
PayPal is the eighth name on a £25 million contract with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) published last week, which will allow citizens to use their credentials with commercial organisations, when they register for government services. At this stage, it is not clear what share of the contract PayPal will get, as it depends on which agencies choose to offer PayPal identification.​
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My aunt's council (Castle Point) are charging 30% minimum council tax! That's around £300 for a single working age person regardless of income.

"Regardless of financial circumstances, all working-age claimants will pay at least 30% of their council tax . This means people who currently get full Council Tax Benefit will have to pay something towards their council tax from 1st April 2013."

http://www.castlepoint.gov.uk/main.cfm?type=mrlcts
 
bi0boy said:
My aunt's council (Castle Point) are charging 30% minimum council tax! That's around £300 for a single working age person regardless of income.

"Regardless of financial circumstances, all working-age claimants will pay at least 30% of their council tax . This means people who currently get full Council Tax Benefit will have to pay something towards their council tax from 1st April 2013."

http://www.castlepoint.gov.uk/main.cfm?type=mrlcts
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wtf? If they are charging everyone it should only be 8.5% iirc, Birmingham will have unemployed and some disabled people paying 20% whilst others will still get the full benefit.
 
BigTom said:
wtf? If they are charging everyone it should only be 8.5% iirc, Birmingham will have unemployed and some disabled people paying 20% whilst others will still get the full benefit.
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They claim it's their demographics:

Why is the cut so severe for working age claimants?
Castle Point has a high a level of pensioner claimants and, as the government has stipulated that pensioners must be fully protected, the funding cut falls on the remaining working age claimants. This has left the authority with very little room to manoeuvre and restricted our ability to make the scheme more flexible and offer greater protection for claimants.

Why are disabled claimants not fully protected?
The significant cut in Government funding means that we can't fully protect disabled claimants from reductions in Council Tax Support. All disabled claimants will have to pay a minimum 30% of their council tax. To fully protect disabled people from the scheme would be to the severe detriment of non disabled claimants. However, we are committed to protecting disabled people as much as we can by continuing to fully disregard Disability Living Allowance as income and retaining certain premiums that apply to disabled households.
 
bi0boy said:
My aunt's council (Castle Point) are charging 30% minimum council tax! That's around £300 for a single working age person regardless of income.

"Regardless of financial circumstances, all working-age claimants will pay at least 30% of their council tax . This means people who currently get full Council Tax Benefit will have to pay something towards their council tax from 1st April 2013."
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This is essentially the Poll Tax MK II. Along with the revival of Major's workers rights abolition they're really determined to close some unfinished business.
 
Another ex ATOS nurse speaks out

I resigned from Atos in 2012.
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As a nurse, I was taught to care and be compassionate about the people I was in contact with. This was not the case with Atos.

It was very much a target driven role and you were under constant pressure to meet these targets. We had to see a minimum of 6 clients per day, some nurses were managing 10 and I often wondered how. I was warned, on a number of occasions, about this. If another nurse asked for help, I was more than happy to help or discuss a difficult case. My manager had a firm, but polite, word with me in a quiet corner, and reminded me of my role, which was to meet targets, not have general chit chat with colleagues. We were not allowed to offer any advice to our clients and we were not supposed to engage in a conversation, unless it was about the assessment. This was extremely hard to avoid, especially with a client with learning difficulties, who would often love to chat!

The doctors would ‘cherry pick’ the easy clients, as they were paid per case and often saw, on average, 14 cases per day. Very good, considering they worked office hours.

We were monitored closely on how many clients we put into Support Group . If our totals were above the national average, we would have to ask an ‘experienced’ member of staff for permission to put a client into a support group, even if it was plainly obvious they could not return to work. Those members of staff who had a low number of support group additions, were praised.

I assessed a client with mental health issues who I entered into the support group. I was so concerned about her I stayed with her, in the waiting room, until a family member came to collect her to take her home. I was instructed to attend a meeting with my manager and was given a verbal warning for costing Atos money – when I asked how this was possible, I was informed that during the time I was with this client in the waiting room, I could have assessed somebody else.

I assessed a client with visual problems, due to her diabetes, who could not read 16 point print, nor could she see hazards in the street. Although not registered blind, she was under the care of a consultant, was receiving treatment and needed constant support from her family. Although there was not a suitable support group for her, I put her in a higher group and recommended she was recalled in 18 months, after she had received treatment from her consultant, to assess her condition. I was instructed, by my manager, to downgrade her. I was told to add her to a lower group and recall her in 6 months. I strongly disagreed, due to her current condition and underlying medical problems, but was told, in no uncertain terms, not to question my managers judgement. It was at this point I decided to resign.

I could not live with the knowledge of what I was doing and the effect this could have on somebody’s life. Although there are a number of people who are more than capable of work, the majority are genuine, sick people who need our help, not to be demoralised in this way. I saw so many people who would cry in front of me, because they want to work so much, but couldn’t.

Atos Healthcare do not care about their staff and more importantly, do not care about their clients. They are more interested in making money and I believe they should be stripped of this contact with DWP. This is not a job any nurse should do, if their NMC registration means anything to them.
J. Stoker. RGN
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weepiper said:
too long for just a post :mad::mad:

http://furcoatnaenicks.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/poverty-of-ideas/
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What do you mean too long? :confused:

Poverty of ideas
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Posted on January 31, 2013 by furcoatnaenicks

Everyone’s favourite megalomaniac Victorian moralist Iain Duncan-Smith is at it again:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ys-addict-parents-waste-cash-drink-drugs.html

The current definition of child poverty is proving rather inconvenient, in that it encompasses families who just don’t have enough money to feed themselves, pay rent and heat their homes. Far too many people included. Fixing it would be terribly expensive and involve the government spending some of our taxes on actually making people’s lives better, rather than lining their private enterprise mates’ pockets. So, IDS has decided to tear it up and start again. If children are living in poverty, it must really be because their feckless parents are spending all their cash on booze and drugs instead of nappies and shoes, right?

Mr Duncan Smith said government polling showed people think having a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol is the most important factor for a child growing up in poverty.​
​
Oh, well if ‘people’ think that, then it must be a really good idea to base government policy on it, yeah? Never mind those pesky experts with years of hard and fast experience of the reality, like the Child Poverty Action Group…

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: ‘Children are much more likely to be in poverty today because they have a parent who is a security guard, care worker or cleaner than a drug addict or “feckless”.​
​
…they’re just naysayers.

He added: ‘I’m by no means saying that every child in poverty will have drug or alcohol addicted parents​
​
…no, but you’re implying it so heavily that the message comes through loud and clear anyway. And you’re basing policy on it. So if you don’t believe every child in poverty will have drug or alcohol addicted parents, why are you punishing the ones that don’t by withholding money that could make a real difference to their lives?

Instead of propping people up on benefits, we need to tackle the root cause of their hardship – the drug addiction itself.​
​
Well here we agree. Tackling the root cause of their hardship sounds good. But unfortunately he and I don’t agree on how you do that. You don’t do it by giving them less money. It doesn’t work. The clue’s in the name: addiction. They’ll just find other means of paying for it, any means, and whatever they are, it won’t be pretty for their children. Here’s a crazy idea, how about we look at the reasons so many people want to escape and shut off from society? Why is life so miserable that shooting up or getting blind drunk and switching off for a while seems attractive? Does that sort of crippling addiction regularly happen to happy, fulfilled, secure people with decent well-paid jobs where they are treated with respect and feel useful to society, who live in nice areas where there isn’t broken glass in the stairwells and burnt-out cars and mattresses in the yard, where there’s grass and flowerbeds and playparks and a chance of nice things sometimes happening to you if you work hard, who aren’t constantly told how crap and feckless and stupid and worthless they are? But no. Far better to judge them. Take their money away. Make them more miserable and insecure and worried about where the next fix is coming from. Punish punish punish. Rub their noses in it, that’ll teach ‘em not to do it again.
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''David 1, Goliath 0

It's been a long road eh?

Remember when we heard about PIP? That DLA would be abolished, despite nothing in the Tory manifesto? Remember how we sat, open mouthed at the disgusting proposals? "Bathing" reclassified as a wipe with a flannel FROM THE WAIST UP? Paraplegics "fully mobile" if they used their wheelchairs TOO WELL? The day we heard 500,000 people would lose out entirely? Half a million of the "most vulnerable" cut adrift?

Remember the enormous thrill as Spartacus Report blazed around the world, the report WE wrote, WE funded exposing the government as liars and cheats?

Well my friends, a few weeks ago, this stubborn intractable government finally admitted defeat. The fingers I have in various pies started singing an astonishing tune. The government were frightened. They no longer had the stomach for a fight with the very people the public see ( rightly or wrongly) as the "real disabled". The private Tory polling was atrocious, the public had been rallying to our cause for longer than the Tories were admitting. Backbenchers were getting twitchy, ministers weren't sure a daily diet of abandoned cancer patients and cruelly cut off Parkinson's grannies were a good idea in the run up to an election.''

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21287323


Massive news: PIP success for campaigners...

Have the Spartaci and others who have been campaigning against PIP had major victories in changing this disgusting test, etc?, Sue Marsh on 'Diary of a Benefit Scrounger' seems to think so, there does does seem to be large scale back pedalling and positive amendments, though some are cautious such as our own Paulie who has expressed some doubts, big news anyway with Lord fraud having to eat shit on the issue, and the BBC have had to report it in positive terms, now for the bedroom tax....

well done to all involved.

deserves its own thread imo...

(sorry quotes not working)
 
Do They Want A Riot? Here Comes the Poll Tax...

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/do-they-want-a-riot-here-comes-the-poll-tax/#comments

Damning comment from "Darroch":

As Anton says Jobseeker’s Allowance is not supposed to be taxable; it is the absolute minimum amount of money that the law say you need in order to stay alive and buy food, drink, clothe yourself and so on and so forth.
If you are under 25 and have to pay £5.00 a week council tax you instantly lose about 9% of your income; additionally, if the monstrous George Osborne has his way, over the next three years benefit claimant will lose a minimum of about another 5% (could be very much more if inflation pick up) because benefits will updated by only 1% instead of the current rate of inflation according to the CPI.
So with prices going up with benefit claimants set to be robbed of 14% of their income over the next three years how will they be able to maintain their health? Before these real terms cuts benefit levels were inadequate to allow claimants to nourish themselves adequately and keep themselves warm.
People will suffer from malnutrition in 21st century England. People will freeze and be unable to eat hot food. Utilities essential for hygiene and health like water and electricity will be disconnected. Homelessness will soar. I can hardly bear to think about the spectacular wickedness perpetrated by this pernicious cancerous coalition.
 
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