The number of unpaid workers rose by over 10,000 people in the three months to September yesterday’s Labour Market Statistics revealed.
The number of people in “government supported training and employment programmes” – climbed by 11,000 to reach 175,000 – the highest figure since workfare began.
This could be due to an increase in unpaid work for young people with the launch of Traineeships in August. These schemes involve a period of up to five months working without a wage and are designed to ‘prepare’ people for taking up Apprenticeships, often at below the minimum wage. Predictably several major companies, including Boots and Kwik-fit, have been only to happy to take up this tax payer funded offer of free workers.
Young people cannot currently be forced to start on a Traineeships which are officially voluntary (UPDATE: at least the work experience element is). Such is the toxic regime at Jobcentres however, where claims can be sanctioned for ever more ludicrous reasons, it is likely many young unemployed people feel they have no choice but to work unpaid.
And even if this were not the case, Traineeships still represent a wealth grab by grasping employers. Some of the UK’s richest companies are exploiting young people’s very real fear of unemployment to convince them that they should work for nothing in jobs which would once have come with a wage.
Unpaid workers on these schemes are counted as employed, a handy distortion of the figures for a Government that claims they are bringing down unemployment. With the numbers in part-time work, precarious self-employment or workfare all at record levels, and wages falling far behind inflation, the true picture of the labour market is far from good news. Recent Housing Benefit statistics* show that the number claiming help with housing costs remains at record levels. Over 5 million people are on this benefit and for the first time, in July 2013, the number of working Housing Benefit claimants topped one million.
Other statistics published this week show that 522,000 people so far face the threat of homelessness due to the Bedroom Tax. Every measure of homelessness is already rising. The number of people dependent on foodbanks is soaring. If this is a recovery then what the fuck does a recession look like?
*The Housing Benefits statistics are now being released via the near incomprehensible DWP Stat-Xplore website.
Join the Week of Action Against Workfare beginning on December 2nd, please spread the word.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
oh there a joke arnt they.
You CANNOT encourage employment by DISCOURAGING employers to EMPLOY.
Working for free is NOT EMPLOYMENT.
A simple concept that still eludes governement it seems.
We do all we can at the salivation army to give the unemployed a good work ethic, up to date CV and references whilst they are on workfare scheme with us. When they finish their workfare stint we always offer them a job as a volunteer to.
pavlovian
there is nothing good about a work ethic, unless it has a pay ethic…ie a fair days work for a fair days pay or it demoralises, erodes self esteem, and one feels worthless..coz, that is what one is being told,”not worth paying”..
But you ARE being paid! What do you think Jobseeker’s Allowance is for?
blue
jsa is paid for actively seeking work, and to provide a very basic level of subsistence for a very short period of time…workfare is not actively seeking work, it is doing unpaid work, and is far below the living wage requirement in a cash dependant culture such as ours…ie by contrast pension guaranteed credit, is paid at a much higher rate because it will meet long term financial needs..
The clue is in the name Job SEEKERS. NOT working people who are seeking work, IF it was called a Wage or a Salary.. that would mean they are being paid to work.. Forced Volunteering Is not volunteering.
Forced Volunteering Is not volunteering…. unless it is mandatory!
It used to be called unemployment benefit and there was no conditionality, the people who were employed in the labour exchanges found the unemployed PAID work and not left entirely to the unemployed.
are blue rinses carcinogenic?
Workfare is increasing the dependency culture because it is not paying a fair days work for a fair days pay. So those that say unemployment should not be a lifestyle choice had better stop telling people to work for free.
Modelling like page 3 may become a thing of the past if the politically correct brigade get their way.
Rubbish
You are exploiting people !!!
im curious to hear from anyone who has just left the 2 yr work program and what kind of whatever it is the dwp are putting them thru, in my case im being harrased by some person calling me up every week, from another city to the one im living in, sometimes twice, checking up on me, i havnt signed any new agreement, but they threaten with a sanction on every occasion. apparntly i have to produce between 30 – 40 actions per fortnight, i did not agree to this, but im being forced to agree under the usual threats and bullshit..id love to know what rights i have in this situation as it seems to me the dwp (surprise surprise) havnt got a clue..
at the end of the day i dont want to deal with some faceless person a 100 miles away on a phone, after every call it has left me utterly depressed, which i guess is the point.. any tips info etc would be apprieciated.
i would say that was breach of contract by the dwp.
I have been informed that I will be required to spend 35 hours a week at the WP Providers office “Helping the unemployed finding employment” I find this a bit ironic,they have done SF-A over the last 2 years and now I am supposed to help these TWATS out? and they will be paid (more than my £71.70 pw) to supervise me? I must of lost the plot! Does anybody know where I can sign up for the £70K per year benefits line? and any help finding “The Hidden Jobs” that apparently are just begging to be filled!
no your not qualified to get paid for it your qualifier to do it for nothing though.
Nuggy
That’s so they have someone to blame when things go wrong or something may have gone missing – from workfare to jail bait.
You’re doing what! Spending 35 hours a week at the WP provider’s office. I came off the WP about two months ago and I’m on PWPS. I’m continuing to sign on every fortnight, and I’ve only seen my hit-squad adviser on two occasions and that’s it.
May I ask how long you’ve been off the WP? This is the first time I’ve heard of this, is this on your JSAg?
Why not start a thread on the Unemployment Forum? There’s lots of help and advice there.
cheers, never heard of that forum before, looks usefull..
I came off the WP two months ago. I sign on once a fortnight and have seen my hit-squad adviser only twice. I haven’t been asked to sign a new JSAg either. My adviser has been fairly decent, so far. Although, what he’ll be like in April when I’ll probably still be unemployed remains to be seen. I don’t know how old you are. I’m in my fifties; they don’t seem to be giving us old uns’ too much grief. I guess they figure we’re Brian Jones: dead in the water. The WP was the same; anyone over forty was parked/dumped. I’ve been doing the same number of activities for the past two years: 7 in all. No one checks up on me. I have to evidence my job search but they can’t stipulate how it’s evidenced. I just write mine down on several sheets of A4 and my adviser is quite happy with it. No one calls me. I get the odd email from my adviser about the latest vacancies and that’s it. I hope this is of some help to you.
I am near your age and lets be realistic employers are not interested in us. Anyone over 40’s is scrap as far as employers are concerned. With no skills the WP is flogging a dead horse aren’t they. Why can’t they see this?
My problems began thanks to Thatcher and they i.e. politicians etc even accept people like me as the ” lost generation” so why are they giving us such a hard time now for not being employable?
Youngsters of today the new “lost generation” will be exactly the same as me in twenty years time. Always the Conservatives destroy peoples futures when they’re in office.
cheer up, if you’re being parked then if you get older and get cancer or Alzheimers (as happened at my WPP and previous Work Schemes) they’ll suddenly be dragging you out in the middle of winter to dig ditches, make fences, or clear scrubland/wasteland of vegetation. That is the new caring compassionate conservatism from David Cameron. We’re All In The Shit Together (except for the entities actually CONSTRUCTED of shit, that are running the show.) Got a bad back, stroke, cerebral palsy? Here is a pickaxe or pneumatic drill, dig up that road slaves! (all three conditions also featured in the schemes I’ve either been in or witnessed) Dying? Oh you have 7 months to live not 6? So we will send you on workfare and reduce your waiting time and burden on the state by existing, get in a nice comfy grave at the end of it – till we sell your grave and dig up your body to make room for more bodies. This happened to people on my schemes too. And somebody not dying yet but with Parkinson’s disease, he got sent on the scrub clearing job by the way.
63 year old female is ordered to apply for job as pole dancer. If a computer tells her to and she doesn’t, chances are she’ll get sanctioned.
Convicted murderers get more rights and facilities than the unemployed get… If you are the right type of multiple murderer, in a uniform or suit, they don’t jail you – they promote you and you get medals, a knighthood, possibly a government department…
something survived
we’ll have the hs2 line dug in no time…
You are correct. Life expectancy for us is declining, We are a useless surplus for the financiers that would like to transform England in a theme park of charming cottages and well behaved servants, a theme park lucratively attracting investments from the world nouveaux riches.
The human detritus left behind by their policies is what spoiling the picture.
From their point of view we are lowering the standards of the neighbourhood!!
They are hoping we will use freedom of movement laws and get a one way ticket to the Eastern Bloc.
M Ghost
My sincere sympathies. I attend JCP with my BF when he signs as well as attending for myself (I still have approx another 9 mths on WP) – he is in the same boat as you. He finished the WP a month ago. This new regime is so utterly spiteful and vindictive, I honestly don’t know how long he will stand it before he cracks:
They have given him 40 job-searching actions per week (but not in writing, which will be an advantage if they ever try to sanction him); he must sign on in a different town every week (to get him used to traveling for work); he has to ring his adviser everyday and must attend a literacy and numeracy course for 13 wks with In-Training, starting end Nov, even though he has a degree in English (?1?). When the course is complete, he will attend the JCP everyday until further notice. When he signs, he must not only provide evidence of his job search activity for that week, but for the previous month on a rolling basis. He has to provide a contact name and phone number for every job application, whether it’s an advertised vacancy or speculative. If he visits an employer’s premises, he must get a letterhead or compliments slip signed and dated.
His adviser keeps harassing him about refusing access to his UJM account – he mentions it at every appointment. On Wed, said it could be interpreted as deliberately hampering his own job prospects as his adviser is being ‘prevented’ from helping him. When I asked how they managed to help clients before the miracle of UJM came along, he didn’t answer- just said he was making their job harder. When I asked where it was mandated that benefit claimants must help JCP staff do their job, especially when that job is to persecute and punish them, he asked me to leave. I finished by saying that as my bf has a land-line phone with an answering machine (won’t give his mobile either), there can be no doubt raised about his contactability (if there is such a word),
Ever since the WP ended for him, my BF has changed – it’s hit him really hard. He’s not normally a nervous type but now He’s suffering from insomnia, he’s unresponsive a lot of the time, and he constantly says things like ‘I’m going to be sanctioned this week, I know it’. He is, to all intents, a nervous wreck. I haven’t seen him smile once in the last 4 weeks.
I don’t know what to suggest to help you – we’re still working how out to respond to all this crap. But I do wish you luck.
logic tells me this is revenge on the benefit entitled, then add the depression caused by oppression = behaviourism, which i am known to detest, which imo is the only emotional reaction to these things..
I’ve convinced him to see his GP – get some beta blockers or something before he has a coronary with all the worry.
Ambulance service and A&E going to be busy as a result of all this nonsense, I think.
kim
imho, he has to inform himself of the system and assert his rights, asserting his rights will clear his mind…this site is worth a look + any other grassroots sites
http://www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/….
Thanks will certainly have a look. Personally I think the amount of stuff he has to do to ensure his eligibility is not reasonable – we’re looking at challenging that to take the pressure off a bit. 40 actions per week is excessive.
92. We cannot specify to a JSA claimant how they provide us with records of their jobsearch activity and Universal Jobmatch will not change this – it is not therefore possible to require JSA claimants to give DWP access to their Universal Jobmatch account.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/174779/response/429410/attach/html/3/Davies%204159%20WDTK%20Response.pdf.html
lucozade
we knew about this, thanks to blogs like this one. But thanks for the link, I hadn’t actually seen it – will be printing it off for next week. It seems the JCP staff are not aware of it, or hope that claimants aren’t.
The dwp has made me a nervous wreck, i am signed off due to depression and anxiety..the dwp broke me..Hope things work out ok with you and your BF Kim.
Thanks Eric – hope things work out for you too.
They’re might look bamboozled/scoff at or dismiss it, but when they go away to check, come back & ‘accept’ it grudgingly with any caveat/s they can think of – then perhaps try to pick holes in other ways instead (your face is too serious/not serious enough/there’s an ‘r’ in the month) – as recently experienced.
(they might …)
The JCP staff are well aware if it, and if they say they’re not – then they’re bunch of f*****g liars!
wow, your bf seems to be in a worse predicament than me and my heart goes out, but as others have said, plenty of sites that will help, unfortunatly plenty of people in the same boat..
ive noticed, thru a bit of research that peopleon the old
post work program nonsense, seem to be getting different scenarios, there doesnt seem to be a fixed pattern or consistancy, which means the dwp havnt got a clue what to do with us all and are making it up on the spot, i agree their aim is to sanction, get us off those unemployment lists, but im guessing they are resorting to pycological torture, even those of us that are thick skinned bastards, can be eventually broken,,,,,,at the end of the day all i want is a job, their actions do nothing to help but only hinder, but they dont care as long as those targets are met, thats what all this is about,
numbers on a screen.
ps/ who are the decision makers, these mysterious beasts. do they have a web address, a phn number, an office. WHO ARE THEY?
you’re right about the inconsistency – I’ve just spoken to a friend in another county who left WP a few weeks ago and they aren’t making her do anything different – fortnightly signings and job search diary as usual. She says they’re being nice to her….
You not think the ‘inconsistency’ is deliberate though because it confuses the situation. Not all jobseekers appear to be all in the one boat at the same time but don’t know what boat they will be placed in from one day to the next. There could also be a bit of ‘experimentation’ going on to see which ‘tactics’ result in the greatest ‘off-flow’ from JSA but there does seem to be a wide variance in the way jobseekers are being treated. And how are jobseekers being ‘selected’ for whatever ‘tactic’ is deemed appropriate; there seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes which we don’t know about – all very creepy and Nazi-ish!
Around this time last year i was told that each JCP manager has (sort of) carte blanc to do as they feel best (within some broad guidelines, presumably) & that every job seeker is treated “individually” as thought best (for them – not really) – as decided by their adviser & presumably in conjunction with
their manager/s if necessary. By devolving like this there’re greatly reduced chances on many specific occasions to draw a comparison with what’s ‘reasonable’ vis-a-vis what’s being done elsewhere (in other jcps, let alone within a jcp) & try to argue against something/ask for a revision/review = dilution; separation & increased isolation.
Your friend should tell their doctor about the symptoms he is experiencing. Get referred for counselling, if he has concerns about cognitive counselling remember the waiting list is likely to be very, very long and the phrase “waiting for counselling” shows that he is being proactive (slowly,but that’s not his fault is it). Whether or not to take medication ?- it can be a huge risk but not quite the same as taking a prescription.
When I was referred to In-Training they had an information booklet which detailed their comprehensive equalities and anti-bullying policies. I don’t know if this is still the same but if it is make sure they know how he is feeling and make allowances. They have a duty of care to trainees, make them honour it. Mention that he has seen the doctor and that the advisor at the job centre is being unhelpful because the advisor does not understand the claimants full situation.
I did Adult Numeracy at another “training provider”, they said that everyone had to do either literacy or numeracy depending on which they were worst at because that was what the funding covered. Having only got a maths O’ level I had to do numeracy but there were accountants and teachers doing it as well. It was mildly diverting as we made it take up as much time as possible by insisting on wanting more practice to get the maximum score. To impress employers of course.
Stress is a major factor in heart attacks… but that is the whole point isn’t it! Death by stealth!
Malnutrition is also a major factor in heart attacks; lack of proper nutrition amongst other things knocks the ionic balance off the heart out of kilter leading to cardiac arrhythmia and heart attack; this is one of the first effects of malnutrition. Again, death by stealth!
Death by STEALTH!!
Kim
I came off the work programme in July , so I was one of the first to be referred back to the jobcentre and the hit squad advisor – I’m in my 50`s , found myself having too many useless long interviews at the job centre and referred to some skills course – like I`d never worked before (I’d just been on a 2 year coarse and they wanted me to go on another useless course- back to school at my age, (so obviously just a useless money making scheme for a parasite company ). I signed off and lived on the money saved for my funeral ( the state can pay now, I don’t care ), now I’m signing on again and it takes a good 2 days to recover from a jobcentre visit ( depression ) . I’ve decided to see if I can budget to live on the hardship provision, if I can get sanctioned for 2 years perhaps they will stop harassing me and making money from me . I’d rather live in this this than let them drive me to a metal breakdown — at my age the chance of getting a job is very low, I’ve been trying for years –Its a hamster wheel going no where — with the Jobcentre staff laughing thinking of new ways to poke the stupid old hamster struggling to run going no where for a sunflower seed and a peanut every 2 weeks.
“I’ve decided to see if I can budget to live on the hardship provision, if I can get sanctioned for 2 years perhaps they will stop harassing me and making money from me ”
Unfortunately Jonathan if you want hardship payment (and there’s no certainty that you will get it anyway) you still have to sign on as normal and be at their beck and call as usual. Don’t get sanctioned on purpose…that would be very silly.
I fail to see how any Jobcenter staffer can make anyone sign at a different jobcenter in another place. I would be surprised if a manager would allow for that.
You can only sign at the office that has your own files. If you have a genuine reason to sign at a place that is not in your local “catchment” area, for say caring for a relative, or it is in fact closer and easier to get to, which is what I do, (tho if I lived a few blocks up, probably would be asked to change), but I wouldn’t be able to go to some place at my usual signing time and say I couldn’t make it to my usual office, so come here instead. They wouldn’t accept it.
So…I don’t know what has gone on here. If they want anyone to go to another office, that has to be set up between offices. That other office has to have the claimants’ files. They can’t ask a person to go to office X one week and then to office Z the next and so on . It’s either office X or office Z all the time.
Unless they are starting something entirely new with computers. It would seem rather, the particular advisor is going off on a personal whim here.
There is something quite wrong with this set up and it has to be properly challenged.
Also, regards these literacy courses, etc. there is no sense whatsoever sending someone to these things if they are all ready literate and numerate, etc.
These courses cost money. Why waste it on ppl who don’t need it ?
I do know, however, that in some cases DWP staffers are out to make life as difficult as possible for ppl. That a mere asking of questions can be deemed as “aggressive” or being “non compliant”.
Like the concept of going to an employer to ask for a date stamp to prove you’ve been there. This is not going to go down well with employers at all
But alas….these ideas are dreamed up by jerks at Westminster who don’t live in reality.
As has been said, it is not about helping anyone, but about criminalizing them!
Gordon Keane
These courses cost money. Why waste it on ppl who don’t need it ?
Don’t be naive they are scams, the companies that run them get a certain amount per head– Tax payer’s money. They don’t care if you can read or write, the courses are so dumb one no would go voluntarily and certainly no one would pay their own money to attend. It’s just another corrupt government scam to redirect money to their buddies
The best thing for homeless people to do is pitch a tent in the garden of their nearest Tory MP.
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Toxic is the right word for them. There’s always the odd one in the jobcentre who positively enjoys making life hell. Can’t get a job is depressing enough then they positively delight in making you jump through hoops knowing it’s pointless. What goes round comes round I believe, Karma will catch up with them.
If you need Free Advice on your Rights try Fightback as they have lots of information on Benefits and Rights
you can smell the fondoo bubbling at home and the ford zephyr in the driveway. Hear comes johnny and jane from their hard day on job creation.
Welcome back to the 70s when the torys ruled the land
Tommaz Jay
Sad to see yet another lost generation to tory ugenic dogma
ah, nostalgia, the smell of the alps, coupled to the sound of rattly tappets of a ford zephyr v4, what an awesome sight..
in real terms earnings are lower than they were a decade ago, and fewer people are earning….work readied, sq bashing = combat readied, sq bashing, this is national service by default, drilling, preparing for the day that will never come actual work with actual pay…
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/regional-trends/regional-economic-analysis/changes-in-real-earnings-in-the-uk-and-london–2002-to-2012/art-changes-in-real-earnings-in-the-uk-and-london–2002-to-2012.html#tab-abstract
Workfare not working!!! I disagree Mr Void, Workfare is working just fine for us. We can’t wait till April next year when the unemployed will be sent to us in their tens of thousands to work for 6 months plus free for us. We’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. 🙂
4 months into another 2 years on ESA and I haven’t seen my hit squad adviser yet, don’t know if they have tried to contact me. maybe they are waiting until the last 6 months as I totally blew them out of the water with a letter asking why they made claimants see hit squad advisers from the start.
Scientific breakthrough announced
Global experts have discovered a way to tell a jobcentre plus sanctioneer from a dog turd.
Administer an IQ test to both.
The dog turd is the one that passes.
‘Some of the UK’s richest companies are exploiting young people’s very real fear of unemployment to convince them that they should work for nothing in jobs which would once have come with a wage.’ This is the real threat — the growing culture of unpaid work, so that even apart from fear of unemployment, people will start to feel that they don’t deserve a wage, haven’t enough experience, skill, etc., and ought to work for nothing indefinitely in the hope of someday proving themselves worthy.
And as you suggest, even if it’s technically voluntary, it’s still wrong for people to work unpaid. I suppose that genuine ‘volunteers’ — not on benefits and under no pressure — provide a useful service, although the existence of ‘volunteerism’ (especially for old people who feel they need to justify their existence) muddies the waters when workfare is being promoted. But in the case of people on benefits it should be positively illegal to employ them to work without wages, because the pressure is always there.
Welfare is dead. People without jobs will need to find other means of survival. Maybe that’s what we should be discussing; why put up with this punishment, which is so obviously all the benefit system is?
Workfare: A jolly good idea! And about bloody time too!
Evenin’, yer lordship. Pick ’em out cheap here! Three pair for a ha’penny, bootlaces. Garn!
A fair days pay for a fair days work!
Bollocks.
From January 2014 in order to receive Jobseeker’s Allowance (the clue is in the title) jobseekers will be mandated to crawl backwards over broken glass whilst whistling Colonel Bogey.
You mother fucker you. You know you’re a fuckin’ mumbling stuttering little fuck, you know that! What if I were just to kick the ever-loving shit out of you?
From May 2015 you will have more time to spend with your money. Hurray!
Reblogged this on Translation Scrapbook.
Some of these stories are very moving. I know how it affects me when when I hear about sanctions on the news, and the shame I feel about being unemployed.
I am post work programme and at the moment I am attending a maths/english course at Working links.
I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why have you been sent on a maths/english course? Just from looking at what you’ve written here, you seem to have a reasonable standard of literacy- certainly better than many I’ve seen online!
Because a lot of the post WP schemes will try and force you to take literacy/numeracy courses,even if you have a maths or English O level or GCSE.It is pathetic.
Whenever i get sent to do those i always want to deliberately fail and put the wrong answers..
I wouldn’t be surprised then if they even send graduates on those courses. However, there is no way that I will be going on one. If they tried, I reckon I could easily provide examples of my ‘advisor’s’ written or spoken English leaving a lot to be desired.
I’ve been made to take literacy tests and was nearly sanctioned because I was half asleep and knackered and still got 100% every time. They thought I’d somehow faked or cheated. There were even errors in the tests. Which I pointed out to the illiterate ‘experts’ at WPP. They needed MY help to write other people’s CV’s and application forms, (and clean their staff kitchen and make the drinks and fix the computers and chairs, and clean the room), and to write their own forms and reports on people! Their spelling was so bad it makes my friend’s remedial class she teaches, look like mini Einsteins.
The JCP staff, by the way, no longer know where their own forms are kept, and have a shaky grasp of their own rules.
Apparently the WPP don’t want you to score 100% as they don’t get paid, you are meant to make an improvement. So they can take credit for making you more intelligent! Though everything there is designed with the central purpose of destroying the intellect utterly, and wiping out all traces of individuality and humanity. For the staff as well as for the slaves sent to it.
I’ve been forced to complete Literacy & Numeracy tests several times, regardless of the fact that I have O-Levels in Maths & English, not to mention a BA (Hons.) Degree.
How did they force you to take them, Landless Peasant? Did they threaten you with sanctions if you refused?!
Well, I for one I currently attending a literacy course at A4e. If authoring such fine works, indeed literary masterpieces such as War & Peace, Anna Karenina andThe Death of Ivan Ilych isn’t enough to escape these infernal ‘courses’ I don’t know what is!
same here mate, these ‘literacy courses’ are doing me ‘ed in!!
iz al bout inployableity matey… we gotta maik shure u r job reedy!!!!
a4e litarucy tuta- worryingly, that is about the level of some of the staff I’ve come across!
Only in Tory land will free workers be a good thing.. (of course Labourland shares a common border) No wonder the jobs figures are falling
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Have you seen this… http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/13/godfrey-bloom-voting_n_4265985.html Godfrey Bloom: Ban Unemployed People From Voting
… and the reduction of the status of the unemployed to equal that of convicted criminals will be almost complete…next stop, incarceration of those unemployed for longer than 6 mths….
I think we have been here before.. dont want to invoke a certain law.. but..
eric greenwood
but you can counter it with another law, that states when any group of people discuss tyranny, some fool is bound to evoke the unmentionable law you refer to…
Eric
aw, go on….you know you want to…as a remedy for my shameful ignorance if nothing else. Being fairly new to this blog, if you’ve discussed this issue before I must have missed it. I don’t want to expose the gaps in my knowledge by admitting that I don’t know what mysterious law you’re referring to… but I have no idea what you’re referring to. So if you could point me in right direction of prior discussion would appreciate it…. (I’m not being sarcastic – I really would like to read it)….
kim
godwins law
Godwins Law. I think. Google it.
Thank you, kind sirs (or madams)…. I will educate myself immediately.
Ah now I’ve read about Godwin’s Law, if I’ve understood it correctly, I have to point out that I never mentioned Hitler or Nazis; and If my post was hyperbolic, I say it was not inappropriate hyperbole, an exaggerated comparison used to win a debate in the absence of any true understanding of the issue or an inability to construct a compelling case without resorting to such; I argue that it was an appropriate response to an article that was clearly intended to provoke such a hyperbolic response.
Besides, wherever the bullying and oppression of one group by another raises it’s ugly head, we should always remember what the Nazis did and purposely compare our behaviour with theirs so that we know how far we’ve crossed the line of decency. If there is any comparison to be made, even to the tiniest degree, make it and be damned, I say. I don’t accept that the minute you do you’ve lost.
Kim I used the Godwins law myself.you did nothing wrong.. People use the phrase godwins law to deny the truth.. I lost family in the pogroms, entire branches of my family in dachau and auscwitz, I have my great aunts last words about what happened then the real truth. Some people generally after seeing a real comparison between the past and today say oh its godwins law and you are dismissed it. it dismissed even if it is a fact. so thats why i put i hesitate to invoke the law because I can see link between then and now as any right minded person can see the repetition of horrors beginning.
Similar sort of treatment against the unemployed as occured at that time. they were called workshy, they were called mouth breathers, They had their rights taken away, they were sent to forced work camps for the good of the state.. and so on.. The fact is either conciously or subconciously the tories and Ukip and labour are repeating the Horrors of the rise of facism. the demonisation, the hatred.. even the hate against the sick and disabled you can see a parallel..
I see the hate, the demonisation, the propaganda against the sick/disabled/unemployed, when even IDS used the phrase work sets you free, I fear if things carry on we will have a repeat of it.. If I state this connection Godwins law is invoked to dismiss what i have said.. thats why i said i hesitate to invoke it but it still is true..
🙂
Organisation Todt
Imagine going up to those guys in the picture (Eduard Dieti and Albert Speer) and challenging them about say, the unfairness of workfare “Excuse me gentlemen, but don’t you think it is unfair that your business, the Todt Organisation is being supplied with free labour through the Reich Labour Service Plus”); they look the type that would just pull out a gun, shoot you through the head and carry on with their conversation as if nothing had happened.
The jobcentres, work programme and their collaborators already are doing what the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD) did i.e. ‘selecting’ jobseekers into two piles; the ones that can be worked to death, and the ‘useless’ ones who will immediately be put to death. OK, we don’t have the gas chambers up and running (but how would be know if they were, would the ‘media’ tell us) but maybe during the initial phases of Hitler’s regime they weren’t either. But is is the same people in the same offices doing the same jobs, only another time, another place.
There are plenty of people mainly in USA who to this day claim the holocaust never happened. If Nazi Germany had won the war the official propaganda would be it never happened, that it’s anti Nazi propaganda e.g. never were 6 million Jews in Europe, or they were killed by the Russians etc.
It’s easy to write history. And every one would be to scared to say otherwise
Dear Mr & Ms Jacob Cohen
You and YOUR FAMILY have been refereed to the following OPPORTUNITY, FAMILY CAMP.
You are required to REPORT to FRITZ TODZ of THE TODZ ORGANISATION at BERLIN RAILWAY STATION at 4AM for TRANSPORTATION to AUSCHWITZ FAMILY CAMP.
No PERSONAL BELONGINGS are allowed.
If you neglect to avail of this OPPORTUNITY your benefits and/or National Insurance Contributions will be affected.
SIEG HEIL
Fritz Todz
for MANAGER
THE TODZ ORGANISATION – WORKING TOGETHER WITH JOB CENTRE PLUS TO TRANSFORM LIVES
ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Crime is going to rise as more people shoplift because they can’t pay for things rather then because they won’t pay for things. And as more and more people are affected who are not disabled, unrest will start to bubble over.
Hi, Thanks for the compliment!,
CKs right about these courses though , In a comment further up the page a poster called Kim said her boyfriend is being made to do one of these courses and he’s got a degree in english!.
At the moment that’s just what they are doing to anyone who comes off the workprogramme.
There are laid-off professors of English and Psychology (redundant due to the Cuts) being sent on these courses. Often the people delivering the actual courses look about 16; and know about the same number of facts about anything, as the age they look. In many cases it is also the number of words they can correctly spell.
Ironic they send us on literacy courses, when the main Job Opportunity they want to funnel us into is Shelf Stacking.
Can anyone help?
A few weeks ago the job centre staff who saw me told me I had to apply for a job they found for me. It read like a regular call for models by an agency. As I’d done modelling before this was something that the staff told me I had to apply for as it fitted my skills. I told them that it was just a call to be placed on their books and wasn’t a job. But they didn’t listen and said it would be treated the same way as an interview and I must apply. I found out about the agency and it’s a seedy one woman escort/massage business which I have no intention of working for. Today I was told because I didn’t apply for the job I’m to be sanctioned. What can I do? Isn’t this sexual discrimination or something?
No, you cannot be sanctioned for this, and as Eric said, ask to speak to the Jobcentre manager and consider putting in a complaint. Also if you have (or can get) anything on paper from them asking you to apply for this job, with the name of the agency, then feel free to scan it in and send it over to johnnyvoid01@gmail.com if you’d like this to have wider attention, it can be done without you being identified if you wanted.
Universal Jobmatch is a Godsend to perverts. They just have to spam a few hundred ads with slightly different locations asking for ladies to apply for a waitressing job by sending photos as well as their personal information contained in their CV. They can then sit back and wait for Job Centre Plus to force people with the threat of sanction to send them their details so they can masterbate to them, or heaven forbid request applicants to come for an interview.
Everyone should avoid Universal Jobmatch as much as possible and never give the Jobcentre access.
Document everything.. everything you have found out about the business.. and say it is an adult escort/massage job.Show the manager the job details. Should your bungling Jobcentre advisor attempt to force you to apply for sex work then ask to speak to the Jobcentre manager immediately. https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/yet-more-government-enforced-sex-work/
And for dessert, send off applications in the name of all the jobcentre staff who made you apply, for the same vacancy or a worse one. This works even better if they are male. (That is to say, specific staff who were specifically and deliberately horrible)
Or hack their facebook and get their pics to post on sex sites.
There is the scene in Beverly Hills Cop where the cop, Axel Foley, walks into the bad guy’s posh club and pretends to be a camp gay man that’s his lover: he got a disease so has to tell his lover to get himself checked out
(okay the scene is now pretty dated/homophobic) but it is quite funny the looks on the faces of the bad guy and the posh people.
Get the names of top people like oh as a random example Esther McVey and report them for benefit fraud. (After all it is technically true)
Do places like DWP attract the perverts, or what?!
What gets them off is stopping someone’s benefit and getting them thrown out on the street. The security guards do a bad job of hiding the rush the power gives them.
The joke is they are breaking the law. By forcing you to apply for a job where, whether self-employed or a trafficked slave, you can be charged with indecency, ‘living off immoral earnings’, and other related offences – they ask you to break the law and put yourself in danger. Not so many workplaces have rape and violent assault, abduction and murder as realistic work hazards.
Another possible answer: Smile sweetly. Answer yes you will apply for the job, but: “I will apply for this job when YOU do.”
Everything we do is sexual… from the headmaster at school administering a thrashing… to the sexual pleasure obtained by the vibrations of a railway carriage… to jobcentre staff ‘getting off’ on administering brutal sanctions. Of course these barbarians obtain sexual gratification from their despicable actions!
Jobcentre staff are becoming extremely abusive and vindictive these days. I swear one day I will jump over the desk and rip my advisers throat out. I’ve had enough of the cunts abuse.
No doubt lots of people feel the same way.
I am a gentle giant.. i abhor violence in every form… however i have gotten to the stage of fantasizing about sending all these dwp/job centre into a home made torture chamber..
If people do not complain about the abuse dished out by their JCP adviser things will never change. Complain people!!!
…. and get sanctioned 🙂
Fuck the Jobcentre! The staff are rude, ignorant, dumbass nazis. No wonder people work in jobcentres. Real employers would not employ them as they are fucking ugly, thieving twats and cannot find a decent job that does not involve screwing money out of desperate jobseekers on a daily basis. Sanction me once more and I will personally seek legal advice from a top lawyer in the European Court of Human Rights.
I used to be one of the job centre staff years before they became so toxic..but i got better.. call it a temporary madness
I propose a Godwin’s law 2.0
The longer a society denies it’s policies are approaching fascism the more likely it is that they are already.
November 14, 2013 at 8:31 pm
The differences between the promise of a cleansing shower and the use of Zyklon “B” Gas and the exercise of completion of an ESA 50 and an unbiased ATOS examination are non existent………….
Both were skilfully engineered to take away lives at an alarming rate………………
My plans to infiltrate the British Government have been completed. I am now working to brain-wash the twathead Prime Minister into giving me the keys to the nuclear device codes. This will be fucking easy to do as he has peanuts for brains and looks like an ugly hyena. From then, I will explode a nuclear bomb in every jobcentre and kill all the fucking nonce jobless people. Sieg Heil!
Cathy Come Home
The play tells the story of a young couple, Cathy (played by Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks). Initially their relationship flourishes and they have a child and move into a modern home. When Reg is injured and loses his well-paid job, they are evicted by bailiffs, and they face a life of poverty and unemployment, illegally squatting in empty houses and staying in shelters. Finally, Cathy has her children taken away by social services.
Our ultimate plan is to force every jobseeker to attend daily sessions with our partner providers. If you turn up either one minute early or one minute late to your agreed session time, we will stop your JSA for a first offence of four weeks. If you seek advice or complain about this decision of ours, we will increase your JSA sanction to three months. Hard-fucking cheese if you are on the Work Programme. We are the rulers, you are the poor, destitute slaves that help us to lie and cheat in order to keep our cushy, lazy jobs.
Very Important:
DWP Decision Makers Memo: Community Work Placements and Traineeships.
Posted on 14/11/2013 by http://www.refuted.org.uk
This memo provides guidance to DMs on the changes introduced by the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Schemes for Assisting Persons to Obtain Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 (JSA (SAPOE) Amdt Regs), (SI 2013 No 2584).
“A claimant must agree to go on a traineeship, and once they have agreed, they are then mandated to attend the training elements. However, a claimant cannot be mandated to take part in the Work experience element of Traineeships.“
Download: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/256982/m-24-13.pdf (pdf)
View online: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/256982/m-24-13.pdf
From: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/decision-makers-guide-memos-staff-guide
http://refuted.org.uk/2013/11/14/workfaretraineeships/
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May I inform readers/contributors to this blog that impersonation of Government Ministers on social media websites is now a CAPITAL offence. This Legislation can and WILL be applied retrospectively.
We are working for you
Iain Duncan Smith MP
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this may be a little off topic,but today i accidently came across a disgusting litlle bbc propaganda show called “saints and scroungers” the intersting thing is that when the “scroungers” were caught their “punishment” for “scrounging” was to do unpaid work,am i wrong in thing “workfare” is punitive “unpaid work”,,,moral of the tale..”you cant fucking win were doomed”
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