A damning report has been published by Homeless Link which reveals that one third of homeless people on unemployment benefits, and just under a fifth of those on the sickness and disability benefit Employment Support Allowance, have had benefits stopped or sanctioned for failing to carry out ‘Work Related Activity’.
According to Homeless Link, who are an umbrella body for homelessness organisations, many of those sanctioned have mental health conditions, learning disabilities or substance use problems. Young homeless people and non-English speakers also face a higher risk of sanction.
Around one million benefit claims are expected to be sanctioned this year. Sanctions can now last up to three years and leave people dependent on discretionary Hardship Payments – which are being converted into loans and are not available to everyone – of just £43 a week. Claimants can be sanctioned for an ever growing list of offences, including missing a meeting with an advisor, failure to complete ‘mandated’ activity on the Work Programme or failing to attend workfare.
The DWP claim these brutal measures help motivate people to look for work, a shockingly out of touch viewpoint which is shamefully shared by several homelessness organisations themselves who participate in workfare schemes.
The reality is that sanctions lead to abject poverty, where finding money for the next meal takes precedence over any form of longer term planning. According to Homeless Link, sanctions are driving recently housed homeless people into arrears and evictions, whilst those in temporary accommodation such as hostels are unable to pay the weekly service charges which must be met out of benefits. The report also claims that sanctions are making mental health or substance use problems worse for many homeless people. In the words of one person interviewed: “you try to get back on your feet and you’re smacked back down”.
With Jobcentre staff working to unofficial targets to sanctions as many claims as possible, it is hardly surprising that it is the most vulnerable claimants who are targeted. According to the report:
“Several survey respondents said their clients were sanctioned after missing appointments with Jobcentre Plus because of ill health or hospital appointments. One reported that a client was sanctioned whilst he was in hospital recovering from a heart attack. A homeless man described how he received a sanction despite rearranging his interview in advance so he could take his daughter to a hospital appointment.”
The report also warns that the benefit sanctioning regime is so widespread that it is now affecting homeless charities themselves, leading to some highly paid charity bosses almost dropping their vol-au-vents in concern. 22 organisations questioned for the report said they had increased the numbers of evictions or notices to quit they served on hostel or other supported housing residents. Hostel service charges can be anywhere from around a tenner to 30-40 quid a week, a fortune to homeless people but not a huge amount to homeless charities.
Utter cunts – when will this tyranny end?
I’m so upset after reading this. All I’m thinking is “What the F***.” Why are the Government or the puppet masters they work for (as they’re not working for the people) pushing people so far. Do they want everyone to kill themselves. Survival of the fittest? Does it really have to get this bad? What about cutting MPs wages and expenses. Oh, I forgot, MAN writes all the rules for Government. May God give us strength to get through such dark times.
@johnnyvoid added to which is the fact that housing associations are taking over homeless hostels in order to gain more business so that CEOs of housing associations can increase their bonusses
then add to the fact that localism bill prevents some people from moving because of a NIMBYist ‘we dont want your sort in our posh boroughs’..then to muddle it all further the bedroom tax forcing people to move..
IS THERE SOMETHING FUCKED UP WITH THIS GOVT? OH WAIT..OF COURSE THERE IS..
monstrous
Is it just me or are jv’s posts missing, mine goes from today’s post back to the 13th of september and beyond??
comments are overlapping recent postings on the right of our comments on your web page.
am looking into it, think it’s a wordpress glitch, all recent posts seem to be available from the right hand menu
@johnny void the comment box is overlapping onto right hand column text the ‘post comment’ box either disappears or hidden behind the other text.
I guess wordpress are not happy with this site or our comments.
I wonder what will happen to the money charity bosses have siphoned away
before their charities go down the pan because of boycotts?
@fawkes its not the firs it time this blog and many others like it have been ‘got at’..it does make you wonder
@FAWKES wordpress today JV blog looks messed up with parts overlapping onto other parts -the post comment button goes missing. some times
I’m having the same problem
Difficult to believe that things can have degenerated quite this far in only three years. I never thought that nay British government, not even a right-wing Tory government, would behave quite so brutally or cruelly towards any of this country’s citizens. I can hardly take it in. How can such a thing possibly be allowed to go on and to worsen?
What happens if the Tories win the next election? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Actually, what happens if Labour win?
“Actually, what happens if Labour win?”
“It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Homeless jobseekers hit hard by benefit cuts
Tough new sanctions regime ‘is pushing people into petty crime’
Homeless people looking for work are being disproportionately hit by government benefit sanctions. One in three homeless people on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) have been penalised with a cut in their benefits, compared to just three per cent of jobseekers overall, according to research by the charity Homeless Link.
http://welfaretales.wordpress.com/category/sanctions-2/
“‘Stealing to eat’ cases increase as austerity bites”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/25/stealing-to-eat-cases-rise
Annos your okay you have a choice of home spun parties in Scotland –
we’re stuck with those who are all in it together.
Guy fawkes,
I don’t think so!!!.
“Atos, KPMG and the NHS. Be afraid. Be very afraid”
http://dpac.uk.net/2013/09/atos-kpmg-and-the-nhs-be-afraid-be-very-afraid/#comment-20363
“Salmond’s £1.7 million bung to KPMG is a kick in the teeth for taxpayers”
http://www.ianfraser.org/scottish-governments-1-7-million-bung-to-kpmg-beggars-belief/
Its all fixed no matter who you vote for!!!.
KPMG
http://dwpexamination.org/forum/the-governmants-agenda/how-atos-is-taking-over-the-nhs-by-stealth-under-a-different-name-kpmg-aka-atos/#p110428
@annos well despite all criticisms about ATOS they have got their snouts in the trough as they have been contracted to be involved in Universal Credit as i noted on previous blogs..
@annos
“A KPMG spokesman later confirmed that the firm is working with ‘just over 50′ CCGs and 11 CSUs.
Mr Rideout made the comments at the central London event on independent and third sector involvement with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and commissioning support services.
Mr Rideout said that CCGs did not have the capacity to commission in an effective way.
‘The key message that comes from CCGs is that commissioning support is absolutely essential if they are going to succeed,’ he said. ‘They do not have the capability within the CCGs themselves to commission in an effective way.
‘[NHS chief executive] Sir David Nicholson said that this is a change so big that you can see it from space, and that is still the case. KPMG works with about 50 CCGs currently and about half of CSUs so we have a great opportunity to talk to people on the ground about how the reforms are progressing.’
National clinical commissioning lead for England Dr James Kingsland told the attendees at the event that the NHS had probably lost too many managers.
He also said that clinicians on CCGs should not be involved in complex procurement, and he revealed that the ‘mood music’ across CCGs was mixed.
‘We are seeing a lot of misunderstandings, disillusionment and despondency’, he said.”
OH DO FUCK OFF….ITS JUST MORE SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH WE’RE NOT FUCKING STUPID…
annos
So I guess like the rest of us you don’t vote then?
Guy fawkes,
Where I live I only get a choice of three parties to vote for…
Con
NuLab
LibDem.
I make sure I vote, in each of the three boxes I write…
NO
NO
NO
If only enough people done the same the three main parties would have a BIG problem!.
Not really, cos they’d just rig it so at least one of the bigger parties wins. They’re all a con. Treasonists
Annos
I thought abstaining from voting was saying no, no,no to the parties on offer.
Labour Will win.
And before anyone starts banging on about what a bunch of
tossers Labour are (I agree), think very hard.
The purpose is to get the current gobshites out and then..
We make sure that Labour tows the line.
We have the power.
@bernadette look everybodys doing it, doing it, doing it….
Buckingham Palace uses zero-hours contracts for summer staff
The 350 part-time workers deployed during summer opening of royal family’s London residence have no guaranteed work
Buckingham Palace, a leading cinema chain and one of Britain’s best known art galleries are among a group of high profile employers who sign staff up to so-called “zero-hours” contracts to keep employment costs at a minimum.
Two days after it emerged that retailer Sports Direct employs 20,000 staff on zero-hours terms, the Guardian has established that the royal family’s London residence, along with Cineworld and the Tate galleries, hire workers under the controversial employment practice.
The 350 part-time employees deployed as extra staff during Buckingham Palace’s summer opening have no guaranteed hours. They work in the shop, greet visitors, and work as monitors in the rooms made open to the public.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/buckingham-palace-zero-hours-contracts
It was Labour who introduced Benefit sanctions in the first place, so they can fuck off.If I vote again at all it’ll probably be for the Green Party, unless we have a SWP candidate.
Not sure that voting for alleged rape apologists is such a wise idea.
Pingback: One Third Of Homeless People Hit By Benefit San...
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parliament.uk%2Fbriefing-papers%2Fsn02110.pdf&ei=03RAUszPHMa50QWp2oCwBw&usg=AFQjCNEsyzBxs6XWacysyvQCJfql7KzRcA&sig2=_nTVuqP5FdsRfh8LMdgLDg&bvm=bv.52434380,d.d2k
HOMELESS HOUSEHOLDS IN TEMP ACCOMADATION UK GOVT BREIFING PAPERS
““There were probably a very few people who were the most privileged, and many people who suffered,” Nafumann said.”
http://archaeology.org/news/1314-130920-norway-vikings-graves-slavery
No change there then!.
what is fundamentally wrong/dysfunctional about the BUSINESS model that envelopes these commercial charities…that does involve money, and lots of it, but excludes something else, as if the something else, can adapt to all manner of horrendous conditions and not be affected by them, and thrive inspite of these relentless pressures, and come up smiling, raquel rolnik spots this and highlights it very plainly, coz to her it stuck out like a sore thumb…so that no matter what, this something else is always blamed for not getting it right…human being…but treated as if stock…the whole point of these charities is to help those in need, but they exclude people for slightest and flimsiest of reasons, …i see a close link to this and the workhouse..where shelter provision is/was highly conditional…
“charities can’t take part in certain political activities, such as campaigning for a change in government”
‘About charities’, Charity Commision
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/start-up-a-charity/setting-up-a-charity/about-charities/
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/
“Legally, Corporate Watch is registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, which gives us the freedom to express our political opinions”
‘About Us’, Corporate Watch
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=58
‘Charity – “Anybody who gives to charity should be jailed”’, The Mark Steel Solution, BBC Radio 4, 11 Aug 1995
http://marksteelinfo.com/recordings/
@pardem 38 degrees has been campaigning against the ‘gagging’ law..obviously it will affect them but not wealthy donors to govt..
“If you give me a job log written by the most industrious, diligent of jobseekers, I will find something in it to sanction them.” 🙂
— Cardinal Richelieu (JCP Adviser)
Shame on you JCP Adviser. So unhappy in him or herself to push this hate onto others. A nice little ass licker who the Gov love.
jcp adviser…. First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
martin niemoller
overburdenddonkey,
Indeed, what I wonder will happen when those who own their own home find that their health insurance company find some excuse and won’t pay out to them when the NHS is fully privatised, they will find that as they have money in their house they will have to sell it to pay the bill, they will also find that any pension funds they have will have to be used as well. Same as becoming unemployed, money in house/pension fund, no help until it is used up first, that is if there is any welfare help still in existence (I won’t put a question mark there).
There are a lot of people that think none of this will affect them, they are going to be in for a VERY BIG shock, the very rich want it ALL.
annos…
usa here we come!
Harassing claimants with threats to their entitlements when there is nothing wrong with their job search.their just looking for it.G4S henchmen to back them up with unlawful killing under their belts.
they would do Hitler proud.
the word democracy in this country has all but disappeared.
ken
yeah, we are in a very frustrating position, we can only fight the best we can, against the tyranny we face on a daily basis, persist in getting the truth out there..the political agenda atm moment is to look away from our collective suffering, to pretend that poverty no longer exists, or if it does we are some how to blame for not elevating ourselves out of it, by not healing self of sickness and disability, and/or exaggerating it’s affects, and/or not gaining wondrous skills and abilities overnight, and/or not taking one of the millions of jobs currently (not) on offer. we now live in the ignorance is bliss culture, till it comes for them!
Reblogged this on Dawn Willis .
Heres a selection of some of the stupidest benefit sanctions from false economy:-
http://stupidsanctions.tumblr.com/
@THELOVELYWIBBLY ETC
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.
I said i bet this would happen.
I know @bobchewie, it’s just madness, that’s why it’s important that we highlight this stuff so that everyone gets to know about it
And that evil prick Chris Grayling whines about ‘attacking the rich’
Warped scumbag
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Vicar-hated-offer-roof-Newquay-homeless/story-14456288-detail/story.html#axzz2fkhPC1Nk
A VICAR has been branded “the most hated man in Newquay” for allowing homeless “scum” to use his church as an overnight refuge.
Chris McQuillen-Wright opened the doors of St Columb Minor church last month following the deaths of six rough sleepers on the resort’s streets in 2011.
so, disabled are scum. homeless are scum, unemployed are scum and criminal class ,
and private renters are criminals and drug dealers but wealthy people are saints and companies are working hard to the benefit of soceity…
“I was pretty confused upon reading this article. I am not a Christian man myself – I do not support religious beliefs at all, in fact – but in my eyes, if a church should be doing anything, anything at all, then it is this. Needless to say, this gave the story an entirely new dimension, and I was spurred on to create the following documentation of the homeless of Nequay…”
‘the homeless of newquay…’, SAMUEL MOORE | PHOTOGRAPHER, 12 Feb 2012
http://buildingcastlessam.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/homeless-of-newquay.html
@pardem very interesting piece i am a fan of BW photography and the article was very thoughful even quite honest in places ..of course there were ppl commenting on it trying to make the homeless look like monsters but i guess prejudice will keep on happening..shame
cynical I know, but is this not another way to get the “fallen” as described by the salvation army, into their churches, and be “saved”.
ps would it not be better to get their congregation to campaign about the evil government that is forcing them to be homesless?
“Benefit fraudsters face increased sentences of up to 10 years in jail”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/16/benefit-fraudsters-prosecutions-10-years-jail?view=mobile
“Former Cromwell Press director Andrew Hemmings was fined £1,000 at Swindon Crown Court last week (19 September) after admitting fraud.”
http://www.printweek.com/Business/article/1212840/ex-cromwell-press-director-sentenced/
“Cabinet reshuffle: David Laws returns to Government two years after resigning in disgrace over his expenses”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/9520622/Cabinet-reshuffle-David-Laws-returns-to-Government-two-years-after-resigning-in-disgrace-over-his-expenses.html
“In Britain, we have our own master illusions. Imagine someone on state benefits caught claiming £40,000 of taxpayers’ money in a second home scam. A prison sentence would almost certainly follow. David Laws, chief secretary to the Treasury, does the same and is described as follows:
“I have always admired his intelligence, his sense of public duty and his personal integrity” (Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister). “You are a good and honourable man. I am sure that throughout you have been motivated by wanting to protect your privacy rather than anything else.” (David Cameron, prime minister). Laws is “a man of quite exceptional nobility” (Julian Glover, the Guardian). A “brilliant mind” (BBC).”
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-black-art-of-news-management
@annos i dont see disgraced expenses fiddling MPs commiting suicide following allegations though..
Reblogged this on Benefit tales.
FUCK THIS CUNT-REE!!
Psychopaths are running this country. They need sectioning!
@JD some even write blogs eg paedo freindly ones..
Reblogged this on Vox Political.
Sadly,it’s a common human trait that, if an otherwise civilised person believes that he has official sanction,there is very little that he will not do, whether it be torture of political prisoners or taking part in murder squads
“95 Year Old WWII Vet Refuses to go to Hospital for Urinary Tract Infection, so Police Shoot and Kill Him”
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/95-year-old-wwii-vet-refuses-to-go-to-hospital-for-urinary-tract-infection-so-police-shoot-and-kill-him/
Annos
If this is true I hope the police responsible get life .
This happened in the US
“ACT NOW to keep your medical records private and confidential.”
http://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/
Good God.
“Latest news on EHI Quarter of GPs offer Patient Access – A quarter of GPs in England are now actively using Emis'”
http://www.emis-online.com/
Annos
I wonder what lies they will be printing on the medical reports of those they consider to be enemies of the state apparatus, forcing a man into hospital for a urinary tract that could be treated by antibiotics and then shooting him is a health service coming to UK.if the privateers get their way.
@Annos, thanks for the medical info. Will be passing info to friends and family.
“MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”.
ANYONE, PERSON OR ORGANISATION, THAT WILFULLY TAKES THE LIFE, OF A HUMAN BEING IS A “MURDERER”.
SADLY THE DWP ARE TAKING LIVES BY THE THOUSANDS AND YET NOTHING IS SEEN TO BE DONE ABOUT IT?
CAN LEGISLATION BE USED IN THE SAME WAY, A KNIFE, BULLET OR EXPLOSION REMOVES A PERSONS EXISTENCE, FALL INTO A DIFFERENT CATEGORY? I DON’T THINK SO FOR ONE MOMENT…………………………
THE DWP ARE VIRTUAL ASSASSINS, EMPLOYED BY THE TWISTED, LOATHESOME GOVERNMENT TO ERADICATE POVERTY AND DISABILITY BY KILLING ON A HUGE UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.
A CULL OF THE WEAKEST AT THE BEHEST OF THE STRONGEST. NOT THE STRONGEST BY NATURE, THE STRONGEST BY WEALTH ALONE……….
A SICK AND VILE CREATION OF MURDER BY DECREE. A TROUBLED NAZI DOCTRINE THAT STAINED THE PAGES OF HISTORY WHILE EXPOSING THE LIMITS OF WHAT MAN COULD INFLICT ON MAN.
PEOPLE ARE FALLING VICTIM TO A CRIME MORE CALLOUS THAN ANYTHING YET INVENTED IN OUR PREVIOUS CENTURIES. THEY BEAR NO COMPASSION AS THE DARK WINGS OF THE ANGEL OF DEATH, STRANGLES THE LAST GASP OF AIR FROM THE LUNGS OF THE INNOCENT VICTIMS…………
“MURDER IS MURDER, WHATEVER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT”……………………………………………………………………….
STATE ENCOURAGED DEATHS ARE SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL AS THE CROOKED MEDIA BARONS, IN THE POCKETS OF THE TRIGGER MEN, SIMPLY HIDE THE EVIDENCE.
WILL YOU BE NEXT???????????????????????????
I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and
Pensions’s handling of my FOI request ‘DWP Treatment Of Its Disabled
Staff’.
.
You have failed to answer number one and number two
Number one asks if tax payers hard earn cash was used to pay the lady.
You have said it came from your account. Where does the money
originate that is in your account?
Question two is about the lady with Aspergers Syndrome being
unemployable because of her disability. Please answer the question,
especially why you find it fit to find her condition makes her
unemployable yet ATOS finds them fit for work….
I asked how many persons with Aspergers had been found fit to work by
ATOS.
It would seem its a matter of dual standards when your department find
somebody with Aspergers to be unemployable, yet ATOS deems them fit
for work…
i therefore request an internal revue that might explain the
variation in what you say and what you actually do. Hypocrisy springs
to mind!
Chewie:
I agree. If your address is ‘the doorway, the street’ or ‘under a bench’, then how are you supposed to get letters from the wankstains in the DWP?
my comment on the main story: So, if your home is a cardboard box that used to have compartments (for wine or electrical goods for example), do they apply the bedroom tax?!
Let’s have Grayling and IDS relocated to a skip now!!!!
@something survived overlooking the obvious that not having a ‘proper address’ ie a home isnt exactly going to help getting you a job now is it? TWATS.
SHATOS – Dehumanising the disabled for Broken Britain!
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Just when you think the DWP under Iain Duncan Smith really can’t sink any lower, they manage to find ways of making you really sick. The Void has a very strong interest in reporting and commenting on the problems of the homeless. Here he discusses a report by the charity Homeless Link, revealing the immense harm done to the homeless by having their benefits cut or stopped altogether. All this had been done under the pretext of motivating them to get back to work. Now, I am by no means an expert on homelessness, but I should guess that the reasons many of them are homeless are the same reasons they have been unable to find or hold down a job, such as the severe drug, alcohol or mental health problems the report mentions as being exacerbated by the DWP’s stoppage of their benefits. What is particularly disgusting is that some of these have had their benefits stopped through events that were completely beyond their control, and which most people would argue were entirely good reasons why they could not attend their meeting at the Job Centre. The Void mentions one instance in which a man was sanctioned for non-attendance, who was actually in hospital. Another man had his benefits stopped because he took his daughter to hospital instead of going to his interview. The Void also quotes the report to show the demoralising effect this has on homeless people trying to get back off the street, who find themselves knocked back down. One of the items in this report, which I found particularly disturbing was the statement that Hardship Payments were being converted into loans. This effectively means that the homeless person, who is fortunate enough to get one of these discretionary payments, has their benefit cut while they pay it off. Many of the homeless already have problems budgeting. Stoppages and cuts in benefits will only make matters worse. What is needed is better support to help alcoholics, drug addicts and the mentally ill recover, more hostels and truly affordable housing. There’s also a need to tackle the wider societal issues behind homelessness, such as family break-up and child abuse – many of the homeless may be battered wives, or young people fleeing horrifically abusive homes; teenage pregnancy, and excessive and grossly inflated mortgages that people on ordinary incomes may find impossible to pay after their circumstances change, such as through unemployment. The government also needs to tackle the social reasons behind drug and alcohol abuse. Some of it no doubt is down to personal weakness. In other cases, it’s probably caused, at least in part, through the despair created by unemployment, poor working conditions, and the absence of any kind of opportunities for personal development or advancement. Those issues would mean, however, that the government would actually have to spend money, and it would contradict the Neo-Liberal ideology that it’s all down to personal choice and irresponsibility. It’s much easier, and so much more popular with the Sun and Mail-reading voters, to slash benefits and then scream that it’s all the fault of the homeless themselves, exploiting the generosity of those in work.
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Reblogged this on thepositivevoice.
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Aw, this was a very good post. Finding the time and actual effort to generate a superb article… but what can I say… I hesitate a lot and
never seem to get anything done.