A petition posted on the 38 Degrees website late yesterday afternoon and which calls for all benefit sanctions to be scrapped without exceptions has hit almost 2000 signatures already.
The petition – which wasn’t posted by me – uses some of the text from this earlier post discussing the brutal impact of sanctions to benefits which are driving hundreds of thousands of people into destitution. Tens of thousands of sanctions are handed out every month for the slightest breach of Jobcentre diktats. Single parents and most people on out of work sickness and disability benefits also face sanctions and this brutal system to soon to be inflicted on low waged part-time workers and people in precarious self-employment.
A recent report from Citizens Advice warned that sanctions are creating desperate poverty with tragic stories of people going through bins to find food, attempting suicide and becoming ill due to having all money stopped. Sanctions can now last up to three years.
No government ever changed anything because of a petition. Power needs to be forced to make concessions, not asked nicely. But strong support for this petition will show that there are many people in the UK who reject completely the idea that anyone should be left unable to feed themselves or their children in one of the richest countries in the world – for any reason.
So please sign, share, tweet, blog and post everywhere: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/benefit-sanctions-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions-in-uk
The WOW Petition, calling for an impact assessment into welfare reform, is also approaching nearly 100,000 signatures, so sign that too: http://wowpetition.com/
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
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OT.
“A third employee at the Serco-operated centre was also dismissed for failing to take any action when the female detainee reported the two men.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-24719300
I don’t know what Annos is on, but their reply has nothing to do with the posting of this blog.
My son has just been told that because his fiancee was given a medical certificate for 15 days their JSA had been stopped and they had to apply for ESA. Until the ESA form is returned, completed, they will be getting no benefits.
Her 15 day certificate was finished on the day that the DWP stopped their money, but they have to wait for the ESA form to reach them, fill it in, wait for a decision, then most likely have to fill in a JSA application. Until then – no money. I am disabled and can’t support them. So this is affecting the two of them and me as I cannot do what a parent should do and protect my child.
The system was flawed before, it’s totally cracked and broken now.
aturtle05
How else will people know what is going on if someone doesn’t inform them, this blog covers the many evils being committed by the powers that be, the more that point out the many evil’s the better, by the way, my post does say “OT”, that means…OFF TOPIC!!!.
Yes Annos thanks for the info.
aturtle05
in a civilised society they would clearly see that paper transactions do not change human beings need for vitals…why don’t they apply for jsa now..
annos
thanks for the info…
Signed and tweeted.
Thank you for posting that Johnny. Completely agree that benefit sanctions must be stopped completely. No one should be left destitute because of the sick ideology of people like IDS. It’s psychopathic to treat people like this.
I’ve just signed it and left a wee comment which they have on site.
Jonny Void,… you are very correct in condemning this system as state terrorism.
It is pure evil nazism. A system of punishment for poor ppl dreamed up by those with total hatred of the poor. But it was previous tory governments that created most of the present unemployment problems we have today.
Obviously the mob in power today don’t want to see that. Neither, it seems do most of the official opposition, who are so out of touch, and too terrified of upsetting the nazi supporting media.
I doubt the petition will have too much impact at the moment, but it is at least a start.
not sure i have signed the right one but the one i did sign as 72,218 signatures ?
Its the other one. http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/benefit-sanctions-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions-in-uk
But please feel free to sign both. ( 2248 votes and climbing)
As of right now, it is 3093 votes and still climbing!
5,079 now
let us show the strength of our feelings towards sanctions..end sanctions now!
Signed, of course.
But there’s absolutely no fucking chance it will make any difference. Even Labour are pro- sanctions. What chance is there. This is why we need the PCS on board.
I know someone who was in the print union SOGAT, the membership was sold out by its leadership back in the 1980s
http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/6055
Where did their leadership go (for services rendered to the powers that be)…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Dean,_Baroness_Dean_of_Thornton-le-Fylde
Forget about any help from the PCS or any other union, the powers that be own them ALL.
I should have also added that Brenda Dean (a BIG supporter of Blair) had and has her fingers in many pies and ALL of them are very lucrative.
This is just one of her jobs.
http://www.gov-news.org/gov/uk/news/reappointment_baroness_dean_as_chairman_covent/99409.html
The PCS will only come on board when Universal Credit results in their own members being sanctioned en masse, and not before.
Most members of the mainstream trade unions are seriously let down by the paid leadership who are often quite willing to do deals with employers, the state or the Labour Party that results in a selling out of the ordinary memebrship. There are unions that are different, run by ordinary workers in the direct interest of the ordinary workers. One is called the Industrial Workers of the World, and it is growing in the UK.
https://iww.org.uk/
Thing is, 38 Degrees hasn’t been too terribly supportive of disabled people in the past and so I don’t really think this is going to do a lot.
This is from 2011 – we had a petition on 38 Degrees which was going strong – it was then somehow “merged” with another petition and thousands of signatures were lost. And rather than try and help, 38 Degrees went utterly quiet.
http://davidg-flatout.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/disabled-people-betrayed-by-38-degrees.html
Even went so far as to run an article about why 38 Degrees was acting the way it was, with solutions posted by supporters – all of which were pretty much ignored.
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2011/12/01/on-being-demonized-a-disabled-38-degrees-members-perspective/
I’ve honestly gone beyond thinking a petition is going to bog all – not when a petition on badgers can reach the 100,000 mark and still be completely ignored by Parliament. I’m not convinced clicktavism is the answer. But I wouldn’t go looking for help from 38 Degrees either unless the disabled suddenly become cuddly as badgers.
“Stop the war on the poor” – a letter a day to No. 10.
http://socialawareness2013.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/stop-the-war-on-the-poor/
There is little point in this. This utterly repellent, EVIL government won’t listen. The ONLY thing they will listen to is if enough unemployed people went into Trafalgar Square and caused widespread violence like at the Poll Tax demonstrations and which helped to get rid of another EVIL Tory idea ie the Poll Tax. I’m afraid this goverment is made-up of some very,very sick individuals and you can’t reason with them as they are physopaths. Sadly, violence against them is the only way to make them listen to reason.
You’re absolutely right. People must stop putting faith in pseudo-left organisations and trade unions, who only serve to act as a safety-value to lead the working-class to a dead end. We have been betrayed. The ruling elite use violence and oppression as the means to suppress workers. Therefore, they can only be overthrown through acts of violence; not coercion, or petty appeals. There is a massive, potential revolutionary energy courses through the working-class, which is vast majority of the population — once unleashed, we will shake them off like fleas from a dog.
Violence is not an acceptable way of challenging the system. Nor is it effective unless you have an army equipped to take on the state with it’s police and army.
It is however perfectly legitimate to be prepeared to defend, with violence, if neccessary, any gains that have been made,
It is working together that will eventually not only crush this government and it’s odious regime, but also send a clear message out to the next gang of usurpers, (probably New Labour) who wrest control of the state. We won’t get any real justice until we take control and abolish both the state and government and get rid of capitalism and the wages system whilst we’re at it.
And far from getting rid of it, all the Poll Tax opposition achieved was to get the scheme sightly modified and re-introduced under a different name. But that what you get when you back a Trotskyite led initiative, a job at best, half done. They’ll sell you short every time, as the one thing they are more scared of than the existing regime is ordinary people taking control of their own lives.
One million marched against going to war with Iraq, didn’t do any good, we still went to war.
Signed, but still feeling hopeless and unable to contribute meaningfully.
Reblogged this on Vox Political and commented:
As Johnny Void rightly writes, “No government ever changed anything because of a petition. Power needs to be forced to make concessions, not asked nicely. ” But signing this one couldn’t hurt – and would send the right message. So please take a moment to add your name.
Have signed both petitions I would publicise on Unemployment movement site but unfortunately I am banned from there – for signing petitions and urging others to do the same! Apparently the owner of that site has a bee in the bonnet about what he terms “clicktivism”.
Takes all sorts I suppose.
UM is still an important site. This article has been publicized there too.
It’s sad that you have been banned for those reasons. Whilst signing petitions is unlikely to change anything, (any more than voting does!) it does serve as a barometer of public feeling.
The important consideration, to my mind, does clicktivism do any actual harm? Clearly the answer is that it doesn’t so it seems a bit OTT to ban someone who advocates or promotes this variety of opposition. The problem with oppostion for many people is that they have perhaps never opposed anything like this in their lives before, and it is a bit of a tall order to then try and dragoon them into going on protests even, which appear to be equally futile. But the fact that someone has gone to the trouble of putting their name to a petition shoes that they are thinking about the issue, and that is an important start.
One thing that is emerging from the uses of the internet and modern communications is that they are great for getting the intial message out and for co-ordinating dissent/protests, but not too useful a tool in making actual change – that still requres not just taking to the streets and protesting, but taking to the streets en masse and taking control of the streets.
But as governments and the state increasingly turns to information technology to do their adminstration, i.e goes ‘digital by default’ it becomes vulnerable to things like Universal Automation, which not only very neatly sabotages the regime’s plan to have the unemployed waste 35 hours of their week searching for jobs that don’t exist. It also exposes the regime to ridicule, and that’s an extermely powerful weapon if useed effectively and Universal Automation is clearly created with this aspect in mind. It’s basically sticking the finger up to the regime and saying, ‘bring it on, and we’ll counter your digital systems with our own’
I signed the petition, even though I doubt that it will have any effect whatsoever, but then I’ll probably vote in 2015, not because I believe that it will do any good, (I’m an anarchist, for goodness sakes, I KNOW it won’t do any good!) but because then I can say to my ‘true believer’ friends that I voted, and nothing changed, so voting doesn’t make a jot of difference, but maybe taking over our industries, our local services might do some good – and we could always quote Big Dave and claim that we are taking his idea of Big Society a little further than he intended as we storm the headquarters of the big banks and take them over and run them for ourselves, and after all, legitimately, we own a good chunk of them already!
🙂
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The sanctions should be scrapped its unfair to make people suffer & beg for money there should be another way to handle this problem instead of just cutting people off & leaving them destitute.
All ready out there Gissajob. good to see you are still fighting.
http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/chat-a-rap/7432-benefit-sanctions-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions-in-uk
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I dare not sign, it wants real name, email and postcode, call me paranoid if ya like, i agree whole heartedly i am paranoid, they tap our phone calls, messages, net activity, and they are building profiles on each and everyone of us, time to go guerilla soon, already half prepped
OT.
“Police are requesting “on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service” that magazine vendors refrain from selling today’s edition of Private Eye.”
http://dwpexamination.org/forum/political-soap-box/police-trying-to-remove-private-eye-from-shops/#p114828
I know, signing it will only put you on a ‘list’ of ‘troublemakers’. If you can’t give bogus details and hide behind a proxy or something I’d give it a miss.
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These scumbag government need stopping treat us like dogs in a gutter they need putting on minimum wage then you will soon see things change they don’t give to damns about any of us
Over 3,400 signatures so far and climbing.
This SHOULD NOT be happening at all it’s ridiculous all of this needs to stop right now it really does make me angry and find it frustrating to hear thing’s like this are happening in the world we live in just because theirs people with a disability like myself doesn’t mean we DO NOT matter. This needs to change it can’t stay like this.
Reblogged this on Benefit tales.
“Only finding young people real, paid jobs will get them off benefits”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/29/real-jobs-young-people-off-benefits-work-jobcentre
No, you don’t say! The WHOLE tone and principles of the so-called ‘debate’ about welfare is wrong in this country. Obvious facts like there aren’t enough jobs to go around and that is the main reason why Britain has such a problem with welfare goes totally unnoticed thanks to the evil so-called ‘mainstream’ press who have mounting a hate campaign for the last ten years or more. The Labour Party should be pointing out the true facts but they won’t because they are cowards and their economic policies won’t solve the problem. It is excessive neo-liberal economic policies which have caused this and these need to be got rid of.
Reblogged this on Mentally Wealthy.
A good dose of the cat ‘o nine tails is what’s needed – that would soon whip the bloody scroungers into shape!!
Cait Reilly Supreme Court ‘Workfare’ decision Now on Sky News.
Latest:
Iain Duncan Smith has lost the DWP appeal in the Supreme Court, regarding Workfare Schemes – Yippee.
They will just find away around it!!!, they always do!!!.
I think they already have(?). Just read a report that, given that the Government retrospectively changed the law after the Catt Reilly (and the other bloke!) case that it made today’s Supreme Court decision largely irrelevant, with both sides claiming victory. I think that means that absolutely fuck all has changed, apart from the fact that a load of wankers in the legal ‘profession’ have made shed loads of money!
You fucking turd. I will now have to use my own fucking pension money to fight this supreme court decision and then I will increase my sanctions to 1 million jobseekers per month
Remember reading this phrase in your Benefit entitlement letter?
“This is the amount the law says you need to live on.”
Except when the Government is above the law and interprets it any way they choose and decide to reduce the amount you need to live on to an amount that you cannot possibly live on! How the hell can Benefit sanctions be legal in the first place?
LP – how indeed?
“Because I(ds) say(s) so!” (Don’t argue).
Ps. I think they’ve removed the phrase now? Maybe you’ve seen some of the FOI requests asking for that wording to be explained/clarified – they’re all coming back negative (“DWP won’t explain it/break the amount down in any way”). It’s daylight robbery.
The phrase: “This is the amount the law says you need to live on.” was added a a protection against the State being able to reduce the basic minimum amount beyond the basic minimum amount i.e. nobody on the basic JSA of £71.70 should be receiving less than £71.70. Or in other words (within the framework of the Law at present) ‘sanction’s are ILLEGAL!
Whoever added this phrase had great foresight… 🙂
How can forcing thousands, potentially millions, of unemployed people into utter destitution through Benefit sanctions possibly benefit the economy? If I have £30 per week less in State Benefits then that’s £30 per week less that I spend on goods and services. Multiply that by several weeks, and by several thousand people, and that’s a lot of money being taken out of the economy. And I thought these brainless fuckers had studied Economics?
… they can’t have or at least weren’t paying attention 🙂 since benefit sanctions go against what an economic system should be aiming to achieve – maximum ‘utility of money’ within that very economic system: Economics 1.1:-)
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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Have signed with pleasure. keep up the brilliant work 38 degrees
i have signed but the “fight” has to come from the young generation,but they are”aneatheisted” by facebook xbox image and the xfactor,theyll reap what the tories sow..how sad
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Reblogged this on thepositivevoice.
Scrap benefits sanctions, nawwwwwwwwwwwww, SCRAP BENEFITS – We all know where this will lead don’t we? Scrapping Benefit Sanctions idea prolongs Benefit Sanctions and perpetuates misery for all benefit recipients.
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