74,070 people have now been sent to work unpaid on the Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme DWP statistics reveal today (via @refuted).
Claimants on Mandatory Work Activity are forced to carry out 120 hours of unpaid labour over a period of four weeks. The scheme is used by Jobcentres to punish people they decide aren’t trying hard enough to find work. Those receiving Jobseekers Allowance can be sent on this type of workfare from the first day they are unemployed or face benefits being stopped completely. 17,090 of these forced to work unpaid were recorded by the Jobcentre as being disabled people.
Many of the claimants are sent to work in charity shops such as those run by @salvationarmyuk and @YMCA_England. Others are sent to work outside on chain gangs for environmental charities such as @TCVtweets and @Groundworkuk.
Many of these so-called charities have claimed that they do not benefit from unpaid workers and have bought into Iain Duncan Smith’s warped ‘work makes you free’ ideology. Yet according to the figures, this scheme has meant a total of 8,888400 hours of forced unpaid work has been carried out by unemployed people for the ‘voluntary’ sector.
If charities had been required to pay even minimum wage for these workers it would have cost them over £56 million pounds. And this is far from the only workfare scheme that grasping charities can make use of. Anyone who’s ever visited the Salvation Army’s gleaming international headquarters knows these organisations are not short of money. The Salvation Army’s UK boss is estimated to be paid around £150,000 a year.
Christmas is a busy time for charities and often their most lucrative time of year. There has never been a better time to join Boycott Workfare’s week of action and hold these organisations to account for this gross exploitation. Actions will take place on and offline from next week beginning with a noise demonstration outside the annual workfare conference on Monday 2nd December.
With the number of people on workfare increasing despite many high profile charities pulling out of the scheme, it seems that many organisations are trying to conceal their use of forced labour from the public. Help track them down and then make sure they are named and shamed on the Boycott Workfare website.
And please sign/share/tweet the petition to bring an end to benefit sanctions without exception.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
“arbeit macht frei” means “work makes you free” and this phrase stood atop the gates of Auschwitz! fitting for this evil scheme don’t you think!
” free work takes the pee” more like.
ha! 😀
Of course many more than 17,000 will be disabled people as the JCP only admits a tiny fraction of those who are. Some ‘workfares’ (placements/crews) are entirely or almost entirely filled up with sick and elderly and disabled people, and most of the rest of the people there have other problems/issues stopping them working.
Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
I worked on MWA in a charity shop. I was struggling to start with – I’m partially deaf and have social anxiety and on top of the long hours I had to get up at 6 am every morning to travel right across the city. The place they chose was only accessible by one bus that ran every 30 minutes so if I missed it I would be 30 minutes late. That was the second bus as this bus only stopped in town, so I had to get the first bus and then basically dash across a motorway. I had a panic attack the second week around Weds and left. I was planning on going back in that Monday and explaining myself, however the Saturday I received a letter telling me I was ‘no longer required to attend.’ Seemed a bit quick. I was pretty annoyed with this as despite my disability (ATOS decided I didn’t qualify for ESA) I was a hard worker and did everything to the best of my ability and always turned up early. Meanwhile another MWA worker turned up at around 11 or 12, sometimes because she’d needed to pick up her Methodone, sometimes she’d ‘forgotten her keys’. The one time I turned up 20 minutes late the manager basically laid into me and gave me the crappest jobs all day for it while the other worker did nothing, just sat by the kitchen sink and chatted. I’d sooner turn up at a food bank every morning, honestly. I couldn’t take that again.
Which charity was this? You might as well name and shame them- surely you have nothing to lose. How you were treated was blatant victimisation and disability discrimination.
A4e are keeping me out of work. Not giving me my cscs card that I passed the test for back in April and sending me for zero hour contract jobs for 10 hour shifts after I had an ankle operation 2 years ago and told them 10 hours on my feet is too much then you get a male feminine advisor prancing around the offices threatening to take peoples benefits away for not showing up to the tripe that is the offerings of Amazon and he still does not know how close I am to breaking his jaw. 🙂
It’s almost worth considering a life of crime for all this stress brings me.!
Think yourself lucky that you was not sent to a care home like I have been. Being forced to work in a charity shop sounds like bliss in comparison!
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
just had a begging letter from the salvation army thhey can fuck right off im going to write a reply telling them so.
Got one meself, earlier – duly dispatched back to them along with a tirade & message for them to remove me from their mailing list (How they got me address in the first place is a mystery) on the back of the envelope.
They can kiss one’s rusty sheriff’s badge…..Twice.
I’ve just emailed the Sally Army to complain about their involvement in Workfare.
info@salvationarmy.org.uk
employmentplus@salvationarmy.org.uk
Reblogged this on Jamblichus's Weblog.
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I’ve just finished my 120 Hours Mandatory Community Work, and managed to get through it on a cocktail of anti-depressants, painkillers, and Cannabis. But next time they can fuck right off. I’ll take a sanction and live on Hardship instead.
Where did they send you? Yourself and a previous poster haven’t mentioned the names of where you were sent but if we don’t have any names, then we won’t know which organisations are still engaging in government-supported exploitation of people who are unemployed.
Dunelm’s and pound land are
Poundland 😦
I’m going to fuck you up the first chance I get you litigious cunt.
I have already anonymously submitted the details of the charity to Boycott Workfare, so it is on their list.
@landless the DWP are looking into ” utter destitution’ as an option they claim it will save more tax payers money. The idea came from a newly setup trillion quid tax payer funded think tank..called ‘Cunts R us ‘
Mathew Annie Jokely is rumoured to be behind it..
Have you got any ‘gear’ left over you can give me? I need a pick me up before I’m forced to wipe peoples arses for a month on MWA.
Just raid the Medication cabinet in the care home, that should do the trick.
I never thought of that. 🙂 It may not be too bad there after all!
Slightly Off Topic: I’ve just been given a Jobseeker’s Direction to e-mail my CV to my JCP advisor. Is this legal or is my advisor bluffing? I’m aware it may be a ploy to get me to reveal my UJM (or other) e-mail address, which I’ve just told them they’re not getting. If this IS a legal request I’ll forward my CV to a friend, then get them to send the CV from their e-mail address, to keep mine anonymous, but I’d like any available (and KNOWLEDGEABLE) advice first. Can anyone help?
You only need show them a hard (paper) copy, as far as I’m aware.
You probably have to make one for that UJ site – but heavily redact it & DO NOT allow DWP access.
If I find the link I’ll post it to ya 😉
By the way, when I said “show” , I MEANT “SHOW”……As in DO NOT let them photostat it.
@timfrom
Here’s that link….you want Pt5 at the bottom. 😉
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/162766/response/398234/attach/html/3/FOI2437%20Response.pdf.html
timform…which maybe also of interest to vickie ramage, as well as everyone else…this link….
http://www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/node/105 and this link makes very interesting reading re MWA….
http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/dwp-still-breaking-their-own-rules-on-mandatory-work-activity/
@timfrom. They forced me to set up a UJM account after I finished the work programme and I had to load up a cv to it and give them a paper copy of cv. The advisor told me if I did not set up a UJM account they would issue a jobseekers direction on it ie leading to sanction. Regarding your e-mail address, you could always set up a separate one which you would use only when applying for jobs and which would be the one you would put on cvs and job applications. That is what I have done. Although I may be wrong on this, I don’t see the harm in them knowing that separate specially created e-mail address unless of course they were standing over you or had a handily placed mirror or cctv camera to find out your password. I also don’t use mobile broadband at all as I’ve heard too many stories about how hackers find it very easy to access.
@timfrom, I also don’t think it’s a good idea to show the JCP your paper cv in a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t sort of way, or tell them “Don’t even think of photocopying that!”, as they may construe that as an uncooperative attitude which for them equals a self-imposed barrier to work and for us equals a barrier to benefits. If you look at “stupid reasons for sanctions ” (I’m no good at posting links) you will see that a girl was sanctioned for amending her cv as requested by them but not giving them an amended copy. If you do give them your paper cv, you should perhaps ask them to run off a few copies for you, since they’re committed to being so intensively supportive and helpful.
Stupid Sanctions
@timfrom Just one last thing to add: You have the right to deny them access to your UJM account, you have the right to refuse to be sent those spam e-mails it generates and you have the right to have the cv uploaded there ticked as private. Those three rights can be asserted by ticking/unticking the appropriate boxes on your UJM account.
JCP can issue a direction to make your CV public on Universal Jobmatch then demand a screen shot as proof if you do not give JCP access to your account. As has happened to me.
That sounds dodgy, I don’t think they can legally do that.
What about submitting video evidence of 250 hour job searches..dear JCP after I went to bed and fell asleep ( will I be sanctioned for that ?) However in my dreams I was job searching …luckilly I found a job and it paid rather well…
Then I woke up…
Would it be possible for DWP to create a scheme were all claimants could be put asleep permanantly in order to find that perfect job..
Oh wait you already have a scheme for that..its called Atos WCA..
Presumably then the Adviser gave you his/her official email address? If so you could now forward tons of job evidence email replies directly to them and fill their inbox on a regular basis. I did that with my Work Coach whilst on the Work Programme and she soon got fed up of it and finished me early ‘cos she was sick of receiving up to 80 emails from me each time! 😀
The truth, and the way forward.
Subscribe them to endless volleys of spam and porn. They (UJM) are flooding me with hundreds a day. Taste of their own fucking medicine.
Why send it to advisors ? Most can’t read anyway.
PS I also use that e-mail address as contact e-mail address for correspondence in any learn direct courses etc.
Reblogged this on thepositivevoice.
There is nothing that this government will not do to save money from the sick, unemployed or generally poor.
Not only have they reduced benefits, sanctioned benefits, imposed forced unpaid labour, taken away legal aid, introduced bedroom tax and council tax for the sick and unemployed they also have reduced dental treatment for those on benefits and are in the process of denying soluble medicines who for medical reasons cannot swallow whole tablets.
The only thing they can claim to have given the lowest paid will be a higher threshold for those on lower rate income tax but will not be a benefit but a loss if they then are denied housing benefit or tax credits and it will only be those earning up to £40K I think is the limit for base rate income tax that will benefit from it, so it has actually been a way to give more to the better off yet again.
I would never give to a charity in this country again and am not funding ceo’s running charities in other countries either.
😦
g fawkes
just to cheer you up..
http://waverleycab.org.uk/11/campaigns/challenging-a-decision-about-benefits-unclear-what-mandatory-reconsideration-means/ they are really pulling out all the stops to put us on the tread mill…or take us back to the satanic mills….
obd
I want to know how we are all in it together! when you read my list above other than the removal of child benefit for those earning over 50k which they will now claim on their taxes what have the rich had to give up?
g fawkes
they say we, we say we..that’s how!
can’t have the fragile m/classes suffering you know, after all they are in preparation for elitism….
ps g fawkes
boris on elitism, a highly intellectual view?!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25135225
I think he meant, some people are not crooked enough, not clever enough to succeed in life.
Blue, blustering, bent, bastard Boris.
g fawkes
you forgot devious…
Boris the balloon
Re Boris E’ll eat anything ..fat useless waste of space..
obd
That’ll be the dark satanic art galleries.
sn
ok, wise owl, formally satanic mills then, now with loft conversions, LED lighting, with a few solar panels and double glazing…
!
T’mills do make lovely flats & interesting museums; presumably they were built to last .. they just don’t make anything else now & offer employment for a select, lucky few.
sn
yeah, it’s a pity we are not made of stone, although our leaders think we are….we take the burden, so they don’t have to, we are so kind,eh!
What about those feet in ancient times ?
Hey Guy Fawkes! Isn’t it about time you arose from the dead and fulfilled you destiny?
S O O N ……. 🙂
When they send me on an unpaid parliamentary placement 🙂 🙂
He’s even on wikipedia under guido fawkes – Paul Staines, I’m waiting for them putting the left winger guy fawkes on there! 🙂
@fawkesy at least you are not that fucking idiot Guido Fawkes ..jeez what a cunt and a half he is..
I’m due to start MWA next week. I’ll keep you all informed as to what happens, and who the cunts are that the slave masters Seetec send me to.
Perhaps MWA ‘ customers ‘ should go on strike ..
I’d much prefer a slave rebellion to a strike. We need to find ourselves a ‘Spartucus’ to unite the masses. Victory or Death…
We will ensure our conservative friends get our full support in the pursuit of the poor. We will build workhouses on every corner of every town to put back to work the scroungers and disabled and we will make sure the disabled don’t sit on their lazy arses all day. They will be at the forefront of physical labour and will be expected to do more than the able bodied. The under 25’s will have to work 80 hours a week to get housing benefits or they will be gassed to death in the new camps we are building in tribute to our Nazi masters.
The Crack On Foundation in East Anglia benefit from MWAs, i.e. the unemployed being forced to work in their shops and warehouse for free. Not that you’ll find any mention of that on their website. Claimants are pimped in there courtesy of Seetec. I found this out recently, quite by chance when I was signing on.This so-called charity has only been around for a couple of years, but their website boasts that they are about to open their 9th shop, with MORE on the way. It’s run by a couple of oddballs called Mark Byford and Gary Spencer. Mark and Gary’s attempts to appear right-on and down with the young people are almost as ludicrous as thet are sinister. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the videos on their website and Youtube. They expect their followers to adhere to their eight commandments – or crackonisms, as Mark calls them. Please don’t laugh. They’re deadly serious.
http://www.crackon.org/
And here’s Mark preaching the eight Crack On commandments, which he calls crackonisms.
This is the sort of shite you get on the fucking work programme…
jj joop
NLP on speed, ooh, i feel motivated, kerching…2 less than the sally army..
Crackhead, more like. Load of patronising, twee psychobabble. Maybe some of us on here should try running courses like this, looks like money for old rope, soon be laughing all the way to the bank courtesy of the work programme.
The sickening way poor people have become cash cows for theiving ‘ entrepreneurs ‘ is fucking sickening ..
Psycho babble and life style gurus ..all a front to grab money from most vulnerable.
An oddball called ‘Mark Byford’, eh?
So that’s what he did with his bbc payoff moolah, is it?.
Jesus H Navas! WT fucking F is that video?
Reminds me of somethin’ else that was ‘right-on’ and ‘down with the kids’.
Does Crack on actually do anything charitable? They must be making a lot of money from all those shops – what do they spend it on?
just looked on youtube site,kids are being taken in,this is fucking bad…i was tempted to comment onre comment “you guys rock”..money fore fucking slavery and pretend theyre hip and “with it man”
Tell the cunt to fuck off..or expose the parasites ..are comments blocked if so that will tell you a lot..
Thanks, Johnny, for your work in keeping us informed of the truth
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL.
off topic;
Sometimes the depths of depravity that the DWP will try to sink to reach another “nadir”………………………….
Just had a letter from somebody called Charlotte Trusler who works at the Blackpool benefits office.
It’s quite handy her living miles away on the opposite coast to me, as it gives her the anonymity, the cloak of darkness, that enables her to send out sanctions to an unknown, that will further destroy his life……………………….
To call someone heartless, evil, and productivity driven, would be an understatement. She is the face of uncaring Britain, fuck you jack, i’m alright!
Driving a family into destitution while reaching her sanction targets for the month is the norm, nowadays.
Why should she care about a worthless cripple who pisses himself?
Her letter makes fascinating reading, but before i continue i would like it known that i attended an ATOS medical and was found fit for work……….
They took away my incapacity benefit altogether….
………the letter states;
Mr Reynolds is entitled to the higher rate of mobility component from and including 14/11/2002,because he is virtually unable to walk considering the distance,speed, manner and time he is able to walk without severe discomfort.
Mr Reynolds is entitled to the lower rate of care component because he cannot prepare a cooked meal.
Mr Reynolds has back problems, rheumatoid arthritis, hearing problems and bladder problems.
A DECISION WAS MADE TO SUSPEND MR REYNOLDS BENEFIT WAS MADE ON THE 24/7/2013 BECAUSE HE HAD NOT COMPLETED AN INQUIRY FORM.
IT IS NOT DISPUTED THAT MR REYNOLDS HAS DISABLING CONDITIONS, HOWEVER MR REYNOLDS DISABILITIES ARE NOT AT ISSUE IN THE DECISION UNDER APPEAL.
THAT DECISION IS BECAUSE MR REYNOLDS FAILED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT WAS REQUESTED ON BEHALF OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
……….please enjoy your Christmas Charlotte. As for us at the other end of your brown envelope, don’t shed a single tear, you are only doing as instructed…………..
……..no income, no heating, no seasonal goodwill, just a chore to stay alive.
My family would like to extend their thanks for all you have done………..
Reply
You have my every sympathy, but the bit you quoted in block capitals says your money has been suspended because you didn’t respond to an inquiry form. If the money has been suspended because they are waiting for information, could someone else perhaps fill it in on your behalf if you are unable to do so? I know it’s a pain doing these forms because I was recently sent one for JSA although I’ve been claiming for a while, and it said that if I did not fill it in and return it I might not receive any money, even though I have already been claiming it. I am not in any way doubting the level of your disability, I’m just trying to clarify the situation.
The postal system is fucked sometimes. Now its gone private it will get worse ..the DWP brown envelopes and forms and replies will get ‘ lost in the post ‘ how convenient …more excuses to sanction poor souls.
‘Ere Bob,
Aren’t them ‘disability’ letters opened by the mail workers anyway, before they’re forwarded onto the relevant Dept? Sure I read somethin’ about it a while back.
So yeah, I fully expect more of them to ‘get lost in transit’. knowin’ that there’ll be less comebacks to a PLC.
a4e
it is highly illogical to stop his benefits, when they admit that they already have the info that they are requesting…
I know- they say they are not disputing his disability. However, they can be incredibly bureaucratic, hence why I was recently required to fill in a complete JSA booklet again giving full details of my circumstances, even though nothing had changed. Knowing what the DWP is like, if I hadn’t returned the form (annoying though it was having to fill in all that info again) they would have no doubt stopped me getting any money.
a4e
they have a hidden agenda, which is why they want the form filled in, and signed…
HAVING STUDIED YOUR CASE, I CANNOT SEE THAT YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG WHATSOEVER.
IF YOU INFORMED THE POWERS THAT BE, THAT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE NOT CHANGED, YOU HAVE COMPLIED BY THE LETTER OF THEIR, (THE DWP’S) LAW.
ON EVERY GOVERNMENT WEBSITE IT STATES CLEARLY THAT, THE CLAIMANT MUST TELL THEM IF ANY CHANGES OF CIRCUMSTANCE OCCUR, THEREFORE YOU HAVE FULFILLED YOUR OBLIGATION IN FULL.
I SUSPECT THE QUESTIONNAIRE THAT THEY SENT YOU, ASKED FOR A SIGNATURE.
I WOULD ADVISE ANYBODY NOT TO SIGN THESE DOCUMENTS AS YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A HIDDEN CONTRACT THAT HAS BEEN PURPOSELY DRAFTED TO FORCE YOU INTO A DEEPER AGENDA THAT REMOVES MORE OF YOUR FREEDOMS.
PS THEY USED THIS CON TRICK TO CIRCUMVENT THE LAW AND PUSH CLAIMANTS OFF INCAPACITY BENEFITS AND INTO MEDICALS WITH ATOS, AFTER WHICH THEY WERE FOUND FIT FOR WORK AND HAD THEIR BENEFITS STOLEN. ESA, THEFT FROM THE WEAKEST!!!
…………ALWAYS READ WHAT THEY SEND YOU. BY SIGNING YOU ENTER INTO A CONTRACT, WITHOUT YOUR AUTHORITY, THEY ARE SHAFTED.
Her job is worth every ounce of pain she can inflict on a claimant without having to meet them or their families, face to face.
It’s worth it in value terms too, value being remuneration for her unrepentant sins committed on the most weakest and less able in society.
Wages of sin hold no boundaries to the pain that they inflict on others. Many references to these actions were displayed by the Nazis who were only following orders.
Since when has it been acceptable to give out a sanction that could end in death, and then defend it by arguing that you had been instructed to do it?
Murder is murder, whether administered by a weapon or an anonymous brown envelope!
How would this woman feel if Mr. Reynolds took his life, starved to death or killed his family in a ritual pact of suicide?
The actions of evil hold no boundaries as far as the DWP are concerned, life is cheap and ethnic extermination the newest tool in a growing hatred of the underprivileged.
Charlotte, forgiveness you will never receive, your actions are reprehensible on a disabled man and his family.
If i was Charlotte Trussler i would not sleep at night. What if something bad happened to Mr. Reynolds or his family because of this perverse sanction?
If Mr. Reynolds has had an injury that prevented him from working as far back as 2002, then it is plainly obvious, even to the thickest of people, that his disability is not, and never will improve.
Whoever, Charlotte Trusler is, one thing is certain, she ain’t human.
What possible information, could the DWP, want after someone on sick has been incapacitated for eleven years?
The mind boggles!
This is just another form of torture and harassment on somebody less able to defend themselves. Bullying of a person, who is able, is thoroughly disgusting, bullying of someone not able, is surely a criminal matter that should be dealt with by the police.
Christmas is a time of the year which everybody should have the right to enjoy. It is not a privilege bestowed by how wealthy someone is.
More and more we are seeing the poorest hit by the actions of sanctions. Have the people of Britain not seen the abject poverty and destitution that many are being forced into?
How is it possible to leave a disabled man and his family without money to live on?
This incident makes me sick to my back teeth and warrants an investigation immediately.
Modern Britain, what a fucking joke!
To say the DWP and ATOS have blood on their hands is an understatement.
Crack On ? Crack Head more like it.
Maybe the the Crack Head guys have been in detention with Ms McVey, you know doing ‘lines’.
@Johnny Void and all
have you noticed that tory law is all backwards ?
1. Execution ..benefit claimant deaths
2 punishment ..benefits removed
3 on trial – daily hate judging them
4 charged – accusations of being a scrounger
5 arrested – malevolent benefit hotline fraud accusations fraud squad ..
chewie
they expect one to eat the cornflakes before opening the packet….
‘Salvation Army’ stickers available online:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/letthemeatart/works/11167261-starvation-army?p=sticker
Just been reading some of your other sidelines like writing for the Guardian and Trebuchet well done, keep up the good work, mind some of the comments left are naughty, even worse than mine.
Whose other sidelines?
GF – You say Johnny writes for The Guardian?! How often and under what name? Just on-line or in the paper proper? I read the latter Mon – Fri and haven’t seen anything, certainly not using the name Johnny Void. Or am I going blind?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/nov/28/poverty-mps-call-for-delayed-food-banks-report-to-be-published
I always thought that the MWA was for ‘non-profit’ charities that benefit the community! Well, I’ve been sent to a private fucking care home for fuck’s sake! I wonder how much they charge their residents families every year, because the exploitative bastards are certainly not paying the staff… :-{{
I would refuse to attend if I were you, then if sanctioned you can Appeal on grounds of it not being Community Work as such. Seek legal advice too.
Unfortunately I can not afford to risk a three month sanction. I’m just going to have to take it on the chin and be the worst ’employee’ they have ever had.. Cheeky bastards. 😦 I feel sick..
I’d wreck the fucking place.
“failure to attend/engage with a Mandatory Work Activity placement can attract a sanction of up to 156 weeks ( THREE (3!) YEARS!)
Sorry but I don’t see what is wrong with this. Why shouldn’t job seekers work for charities? Its only four weeks to be fair even disabled people if they are able to should work. People shouldn’t just be stuck at home all day sat on their arse. The trouble is people think certain jobs are beneth them and so refuse to do them. I have worked in a shop for the past 10 years, as well as working part time in a care home. It hasn’t been brilliant but now I’m in my last year of uni, having actually done a degree that gives me a very good chance of getting a job. I think that a minority of people on jobseekers just refuse to work as a lifestyle choice, unfortunately the country is skint and we can no longer afford to pay for there daily spesch rations
nick
so you would be happy for your job to be unpaid would you? what’s your degree in?
Jobcentre management i think
Mental health nursing is what I’m studying. I basically work for free as part of my training not for four weeks though for 1.5 years
nick
why does one have to study mental health nursing seems an odd concept to me…and no job seekers allowance is a subsistence payment for when one is actively seeking work….working for free is not work exp coz there is no pay exp, it is punishment, highly toxic, corrosive, destructive, destroyer of jobs and self esteem…and charities make a fine income from it…ie mental health charities should do all in their power to have no customers for their services….
Get fucked arsehole.
Nick Barnes
You sound more like Nick Clegg he talks a load of shit too. Did you say you were paid for the jobs you did while studying for a degree or did you do it for free? Just remember when you get your degree if there are no jobs in the subject you have qualified you could be forced to do the menial jobs for the rest of your life and without pay, you smug slug.
‘Uni’ degrees (unless they are in subjects where access to the profession such as medicine) don’t count for jack shit these days. Every man, woman and their dog has a ‘uni’ degree these days. ‘Uni’ degrees nowadays only serve to to keep university management in cushy lifestyles – it’s all about the fees you see 🙂 You won’t be the first ‘uni’ ‘grad’ will a bullshit degree who feels a sense of ‘entitlement’ We’ll let me tell you something for nothing, Nick – your ‘uni’ degree entitles you to FUCK ALL! And you won’t be the first smug arsehole ‘uni’ ‘grad’ who thinks they know everything about the world because they have a rolled up piece of parchment in their grubby little hand. So I wouldn’t get too smug and self-satisfied if I were you Nick, in fact I hope you you spend the rest off your miserable life slaving for jack shit in menial jobs and when the fucking brutality of the jobs finally kill you that you BURN IN HELL! you fucking CUNT!! All the ill will in the world to you, Nick! Now, go and fuck off and die you cunt!
* (unless they are in subjects where access to the profession such as medicine are strictly controlled)
Nick, you won’t be the first nor the last ‘uni grad’ to come down to earth with a bump and a sore arse lol 🙂
OK, so you’d be happy to work for sweet FA, would you? You’ve really bought in to the Daily Heil & IDS’s bullshit about “job snobs”. What’s your degree course – sheer stupidity?
And that term “uni”, it’s like textspeak, childish & moronic.
Nick. Actually I work 2 jobs, dinner ladyand cleaner. But if I was on jsa, (and there but the grace of Allah go I) I’d. Only do around 10 hours workfare a week as around 10 hours equal 71 quid has at minimum wage rates. I wwould refuse to be exploited too!
And actually Nick I’m at college part time training to be a family worker. So I can Try n help kids n.families hit by these insane welfare reforms
FUCK OFF! CUNT!
Sorry to hear you’ve worked in a shop for ten years but can you explain to the readers at what time you worked for nothing, as they are expected to do?
Would you work for fuck all, like these people are expected to do?
I very much doubt it!
Workfare is forced labour with job prospects non existent.
Firms in our town use people like skivvies for the duration of their allotted work. In turn, they fuck them off, ring the jobcentre, who in turn send another load.
Ask your shop to set some on, but let them know how you feel about them when they arrive.
I doubt if you would make it to morning break time before your A and E visit.
Mind you, you probably won’t have a morning break, because your types will accept anything……….
Your not working for free you still get your benefits. …
THIRTY FIVE HOURS FOR £71.20P, THAT WORKS OUT AT JUST OVER TWO QUID AN HOUR.
I BET YOUR EMPLOYER LOVES YOU, ESPECIALLY WITH A NAME THAT RELATES TO STEALING FARM BUILDINGS.
Nick,
I have paid years of national insurance to get my benefits so yes I am working for free you #%&#!
It’s you’re not your! Hopefully you’re taking action to improve your literacy skills whilst at university.
Yes I am, I admit english is not my strong point
nick
is empathy and compassion your strong point then, or do you think working for nothing is good for the soul….btw this country is not skint, they are spending £bns crushing the unemployed, sick and disabled…all to squeeze as much free work/labour out of the working classes as they as they possibly can…jsa and esa are a tiny part of the welfare budget..the predominant amount is for state pensions…
Thinking isn’t your strong point either.
Nick Barnes, is your typical modern-day ‘uni grad’ – as thick as shit in a bottle… you are not even fit for a minimum wage job Nick, you daft cunt.
Good call, A4e Sucks! The fucking ignorant c*nt.
State Benefits and Wages are two separate things you stupid twat.
Nick, some charities are paying there fat cat bosses hundred thousands. why should a poor person, who i might add could be suffering from depression, be forced with the actual threat of starvation to work for a fat cat charity. Or for a private company ( I have seen this for myself, people on jobcenter work experience scrubbing the place clean for a retail managers visit)
Why should the poorest be subjected to this forced unfree labour just so that people like you can reassure yourself, its all a good idea and they are getting paid in benefits. the benefit is for JOB SEEKING , not for volunteering. it should be re named ‘work volunteer allowance’ if you’ll be having all the poorest, ill and disabled people wash the streets all day. The way you go on about your experience and you degree(in mental health!), its a typical i m alright jack attitude.
its not just the arsey people you were picked on at school, the vulnerable are being made to jump through hoops to get this little bit of money. people who you will deal with, people with agoraphobia, depression, anxiety, domestic violence, learning difficulties, people who are still physically ill. They are getting the best of the unfair treatment from the WP and job centers.
Yeah, why not drop the pretence and just cut the JSA (jobseeking-allowance) crap and rename all out-of-work benefits WA (Workfare Allowance)?
“Your not working for free you still get your benefits. …” seriously, fuck off with this shite………..!!!!
It’s not “your” it’s “you’re”, jeeeze & you claim to have a degree! Maybe you should take a course in basic literacy first before being let loose on patients,!
Why don’t you go and work for one of those right-wing think tanks. They’d love you there, for sure. In the meantime, I hope they both drop off and roll down a drain. You fucking idiot!
@ Nick Barnes.. I am being forced to work for a private care home for my MWA, not a charity.. No doubt a care home that earns millions every year in profit which I will be now contributing to against my will, you utter cunt..
I am shocked that they think it’s even ok to send someone on an unpaid mandatory work placement to a care home. There is huge potential for residents not to receive the care they need because of a lack of training and resentment from people who have been coerced into working there for no pay. I’m not saying that you would take it out on the residents, but I can see how some people would be tempted to do so. I also doubt that a care home would bother to invest time in giving proper training to someone who they know they’re only using in the short term to avoid paying wages for a few weeks.
There may be a legal issue. Everyone who works in a care home is supposed to have a CRB check.
I’ve already checked. You only need a CRB check if you work unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults. I sure I will have an overseer telling me what to do!
But people in care ARE vulnerable adults!
That’s the sad thing A4e Sucks, It’s the people that need the care that will suffer. I certainly do not want to do anything to deliberately to hurt them. But I shall not be ’employee’ of the month that’s for sure. I’ll make a nuisance of myself and probably take the paid staff away from caring for them though, and if they try to order me about to clean up piss ‘n shit all the time to get there own back, fuck it…. The gloves will come off. 😦
Care homes are horrific places to work in especially if you are on something like mandatory work activity… you will be given all the really crappy jobs to do like lifting the residents in and out off bed/baths, cleaning up piss, shit and sick and changing nappies (yes, they wear nappies in care homes!) and having to take dead bodies out to the ,mortuary. Literally stomach-churning work. It is bad enough if you are getting (badly) paid for this shit but having to do it for nothing on pain of being thrown into destitution is simply too awful to think about.
Yes- and if you are not being paid to do tasks which you absolutely detest, why would you be conscientious about how you perform them? For example, why would you take care lifting the residents in and out of bed and when changing their nappies? As I said earlier, when it comes to things like lifting, it is unlikely that someone who is working there unpaid for a few weeks will be trained properly.
Reblogged this on Dispatches from the edge or do slipstreams dream?.
We have had a couple of people on here who claim they are working or studying for a mental health qualification and none of them have any compassion and are utterly contemptible in their comments.
Workfare: A jolly good idea! And about bloody time too!
Benefits sanctions a ‘ticking timebomb’ for the homeless
Herald Scotland - 8 hours ago
THe risk of homelessness from the “bedroom tax” has been much discussed, but warnings are growing that the effects of another aspect of …
74,070 people have now been sent to work unpaid on the Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme.
74,070 people X 30 hours (MWA) = 2,222,100 Free unpaid hours of work.
2,222,100 hours at £6.31p (Basic Wage) = £14,021,451 in total unpaid wages.
If you want the monthly figure’s it’s:
74,070 people x 120 hours (4 week MWA) = 8,888,400 free unpaid hours of work.
8,888,400 hours at £6.31p = £56,085,804 total upaid wages.
Now let’s look at the new 6 month MWA coming in april 2014.
Assuming a figure of 100,000 people:
100,000 people x 780 hours (6 month MWA) = 78,000,000 free unpaid hours of work.
78,000,000 hours at £6.31p = £492,180,000 total upaid wages.
It makes me sick to think of all the rampant exploitation of the poor that’s going on.
Seems as if sadly, there are. More then enough workfare placements to go round. On here previously it was debated if there would be?
I’ve received a letter today saying I’m due to start on something called a “Fresh start course” which lasts for 3 weeks starting next week doing something for 3 days per week, It doesn’t mention what exactly. I’m on the post-WP thing at the moment after having left Seetec a while ago. Does anyone know what this thing I’m doing is? It sounds different to MWA.
I don’t know that much about Fresh Start but I found this: http://www.momentumskills.org.uk/our-services/service/glasgow-fresh-start-programme There are different programmes in different parts of the country- I found one elsewhere which is targeted at people viewed as being at risk of committing domestic violence. As you can see, the Glasgow one is aimed at people who are out of work who have mental health issues. So it seems like these programmes are aimed at people with particular ‘issues’ or ‘barriers’, as they seem to want to call them.
fresh start – even the name is patronising
I hope that anyone who is sent on a workfare placement will find some way to cause havoc, without being caught. One of the easiest ways would be on an unpaid office placement where the unpaid conscript is given all the boring shite that paid employees don’t want to do, such as piles of filing and photocopying. It would be very easy to ‘accidentally’ swop files around when left alone in the filing room or for the odd sheet to find itself in the wrong file.
High (cough cough) standards from workfare users Tesco: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2515497/Man-finds-MOUSE-bag-Tesco-frozen-scampi.html
Signed on Today, at Jobcentre and, my advisor asked me how I got on at my trainining provider (learn about) basically I said it was ok. But I’m not eligible for the gateway scheme. (The advisor then asked me why) I replied because the scheme is’nt available in my area. Her face was like a lead balloon 🙂 so, basically that was the 2nd or 3rd training provider that she has tried to set me up with. But although she has’nt found me a provider (or a placement) she, did say that next year the rules for Jobsearching are changing ?? is that true ?? basically she wanted to see my UJM account (I refused access) but, she asked me to logon to a pc in Jobcentre so she could snoop at my account. She looked at my application history, then she saw my activity history and, apparently I now have to spend 35 hours per week Jobsearching anybody else been told this by their advisor ?? or, have I been lied to ??
No, they cannot make you give them access to your account- see this from a recent Johnny Void post https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/universal-jobmatch-wins-worst-website-award/ Also, the 35 hour per week jobsearch is not currently a requirement, but it is what IDS would like to happen if the useless Universal Credit system ever comes into widespread use (which I very much doubt it will). The idea behind Universal Credit is that jobseekers will be logged on and monitored for 35 hours a week, but in reality this is going to be impractical for a variety of reasons. The advisor is just scaremongering- you do not have to give the DWP access to your Universal Jobmatch account, therefore they cannot monitor your activities on there.
Thanks, for your reply A4e sucks. Have they mentioned the 35 hour jobsearch thingy to you ??
oh, you mean that 35 hour jobsearch is for universal credit ?? not ujm ??
also, do you know exacly in april when the 6 month workfare scheme is launched ??
No, they haven’t told me to do that. I also don’t have an exact date for when the post Work Programme schemes are supposed to be launching, but in any case, I just can’t see them working. They want everyone who has reached the end of the Work Programme without having found a job to either attend the Jobcentre, some sort of crap ‘training’ scheme or unpaid work placement every day of the week. There will not be enough computer stations and other facilities available in Jobcentres for it to be realistic for people to attend every day. They have also not thought at all about how people who live in areas with no regular bus service could attend- if they ever try to make me do one of the planned activities, I will tell them that the DWP can pay for me to get a taxi there and back every day- at £50 a time, I very much doubt they’ll want to do that LOL. Everyone told to go on the new schemes should insist on full travel expenses being paid. Like I said though, I am sure that there will be all sorts of problems which crop up and prove the planned schemes not to be viable.
don’t let them grind you down 🙂 they want Jobseekers to be down in the dumps, but we will not buckle, we will pile the crap at the Jobcentre (quite literally)
Simon? 😀 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275045/Unemployed-man-dumped-huge-bag-dog-mess-job-centre-staff-refused-pay-dole-money-10minutes-late-signing-on.html
I can’t remember when the last time was I was seen on time at the JCP for signing-on. I turn up on time, get told to take a seat and am finally called to an advisor’s desk AT LEAST 15 mins after the due time. This poor lad in the article must go to an extremely efficient JCP!
………..as strange as it may seem, somebody has requested freedom of information access to the memorandum that was issued to staff within the DWP.
The memorandum is further proof that this department is losing the plot completely when it comes to diagnosis of a claimants, physical or mental, disabilities.
Now ATOS has been secreted in the background, obviously for violating codes that the government instructed them to violate in the first instance, the DWP have now been instructed to turn to the internet………………….
Who needs trained medical staff nowadays when you can teach a nurse in a few days, cheap doctrines of how to discredit a patients disabilities, by sending them to Derby University.
It makes me wonder if they have access to the Observers book of Disability Denial…….
DISABILITY DENIAL is what all this contrived fiasco is about, a method of unleashing private health insurance on our shores using the connivance of a select group of influential people to infiltrate the powers that be…………
The FACULTY OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE has been a springboard for those select people, acting in the interests of the much discredited american, UNUM INSURANCE GROUP and ATOS, to launch this attack on U.K. markets………..
Just do a bit of googling and the links with these discredited companies become sinisterley apparent.
BILL GUNNYEON, now the CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER OF THE DWP,is the kingpin behind this scandal that is yet to rock politics. Indeed, nearly every link to any event that he has chaired or spoken at, bears fruit as to the existence of corporate management sponsorship from these firms.
Each and every venue has the same participants, the same participants who have succesfully steered the government down a one way street.
Perhaps i am being a bit modest here, because the government are also part of the bigger picture, as are the AUSTERITY, WELFARE REFORMS, that have been unleashed on the weakest and poorest within our shores…………….
All part of a bigger corporate plan that was enabled by a handful of carefully chosen people.
Dame Carol Black, Paul Lichfield and Bill Gunnyeon have all been prime movers in the movement aimed at introducing private health insurance by the back door.
The decommissioning of the NHS is the biggest part of the plan. PRIVATISATION BY DECEPTION.
To bolster what i am saying, just red the following lines that show the UNUM link;
TAEN CONFERENCE, Sponsored by UNUM, London 29th oct 2008.
Among the morning speakers were; Dr Bill GUNNYEON (DWP)……
Professor Michael ODONNELL, UNUM Chief Medical Officer…
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Losing the benefit crutch
Source:Occupational Health Date:01-09-2005 Type:commentary and analysis
But, as Dr Bill Gunnyeon, former president of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, pointed out in May, occupational medicine will need to broaden its horizons to address not only the health needs of people at work, but those of the working age population as a whole. Anything that helps people who have been ill to get back into work would be broadly welcomed by OH professionals, argues Dr Barbara Kneale, occupational health and safety advisor at car manufacturer Peugeot Citron in Coventry.
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Simon Burns (Minister of State (Health), Health; Chelmsford, Conservative)
We are not aware of any meetings between officials and UNUM. However, Dame Carol Black, expert adviser on health and work to the Department, met them on three occasions in January 2012 to discuss the positive relationship between work and health.
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Commenting, Professor Michael O’Donnell, Chief Medical Officer at Unum said:
“Dame Carol Black’s ‘fit note’ will be a major step forward in addressing attitudes towards sickness and the sooner we can introduce it, the better. Changing the mindset and therefore attitudes is the critical first step in bringing about a real and effective change in approach by all parties.
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Source:Occupational Health Date:01-07-2005 Type:news
Dr Bill Gunnyeon stood down in May after three years as head of the faculty to became chief medical adviser at the Department for Work and Pensions, where he will play a key role in plans to get millions of people off incapacity benefit and back into work. The role and importance of work in the lives of people and the interaction between health and work now has a profile and a focus that it has never had before, and our specialty encompasses a unique set of skills and experience that can make a significant contribution to this agenda,” Gunnyeon added.
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Dame Carol Black
Chief medical adviser warns that funding requests will be challenged
A tax break for companies that fund interventions to get absent employees back to work will be considered by the Government, but much work needs to be done to analyse its implications.
This was the message from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to insurers, healthcare professionals and employer representatives at the Association of British Insurers this morning.
“Any conference I have been to, it [removing tax disincentives to fund healthcare] is one of the things that employers have consistently raised and I understand that,” said Dr Bill Gunnyeon, chief medical adviser at the DWP. “But I’m not making any promises.”
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Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference
5-6 march 2013
Venue; NEC Birmingham
Speakers include;
Dame Carol Black
Bill Gunnyeon CBE
Professor Sir Mansel Aylward
SUPPORTED BY ATOS HEALTHCARE
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Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference
5-6 march 2013
Venue; NEC Birmingham
Speakers include;
Dame Carol Black
Bill Gunnyeon CBE
Professor Sir Mansel Aylward
SUPPORTED BY ATOS HEALTHCARE
…………………………………………………………………………..
Association of British Insurers in partnership with UNUM and AXA PPP Healthcare.
BUILDING A RESILIENT WORKFORCE
Dialogue panel includes;
Dame Carol Black
James McGarry CEO UNUM
Bill Gunnyeon CBE (DWP)
……………………………………………………………………………
London 2012.
The 6th International Forum on Disability Management was chaired by two of the worlds leaders on the “good work is good for you” movement,Professors Dame Carol Black and Sir Mansel Aylward.The UK movement is going gang busters. Dr Bill Gunnyeon, Chief Medical Adviser and Director for Health and Wellbeing at the DWP,described how their surveys of GPs attitudes has shown a remarkable turnaround, with most GPs now agreeing work is beneficial for health, and around two thirds agreeing that GPs have a role in getting people back to work.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Bill Gunnyeon said:
“I am delighted to be joining the Department and very much looking forward to the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead. I will be seeking to build on the outstanding work of Professor Aylward, who has made such a valuable contribution to the Department’s achievements and whom I feel privileged to be succeeding.”
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PLEASE NOTICE THE LINKS TO UNUM, ATOS, GUNNYEON AND LITCHFIELD AND FINALLY MANSEL AYLWARD…
Sadly, guess who is the independent scrutineer for ATOS,
The one and only PAUL LITCHFIELD…..
Labour partys ASSESSMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP….
Sue Godby, UnumUK
Dr Angela Graham, Atos Origin
Dr Paul Litchfield, Faculty of Occupational Medicine (Bill Gunnyeon, now the chief Medical Advisor to DWP was the president of the FOM)
In Physical Technical Working Group included:
Dr Angela Graham, Atos Origin Medical Services
Dr Peter Dewis, Disability Analyst and Customer Care Director, UnumUK
Dr David Henderson Slater, yet again
The former Chief Medical Advisor to the UK government, Professor Mansel Aylward, was instrumental in advising the UK government to set up medical assessment centres based on the model in America, and he is still funded by the same American company used in his example, with his research centre in Wales. The company’s name: UnumProvident (UK). Indeed, his research centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research is based at Cardiff University (Professor Aylward is the Director) is named the“UnumProvident Centre.” Professor Aylward was also instrumental in how the recent Welfare Reform Act was to be implemented by the DWP. 8
…………………………………………………………………………..Silver Jubilee Business Dinner 4TH DEC 2003
Aboard Royal Yacht BRITTANNIA, Edinburgh
GUESTS INCLUDE;
BILL GUNNYEON
MANSEL AYLWARD
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The Department for Work and Pensions announces today the appointment of Dr Bill Gunnyeon as Chief Medical Adviser, Medical Director and Chief Scientist to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Currently Medical Director of Capita Health Solutions and President of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Dr Gunnyeon will take up post on 1st June 2005.
He succeeds Professor Mansel Aylward CB who is retiring from the Department at the end of April to take up post as Chair in Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University and Director of the new UnumProvident Centre at the University. He will also chair the newly established Wales Centre for Health which will lead on improvements in the nation’s health.
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………………..ALL THE LINKS CAN BE FOUND ON YOUR COMPUTERS.
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Finally, will the DWP ANSWER THE FOI REQUEST TO THE MEMORANDUM THAT WAS ISSUED THAT INSTRUCTED STAFF TO USE THE INTERNET TO LOOK UP MEDICAL CONDITIONS?
Here is the link;
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/staff_bulletin_7th_november#outgoing-315696
Hi, can you sign the petition to get benefit sanctions abolished. So far it has nearly 9,000 signitures. I don’t know how many signitures it needs or when the closing date is, but please sign and spread the word. Thank you
Here’s a link to the petition you’re talking about:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/benefit-sanctions-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions-in-uk
Hi, did I not include the link for the petition to scrap benefit sanctions ??