The number of people with jobs forced to claim Housing Benefit hit record levels according to the latest figures making a mockery of the so-called fall in unemployment.
The number of in-work Housing Benefit claimants now stands at over 1.049 million, the highest figure on record. In May 2010, when this Government weren’t elected, the number claiming this benefit was just over 650,000.
Housing Benefit is probably the best indicator of how many people in the UK are poor. Available to those in or out of work, as well as pensioners, the only criteria are being a tenant on a low income and having low, or no, assets or savings. Even those with jobs on Housing Benefit will have a disposable income little higher than someone on out of work benefits, as the benefit is reduced as earnings rise. All of the Housing Benefit bill goes to landlords, and the rates are capped at the bottom 30% of properties in the local rental market.
Both the press and politicians are finally questioning whether the fall in unemployment is masked by a huge increase in the number of self-employed people who are barely scraping an income. People are known to have been encouraged to come off unemployment benefits and claim the lower rate of Working Tax Credits by companies running Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare-to-work schemes. These firms receive huge pay outs if they can persuade a claimant to take this risky move, which involves declaring themselves as working at least 30 hours a week towards self-employment.
If this was happening on a large scale then you would expect the number of in-work Housing Benefit claimants to soar. The same would happen if many of the people now officially ’employed’ are actually on workfare, or zero hours contracts with sporadic and precarious incomes. That is exactly what’s happening. The number of people overall claiming housing benefits hit 5 million households last February and has more or less stayed there ever since. This is a quarter of a million more than in May 2010 and the figures were at record highs then. The rise is almost entirely down to claimants who the Government say are working.
If these claimants were actually earning any money, then this would be seen in the average weekly Housing Benefit claim for those in work. As previously mentioned, the benefit is cut as incomes rise, so it could be that people are only claiming a few pounds a week to top up meagre incomes and pay soaring rents. The figures show however that this is far from the case. The average weekly Housing Benefit claim for those in work also hit a record high in the latest period and now stands at £90.44 a week. This is only just under £3 less than the average claim for those out of work. What this suggests is that most of these working Housing Benefit claimants have full awards, meaning they are only earning a few pounds at most above current unemployment benefit rates.
No matter how much the Government try to claim that official unemployment has fallen, the number of people who have incomes around the current level of out of work benefits is higher than ever. This is the reality of the recovery for those not enjoying George Osborne’s house price bubble. And with both in and out of work benefits being haphazardly slashed, not only are more people poor than ever before, but they are getting poorer.
Above graph from the latest DWP Quarterly Statistical Summary (PDF).
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the void 
Can not be more excited about a booming self employment in the country! if the tax payer has to part subsidise entrepreneurs that is a great thing compared to fully subsidise unemployed.
adam
which of course that would be fine if the economy was also booming together with a pro-rata increase in average household earnings, but the simple fact is, neither are…http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22874889 there is simply no economic growth to give substance, that substantiates any economic benefits in the soaring numbers in self-employment..it is a closed system with no net extra inputs, so growth in self employment must be financed from within the current fiscal framework, of an actually shrinking local/grassroots economy, the local economy is shrinking at the expense of a growing and exclusive global economy…the masses are simply fighting for scraps off the table…so the causal factor of it, must be in that and the push to reduce unemployment numbers….
Nice rebuttal of that Tory vomit.
Tory Vomit; is hearing the good news of people for being self dependent and not that of large companies… You need to read Wikipedia definition of Tory.
good news of people for being self dependent and not that of large companies
LOL.
It would be good news for both people and the country if it was true, but it’s not. They’re simply becoming more dependant on the state, as shown by the in-work benefits bill going through the roof.
What type of service ‘industries’ are we desperately short of,
Self-employed window clearners, gardeners, sock or glove knitters?
Because this is the type of self-employment that the Waste Programme ‘helps’ people into. It’s not what I’d call entrepreneurship.
The WP even supplies you with an accountant who quite clearly tells you that you won’t be paying any tax, – but you will be claiming tax credits.
Having tax payer subsadise you less due to increase in income from being self employed is LESS dependent on the state and not more.
Self Employed; is self employed. An additional job in the UK; is an additional job. Further employers are further employers. This is all good news!
I am seeing nothing to counter that in your reply.
” would be fine if the economy was also booming ” that’s irrelevant to a person creating a role for them-self in society on the route of being self dependent, with the helping hand of the taxpayer.
SME are the backbone of the country! and create wealth from each other for services rather than the large companies using other large companies.
You can not diminish the great news about booming self employment in the country by “we’re not growing fast enough”.
adam
you’re living in a dream world…
You relate unrelated “points” to determine that Self Employment is not a good thing; dream world? my eyes are open seems someone has another “agenda”.
adam
you say my points are unrelated, prove it for my education, and whilst you are thinking about that,also include a list of viable self-employment opps in the uk..i personally believe self-employment is ok if it is viable, i was in fact self-employed for a number of years…my agenda is truth, not subjective, wishful thinking theory… that people are forced into self-employment as a means of reducing unemployment numbers is bad, there has to be another driver for self-employment other than short term desperation…there is simply no mass self-employment economic generator to sustain a viable living wage for mass self-employment…a politically driven convenience zeal for self-employment is irrational, the money to sustain it has to come from somewhere, and everyone needs a minimum income to survive….anyone who truly believes in practical/sustainable inclusive free market enterprise cannot claim it is an economic cure, but just another option…the capitalist promised land ideological salvation model, has grown to big for its boots, radical change has to be made in the way we do things, globally as well as locally….
Further unrelated points.
A person that is fully dependent on the state for their livelihood IS BAD for them and for the economy. A person that is in-part depended on the state (self employed) is OK for them and better for economy. A person self-employed that gets out of the minimum threshold – I admire the most! What a guy!
Rather than what you suggest; “if its viable”. WTF is that even supposed to mean. You either get an income and get less benefits, or you dont. either way its worth a try.
Your agenda is highly subjective and highly irrelevant to the great news that self-employed numbers are increasing in the country and unemployment is dropping.
Your scared of them failing? or does this simply not fit into your agenda here?
adam
whatever, i really cannot be bothered to debate what you are unable, as yet, to see and there know…in time you might…
And yet they will all have to give up what they are doing and go back on the dole when Universal Credit is fully rolled out: https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/unemployment-timebomb-at-heart-of-universal-credit/
That is bad news Johnny, fortunately universal credit is mostly theory and we have a chance together to change it to support the thrivers in society.
“That is bad news Johnny, fortunately universal credit is mostly theory”
It’s even worse than that.
Because they’ve known for over a year that UC won’t ever happen, they’ve simply applied it’s conditionality anyway. There’s no JSA agreement NOW, it’s all claimant commitment, which is pointless ‘jobsearching’ on bank hollidays, christmas day, new years eve, basic maths and literacy courses, unpaid ‘community’ work.
People might be declaring themselves self-employed but they’re certainly not becoming entrepreneurs or SMEs while all that’s going on.
Support the thrivers?
…and what about the rest of the people Adam? Who are they? Do you have a name for them? What should we do with them? What do you suggest?
Good question, which I bet he won’t be giving one of his smug replies to. We don’t need him answer it though, because we already know the answer.
Scratch a Tory and you’ll find a closet Nazi.
R43, sorry Lucy is a fool and presumed I was against supporting the most vulnerable in society. That is far from what I said; but if it helps your agenda to paint me as smug as well as evil. Have fun..
If you think that was a slick dodge of the questions Lucy asked you, you are very much mistaken. 🙂 Nice try Adam. Now why don’t you answer the specific questions she asked you?
Universal Credit already supports them, Johnny said it did not support self employed (the thrivers)…. That needs to change.
Now it helps you could say “WHAT ARE PEOPLE WHO EMPLOYED NOT STRIVER’S!?” ..
But that would be more about stereotypes rather than ensuring the vulnerable in society have the support they need from the insurance they pay to the government.
Wow <bAdam. It’s not very often we get someone as uninformed as you on here, congratulations!
Yet; nothing of substance or rebuttal in your reply. I welcome to debate that people trying to make it for themselves is “bad” or that the tax payer having to part subsidise a start-up is “bad”..
Your reply seems to be another fine mess.
Most of them will be people like my mate, who became ‘self employed’ in name to get the dole off his back but still get Housing Ben. He just does a spot of cash-in-hand work and deals a little cannabis to get by. He doesn’t have a business. I know loads of people who have been doing that for years. BUT if the dreaded UC does come into effect it means they’ll just have to quit what they were doing and sign back on again.
“Most of them” I do hope not.
A little handy work and dealing drugs is technically self employed; but lets hope that “Most of them” strive for a better life.
All depends on the motive. If it’s a genuine attempt to start someone off in self-employment and there’s a sensible business case and plan. Great. But in many cases I’ve heard of the motive is to earn the fee for getting someone off JSA and improve the reported figures. J-Void is right that now we need to look at other data to see what’s happennning as the unemployment data is garbage.
Adam-
It’s bad because vulnerable people are being tricked by the Jobcentre and Work Programme into thinking they can make it on their own when they can’t, and being encouraged to start up their own ‘businesses’ which in all likelihood are doomed to failure. This is all so the government can fiddle the unemployment figures and fool the Daily Mail readers and their ilk in to thinking a substantial recovery is occurring.
Then when their businesses fail and they are left penniless without a source of income, Tories like Adam will then use that to engage in even more just-world hypothesis victim blaming: ‘their product must’ve been shoddy, they didn’t put in the hours necessary to create a successful business, they took too big a salary from the business etc etc, so they only have themselves to blame.
You should get a shovel, to put all them words in my mouth.
Sorry for spoiling your chance to engage in some more victim blaming by saying what you were going to say before you got a chance to say it. 🙂
I think its near 80% of business fail in there first year. As far as I understand it, benefits are subject to your income to if they are bad business they get more benefits – so no one suffers.
If its a good business; the benefits reduce. If the business fails in the first year as 80% of them do; they are back claiming full benefits. Except now with “work experience” but better than work experience.
All departments play with figures unfortunately; hopefully in the lower numbers and hopefully the claimants wont be duped!!
How did you manage to get through university!
Hahaha can only laugh at this comment. Being one of the newly “self employed” I can say you are talking out of some other orifice not your mouth.
Due to my particular circumstances I now cost the country around £130 per month MORE as I am a low earner (self employed for only 2 months) as a consequence of getting working tax credits AND still receiving housing / council tax benefit.
Add to of this, 2 years on the Work Programme, payment to the Work prgramme for me going self employed (regardless of whether they helped or not, which they didn’t) numerous courses to tick all the boxes for going self employed and the cost of “fiddling the figures” rises enormously.
The problem with the work programme and finding people work is that the governments rhetoric has worked against them, as have all the TV programmes, labelling all the unemployed “workshy, skiving, lazy and illiterate” has made employers think twice about assisting these schemes as they are under the impression we are all alike and no work will ever get done.I even ASKED for Work experience on the work programme and they were unable to even find me a free job fgs.
For me It was a choice between going self employed or going nuts with all the crap expected of someone seeking employment and the weekly stress of waiting for that brown envelope to say I had been sanctioned.
.If universal credit is rolled out nationwide I will no doubt be one of the first lining back up to sign on as my earnings will be well below what they expect for some time to come, this will no doubt lead to me being sanctioned as insufficient jobs are availabe for everyone here . then and only then will I officially cease to be getting any benefits.
BTW, (as opposed to BTL) Adam is a Mortgage Broker, Letting Agent and Entrepreneur.
Nothing more needs to be said.
More can be said; I also work for TVCatchup to give Free TV to all and as a “Letting Agent” we only rent to those on LHA (well except 3 properties).
You should know stereotypes is another fine mess.
The site looks OK. Live ITV was only about 7 seconds behind Freeview.
But how can it be Free TV to all when you need a TV licence, unlimited internet access and perhaps BT line rental.
It’s free TV for about £12 a week, or does someone else pay for all that.
I found out about it and used it whilst at University; as at home parents had TV Licence. So…
Legally a battery powered laptop does not need an ADDITIONAL TV Licence, the Internet was included in rent too.
So Even in your view of “Free” it was absolutely free.
So it’s not Free TV to all is it, it’s actually nothing at all. No wonder there’s nothing about this great service on the TVCatchup site.
Free to Air doesn’t mean Free to All.
You’re either totally confused or just making things up.
Adam: LOL! I need add no more!
Adam:
Dumbass!
I am a freeman, not a politician,
Adam, you haven’t replied to my explanation of why the huge numbers of unemployed people suddenly becoming allegedly ‘self-employed’ is total bullshit. People are being hounded off of JSA through a vendetta of threats and oppression. They are not all starting up a business, in fact I believe that very few of them are doing so. Most are just calling themselves “self employed” to escape the dole regime, but are just getting by doing a spot of cash-in-hand work so that it looks like they are earning something BUT are still able to claim Housing Benefit (ie. the main reason people have to sign-on in the first place). I know of many people who have been doing this for years.
I don’t believe your propaganda.
Who the hell; is allowing a bureaucrat pursue “threats and oppression” without turning their mobile phone camera on them and taking legal action.
If someone like you say; does it of their own accord to get out of the excessive benefits programme – then that’s up to them.
Im talking about the real self-employed that MOST of these numbers should represent.
The scamers and the dodgy bureaucrats are not in high numbers as you would suggest.
“I don’t believe your propaganda.”
“When reality starts to disprove my Tory fantasies, I just disregard it by categorising it as propaganda.”
Adam, here is further confirmation that Universal Credit will lead to more people working cash-in-hand:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27417914
The world isn’t quite as black and white as you seem to think.
cash-in-hand is fine, no one wants to pay the tax man. I don’t follow your point?
Tory dumbass at that! and that takes some beating! Adam’s a Toryboy troll similar to that nutter the other week. What was his name again? Can’t remember his name, he made so much of an impact with his BS rhetoric.
Well things aren’t looking too good.
Perhaps Adam thinks the ‘help’ from JCP and the WP is something like what happens on Dragons Den. In reality it’s more like,”You can tie your own shoelaces?”, “Have you ever considered going self-employed, you can claim an extra £30 in tax credits(tax payers money), meanwhile we can claim up to £13,000 bonus.(tax payers money again)
And there we have it, the country booming with self made entrepreneurs!
Adam’s like every Tory MP that when you buttonhole them and ask how many of these jobs that have magically appeared are FT, decently paid with full workers rights? No zero hour contracts or self employed BS!
Self employed! That’s a laugh. Suddenly everyone’s a SE gardener or window cleaner! The only difference is they don’t make any money!
Fake economy, Fake recovery, Fake Jobs. Fake politicians.
How did my job magically appear Raining? or the employment of my sister.
Quite simply; i set up for myself and started small. I made nothing but put the hours in to a point where income was greater than expenditure – to which point I continued to expand.
Now i employ my sister with me; two jobs “magicaly appeared”.
Now I can sit here listening to crap you say: that how people who make it for themselves is “bad” as no one can create a role in society apparently! wtf.
—
There is a difference though; these self employed people will be supported by Benefits. If they make no income; they get more benefits.
Self Employed – you make your own rights, work to your own desire without contracts.
How did my job magically appear Raining? or the employment of my sister.
Your jobs are actually the problem, where do you think any money or wealth you extract from it actually comes from.
That easy is it! .. Why isnt everyone doing it?
I am a freeman, not a politician, Nor do I support David Cameron, I prefer a bit of Boris myself especially compared to Miliband.
“I prefer a bit of Boris myself”
Ok…..
Don’t be ridiculous, these people are not entrepreneurs, they are unemployed people who have been bullied and harassed off Jobseekers and Income support. They are Avon and Kleeneze (or similar) reps,earning practically nothing, living on foodbank donations and claiming full housing benefit. This is so the Tories can say there is higher employment and people like you can feel smug.
You mean these people are committing benefit fraud? or are you saying people who work for Avon dont do real work?
Im starting to think that paranoia is so large on this blog; I am in no dbout government departments play with figures! .. The number of people pretending to be self employed will be minimal.
Those that choose to opt out of the Benefits Regime by misleading the department; I have no care for. Its a good dodge; best of luck to them.
Nothing wrong with the unemployed.
All unemployed people pay tax one way or another.
AND, they have a gift of extracting money from people who have money but do not want to pay tax.
I think it is called tax avoid!ance
If i were you! i would opt for a head transplant.
OOps to late.
Ron, you know that contradicts itself right? how can they extract money from people who avoid tax!
I do agree; there is nothing wrong with the unemployed; except they lack employment.
I do love myself some self-employed entrepreneur types though! my favourite type of person who I get along with best are those that start with nothing and work so they can provide work for others and support there own livelihood… Not a fan of hereditary self-employed or private school ship-in directors.
“Workshy! Scrongers! Layabouts!
You have voted yourselves out of jobs and have only yourselves to blame!
Vote Conservative!
I will have my milky bar now please mother”
Adam is a Tory Boy.
Reblogged this on Dnmufc's Blog.
A ceremony is honouring those who refused to fight in World War One. Their relatives look back at their decisions and reflect on the legacy of conscientious objection today.
“He never spoke about what happened to him,” says Chris Lawson, 76, of his father, Bernard, a Christian objector from north London.
…
WW1: The conscientious objectors who refused to fight
The latest unemployment figures don`t fool me for a second. the reason there`s fewer people signing on is because so many people are forced to do voluntary work, or are on one of the many useless work programmes where they don`t have to sign on. The unemployment figures are based on how many are signing on.
And lets not forget the rising number of sanctions –
“The number of jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) claimants who were subject to a benefit sanction rose to 227,629 in the last three months of 2013, an increase of 69,600 on the equivalent quarter in 2012.
In total, 870,793 claimants were subject to an adverse decision to lose their benefit in 2013 due to a failure to meet Jobcentre Plus requirements to make themselves available for work.”
Catherine, spread the word. x
There is more money spent on people in work than on those who can’t, the sick and disabled, who are being demonised.
Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
Reblogged this on Vox Political.
The gradual replacement of earnings with means-tested benefits marches on, as the condition of low-paid working claimants gradually merges with that of people on workfare. Soon it will be only professionals/managers who are considered entitled to actually ‘earn a living’.
… the end game is to have all earnings paid to the government at 100% tax rate and then ‘doled out’* according to ‘need’ not want as a from of ‘credits’. We are going through an ‘adjustment phase’ at the moment which a gradual transition away from being paid directly by an employed to be ‘paid’ by the government.
* on a historical note, this is the original meaning of the term ‘dole’ and the exact same system that the Romans used whereby you handed over all your earning to the Emperor who then ‘doled out’ what he say fit.
It’s coming into an election year.
Why is anyone surprised lies are being proclaimed?
Why is anyone surprised that the governments bean counters can get it so wrong?
Tory government. Nuff said.
I strongly doubt any government is going to want to up the unemployment figures by getting part timers or self employed to jack in what they do. That would be madness in anyone’s book. They’ll probably find some fresh way to persecute them, though.
They try to create a feel good factor to “con” the economy into growth. You just know this huge fall in unemployment sounds too good to be true and it is. You don’t even need to look in detail at their fiddles. I’m surprised the lack of investigation in the general media who just accept without question almost, particularly BBC.
j d
the fake economic miracle set to quickly unravel after next yrs elections…who’ll be blamed i wonder? where is the labour opposition and why are they not tearing chunks out of the condems…
Perhaps because it would force them to state what their policies are exactly… Regurgitated ConDem policies?
sib
labour are as hell bent in dismantling social structure for profit as the condems are, who wants nicer condem crap? do labour actually have any policies of their own, that are not adaptions to the condem tory policies? a one horse race, same policies different places at the table…
I think you may have slightly misunderstood me there OBD, but you have clearly stated what I meant 🙂
I don’t know if it’s ever actually been crystal clear where I stand politically, but suffice to say that as an anarchist, and also a member of the IWW I really think that we should be doing it all for ourselves, i.e. no government and therefore no politicians in the accepted sense. Part of the tragedy is that it seems that many people can only conceive of voting for a political party that will form a government, despite being very aware that whoever we vote for, we are going to get royally screwed once more!
That suggests to me that either the electorate lacks the imagination/confidence to consider alternatives, or that it is intensely masochistic. The very fact that anarchism doesn’t get much airtime at all is very telling, as everyone in mainstream politics from Trotskyites to the BNP fear anarchism simply because it has no use for the kind of hierarchical society they want to impose on us. The flip side of that is that we have to start taking on the satisfaction of our own needs. That we can’t do that is the result of fairly recent history where the state took over many of the roles that were formerly provided by people themselves, from healthcare to housing.
We need to re-learn all these things, but also to make sure that we hold on to the institutions that we create and not allow them to once more be hijacked by the state and then dismantled as is now the case with everything from healthcare to housing. We don’t have a choice really, but to re-create our own institutions, or just roll over and die.
However, I am a gradualist, (and let’s face it, we need time to sort ourselves out) so if we can manage to put pressure on our local representatives, i.e, the least worst ones, which in England is Labour, (at least we have Plaid Cymru in Wales, just as crap, but Labour is the status quo here, and seemingly quite happy to implement Tory policies). At this point in time, any relief, however small or tenuous, is important.
This isn’t to pretend that forming our own institutions is going to be easy, most people are extremely sceptical of their own abilities to do anything, and also most of us are struggling financially as we are reliant on what are seen as ‘handouts from the state’ (despite us all being tax payers and having contributed to society in many other ways – but then we all know that the Daily Mail mentality is once that is very hard to shift), but it still needs to be done, as eventually it will be all we have.
Let’s take Cameron’s idea of Big Society, make it our own and make him eat his words as our Big Society abolishes his society and that of his ilk!
sib
my apologies, i do know where you stand re your inspirational posts about, worker coops etc and remember well your posts about a very short working day, high productivity, decent food and housing etc, the spanish civil war, catalan…socialist socities, health care etc
At the moment it’s really just reminding people that these things once existed, and belonged to the people until they were expropriated by the state by well meaning politicians – but it remains that if we can imagine a different society then we can create it, just as those who oppress us imagined the kind of society they are creating.
If we’d had had a society based on our own institutions, then it would be much harder for them to be wrested from us – I know you know this OBD, and write this to remind others that we do have power. Perhaps I should start to write a series of articles about how ordinary people have taken action to create their own institutions in the past before the state took everything over?
On a slightly different tack, but anarchist related, (of course!) I found a gem of a documentary made by BBC Scotland in 2006, (how it happened, I don’t know… it must have slipped past the censors!). It’s called ‘An Anarchist Story’ about Ethel MacDonald. Video quality isn’t brilliant, but it is watchable. (I’m hoping the BBC will put it on iPlayer at some point) There are also a lot of other classic fims/documentaries on the site, though the viewing screen is impossibly small – best to download them with the NetVideoHunter extension to the Firefox browser and then watch them with the VLC media player:
http://www.christiebooks.com/player/anarchy.html
You can download VLC (free) here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
For those of you who don’t already know, VLC is a very good, versatile media player. If you can’t play the media file on VLC you can’t play it!
sib
yes it is vital to keep reminding self and others, that we do not need to live this way…poly-tunnels, hydroponics and aquaponics, can produce abundant organic food…nitrogen fixers like the adukie bean, for soil fertility… people made growing mediums such as ancient terra preta that adds amazing vigour to plant growth, which is also a very effective carbon sink…there are just so many practical ways that we can enrich our lives, but alas the establishment “believes” we should feed them and feed ourselves so that we can slave to feed them, and reap the rewards that they say are valid….
Found this on a websearch… Shows what unemployed people can achieve when they are united. Sadly, it’s very sad that some 80 years later we are still fighting the same battle.
http://www.abertillery.net/oldabertillery/tales/blainariots.html
You’re right Sib, it’s not enough to just campaign to wrest concessions from the ruling class, because as we’ve seen over the past few decades, they can and will always roll back all the gains made by the working class as soon as it is possible, because all the cards are all stacked in their favour: their ownership of the propaganda outlets aka the media, the intelligence services, the Police, the Army etc.
It would be beneficial for the working class to build our own alternative, self-sufficient, independent, sustainable worker cooperatives, services and institutions. It wouldn’t be a panacea because we’d still be living under capitalism, but it would be better than our current precarious, degrading and dependent position.
However, if the working class did start doing that on a large-scale and it started to give us independence, weaken the ruling elite’s power over us and significantly reduce the profits of the capitalist bosses, the powers that be would undoubtedly attempt to co-opt, infiltrate, discredit, subvert, sabotage, and destroy it using every underhanded dirty trick in the book.
Perhaps they see the present ‘skirmishes’ as a sideshow/warm-up.
Yes things aren’t going to get much better with labour just less worse.
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
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Iain Dodgy Stats is coming up on Channel 4 News, due to yet more dodgy stats.
None of the skivers at DWP were available for comment.
They never are, deary.
Help to Work Guidelines.
Click to access HtW%20guidance%20v1%204%202014%2004%2024.pdf
Click to access My%20Work%20Plan%2004%2014.pdf
The Work Plan has two errors on the second page. Having access to the internet and a phone are NOT legal requirements of claiming JSA
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Mark Carney BOE stated earlier that interest rates would rise once Unemployment fell to 7% He has now back tracked,do you think he believes these Bogus figures? Not a Bloody chance,but he is stuck,the Puppet Masters have once again given conflicting orders!
“that’s absolutely correct”
CHILLY CON CARNEY HAS MADE AN UTTER PRAT OF HIMSELF BY SAYING HE WOULD RAISE INTEREST RATES………………
HE IS NO FOOL, BUT WILL NOT PLAY TO THE HYPE THAT WOULD SEE REPOSSESSIONS GO THROUGH THE ROOF AND MORTGAGE DEFAULTERS DOUBLE IN A MATTER OF MONTHS.
HIS BLUFF HAS BEEN CALLED AND HE CHICKENED OUT!
Fall in unemployment, My Arse!
FALL IN UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASE IN SANCTIONS
FALL IN UNEMPLOYMENT IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO AN INCREASE IN SANCTIONS
Correct.
I have nothing more to say on the subject apart from you have nailed this on the head.
Barry Davies……….thats exactly right that there is more money spent by government on people in work, that justifies their claim to make work pay! My question is when are the working populous going to realise that all this is doing is devaluing the jobs they are in as sooner or later they will be replaced by a Workfare Programmer who has no choice but to work for nothing? All that is deep resentment going to happen is
Mis-type but you know what I mean!
1stly- If housing benefit claims have soared- this govt will soon fix it. By persecuting those claiming it. When they become homeless, they will be swept off the streets and, eventually left to die out of sight, quietly. Only piles of corpses in the streets might have a chance of letting the public know the truth. Even then they would soon harden their hearts.
There is no limit to the gullibility and ignorance of the general public. Tell them night is day, poor is rich, sickness is health and it’s accepted. Propaganda and spin are the cheap and relatively easy way to keep people in their places and doing as they’re told. Everything is great! That’s all you will hear from govt.
I believe that under Universal Credit Housing Benefit is to be centralised so that will join up with the sanctioning scheme and therefore HB will reduce substantially. Where all these homeless people are going to go I’m not sure. I suppose they will have to live in the streets like Calcutta and places. Civilised society dream on!
hat tip to ian bone
off topic
but i had to post it because i’m like that,, and like it… http://radicalindependence.org/2014/05/15/youth-challenge-to-eton-elite/
ian bone is an agent provacateur
He sells underwear?
Yes, his two biggest customers are Naga Munchetty and Susanna Reid. You can take a peek at his wares on BBC Breakfast.
Naga Munchetty is Hot – Susanna is —— well – Not!
Well, you would say that, Obi 😉 Anyway, each to his/her own 🙂
I’d do you Susanna!
Well, you won’t be getting any, you dirty old man 🙂
no he’s not, don’t be a knob
SOLIDARITY!!!!
Channel 4 News featured a piece last night about the DWP misusing statistics saying that it might be explained by “incompetence” or “deliberate attempt to deceive” on the part of IDS and his team. I think the truth is finally gradually beginning to leak out.
“incompetence” or “deliberate attempt to deceive”
It’s obviously both.
No; “deliberate attempt to deceive” will be disguised as “incompetence”.
Esther McVile is let off lightly on BBC’s Question Time, she wasn’t asked one question regarding the total fuck up on benefits or DWP schemes.
What a fucking joke!
If Question Time changed anything it would be taken off air… 😉
All you need to know about who is eligible for the Help to Work Programme (or package) in two paragraph’s. Print off and take to the JCP just incase they try to put you on the HtW Programme if your not eligible.
From: DWP PMU.Fol
Department for Work and Pensions
Version 1.4; published 24 April 2014.
Help to Work package (for JSA claimants whose Work Programme Completer Interview is on or after 28 April 2014)
2. The HtW package of support applies to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) claimants whose Work Programme Completer Interview (WPCI) is on or after 28 April 2014.
3. Where the WPCI date is prior to 28 April 2014, the previous JSA Post Work Programme Support (PWPS) guidance must be followed.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/201658/response/517413/attach/html/3/HtW%20guidance%20v1%204%202014%2004%2024.pdf.html
Basically what this means is if you finished your 2 year Work Programme (WP) and have also finished your 6 month Post Work Programme Support (PWPS), then your not eligible for the new Help to Work Programme (HtW).
YIPPEE!
Is this true.. I was reading it that way but I thought i am missing something. What do the bastards have in store for us then?
Still unfair for the people that are getting put on it but bloody glad if I avoid it.
Great news! I was planning to refuse to do it anyway, but at least now I won’t have to, and won’t get sanctioned either! hahaha
Good speech by Tommy Sheridan from last night on the subject of independence.
cephalus
excellent speech, thanks for posting it…
SOLIDARITY!!
Rock on Tommy.
They tried to fuck you hard the News of the World as you were a threat to them. Tommy is the best speaker we have and he has went to jail for his beliefs in fighting to help the poor many times.
Tommy yer a legend
Cheers, Cephalus! SOLIDARITY!!
lol Convicted perjurer Tommy is once again using his daughter as a ‘human shield’ as he spouts some guff about protecting ‘the weans’ from those dastardly nuclear weapons. What on Earth is Mr Sheridan suggesting – a return to the trenches of World Wars I and II? What a preposterous suggestion! I really don’t trust Tommy and his emotive distorted, disingenuous use of language; in Scotland he is on a par in the unpopularity stakes with his buddy the-most-despised-man-in-Scotland the fat fascist Alex Salmon. You didn’t fool the Jury at your Trial Mr Sheridan and you are certainly fooling nobody this time around either! Take him down!
FUCK OFF
If you don’t withdraw that remark I will have you held in Contempt of Court!
I see time and time again Alex Salmon… It’s Salmond.
Also the cunt who lied at his trial will hopefully go down soon as a proven liar.
What’s Rosie Kane’s opinion on sun tan Tommy ?
Rosia Kane is a cunt
Tommy starts off with the aspirations of the home owning democracy and ends up nationalising the banks.
Isn’t this where we came In?
Funny how as Tommy embraces nationalism his Scottish accent gets more Tenement Scots, superseding his usual Semi-Detached Scots. 😉
… and tommy and gail live in a big posh hoose…. that “smells of bleach” 🙂
This The Sheridan Trial was entertaining back in the day. Thanks to Jim Doleman for this 🙂
Tommy’s Plea in Mitigation 🙂
Lord Bracadale’s Sentencing Statement 😀
Jim sillars made a speech as well
Jim is a very wise man and I spent a good while going through his stuff on youtube. He has integrity and would have made a great Scottish Prime Minister.
I was with him until he started his Africa charity stuff. That was just more paternalistic “White Man’s Burden” shit. They always talk about how poor Africa is, but never do they ask the question why.
I’m sick and tired of hearing White people patting themselves on the back and making themselves feel virtuous, by boasting about how much charity they give to Africa, like Africans are just perpetually helpless, subnormal children who can’t do anything to help themselves and need superior white people to come in and help them.
The Western world has played an instrumental role in the underdevelopment, poverty and violence in Africa. They install and sponsor the brutal and corrupt dictators that we’re always hearing about, to facilitate the exploitation of these countries. Britain’s wealth was built on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the countless other crimes committed by the British (Global Gangster) Empire. Scotland has been England’s willing accomplice and has happily shared in the spoils of misery, suffering and death for centuries.
Charity is total shit. Being dependent on charity is infantilising humiliation. Charity only leaves the person doling it out feeling good about themselves. There is absolutely no dignity in dependence.
Africa is one of the richest places on earth. It has an abundance of natural resources: gold, diamonds, coltan, cobalt, manganese, timber, iron, uranium, nickel 75% of the world’s untapped gas, oil etc, resources that the global economy depends on, but it’s wealth does not benefit its people. If Africa wasn’t so ruthlessly exploited, plundered and controlled by the west and the other predator countries, it wouldn’t need any fucking charity, it would be able to take care of itself.
I think the only hope for the poor/ disabled English is Scotland getting independence. A No vote will kill us all but a yes vote…. The opposite will happen. I really believe that.
Anyone who votes No will get cold shouldered from me forevermore. They have no compassion and that is the type of person i avoid.
Keep fighting the good fight chaps.
Any update on this Help to Work thing only being for late April 2014 leavers of the Nazi work Programme?
@ Cephalus – Brilliant speech -Thanks for posting. Anyone who votes No is mad (unless they are Tory, because then they are bad).
I hated Thatcher so much like everyone else and was very political but i lost interest in the whole political thing when Blair came in and he was just as bad.Then a a few yrs ago when the Work Programme came in and I was took by surprise at it as I had never heard of it when advisor cunt said we have referred you to this.. I quickly googled when I got home and advice was sign nothing and sign nothing I did! So I vowed then that i would keep up to speed on all developements and this excellent blog by Mr. Void is the best place online for this.
Who did they send you to at WP? I got referred to scum bastards ‘Working Links’ who are the most hateful reptiles ever put on this earth. One thing matters to them and that’s exploitation for money. All the way down the line.
Refuse to get involved and to help them fill their coffers at your expense and they stick you in with the DWP, report you and get you sanctioned.
Bastards got my benefits cut off and i’ve never, and will never, forgive them for that.
When you don’t play their game so as they can use you as a friggin’ cash cow to be pimped out to any and all. Then they make sure that they see to it that they stick you in the shit and leave you in penury.
‘Working Links’ are scum feeding off of the misery of the unemployed and shouldn’t be tolerated in any decent society. Bottom feeding bastards.
I was at Working Links as well and I never signed the papers at the induction. I told the guy that I knew I never had to sign them and he said that’s up to you.
Maybe i got lucky. I did give them an email address and a cv so I wasn’t entirely uncooperative. It’s all pot luck with your advisor and I could have got far worse than I did but they were still assholes.
What is Austerity? Austerity is punishing the poor for the crimes of the rich
That’s a great line
Interesting (3rd) comment on watchinga4e site. LOL.
http://watchinga4e.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/another-buy-out-in-welfare-to-work.html
If only more were like him.
The whole of Liverpool Council and the whole of Ispwich Council.
That’s great. Liverpool really have had the shitty stick from uk governments and great to see ipswich standing beside them on this.
“Off topic perhaps, but something I think the readers of this blog might be interested in.
I work in the offices of a social housing association. It’s a good job that I’m lucky and grateful to have. I was promoted at the start of the year and deal with all of our maintenance contracts. After I left University I spent nearly three years unemployed, enduring all the sanction baiting and rudeness and downright boot-on-throat behaviour JCP has become famous for since Team Blue took the reigns.
I was actually sanctioned by my Work Programme provider after finding this job and deciding to take a week’s holiday before taking up the post. I had cleared my holiday with JCP but the provider had other ideas and requested a sanction. I never bothered to contest it.
It wouldn’t be unfair to say then, that when said W2W provider called our offices yesterday wanting to know if we would be interested in taking Community Work Placements, I was more than a little interested in what they had to say…
A few gems:
‘What’s your gardening and general maintenance budget? We think we can help to increase profitability in these areas.’
‘I can’t promise that any of them will be tradesman, but they will all know how to push a wheelbarrow and pick up litter’
‘Any placements will be watched over by our staff, so you don’t need to worry about them putting their hand in the biscuit tin’ [actual quote].
They were trying to sell me people- nothing less than that. I stayed on the phone to them as long as I could before telling them that as a socially minded organisation we could never be involved with pseudo-slavery and that they were never to call our offices again.”
George Galloway has proven to be a cunt during all of this and I previously thought the sun shone out his arse at times… Now i fucking despise him.. see ladies this is what happens if ye vote No.
Ahh…George Gallowgate the only Republican Unionist in Britain.
If not allowed links sorry but this thread is good in ike site. Guy has wrote a good letter that may be a good template sort of.
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274228
The today’s news on the ike site is really all a forum and no ike in sight so have a look.
this thread is good in ike site
Yep, looked good to me.
Forget the big picture i.e. that people are just trying to survive the economies of the climate, they are hell bent obsessed with benefits. It’s like a game to them how to plug every last loophole to the point that those just survivng can no longer even do that. In their eyes surviving is a crime I strongly believe. You have only to see the glee in their eyes – Osb,IDS,Cam when discussing benefit cuts. I suppose it’s fox-hunting a type of blood lust replacement sport squeeze the poor to death.
They say every dog has it’s day they are having theirs at the moment but it will come to an end through natural equilibrium. It always does.
sorry just saw it’s icke… Friday night beers !
Cheers ids
At least when I look in the mirror i have hair on my head ya fucking baldy cunt.
We are all sitting in wee man made tubs in a big fuck off place with not a clue to why or where we are. The system has gone as far as to put in place a ruling class in this place who control things and this happened gradually until they had total control. We are now forever fucked as they now can implement things as they see fit. The bedroom tax passed without much furore and they will see this and push it a bit further the next time. We are slaves getting punished not by the man but by our fellow man who stand by and let it happen.
Pingback: Benefit cuts: the third suppressed neews item | clivelord
“What this suggests is that most of these working Housing Benefit claimants have full awards, meaning they are only earning a few pounds at most above current unemployment benefit rates.”
Well then that must mean unemployment benefits are too high and must be reined in, and there is no one better than me to do it!
We are working for you.
In Scotland, mostly Glasgow we have this new football team. They call themselves Rangers after the team who died a couple of years ago. This is the core of the No voters. They blindly support the Queen and the Butchers apron and will staunchly be behind better together even if they themselves are handicapped or down on there luck. They are so blinded by the hatred of secterianism they will blindly vote No even though they are attacking themselves. Let me explain, they think this is all a catholic ploy to get rid of the queen and blah blah blah… Personally i would get rid of all religion but that would be too easy.
Let me explain,would you believe UEFA , SFA and the European Club Association on the one hand or Cephalus on the other ?
Adam talks advocates self-employment but he also mentions that he has a separate job working for Sky. That is all fine, it is achievable (if one has the time) backed by that fixed regular income. Starting from zero, or very little, with no capital or income to tide you over, remember bills, which include food/rent/mortgage and business costs, don’t wait for the business to develop. It is a very different story and only people who don’t truly understand or just don’t care for the consequences of their advice, will advocate the self-employment path. It can be good if one truly wants to and has the right skills but as a last resort option of desperation it is extremely likely to fail and a terrible (forced) choice.
I myself went to see an employment advisor once as part of the dole getting back to work scheme, the EA. The so called business “expert” drew up the business plan and cash flow projection. The growth forecast figures were, I can only describe as, fantastic. I was forecast to be making a good income within 1 month, a substantial income within 3 months and within year I would be absolutely raking it in. All this from zero capital of my own, the usual bills to pay for food etc, and now with the added business expenditure such as tools, advertising, rent, petrol, van…the list goes on!. My weekly income to do all of this £65 for three months then £33 for the remaining three months! Oddly, this allowance being a reduction from the normal dole of £71 rather than an increase one might think reasonable. I knew I would never make any money from this and his figures were typical of those who either haven’t really lived in the real world or have no morality and would sell their own mother for a fiver.
Why business experts need to work for someone else as an adviser remains a mystery.
Scots are Sovereign by virtue of the Declaration of Arbroath 1320, thus Scots Parliamentarians could make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in the morn. Should there be a NO vote on the 18th then the Scots Parliament should be mustered for a Unilateral Declaration of Independence on the 19th.
How many die hard Scots socialists were part of that 30 year progressive project that destroyed the Scots working class? While they pontificated about making poverty history Scottish working class life expectancy plummeted to lower levels than some parts of the Third World.
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
Just for anyone signing on from now on:
Never ever volunteer information. Keep quite until ‘the adviser’ asks a question and keep your answers to yes or no – end of – sign on and get the hell out of the JCP as fast as your legs can carry you.
Even me grandfather (RIP) knew this… and used to drum it into us as kids: say as little as possible and NEVER volunteer information. That’s probably the best advice when dealing with the JC/their collaborators/cops etc.
Very true. Some of the most dangerous Sanction Centre Plus staff are the ones that pretend to be nice. They smile at you, they ask how you are, they chit-chat with you and they empthaise and sympathise with you. It’s all flim-flam. They are just playing the ‘good cop’ of the operation. They are on exactly the same page as the overtly nasty ‘advisers’ and see you as worthless benefit scrounging scum. Their job is to restore your faith in humanity, get you to relax, lower your guard and forget that they are your enemy, so you are indiscreet and let slip information which they can then later use to destroy you.
Smiling at you while digging your grave.
“they see you as benefit scrounging scum” That is the diversion now used to cover the past and present government’s failures of creating sustainable employment opportunities for all, also the exponential shift in wealth to the few brought about by their short-sighted policies driving up the cost of living and further reducing employment opportunities. The unemployed are the reason the Jobcentre staff have a job – I’d certainly swap places with them.
I’ve heard the benefit scrounger rhetoric trotted out so often now I could not care less anymore as it is just someone’s generalised opinion and we can all have opinions.
“The unemployed are the reason the Jobcentre staff have a job – I’d certainly swap places with them.”
You would be required to meet sanction targets though. Wouldn’t you have a problem with that?
I’d have no problem as I wouldn’t issue any. I wouldn’t want it on my conscience.
As I’ve said before, the money required for basic food and basic shelter in a civilised society are a human right not a priviledge because – we don’t live in the jungle!! We follow society’s rules which is the deal. Possibly if benefits were more generous say paying 50% more than the basics required to sustain life they’d have a case to reduce them a bit if people didn’t at least try to find work but as it stands benefits are the rock bottom bare minimum to live without any luxuries and they should not be able to cut them at all for this reason.
You are quite correct OBI I made the mistake of trusting them once and they used it against me. Be very careful what you say and don’t sign anything either.
“These are all lies, as the Times well knows. Nationally, real wages in the UK have fallen by over £1,600 a year. Declining salaries, unemployment and cuts in welfare have seen the number of people resorting to food banks soar to 1 million last year.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/13/rich-m13.html
Someone i know had to pay back £750 in tax credits,”don’t go there” were his words.
Don’t go where, ken? “Self-employment”?
Thats all he told me.it was a short while ago now.
THE SOONER OUR CASES GET TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, THE BETTER………..
LIVING ON £33.20P PER WEEK SINCE LAST JULY HAS TO BE A BREACH OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ESPECIALLY WHEN ORIGINALLY FOUND TO BE DISABLED FOR LIFE.
STRANGELY, SWITZERLAND ARE THINKING OF IMPOSING A MINIMUM WAGE OF £2680 PER MONTH, WHICH THEY SAY IS NECESSARY TO LEAD A DECENT LIFE…………..
IT MAKES MY £132.80 PER MONTH PALE INTO SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WAY OUR GOVERNMENT TREAT IT’S POOREST AND THE STANDARD OF DECENCY ATTAINED.
“THE UK TREATS IT’S DISABLED LIKE SHIT”
They were banging on about blue badge abuse by able-bodied people recently in the mainstream propaganda media the other day, saying that prosecutions of abuse have gone up and how welcome that news is.
They had some woman on who was supposedly an advocate for disabled rights, saying that if you can see that the person using the blue badge isn’t really disabled, you should go up to them and confront them about it and how doing that will help genuinely disabled people.
It was disguised as concern about the disabled and a wish to help them, but the real purpose of the segment was simply to plant and reinforce the idea that there is widespread abuse of the blue badge scheme in the minds of the audience, because the government quite likely has plans to cut it and other vital schemes and services for the disabled in the near future, so it can give the money to the rich.
“G4S and Serco”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/16/privatise-child-protection-services-department-for-education-proposes
G4SS
http://www.redbubble.com/people/letthemeatart/works/11890036-g4ss
“Serco”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/17/mps-serco-yarls-wood-centre-sex-assault-claim
“Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson asks Serco shareholders for £170m”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/01/serco-winston-churchill-grandson-170m-pounds-shareholders?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
Well Adam didn’t last very long did he. Just can’t get good quality cannon fodder these days.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
One Million Housing Benefit Claimants Who Are Officially ‘Employed’ Makes A Mockery Of The Fall In Unemployment……………..Exactly Cameron is always going on about ‘helping hardworking people’ but fails to mention these people who has such low wages they need benefits too. Welfare is linked to warfare, when they don’t need cannon fodder they turn on us when there could be a future war they need us. The politicians are the face of their corporate paymasters who always want to suppress wages to increase profits. If they get they way we will have food and nothing more providing we can work. Ever get the feeling we are slipping back in time and the ironic thing is the politicians call it progress.
I know some people who work in the Job Centre and they don’t all want to sanction people, they have too. I told them Ian Duncan Smith and his faction will do the same to Job Centre staff and the state no longer recognizes disability. You cannot claim disability allowance only employment support allowance. The day is coming when people will not be able to claim employment support allowance too. The Job Centres will close putting all those people out of work because the politicians believe those without jobs choose not to work. Unemployment is not a structural problem for the IDS group. As always it is a blanket argument all the unemployed are shirkers and scroungers to them. We are living in a dangerous world and it is getting worse.