A barely literate made up quote from the DWP leaflet calling on charities to force people to work for free.
The DWP has finally released the provider guidance for the new Community Workfare Placements, the new forced work scheme which may or may not be finally starting this month. This is the set of rules that the private sector parasites running the placements have to follow and should be downloaded and studied by anyone facing forced work on the scheme.
Alongside the guidance comes a leaflet begging organisations to take part, promising that forcing claimants to work without pay for six months can help charities “fulfil a social responsibility” and provide them with “extra support” for their work within the community. They also hint that charities can expect to be paid by the tax payer for becoming involved in workfare, although they warn this will be the decision of the private companies being paid millions to administer the scheme.
They are quick to point out however that forced workers on the scheme are not to be paid themselves, pointing out to charities that “you are not employing them because mandatory work placements do not replace paid jobs.”
This is their woeful argument to counter accusations that workfare replaces real jobs and is therefore likely to make unemployment worse. The DWP appear to think that if someone isn’t getting paid then that means it’s impossible for them to be replacing the job of a paid worker, because, well just because. They obviously assume everyone in the voluntary sector is as fucking stupid as they are.
The provider guidance is even more explicit on the question of payments, insisting to the companies running the show that: “You must not give (and ensure host organisations do not give) any incentive payments or rewards to the claimant for participation in CWP”.
It sounds like even a free lunch would be enough to break the rules, although claimants should be paid travel expenses for the daily commute to unpaid work which could be up to a 90 minute journey each way.
The documents confirm that even people currently serving a benefit sanction, meaning they have no income at all, can still be sentenced to forced work on the scheme. Even without a sanctions, many people on Jobseeker’s Allowance only have a few pounds left after paying the Bedroom Tax, Council Tax and household bills. There will be lots of people on Community Work Placements who are going hungry throughout the day, and some of them will become ill because of it. This will include people who’s own doctors say they are unable to work, but who have been found fit for work by Atos and forced to sign on as unemployed. This scheme is breath-takingly cruel, even for the DWP under Iain Duncan Smith.
It is horrifying that charities like @GroundworkUK are salivating at prospect of all these free unpaid workers. It is shocking that the DWP is protecting these vermin by attempting to turn the names of workfare placement providers into a state secret. And it is vital that the public is allowed to find out who they are so they can be rightly named and shamed. Charities have a duty to be transparent in their dealings. Before you give them a penny of your money, or a second of your time, ensure that they have pledged not to be part of this disgusting attempt to punish people simply for the crime of being unable to find a job.
Hundreds of charities are now waking up to the reality of workfare in the UK and have signed the Keep Volunteering Voluntary agreement. Some local councils have also pledged to boycott the scheme with a list being maintained by Unite the Union. To join the fight back against all forms of workfare visit: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/
For links to the provider guidance for Community Work Placements and information on claimant’s rights: http://refuted.org.uk/2014/05/27/mandatorycommunitywork/
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Just read the begging leaflet…how bloody cringeful can you get??, especially the bit about grassing people up for none attendance ‘as this may affect their benefit'(!) What a bunch of complete and utter cunts!
Exactly! and that’s what i meant when i spoke about the gutter rat low life’s “WORKING LINKS” that’s what they do as well. Don’t attend their friggin’ nazi browbeating scheme and they grass you off to the DWP who then leave you with nothing, all the while the wanker providers like “WORKING LINKS” are making a fortune out of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in society.
Scum is too mild a word to describe those bastards.
BURN IN 👿 HELL !! 👿 YOU FUCKING CUNTS!!
Working Links are involved in the running of CWP!! Who would have thought! Cunts!!
They’re involved in all the low life schemes designed to exploit the poorest and weakest in society who have nothing to fight back against them with.
Bunch of low life rotten bastards.
Mmm. The same charities whose managers rake in 6-figure salaries getting free labour paid for by the taxpayer. Do I detect a pattern here?
prayer
yes, they claim support for them is money, and support for worker is no money…according to their own philosophy is that they the provider, to get support should also work for free, ie learn lesson of working for FA, as suffering is good for the soul, the most important lesson of all, being total humiliation…and the longer one is on such schemes the better it is, the more it is liked!..which obviously admits the failure of these schemes..they also fail to admit that these schemes LOWER the already low chances of getting paid work, of any kind let alone decently paid work…the only thing it hones is coping with suffering skills…pretending to be engaged and happy, or else, when in fact inside one is downright miserabled….then excitedly look forward to friday night coming, then all rush to the chip shop to beg for a poke of scraps, smothered in vinegar and brown sauce, all soaked up with a few pints of tap water…just think what a wonderful world this will be when no one gets paid…we can all learn so much by not getting paid…
Con artists, eh?
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how can they say its of benefit to the community when there paying a private company for the placements for profit.
how can i be available for work if im doing 30hrs a week with no food and still have to do my job search and apply for 14 jobs its impossible.
why cant i do a full time course at the local collage yet get told if its more than 16hrs a week im not available for work?
the letter for my mwa from the dwp says to get my travel from the provider and the one for the provider say to get it from the dwp mwa adviser?
adviser said mwa for me was to gain recent work experience yet the tool kit for mwa says it cant be used for this.
and i just finished a 6 week job search with the same provider the mwa is with so that’s over a grand they will have had in 10 weeks
Superted, your opening paragraph sums it all up in one!
I worry at some point that the DWP will start turning the screw on charities by providing incentives to charities which do participate in workfare and disincentives for those that don’t.
This Government gets more and more inhumane and cruel with every utterance of words it expresses through its rhetoric and press releases. Nothing is beyond reality in terms of how far the Tories, IDS and other right wing parties will go.
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As much as the government is for free markets they don’t want people to be free to boycott these companies.
That’s just it – the government and those whose interests it serves do not really want a ‘free’ market. A truly free market would give workers as much power as employers, and trades unions would be free to act in the interests of workers using any means necessary.
The government may be trying to make the identity of those charities and companies that are signing up to CWP a state secret, but if unemployed workers are sent to these scum and they then inform the world who these companies/charities are then it is no longer secret.
Once it is common knowledge who these organisations using CWP are then it gives people the opportunity to consider whether to boycott them or not.
………..
Gosh!! Just been spending the last 3 hours gong over all this drivel.
It would have to be a real mean bunch of money hungry dudes who take up the REGIME 30 week workfare ideas. The amount of regulations being imposed on them would hardly make it worth the while for anyone who wasn’t a real mean dude! Alas, we know that such evil satan worshippers Nazis are out there and will sign up. Woe betide those who do dare tho,
Here are a few snippets from all this gumpff
…………………….…
Claimants without attendance and/or participation restrictions can be mandated to undertake activity on evenings and weekends provided it is appropriate in their circumstances
Time spent travelling to and from placements must not be included in the hours of attendance. Travel duration and distance must be appropriate and reasonable to the claimant’s circumstances. In the claimant commitment, claimants are allowed a reasonable amount of travel time to get to a job interview or job.
2.15 Claimants undertaking part-time work should continue the part-time work but you must top up the part-time work with a work placement to ensure the claimant’s required hours of participation are satisfied.
2.17 Where a claimant is undertaking agreed part-time education JCP will notify you of this and you should take this into account and top up the part-time education with a work placement to ensure the claimant’s required hours of participation are satisfied.
2.19 You must ensure that claimants are engaged in a healthy and safe working environment, are not worse off by virtue of attending the CWP and understand your expectations regarding behaviour. As a result, as part of your Initial Engagement Meeting you may choose to put in place plans and processes to ensure that:
………..………………
2.19…(from Annex 2)..Surely not paying someone for a full days work and leaving them no money to buy anything for meal break day after day, and they have little enough to begin with, is very much a Health and Safety risk, both to that individual, the ppl around that individual, and members of the public?
This entire concept has to be stopped.
Unfortunately, it aint gonna be Labour that stops it. They have just declared they will not reverse the Tory/NEW NAZIS REGIME cuts.
“Providers may pay organisations for hosting placements however this is an agreement between both parties and DWP has no involvement with this decision.”
Oh, Yes, They Do!
The DWP administer and enforce the JSA mandated coercion they are in fact the gangmaster muscle behind this for profit people trafficking scheme.
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DOWN THE TOILET
TWO FOOT DEEP
LIES A SAUSAGE
FAST ASLEEP
DON’T DISTURB IT
LET IT REST
MARK SERWOTKA’S
DONE HIS BEST………………………..
1.0
Annex 1
A1.01 “Work placements must be supervised, with tasks similar to those that a claimant might experience in a normal working environment and should encourage the development of crucial disciplines associated with sustained employment, while at the same time making a contribution to the community.”
Okay. So what is established from the outset is that a candidate will be subject to a defacto Contract of Employment.
2.0 What is a Contract of Employment
From the Citizens Advice Bureau :
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/work_w/work_rights_at_work_e/contracts_of_employment.htm
What is a contract of employment
There is always a contract between an employee and employer. You may not have anything in writing, but a contract will still exist. This is because your agreement to work for your employer and your employer’s agreement to pay you for your work forms a contract. Your employer does have to give you a written statement within two months of you starting work. The statement must contain certain terms and conditions.
A contract gives both you and your employer certain rights and obligations. The most common example is that you have a right to be paid for the work you do. Your employer has a right to give reasonable instructions to you and for you to work at your job. These rights and obligations are called contractual terms.
The rights that you have under your contract of employment are in addition to the rights you have under law, such as, for example, the right to a national minimum wage and the right to paid holidays.
3.0 Candidate Response
Although the candidate will not wish to be sanctioned, if they are referred to such a scheme in future, I suggest that they i) can only comply with what is expected of them, but ii) discuss with the CAB the mechanics of bringing the matter to the Small Claims Court and making formal representation to HMRC, reporting both the named individual within the DWP, the named individual within the organisation that you are referred to, and the placement organisation for a breach of National Minimum Wage Legislation and conspiracy to perpetrate tax fraud.
At the first meeting at the Host Organisation, say that you quite happy to be offered paid employment with the organisation doing the job which is required of you, but that you dont wish to be party to tax fraud and that you are giving notice of your intent to report the company.
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Good article. Heartily encourage people to use that link to send a message to their local council.s about workfare .
Yet more money being wasted on Tory chums and their workfare scams. Makes me wonder how many more in work we might have if there had been proper job creation,training and regional employment investment and employment incentives. IDS et al must be off their rockers if they think workfare,sanctioning and mass poverty are the solution to the nations ills. But remember,all these plans were discussed and agreed in cabinet session. All members of this government are responsible. I just hope that 12 months from now all these guys are condemmed to the dustbin of history.
To be replaced by their accomplices from the opposite bench, who will earnestly continue their evil work.
The Condems will be very well taken care of. History will be rewritten before our eyes. We will constantly hear how the country was facing oblivion before the Condems came in and saved the day by taking the “tough decisions” necessary to save the country. The Condems will become respected elder statesmen. Iain Duncan Shit will be on our TV screens and our radios all the time as a special guest giving his ‘expert’ opinion on welfare. They will be given lucrative book deals. They will make millions on the lecture circuit like the Labour war criminal. They will make millions “advising” the private companies they gave multi-million pound contracts to while in government. They will be made life peers.
I can’t believe what I am reading! Well I can but it’s so bloody shocking.
I wonder, if it was at all possible, what would happen if no-one took on the role of the slave? OK, sanctions would be carried out, which they are going to do left, right and centre if the Master or Mistress don’t like you – or indeed, the likes of you – so not only would you be working for nothing, you’d also be working for nothing plus your JSA??
It would really mess up the job centres and the whole system if everyone just said a big effing “No” and walked away.
But have the unemployed got the guts to do this? After all, the ball is in their court…
Wouldn’t the Jobcentres just sanction everyone who refused to be a slave, followed by the media breathlessly proclaiming with great fanfare that the Tories’ cuts & ‘welfare reforms’ have created 200, 000 new jobs which has significantly reduced the unemployment rate?
I will say no.
Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
Really shocking – but the unemployed have a huge chance here…
Workfare is slavery because the employer is not paying you a wage.
If it was not slavery, why is the government trying to hide the name of the charities undertaking workfare placements.
Workfare by charities, means donors are being forced unwittingly to fund slavery.
Someone on workfare not being fed by the charity is amazing.
A slave throughout history was fed, clothed, housed, and transported free.
How All Could Be Fed Every Day:
http://theswansnewparty.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-pages-on-hunger-in-uk-index-to-blogs.html
I’ll simply enquire of any charity which asks me for a donation whether or not they are taking part in this. If the answer is “yes” I won’t donate, and I’ll tell them why. Easy peasey, if everyone did this they’d work out that taking part in this disgusting scheme isn’t such a good idea after all.
I don’t bother asking, I just just say No Thanks I don’t donate while charitys are using slave labour, it doesn’t matter if that one isn’t.
All of the unemployed are treated as scammers and have to jump through pointless time wasting hoops, so I think it’s only fair that all charitys are treated the same.
Yes i think the same. The vast majority of them while labelling themselves as charities also love the idea of exploiting people and getting free workers. A bit of a contradiction in terms i think most people would agree.
Give these charity scamsters nothing.
Because I suspect that the “management” of many charities are the dross of the middle classes who are simply too inept to get work elsewhere, or sinecure posts as they used to be called. They have imported the culture of their class, infecting what was good.
I do support some local charities – animal rescue and hospice – run in our area, by people we live with. They struggle valiantly to improve, not to destroy, and certainly will not be using workfare. Real volunteers help with respite care, with fund raising. For example a well-know 70’s pop star’s father passed peacefully in the hospice, so held a fund raising concert, at which he noted almost the whole population of our village were there. It raised funds to help for the next 3 years. That’s real charity.
I feel it’s the National Charities (too big to care?) that are the targets for the slave labour. I agree that we need to make sure our local charities are not infected, and sign up to the Making Volunteering Voluntary register.
The voluntary sector is just that , it is “voluntarry”.
Volunteers are carefully vetted, skilled, enthusiastic and comitted people that are volunteering their services. The last thing yo can have is an unwilling forced “volunteer”. It’s an oxymororn. No reputable charity that relies on volunteers will engage in this. I don’t think volunteers with a charity would be prepared to work alongside anyone that was there against their will as it contradicts every principle that most ethical bodies stand for. I’m happy that anyone who is unemployed be allowed by the DWP to engage in volunteer roles where it suits them, but the words “force” and “volunteeer” don’t sit well together. It will be interesting to see which organnisations sign up for this. In my view they will be “outed” as pseudo-charities with no ethical basis or social use.
Last month you could be santioned for being ‘unavailable for work’ because you’re volunteering for 20 hours a week. This month you could be santioned for not doing 30 hours a week of manditory voluntary work.
Do they think we’re as daft as them?
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They know you will not find work because most of our jobs are advertised in foreign countries, and all the fake jobs on the gov job site. Very few jobs are advertised here. This is so they can continue the slave labour regime and all involved make big money to line their pockets. They are not interested in finding you work just making money. I pray to god that one day they will all be brought to justice and severely punished for crimes against humanity, and we thought Hitler was bad.
Yes the Corporate bastards ‘WORKING LINKS’ and their shareholders are making a killing out of the poorest in society alright. They can’t get enough cannon fodder from the dole so they say.
Every referral = more £££££ “roll up! roll up!” they say, “we can get jobs for them all IDS!”
500 people packed a yes indy meeting in oban, 4/4/14 ….the atmosphere was apparently electric the speakers received 3 standing ovations…escape for a few minutes and watch this 88 yr old QC rip the piss out of the tories etc…..tommy also says a few words….
Forza Scozia. 🙂
voidseeker
what do you want to see happen in/for scotland….? i like the common weal…and green socialism, scotland has been set on fire with socialist debate, hundreds of packed to the rafters grassroots groups have sprung up over night, nothing will ever be the same again, no one will put up with crap from afar anymore…. http://radicalindependence.org/
A Nation where the individual is sovereign and not fettered by authoritarian socio-political ideologies, a Scots common weal of Freemen.
Forza Scozia 🙂
My opinion as an outsider is; Scotland is committed to being a capitalist country within the global capitalist financial system, and as such, will still be under the ultimate control of your business leaders, the multinational corporations and the bankers.
The French rejected austerity and elected a ‘socialist’ government and still got austerity. I believe that ‘the markets’ will put the financial squeeze on Scotland if you attempt to implement policies that deviate too far from the neoliberal consensus and set a “bad example” for other countries.
The Venezuelan masses have steadfastly refused to go back to being subjugated, impoverished and exploited by the U.S. backed white elite, so the imperialist capitalist powers led by the United Snakes Of America, have responded by funding and directing an economic sabotage & violent destabilisation campaign against the democratically elected government.
I was in agreement, until he said we used to be so powerful we were the empire was the sun could never set on and now we have foodbanks. I found that offensive. The British Empire was a murderous global criminal enterprise that committed countless atrocities and destroyed millions of lives. That should never be romanticised or spoken about in glowing terms. Scotland should be deeply ashamed of the evil acts it perpetrated in concert with England as part of the British Empire.
Tommy has a tan that the sun never sets on… maybe that’s what he meant… 😀
………I don’t think that’s the way Tommy meant it. But rather, this was a rich enough nation where we built all these things that made an empire work….and now look at the state of it. People in abject poverty, Foodbanks, etc, etc, etc. In other words, how did we get from a productive nation to this disgrace?
I’m sure that is how it was supposed to be interpreted.
I would think ppl like Tommy Sheridan and all those at that meeting with him, are against the very concept of the British empire and everything it ever stood for.
Well apart from that it was a very good speech. The Scots would have to be barmy to vote to stay a part of this.
The ONLY reason that the Master-of-Insincerity Tommy Sheridan is pro-independence is because he believes it will afford himself an opportunity to re-establish himself on the Scottish political scene. Don’t be fooled by Tommy’s faux concern for the poor and downtrodden; he says the right words but at the end of the day all that Tommy and his over-inflated ego are interested in is Tommy himself and the pursuit of his own agenda. It’s not just Tommy’s sun-tan that is fake!
Well said, Rosie. Tommy knows full well that the troupe of failed laywers Alex ‘fat fascist’ Salmon, Nicola ‘non-entity’ Sturgeon and Kenny ‘bawbag’ MacAskill are amongst the most HATED people in Scotland. That is why he keeps trying to shift the focus of debate by saying over and over again that “a vote for independence is not a vote for the SNP, it is about the future of Scotland”. Oh, yes and the “weans”. There is NO “solidarity” where convicted criminal and perjurer Tommy Sheridan is concerned.
………You may share a similar name, but it’s obvious you aint Colin Fox of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Since Colin Fox is pro Independence and your post seems to be against it. As for Rosie Kane post above, is it? For Tommy Sheridan was always for Independence, so was she, long, long before he had his big run ins with the his SSP he founded. The SSP was and still is for an Independent Scotland.
Sheridan was asked by others to campaign against the Bedroom Tax. It wasn’t him taking it upon himself to go do a big publicity thing for him. It was other ppl who wanted him to be there. He did pull out of another group as some in that particular grouping felt he was the wrong person for their lot (after being asked to join it that is). Fair enough. Sheridan left without any great fuss or animosity on his part…Hardly the way of those on self seeking publicity trips. He is on these Independence debates because other want it so.
As for Salmond and Strugeon being the most hated politicians in Scotland…. I would’ve thought that was George Ian “D” Smith and his wicked mistress McVey. Then Cameron himself. And Scots “Labour Leader” Johanne Lamont ain’t far behind.
Regardless of whether Tommy Sheridan went to a sauna in Manchester, (Did it really matter in the grand scheme of things?) it is obvious the Ruprt Murdoch press wanted his downfall because he was against the Murdoch news empire. Thomas Sheridan was a defender of the poor. Thomas Sheridan is still a defender of the poor. He wants Independence for Scotland for the sake of the poor. Just as many of us do. Independence is not about the SNP, but for Scotland. But SNP are at present the only big party that is all for Scotland, and that is why they have the power at Holyrood. Salmond is not and has never been “fascist”. He does believe in democracy. And things like the Bedroom Tax, benefits sanctions and Foodbanks, etc, are not democracy!
Salmond has on numerous occasions condemned the welfare destruction polices of the Westminster regime. He has called them “insane”, his actual word.
I am not a member of the SNP, SSP or Sheridan’s Solidarity Party. but I do consider these attacks on those wanting Independence to be appalling.
r34
yes i get what you mean…his gloat was ill advised…and expressed a sense of longing, but also rage at how did we fall for their crap, and therefore regret…”how the mighty have fallen” now they beg us to remain part of their solution…what he said can imply it would have been ok if it had worked, if empire could have somehow been retained…personally i think these things must be said as a part of letting go….we must break free of imperialism, imperialist mind set, that is where my heart is and i believe his heart is, we will break free of imperialism, we must break free of it..i found my self in the audience looking up laughing and shaking my head at him knowing that he wants a reaction, a dialogue to develop via controversy…we must question our role in imperialism and heal, all of us need to heal from what our world has become…we DO need to recover our common weal, humanity….i do appeal for pragmatism over romance…we must face the reality of our collective suffering…we must guard against being reactionary, but we must also have a productive/constructive economic stance/case to make, this must be paramount in any arguments that are made for independence, regression must not be allowed oxygen…..
Suntan Tommy, the convicted criminal. Why did all his comrades in the SSP turn against him ?
Convicted by who? Tommy was found NOT GUILTY in the Court of Public Opinion!! SOLIDARITY!!
Mr Thomas Sheridan was Tried before me in front of a Jury on a Charge of Perjury of which he was found Guilty, and accordingly I sentenced Mr Sheridan to a term of Imprisonment of Three Years.
Any charity taking part in slave labour SHOULD BE OUTED, NAMED AND SHAMED!
If 95% of workfare participants want to continue to work for no wages after four weeks why not make all such schemes voluntary after one month’s attendance? If the given DWP statistic is true (don’t laugh) then only five people out of every hundred will leave such schemes. Right?
I do hope all of this doesn’t lead to widespread civil disobedience and riots later on this Summer….
Me too… 😀
Here is a direct link to the DWP’s Commuity Work Placement guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/314475/community-work-placements-provider-guidance.pdf
LMAO at the section concerning the ‘requirement to provide a reference,’ as the reference will be effectively useless in helping people to get a job, due its generic nature and the fact that it is expected to be handed to the unpaid worker at the end of the placement. As just about anyone who has tried to get a job will know, HR departments fully expect to be able to seek a ‘confidential reference’ from the applicant’s previous employer. This means one where the prospective employer’s HR department contacts the previous employer with a view to them writing a reference (or saying things on the phone) which will not be witnessed by the job applicant. Different HR departments also often have their own reference templates which include particular questions they expect to be answered by an applicant’s previous employer.
Exactly, it is complete bullshit. There is no such thing as a written reference you show like some certificate. A prospective employer will expect to contact a previous EMPLOYER. These ‘references’ are just total shit.
Get your local council to sign Unite’s pledge not to take part in workfare: http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/workfare/
Are there lawyers working on this ? I thought “forced labour” was illegal (Human Rights Act) , and all parties that enter into a civil contract (employment contract) should have “consideration” i.e. the employee gets payment or training or some other benefit. We know this is wrong, but how can it be legal ?
If I have to work for a charity for benefits I will put their name on a white T Shirt and wear it everywhere I go. There is a difference between volunteering and forced labour.
I wonder how far these neo-liberal extremists would go if they could.
Further than Hitler …
The people employed by Working Links and other providers of the Work Programme are simply making life harder for their own children. What goes around comes around and some of them are too stupid to realize some will get ill and be unable to work. Atos or it’s successor awaits them.
If you tolerate this your children will be next…
the manics were a labour band through and through but i read a recent interview with nikky wire hes dissillutioned with ed milliband and labour..not good
With a bit of effort you could go through the Charity Commissions web site, extract contact details of all UK charities and fire off an email to all of them pointing out the disadvantages of participating in this scheme. I think it’s time for the ‘Society for the Protection of Volunteering’ to be formed.
“Claimants without attendance and/or participation restrictions can be mandated to undertake activity on evenings and weekends provided it is appropriate in their circumstances.”
That’s right, some people can be forced to work evenings and weekends for no money as well.
Does that include night shifts?
“The days and hours of the work placement are not prescriptive but they must adhere to the EU Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) including requirements regarding rest breaks. This requirement is imposed because DWP views the directive as useful guidelines on working time, rather than being legally binding for those placements.”
So there is no legal compulsion – just the DWP’s kindness – to follow the law.
Look out Harrogate – Here comes Universal Credit.
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP, Andrew Jones, and Skipton and Ripon MP, Julian Smith joined Job Centre staff and claimants at Harrogate Job Centre to launch the new Universal Credit in the Harrogate district.
http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2014/05/31/mps-launch-universal-credit-harrogate/
Implementing UC in Harrogate/Knaresborough is one thing, but implementing it across the entire BMDC area is quite another! It will be total fucking chaos.
They will implement it so slowly noone will notice until it’s too late.
Or they get evicted because the DWP fuck it all up.
OK -I tried – but no comments allowed on the Harrogate News web-site unless you think IDS is a saint. I was polite as well.
All your going to end up with is thousands of people working as slaves for 30 hours a week and starving while they do it! The excuse that it’s to stop the cash in hand lot is BULL! Eventually the slaves are going to turn and there will be riots! What option is slavery or nothing? It’s no option at all! If the 2 million odd unemployed marched on downing street the government would not have to manpower to stop them! Police? Army? Please! If it’s not the government telling us what we need it’s the DWP telling us what we need! We need to tell them what WE want and what WE need!
Yes they are a wicked Government out to enslave people they regard as beneath them and there will be riots. It is only a matter of time.
wrong attitude to the governments plan,the right attitude not to be exploited treated as a idiot with a attitude you don’t have any rights.
95% want to remain in their placements,where did that come from?the scheme has just launched,without much success by the looks of it.
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Do 95% want to keep working full time for JSA? Or do 95% want to stay on in the job for real pay?
As one of those healthy, weathly claimant types, you know the ones who live the high life on governement giveaways every week, I haven’t been ordered onto this monstrosity of a Scheme. Well not yet anyway.
But when the kind invitation to work for sweet FA does arrive I intend to fight it all the way.
Here’s a few ideas :
1. Insurance. This could be a weak spot for the DWP. Unpaid forced workers are not employees of the organisation the copping their labour so how can these workers be covered by Employers Liability insurance policies ? Do the public know they’re shopping at places that use uninsured workers ?
And what about the insurance companies themselves ? They operate on the age-old principal of “utmost good faith”. Are these companies properly informed that they’re insuring involuntary workers who are only on the employers premises to prevent themselves from being sanctioned ?
How about the potenential payouts in the event of injury or loss of life ?
These are important issues that need to be resolved before any claimant is forced to provide his or her labour free of charge.
2. Waste their time and resouces. If you have no alternative other than to attend the slavemeisters then try and make your time there as expensive as possible. Work as inefficently as possible. You can’t be sanctioned for dropping things or not understanding how to carry out your assigned duties or being forgetful, or losing your reading glasses. Basically, anything that costs them money is fair game.
These lowlife organisations are after our labour free of charge so let’s start sharing the ideas folks.
”Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.” -Edmund Burke
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This is the most inhumane government that has ever existed in my lifetime! Cameron and his bullingdon cronies have no moral fibre. They will be held accountable for the abuse under there own equality and diversity act they are making lives miserable and unliveable and this has to stop now! They think they are untouchable history will show differently!!
I have heard people say “It isn’t as bad now as it was under Maggie”…
That is crap. Things were bad under Thatcher (I left school to nothing when she was in power), but people fought and spoke out. Thatcher’s government was questioned and challenged on television, on radio, in literature, in the press and even the pop charts…. It is worse now because nobody really gives a fuck. People in high profile positions and those who could make a difference will only care when their own positions and pockets are affected. Those Savile sheltering bastards at the BBC know what is going on, but say nothing. Yet in twenty years time the BBC will probably do a documentary on how bad this coalition government was and all the evils they got up to… But what bloody use will it be to people after the event? Bunch of bastards!
Spot on. The other thing which is hard to imagine now but at the time (I was on the dole in the early 80’s) you were more of a “hero” than “scrounger” if you were in the dole. You had UB40 and Wham in the charts with hits about being on the dole. No one ever either in the media or in person ever referred to me as a “scrounger”. We felt more like Citizen Smith working-class-heros than “miserable scroungers”. We were in some sense proud to be on the dole and “fighting the system”. And as you say most of society was on OUR side. How time have changed. I wish some of the unemployed now could experience it as I did back then. It wasn’t easy but there wasn’t the victimisation and DWP harassment of today. Also – for what it’s worth there is an interesting Joseph Rowntree report that compares welfare as it was under Thatcher and Blair (1979 to 2007), and as I know anyway, the “best” time to be unemployed was 79 and the worst time was , following a New Labour government, 2007. They spent much more on welfare, but targetted spending on Tax Credits , Child Credits and Pension Credits, not JSA.
Dead right. The anti-Tory/Thatcher feeling was everywhere back then. TV shows like (early) Only Fools and Horses, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The Young Ones, Spitting Image (and the aforementioned Wolfie Smith) all depicted or questioned life under Maggie’s rule… There was UB40, The Jam, The Smiths, The Clash, The Specials and plenty of other bands who wrote and sang about it too…. As you say: being working class and unemployed back then was almost like a badge of honour. Now, because of the likes of the Daily Mail and their hatemongering, anyone who is out of work is now stigmatized as a scrounger and scum…
When I think of what we had back then… Sure, we had Maggie and her lot, but we also had hope and a voice… Who really questions this current Tory rabble? Nobody! What have we got on the TV? Celebrity shows and X-Factor! Who have got in the charts? One Bastard Direction!
Britain is now officially shit!
“I do not think you are replying to whom you think you are replying.” ~ Inigo Montoya.
Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
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anyone forced onto this should immediately begin a campaign of sabotage and vandalism. Accidents happen, things get broken, can’t be helped., “oops sorry. Clumsy me”
Have the Work Programme providers siphoned off billions of £s of the European Social Fund allocated to the UK, is that their core funding through the DWP?.
I see the ConDems’ long term plan now, they want to pay people as little as possible by forcing everyone onto unemployment benefits while also getting Income Tax off them on the basis that they are ‘working’! So let’s throw a spanner in those works. If mandated onto one of the various forced labour schemes, go to work and back by taxi and claim the full fares back. This should wind up costing Workfare Providers so much that they pull out of the schemes, and if they get wise to that, show up late by a different amount of time each day, claiming that the buses in your area are too unreliable for you to guarantee punctuality like you could when you were using taxis.