Mustn’t Embarrass The Queen: DWP Blank Out Statistics Rather Than Admit To The Failure Of Workfare

mwa-stats-blank

In the Queen’s speech this morning power crazed Elizabeth Windsor announced that her Government – her fucking Government – would introduce a new mass workfare scheme for those under 21.

She also claimed that new measures would lead to full employment, but what she really means is that people will be forced to work for the pittance of benefits.  Who’d have thought it?  The Queen of fucking England demanding her subjects labour full time for barely enough money to even eat.  Nothing changes, unless we make it change.

What she probably doesn’t know, although David Cameron does, is that workfare schemes are on the brink of collapse.  Most decent charities don’t want to be involved with workfare anymore after realising the horrifying impact of benefit sanctions inflicted on those who don’t want to work for free.  According to the latest Labour Market Statistics there were less people on unpaid work schemes in the latest recorded period than there were at the end of Labour’s administration five years ago.  Community Work Placements – which comprise of six months forced work – have now been in place over a year yet the DWP has been too scared to release any statistics at all concerning how many people have actually been on the scheme, and crucially, got a job at the end of it.

Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) – the four week short sharp shock of forced work which people can be sent on from the first day of their claim – has been a dismal failure.  So dismal that the DWP, who were due to release statistics on MWA today, decided to leave the table blank (pdf) in the part of the statistical release which would have told us how many people have started on the scheme in each of the latest six months.

No doubt the DWP will say this was all a terrible mistake, after all they are nothing if not incompetent. But it was a very convenient error, coming on the day the Government announced new workfare measures.  Luckily we can actually work out the total number of people who started on MWA in the six months between August 2014 and February 2015 by looking at the previously release and comparing the total.  It comes to 13,010, or 2,170 people a month, by far the lowest figures over a six month period so far.  And now they claim they are going to find hundreds of thousands of new workfare positions for young people.  They are living in a fucking dream world.  The pressure on workfare exploiters must be kept up.  But the fact they are so desperate to hide the truth about workfare shows that we are winning.

UPDATE (as spotted by @refuted): The DWP have now corrected the statistics and the figures are available.  They confirm the collapse of MWA with just 1,470 starts on the scheme in December 2014, the lowest figure so far and down from over 4000 a month at the start of 2013.

Come to the Welfare Action Gathering this Saturday 30th May hosted by Boycott Workfare.

UK Uncut are also out on the streets this weekend, keep an eye on their website for full details.

This blog has no sources of funding so here’s a quick reminder that you can help ensure it continues by making a donation.

Join me on facebook or follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

84 responses to “Mustn’t Embarrass The Queen: DWP Blank Out Statistics Rather Than Admit To The Failure Of Workfare

  1. Exasperated JSA Claimant

    The Jobcentre are now telling me NOT to include my MWA on my CV ! as it “looks bad to employers”.

    • A group interview at jobcentre plus offices.the whole thing was a shambles.Including a woman who has a food allergy being told she had to go anyway.This came out in front of everyone.zero hour contract wasn’t mentioned only no hour contracts.it got a lot worse then that too.

      She also claimed that new measures would lead to full employment.

      Those that have barriers to work are abused and intimidated.If sanctioning doesn’t work.Anything that doesn’t favor the twisted minds of those who refuse to recognise the system failings is as above simply blanked and ignored.

    • I thought that employers want to know what you have been doing with your self since the last place you had worked. What do the JC expect you to put on the CV, “enjoying the high life at the tax payers expense” lulz

      • Exasperated JSA Claimant

        They object to the word “mandatory” on my CV, apparently, though mandatory it was. It most certainly was not voluntary!

    • Another Fine Mess

      Last Employment:
      Completed manditory sentence of 780 hours of unpaid community work.

      What could possibly go wrong?

  2. i was signed off jsa as i was at a pre-arranged ‘victim statement’ following a successful crown court case brought by the cps. her maj cares if i was beaten on the streets of London, but not if I’m forced to skip dive in order to eat, it seems.

  3. New workfare scam for those 21 and under. It’s just a sanctioning scam for the ones that haven’t learnt how to deal with the DWP/JC+ yet. They will be sent on a scam then a few weeks after finishing be told they are been sanctioned for not doing enough to find a job, over the years I have sent emails to DWP/JC+ calling them all the offencsive names under the sun, from LTB’s ( Lying Thieving Bastards) to parasitic w*nkers if there is an insult I can throw in their direction I’ve thrown it. most of the time they don’t respond but when they have it is usually like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth.

  4. I think this latest scam will be a disaster – young people have voices too – they will not like this and I have a feeling any wrong doing by the DWP is going to be plastered over Facebook, Twitter, etc. The companies that will accept the young ones will also feel their wrath – if I had a company I would not touch this with a barge pole. Young able-bodied people are a different kettle of fish to vulnerable/disabled adults.

    • Bbernadette H

      Donna, the young adults around where I live, will for sure, not tolerate being treated with disrespect. Why should they? Intelligent, street savvy and lovers of all copious amounts of money will not allow themselves to be slaves for King/Queen and Country.

  5. Cameron downgrades minister for disabled people

    DNS – 22nd May 2015

    The new government has downgraded the importance of the role of the minister for disabled people, just days after winning the general election.

    The ministerial post had previously been a junior ministerial role until the October 2013 appointment of Mike Penning, who became a minister of state.

    Read More:
    http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/cameron-downgrades-minister-for-disabled-people/

    • “””But following last week’s announcements by prime minister David Cameron of his new government, it has emerged that the new minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson (pictured), will be merely a junior minister, or under-secretary.”””

  6. I emailed the DWP earlier, and the blank table is no longer blank:-

    Click to access Mandatory_Programmes_Official_Statistics_-_May_2015.pdf

  7. Tony D, I agree the statistics goes up to Feb 2015 so not 6 months but 3? Or have I got it wrong?

    • The missing but now filled in stats run from May 2011 until Feb 2015 so you are either confused or wrong.

  8. Pingback: Mustn’t Embarrass The Queen: DWP Blank Out Statistics Rather Than Admit To The Failure Of Workfare | Williamgh's Blog

  9. The Queen of Human trafficking, oops i did it again only excotics can be the victims of slavery in the pinko equality manifesto.

  10. The fucking queen and her completely useless inbreed backwards thick as pigshit hopeless fuckwit ,scroungeing parasite vampire retard family ….have never done a fucking days work on in there lives……there not capable of a days work …those to chinless divs willibum and harriet playing soilders and endangering the lives of real soilders dosent count …for fucks sake string the lot of them up and be done with them allready.

  11. i put my mwa placement on facebook and they did not like that at all, was told to leave on my start day and not to come back and got given 10 quid for my trouble, reported it to the jcp and was not interested.

    had my fb account banned and then tried to sanction me for non attendance kept proof and 1.

    never seen the wc after that prob got the sack pmsl and i told them what would happen and still done it anyway.

    even showed them that mwa can not be used to gain recent work experience and just ignored it.

    and that was in the mwa tool kit so there you go braking there own rules again.

    • super ted how did they get your facebook account banned id like to know as i dont yet have one and will get one setup so if they ever make me do a MWA i will put it on there to see what they do to me.

      • not sure but mine was an old account and not had my real name on it anyway but got plenty more set-up anyway.

        best bit was they slaged me off and called me a tramp and was not wanted at the store.

        then tried to sanction me for not going haha fkn home run on that 1 pmsl 😉

  12. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    The Queen is in her counting house,
    counting all her money.
    Her subjects queue at foodbanks,
    she probably thinks it’s funny……………………………..

  13. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen

  14. im 65 years old and i havent missed a days work since 1896 maybe you sscroungers should try doing the same.

  15. oh no sooy 165

  16. Lost an Empire try Backyard Imperium complete with ready made territories including Scotland and Wales that have already been politically engineered as diverse cultures ready made for division and conquest.

    Happy Empire days are here again courtesy Pinko Productions.

  17. Another Fine Mess

    Hundreds of anti-austerity protestors bring traffic chaos to Liverpool city centre
    http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/gallery-hundreds-anti-austerity-protestors-bring-9343315

  18. Where is IDS and his 12b welfare cuts?

    • Another Fine Mess

      That’s what he’s wondering, with no one else to blame now, their scorched earth and sweep it under the carpet policies have turned around and bit them on the bum.

  19. ian duncan smith

    knickers.

  20. “They are living in a fucking dream world.”……..
    ……. they are indeed; and the dream they digest and relish, is shat out as nightmare-turds of misery, depression, starvation and death.
    The proletariat is a mere role of bog-paper as far as Ian Stunken-Shitt is concerned.

  21. It’s reassuring to know that the opposition are listening here and taking action to do their part in the reclaiming of people’s rights and dignity in the UK in 2015 …………….

  22. GEOFF REYNOLDS

    “comments by EPHEMERID”

    I believe that too – and our democracy has been judged in that regard and found wanting. The poorest, the sick, disabled, unemployed, and working poor, have been targeted by the last government and will be so again by this one – and this time, the Tories will not be able to blame the previous government or their coalition partners.

    What happens next will be the measure of Cameron and the party he leads – and as the UN continues its investigation on whether the social security “reforms” brought in over the past 5 years are in breach of human rights, IDS and Osborne are finding new ways to impose more cuts. The sheer arrogance of people who insist that £12 Billion more must be cut from what they call “welfare” but refuse to explain where the axe will fall is just astonishing – and somehow they got away with it.

    Larry Elliot of this paper and other fact-checkers have found that the £20 Billion in cuts made in the last Parliament resulted in just £2 Billion in savings. That equates to just 1% of the total social security spend.
    Had benefits not been uprated for 3 years, and not one of the draconian policies been introduced, those savings could have been made – but instead, billions have been squandered on failing work programmes and vanity projects, housing benefit has increased by £5 Billion PA because poor peoples’ tax credits were cut; and all the pain, hunger, homelessness, hardship, untoward deaths and suicides, have caused immense distress and achieved precisely nothing.

    IDS has said that the cuts will not be achieved by “cheese-paring” and Osborne will not be allowed to “salami-slice”. Seems these Tories like their food analogies – while hundreds of thousands of people have no real food unless they go cap in hand to the food banks.
    What IDS has also said is that the cuts will be implemented through what he calls “behavioural change”. I will be interested to see how someone with terminal cancer is expected to change their behaviour so that he can make his cuts….which if they are anything like the last tranche, will save no money at all.

    I am one of the chronically sick who has been under DWPs cosh for a few years.
    I judge – and my judgement is that these people are evil.

  23. Mr Void, you filthy prole, one commands that you be sent to the Tower! Take him away!

  24. Mr J void could properly do a better job at running the contry than the current band of crooks.

    Will you start your own party Johnny? lets put the cat amongst the rats or
    “Lion amongst the hyaenas” We need a voice that works.

  25. Under Labour the New Deal started by targeting young people for workfare and then was extended to almost everybody of working age. If the Tories can drum up enough places this is doubtless what will happen under their plan too: work for meagre benefits for the under 21s will end up work for your benefits for everybody under 67. Workfare conscripts will displace people who once had to be paid minimum wage for doing shitty jobs but the headline figure for unemployment will fall like a stone. Nice.

  26. In Deep shit is blaming his alto ego for the failure of the welfare reform & £12 billion savings. IDS asks his alto ego In Deep Shit “What can we do to fix it?” In Deep Shit says “Get Bob The Builder in”. They both say it`s not our fault. A failed leader with a split personality.

    Disability Equal Rights & Disabled Human Rights is mandatory.

  27. I understand the Queen is threatening to use Royal Prerogative to bring Camoron to heel. Looks like “interesting times” ahead 🙂

  28. We Need Someone to Stand Up For the UnderDog

    Down with Tyranny Oppression and Oppression Collaboration

    It is Clear more Protests are Needed Regularly Not just once in a
    Blue Moon as with the Period May 2010 to May 2015

  29. If the Filthy Rich were Not given Tax Breaks as they are Already
    Filthy Rich the Poor would Not be Suffering

    Tory Nutcase Budgets Need to be Stopped

    Stuff Austerity and Thatcherism

  30. In Revolutionary America Tories were Seen as Traitors to be Opposed .

    In Tyrant Thug Britain 2015 AD Tories should be Seen as Tyrants as Well as Traitors for which it is in the National Interest to have Out of Office by Peaceful Mass Public Protest

  31. Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful post.
    Thank you for supplying these details.

  32. Pingback: Boycott Workfare » Blog Archive » Mustard Tree: from workfare exploiter to workfare refuser

  33. septimus plantpot

    I was given a four week period of mandatory work activity in February.

    I reported to a workfare advisor at Seetec, who gave me a straightforward choice between gardening and landscape clearance or working in a charity shop.

    As I have a bad back, I chose to work in a charity shop.

    However, what he did not tell me was that the charity shop operated a ‘no chairs’ policy. The only chairs to be found on the premises were in the manager’s office, so it was impossible to sit down, and we were expected to work seven hours a day while standing up. This made my four weeks of mandatory work activity both very long and very painful and at the end of it all I was barely able to walk.

    That’s not the worst of it, though.

    One day before my workfare was due to start, my electric storage heater broke down, and the engineers were unable to locate the fault. So I had to endure four weeks living in an icy cold flat with sub-zero temperatures. Eventually, when I could bare it no longer, I went to stay with relatives in a neighbouring town. I estimate that it must have cost me £65 in train expenses over that four week period.

    And I will not be compensated for that financial loss. The company that organised the workfare (Seetec) have a policy of only reimbursing claimants for bus travel between the main place of residence and the place of work.

    So it has cost me £65 for the privilege of working seven hours a day in a windowless office with no chairs and (most importantly) no prospect of getting paid employment at the end of it.

Leave a comment