#WEcan Fuck Up The DWP’s Online Campaign To Promote Mass Workfare

workfare-stick-upA whole host of corporate vultures have teamed up with the DWP to launch an online campaign celebrating young people being coerced into working for no pay for some of the richest companies in the UK.

Marks & Spencer, Whitbread, Halfords and shamefully the BBC have all signed up to the #WEcan campaign which aims to encourage even more businesses to provide unpaid work experience positions instead of employing young people properly.  The new initiative comes as the Government draws up plans to force all unemployed young people into permanent unpaid work if they are unable to find a job within six months of becoming unemployed.  This means they have to find enough grubby companies and so-called charities who are prepared to take part in this shocking exploitation.  The #WEcan campaign is part of an attempt to achieve this, so let’s fuck it up.

Already parasites from the welfare-to-work industry are tweeting using the hashtag #WEcan whilst a tumblr page has been set up calling for young people to share their experiences of workfare.  The DWP have also posted a host of youtube videos (comments currently enabled) such as this one which says that “whatever you are doing, any experience is good experience”.  Gone is any pretence at providing placements which involve real training or a chance of a job at the end.  Instead they want young people to mop floors and stack shelves for two months and have the fucking gall to claim they are doing them a favour.

Please help spread the word about this and tweet using the hashtag #WEcan.  And let’s make sure everybody knows which companies are using workfare, starting with @marksandspencer, @premierinn, @Halfords_uk, @WhitbreadPLC, @Barclays and @BBC.

For the latest news on fighting back against forced unpaid work visit: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/

I’m still on a break.  Back properly in a week or so.

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314 responses to “#WEcan Fuck Up The DWP’s Online Campaign To Promote Mass Workfare

  1. #WEcan resist workfare & derail slick PR that celebrates youth being exploited and coerced into working for no pay.

    #WEcan Fuck Up The DWP’s Online Campaign To Promote Mass Workfare

  2. oops – meant to put that on the Youtube page 🙂

  3. Thanks for the link to that DWP campaign. Correct me if I’m wrong – or maybe I need to get a new glasses prescription – but I didn’t see anything in that article about paying them. FFS if a job needs to be done then pay them to do it!

  4. please don’t jump on every workfare provider – we might end up being one as the only way to keep our jobs! We get Working Tax Credit and hence might be forced to close our company so both of us can be made to do workfare. If we do get that far, we’ll let folk know, but please don’t boycott us for considering it….

    • So its ok for YOU to profit over peoples misery so long as it helps you..Its ok for you to bully and demean people, sanction them til they starve or pushed to the limit then beyond.. then they kill themselves.. But thats ok so long as you make a profit.. IN fact you are worse as you KNOW how bad it is and are still considering it..

    • Corner Shop Owner.

      If your business requires unpaid labour as a necessity to keep it afloat then your business is simply not viable. Labour is a cost of business. Beside, free labour is anti-competitive to other businesses who DO pay their staff; it gives the ‘free loaders’ an unfair advantage and distorts the labour market.

      We could all pull the same stunt – set up huge factories and ‘staff’ them entirely with ‘dolies’ working for nothing*

      * the lazy scroungers are being paid JSA so I suppose it is OK then

      • Dole money (JSA) is not a wage or payment for work, it’s there to support people whilst finding work. Workfare is simply exploitation of the jobless.

        • JSA doesn’t even provide enough sustenance to do a day’s work. That is why when you are one of these schemes you have to beg, borrow or steal to make up for the extra food costs. These fucking schemes leave you OUT-OF-POCKET. CONVICTED CRIMINALS on Community Payback get treated better. They get a two-hour lunch break and are taken out to get a meal. I have watched them sat with armfuls of food stuffing their faces with food and drink. These government workfare schemes are a fucking disgrace!

          • Another CWP Victim

            It is like when you see a drunk-driver who has caused someone’s DEATH, actually TAKEN A LIFE and a JUDGE sentences them to something like 80 hours ‘unpaid work’, and they have a whole year to complete it. Then you have a jobseeker whose only ‘crime’ is to be unemployed and a jobcentre WORK ROACH can sentence them to 780 hours unpaid work to be completed in 6 months! Just what the fuck is going on here!?

          • something survived...

            After days and days with no food I finally decided to go to the bank today and get £10 so I could buy food from the only shop open Sunday evenings. Before a 2 mile walk to it (after already having walked hours in rain), I went to the cash machine. Transaction denied, it said. £5 left and machines don’t give out £5. That means my JSA, which I’ve been living off for months without HB (which they’ve stopped) has been Sanctioned due to an extra appointment with a JSA ‘adviser’. It was on my new weekly signing a week after my normal signing. Of course I don’t mean adviser, I mean Inquisitor. It went relatively well (he typed in I did everything to look for work), till he asked me about UJM. I think that he has sanctioned me, and for not being on UJM (though UJM itself kicked me off UJM and wouldn’t let me back on). The irony is that hours later I had a new GG account and new UJM account, have been on it every day including nights, Saturday, Sunday, etc. Created a CV, applied for hundreds of jobs including all the ones he/it/JCP ordered me to. ON TOP OF all my ongoing jobsearch activity. Have done the UJM jobsearch diary too. So you do everything they (unreasonably) ask of you and more, just to make sure they don’t sanction you – and then they fucking sanction you anyway. In 7 days I need £300 rent and how the hell do I pay it now!

            Why does being a jobcentre worker require you as an occupational qualification, to be an evil and sadistic cunt.

            It’s 8 days since I last had an actual ‘meal’.

            Fuck the government and fuck the jobcentre, and fuck UJM.

      • “KIND WORDS FROM THE DWP SUICIDE CENTRAL”

        An amputee has told how she almost took her own life after her personal independence payment was slashed, forcing her to give up her mobility car.

        Jo Jones, 50, from Adswood, Stockport, whose left leg was amputated after she developed an ulcer caused by Type 2 diabetes, said the decision to cut the weekly mobility component of her allowance by more than half has left her ‘totally isolated’.

        The reduction in the payment she has claimed since April 2014, from £57.45 to £21.80, means she can no longer afford to pay Motability, a service allowing disabled people to lease a car.

        Without the car she can no longer drive to medical appointments and visit friends to enjoy her hobby of crafting.

        Jo said: “When the letter came I was crying and crying, I was in a right state.

        “I have medication I take for blood pressure and insulin and I was going to take the lot. I was on the edge and just wanted to be done with it all.”

        ……………………………………………………………………..

        SUICIDE CENTRAL;
        A DWP spokesman said: “PIP is awarded on the basis of how someone’s condition affects them rather than simply on the condition itself, a principle which ensures support is targeted at those who need it most.

        “Decisions are made after consideration of all the evidence including an assessment and any information provided by the claimant and their GP.”

        • Type 2 diabetes is not a genetic condition; something that can’t be helped though. It is brought on by not giving a cream cake about one’s own body; through over-eating and lack of exercise leading to obesity and the inevitable consequences. It is an entirely preventable condition. We all have to take responsibility for our own health; this woman’s woes are entirely self-inflicted. To paraphrase Norman Tebbit – if you sit on your lazy backside all day stuffing your face with junk food you WILL get fat and you WILL get diabetes type 2. Anyway, it’s not like obese people suddenly just ‘balloon up’ over night; there is ample opportunity for people to adjust their diet/lifestyle before it is too late. You have to think why and what led this woman to being in this condition and it is these still prevailing utterly selfish attitudes that lead her to expect taxpayers to “bail her out” and provide her with a free car. It is this utter selfishness that got this woman to where she is in the first place. Although not a big fan of them I can see where the DWP is coming from on this one. “totally isolated” – boohoo, not any different to anyone else who is stuck on benefits, most on a lot less than this greedy, selfish woman is no doubt trousered, and which no doubt she couldn’t five a flying cream-cake about.

          • It is also very telling how this woman is so attached to a car. It is being so lazy and reliant on cars in the first place that has contributed to her condition. She is one of those lazy people you see driving a few metres round to corner to the local chipper. Maybe, if she had walked, cycled, got a bit more exercise in the first place she wouldn’t be begging the taxpayer for a car.

          • overburdenddonkey

            absolute bollocks…symptoms of t2d among other things IS weight gain (visceral fats build up a BG control soak as is tiredness thirst and pissing)…
            insulin receptors are damaged, i and many other suffers produce plenty of insulin but the insulin is INEFFECTIVE…
            i’m an HGV (truck mechanic) mechanic, and i have it…..

            • overburdenddonkey

              ps as well as lack of energy hunger to meet lack of energy is another major symptom…my bg is now normal due to strict diet control, but i’m still diabetic, there is NO cure for it…even so i have to really watch my weight…

              • Doctor and Medics

                There isn’t a cure for type 2 diabetes; but if you ‘nip it in the bud’ you can suppress the symptoms but it will always be there in the background. But you are correct, you can’t cure it; you can only ‘manage’ it.

                • overburdenddonkey

                  doc
                  i diagnosed my own t2d, by cause of it’s symptoms (symptoms cannot also be the cause)….
                  we eat for energy and rest to restore energy….symptom of diabetes 2 is hunger/lack of energy the body tells one to eat and rest…one is diabetic long before the symptoms of weight gain et al begin to be fully attributed…
                  so one craves high energy foods and rest…
                  one always thinks it’s something else, ie getting older, bad diet, lack of fitness and therefore exercise, one is already on the case long before diagnosis…so we are often patronized by others…
                  one can only manage it’s extremes there is no means of preventing it…
                  the fuel mixture is excessively rich, in trying to do what one could do on less food and rest now one needs more of both, and cells won’t let this energy IN…reducing the mixture does not improve the engines/bodies poor performance but prevents the engine/body from clogging up, still further, causing even more damage all we can do is to try slow it down….
                  from my own research the problem is lack of efa’s in diet therefore poor diet but unless one is a cell biologist one won’t know this or have any idea how to prevent it…

                • Go and get an eye exam – we can detect diabetes on your retinal image 🙂

                • … as well as a host of other diseases, diseases in the early stages – a eye exam can act as an ‘early warning system’ – we can detect lots of potential problems before you will feel any symptoms.

                • overburdenddonkey

                  yes, iridology…..

                • And a diet of value sausages and 15p cans of spuds are going to provide these EFAs?

    • Sorry, Alison, but I boycott every firm that uses Workfare – without exception – no matter how hard they cry that they ‘must do it or go bust’. If you don’t pay your workers, I can’t support you either. As said above, labour costs are an intrinsic cost of business. If you can’t afford to pay wages, you don’t deserve to be trading and I’ll take my custom to a firm that will pay its workers.

    • You must be bloody joking and you’re in the wrong place coming on here with that attitude. Workfare is wrong 100% all of the time and with no exceptions. If your company uses workfare you are a disgrace and should be ashamed of yourselves. You are the problem with your attitude.

    • You wont keep your job if your company can get someone from the Job Centre to do your job for benefits or £0.00.

      • something survived...

        DEPARTMENT OF WHITTLING PEASANTS (down)

        Is your BMI average? We can make it drop to 17 or less! Go on the new diet called DWP or JSA to its friends. Soon you will be underweight and in a few months your thinness will be approaching Bergen-Belsen levels! If there is residual body fat proving hard to shift, we have added SANCTIONS as an exercise plan to get rid of it.
        Or, for the truly patriotic, why not starve yourself to death in exchange for a free pauper’s funeral and unmarked grave, or body sold for dissection.

        COMING SOON: Chancellor IDS plans to introduce the following new SANCTIONS to speed up the slashing of the wasteful government spending on things such as paupers (you).
        Sanctions on babies for crying in the Jobcentre (their parents will be sanctioned). If they are not brought in because you left them at home, they’ll be taken away because of neglect. If they were in childcare, Sanction on you for spending our money on the childcare we keep telling you to pay for. If the childcare is free, sanction on you for being irresponsible AND we take your kids!
        Sanctions on breastfeeding in the jobcentre, because it’s disgusting (but we can still order you to go and be a topless waitress or lapdancer, which men wank to, so that’s okay). Sanctions on bottlefeeding in the jobcentre; it’s unnatural according to health ministers and we told you to breastfeed, but you can only do that in private and not here. Sanctions if you breastfeed in private and are not teetotal. Even sanctions on bottlefeeding if your mastectomy or implants stop you from breastfeeding, or if you’ve no breast milk. Or if you happen to be a dad.
        Sanctions on bringing a confused elderly parent to the jobcentre (though leaving them alone they could burn down the house, walk onto the motorway etc.).
        Sanctions on having green, pink, purple, blue etc. hair or painted toenails, or piercings, or tattoos, or goth clothes. Sanctions on not owning a suit or female equivalent. Sanctions for having no phone.
        Sanctions for having armpit hair (if female). Sanction for coming to the jobcentre while pregnant and especially for claiming you need more food to carry the extra weight around. Sanctions on elbows that are too knobbly. Sanction for being crosseyed. Sanction for coming into the JCP in a wheelchair and having us refuse to sign you because the lift is broken. Sanction for looking at/not looking at jobcentre staff. Sanction for refusing a degrading or humiliating job. Sanction for applying for a job when we want to lie you never applied for it, even when you can bring a rejection letter saying you didn’t get it. Sanction for being born on a Wednesday. Sanction if you can’t text a passage from the Bible in one minute. Sanction for having a red door. Sanction because your landlord is Jamaican/has a car. Sanction because your third cousin twice removed, who you have never met, and who you may not know exists, once sneezed in M&S. Sanction for having freckles. Sanction for applying for a job we never heard about or told you to apply for, especially if this led to an interview. Sanction for being beaten up on the way to the jobcentre. Sanction because we just don’t like your face. Sanction because we awarded you a sanction in our game of spin the bottle. Sanction because we can. Sanction because there can never be enough sanctions. Sanction because it’s a laugh. Sanction because we don’t like your accent. Sanction because your IQ is too high/too low. Sanction because you came in with a Pepsi but your adviser drinks Coke. Sanction because the adviser’s grandfather/cat/phone/avatar has died. Sanction for living in an estate DWP/council don’t like, even if DWP/council sent you to live there. Sanction for being black (we will of course say it’s for another reason). Sanction for asking to attend a medical appointment. Sanction for claiming you need sleep/oxygen/respect. Sanction because it’s Monday and your adviser is pissed off. Sanction because it’s Friday and they want to party. Sanction because some terrorists did something and now you are going to sanction every man with brown skin or anyone else they can blame for it. Sanction because you have a TV. Sanction because you don’t practice birth control, even though that is what your religion says you should prohibit. Sanction for having siblings. Sanction for being an only child. Sanction for not being IDS.

    • Workfare, and all of the other monumental cock-ups – Work programme, flexible New Deal, New Deal, YTS – all exploit the people having to attend by threat of benefit sanctions if they refuse. All these governmental programmes make masses of money for themselves for simply taking on school leavers and/or un-employed people under the pretence they are actually doing something good for the local community and to be seen as addressing the un-employed figures.

      Workfare, etc, replaces the paid worker with the un-paid worker who if they are lucky gets JSA each fortnight in reward for carrrying out the same job, duties and hours as otherwise could have been done by somebody on the company payroll. Instead of the company paying out wages and paying taxes and N.I. contributions on behalf of the paid worder, the company pays absolutely zilch, therefore saving the wages and tax bill.

      By having somebody supplied to them by the likes of Seetec or working links, the company gets the work done for them for nothing, they get paid £250 per week by the Work programme provider for having the placement employee and it looks good for both the employer and work programme provider for apparently reducing the un-employment figures in a stroke.

      I have been on the work programme myself until earlier this year and I can tell you that Seetec, whom I had to go to, was morally destroying me slowly and making me feel like a criminal doing time for simply being out-of work through NO fault of my own. As soon as you leave the work programme the provider simply washes their hands of you and moves on and concentrates on the next mug to do job-search with them and having to work for nothing under threat of sanctions for non-compliance or non-attendance.

      I have to ask the question – Do you support these work programme providers for supplying cheap and free labour that replaces an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work? Paid jobs are being removed and replaced by exploitative free forced labour akin to slave labour. No paid job is ever guarenteed by ANY WPP whatever bullshit they spout at you when having to attend for six months.

      I have been there, exploited in the name of getting me back into work, all for absolutely jack-shit. Seetec have not once contacted me to date in the time I left back in January this year. Do they care about me now that I am no longer a cash cow for them? They don’t. Al they care about is where the next weekly payment of £250 comes from through the next person attending them under threat of seeing their JSA removed for up to three months.

      • Aye, the CalMac workers ur in fir a fricht if Seetec git thir hauns oan thi contract tae run thi ferries. And so will evriwan else who relies oan thi ferries tae git oot n aboot!

        • Shud huv said Serco but they ur wan n the same!

        • something survived...

          Department of Transport:
          To anyone living on an island north of the border. We still expect you to commute to the fortnightly appointments to sign on at your ‘local’ jobcentre (probably Edinburgh or Glasgow because they are the only places in Scotland we have heard of). In the absence of ferries, which we have stopped because they encourage laziness and dependency, we have introduced new travel options.
          1) Swim.
          2) We can sell you for £50 a boat (complete with holes) we confiscated from some immigrants.
          3) Walk along the seabed.
          4) Attach oildrums to your wheelchair and use your jobcentre letter as a paddle.
          5) Hitch a ride on a seal, dolphin, whale, shark etc. Or train one to carry you.
          6) Staple all your sanctions together to form a raft or boat, waterproof them with glue, and use your crutches as oars.
          7) Evolve wings and learn to fly.
          8) Sew together all the clothes you can’t afford to wash, and make a balloon. Use a skip as a basket. With some old ropes stolen from building sites. Find a politician and fill the balloon with their hot air.
          9) Teleportation.
          10) If you live at Hogwarts, fly on a broom. Or use Floo Powder, Portkeys, Apparition, etc.

          Another option we are introducing for jobseekers in Scotland is our new FOAD plan. In this scheme you are told to Fuck Off And Die. If you actually die we will send your relatives endless letters asking you to sign on. Alternatively we can deport you to England, where there ‘are still nae fuckin’ jobs’ (according to the happiest of our pilot scheme jobseeker victims/testers), and where you can be treated to daily extra helpings of traditional English racism.

          The English Government
          Working for the benefit of England
          (but for the eradication of benefits and Scotland)

    • Let’s hope you do go bust you hypocrite. Workfare is slavery nothing less and it’s exactly people like you who used to take jews from Auschwitz as slave labour and claim they were saving them, only to work them to death or throw them back to the death camp if they were too exhausted to work.
      You have the nerve to consider using slaves to keep your business afloat and think people will respect you for it, well think again. Most decent people would consider you to be a worthless human being and just vile Nazi filth. I only wish you had told everyone the name of your business so we could publicly name and shame you for considering using slavery to save your vile arses

    • You shameless unethical grabber – why the hell don’t you pay people who are prepared to work for you?

    • Somehow, that was the ‘wrong’ request, on the wrong (right) site.

    • So it is unfair for you to be forced to do workfare and you expect us to on workfare to support you to keep your business going. That is hypocrisy and you have missed the point. All workfare providers are parasitical exploiting people and are as ruthless as the Tories. You want labour for nothing.

  5. Naga Munchetty's Knickers

    Yeah, the BB-fucking-C are even promoting workfare in jobcentres. They have huge posters up of Naga Munchetty saying “Yes, you can!”.

  6. marks and spencers has on their site Integrity – doing the right thing, not the easy thing; building trust and reinforcing our reputation.
    In Touch – understanding what’s important to our customers, the communities in which we work and our colleagues http://careers.marksandspencer.com/why-work-here

    • something survived...

      Workfare at M&S, even while sanctioned. When, even at times you are not sanctioned, you can’t afford to buy the food.

  7. Pingback: #WEcan Fuck Up The DWP’s Online Campaign To Promote Mass Workfare | the void | sdbast

  8. CHEAP F*****N LABOUR!.YES THEY WILL TRY ANYTHING,,,OH JOBCENTRE YOUR GETTING SOOO DESPERATE ARE YOU NOT???.PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. Another Fine Mess

    JV, are you going to fix the noop problem?

  10. have tweeted all companies involved though i doubt any will see the light of day? disgraceful

  11. Work experience is just a re-branding of Thatcher’s YTS only without the extra £5 they gave to encourage people to go on the scam. If it was the same now maybe a few more would willingly take on the work experience scam, as Thatcher’s JSA equivalent was £25, plus £5 then the new amount should be £73.10 plus £14.62 the same 20% extra, a total of £87.72. The government won’t give people willing to train and extra money but instead forces them to live off the same money.

    The people should be retaliating against the conservatives destroying their property and keep destroying it until insurers tell them the price is so high they cannot afford it, then they will know what it is like to go without. Just like the people who are having tax credits and JSA cut.
    Little Tarquin will miss his riding because Tory cunt daddy has to get his car fixed again as the insurer refused to cover it.

  12. Worse than being in prison in a way, at least prison gives security. So this government really must be brought to its knees. I will fight to get rid of them

  13. I despair at the way people are being treated by these politicians. I started my apprenticeship in 1977 working for a long time in the construction industry. At least I got a trade but I look at the way things are going and am outraged at the way young people are being treated by these totalitarian capitalists. They want to exploit people to the limit while they are useful and then chuck them away when they are no use anymore. Our enemies are in Westminster working for companies who line their pockets. It is not a democracy, it is a corrupt plutocracy.

  14. “THE DWP BLUEPRINT TO MURDER”

    HANDING YOUR LIFE TO AN IMBECILE

    • FOR THE ATTENTION OF JUDGE MARK ROWLAND

      IF MY LIFE WAS TO TERMINATE IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS I WOULD LIKE THE READERS OF THIS BLOG TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE AFOREMENTIONED JUDGE DECIDED THAT MY HUMAN RIGHTS WERE NOT BEING BREACHED.

      HE IS ALSO FULLY AWARE OF MY DISABILITY AND THAT I HAVE BEEN LIVING ON £33 PER WEEK FOR OVER TWO YEARS.

      • Be proud Mr. Rowland

        A WOMAN who stole the cheapest food in a store because she was hungry and had no money was told by a magistrate it was not acceptable she stole “just for being hungry”.

        Louisa Sewell was the latest victim of benefit sanctions to appear before magistrates when she stole a four pack of Mars bars, worth just 75p, from Heron Foods in the Swan Centre, Kidderminster, on June 22, because she had not eaten in days.

        Adrian Jones, prosecuting, said the 32-year-old was seen on CCTV picking the confectionary and putting it in her body warmer before leaving the store without paying.

        In mitigation, her solicitor Susie Duncan said Sewell’s benefits had been sanctioned and she had no money or anyone to turn to for help so had not eaten for days when she stole the cheapest food from the store.

        She said: “She fully accepts this offence of theft. She said she was really hungry. She had no money.

        “In her interview she said she was really hungry, had no money for food, and took the lowest value item she could find.”

        http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/13587194.Hungry_Kidderminster_woman_stole_Mars_bars_after_benefit_sanctions_left_her_with_no_money_for_food/

      • While shoplifting is unlawful this woman was clearly set up to fail by an uncaring state who sees poverty and joblessness as self-inflicted. It would have better if the judge (WHAT A TORY CUNT!) had sent her to prison as she would have got three meals a day rather than starve at home.

  15. Yes Geoff pity we cannot make Mr Rowland or Ian Duncan Smith live on £33.00 a week.

    • In mitigation, her solicitor Susie Duncan said Sewell’s benefits had been sanctioned and she had no money or anyone to turn to for help so had not eaten for days when she stole the cheapest food from the store.

      SICK BASTARDS

    • If Geoff tops himself, we should all press for MARK ROWLAND to face criminal charges.

      • Yeah, GEOFF mentioned a couple article back that he was sat on the top of a crumbling cliff-face with a shotgun in his mouth. This is what these fuckers such as JUDGE MARK ROWLAND will push you to – by design! Don’t do it GEOFF!

        • Judge Rowland couldn’t give a flying fuck about one of his knockbacks taking his life.
          He gets paid enough to look the other way. Will he get an invite to the funeral or will Geoffs family send him some ashes to put in his keyring, alongside the others?

        • Yes, Geoff – stay strong in spirit and don’t give those bastards, whose time will soon come, the satisfaction.

          • something survived...

            I think this ought to read: Make IDS live on THREE POUNDS A MONTH.

            Someone here has a shotgun? Where does IDS live??????

  16. Gerard M says…

    As a society, it is our duty to ensure that all our citizens have at least a basic standard of living. Benefit sanctions leave people totally bereft. I beleive the Government is acting criminally and should be held to account. As for the magistrate in this case – he showed no understanding whatsover of this woman’s predicament and shouldn’t be on the bench.

    • anita bellow’s reports;

      It is also interesting to try to understand why the DWP started monitoring benefit claimant suicides in 2012. One particular internal DWP memo throws some light on this. It was sent to all DWP staff in operations by head of contact centres Paul Archer, head of benefit centres Mike Baker and work service director Paul Williams on April 25 2012, during the first month of delivery of employment and support allowance (ESA). This was the phase when decisions were made on revised benefits entitlement (a coded expression for cutting benefits).

      The memo stated: “The complex nature of our business, however, means that sometimes, while procedures are followed correctly, something goes wrong. The consequences of getting this wrong can have profound results. Very sadly, only last week a customer of DWP attempted suicide, said to be the result of receiving a letter informing him that due to the introduction of time-limiting contribution-based ESA for people not in the support group, his contribution-based ESA was going to stop.”

      So within the first month of implementing changes leading to benefit loss for people claiming contributory-based ESA and who had already been assessed as disabled and entitled to ESA, the DWP encountered its first suicide attempt. The main recommendation of the memo is to improve communications. And of course, nobody knows the number of benefit claimants, sanctioned or not, who have attempted to commit suicide.

  17. From: B Smith

    6 August 2015

    Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

    I am looking for the information on who to Address the Small Claims
    form too.

    During a period of a4e over £1400 was taken from my Benefits, no
    matter how much complaining was done to a4e internally at place of
    program and numerous complaints to the head office, my MP as well
    as complaining almost weekly for a whole year to job centre plus
    where no one acknowledged my complaints or helped with the issues
    that was causing the problem.
    Just continuation of your/their proceedure’s and sanctions.

    This issue was eventualy resolved with MY evidence and went in my
    favor, where DWP was reluctent to repay me the moneies owing.
    Almost 8 months untill all repaid, that was only after all evidence
    was given to MP where then DWP was forced to repay me money owing.

    Now i would like to know where to send the Small Claims forms to
    for the 18 months loss harm and duress i suffered that this
    situation caused, would it be yourselves , a4e the company or the
    advisor of A4E that started a snowball of sanctions working under
    so called directives from A4E that was in turn working on behalf
    and Authority of DWP.

    Yours faithfully,

    B Smith

    Link to this
    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/small_claims_a4e_dwp#incoming-691877

  18. SEND ANY DWP CLAIMS TO;

    From: Temperley Alan DWP Legal Services
    Department for Work and Pensions

    12 August 2015

    Dear Sir/Madam

    Please send your claim form to –

    Litigation Department
    2nd Floor
    Caxton House
    Tothill Street
    London
    SW1H 9NA

    Regards
    Al

    Alan Temperley|Business Manager | DWP legal team | Government Legal Department | 2nd Floor Caxton House | Tothill Street | London | SW1H 9NA | Tel: 020 7449 7914 | Ext 64914 | [mobile number]
    Please consider the environment before printing

    • Left a Annotation:

      Hiya

      Sorry to hear of your troubles – regarding your Small Claims – I would name DWP as the Organization who subcontracted the “Service” to A4e, and also claim for interest at the commercial rate from them and A4e.

      They kept the money then had to cough up so why should they benifit?

  19. paultheswineherd

    Annos – Absolutely brilliant and so very true!
    This terrible Government and all of the ‘Workfare’ sign-up companies really need to be hit hard in all ways possible.
    Bad publicity about it here there and everywhere.
    And as for that poor woman who had to steal to eat because of a sanction should be given ALL of her money back and totally let off & her ‘criminal record’ dropped.
    Someone in authority should take this judge/magistrates and cut them off from all of their money – and see how they get on.
    They would be so hungry that they would have to steal as well.
    It is absolutely disgusting what is happening in Britain today – and where is the EU in all of this! There is the Human Rights Legislation and the Equality Act. I am sure that none of this appalling cruel shit would happen in other European member countries – something would be done.
    Why is it not being done in Britain?
    And for the people trying to get their money back from the DWP/Companies I wish them all luck possible in their Small Claims. It is definitely worth a go I’d have thought.

    • ONE LEGGED MAN NOT DISABLED ENOUGH TO GET HELP

      A father from Northampton who lost his leg in a car accident has been refused a Government benefit because he is not disabled enough.

      Removal man and professional gardener Dean Williams, 25, from Great Billing, had to have his left leg removed by doctors after he was involved in a collision with a car in a pub car park, completely crushing his limb against a wall.

      Now unable to work and with dyslexia hampering other career choices, he has applied for a ‘personal independence payment’.

      But the Department of Work and Pensions said he does not qualify for the benefit as it insists he can stand up and move 200 metres.

      Mr Williams said: “The number of points I need to get some help is eight and they scored me six.

      “I actually got zero points for the category of being unable to move around. It’s incredible.

      “I’m a bloke with one leg. What state would I have to be in to get the full points?

      http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/northampton-man-who-lost-his-leg-in-crash-refused-government-benefit-1-6900713

      • IN ORDER TO GET A RISE IN HER OWN BENEFITS, THE QUEEN CHOSE TO GIVE ROYAL ASSENT TO THE WELFARE REFORM ACTS THAT STOLE THE MONEY FROM THE POOR AND DISABLED.

        • LAW STUDENTS SHAME THE JUDICIARY AND DWP

          Disabled and vulnerable Brits have managed to get more than £600,000 of benefits back on appeal – thanks to the help of students.

          The number of sanctions against Brits receiving disability benefits has nearly doubled in one year. The majority of Brits appealing the decision have no one to represent them.

          But now University of Wolverhampton law students have teamed up with the council to back claimants who make appeals.

          And in the first 12 months, the students have helped 37 claimants get back an average of £17,260 each.

          One of the students, Jocelyn Thomas, said: “This has given me confidence, and I am even more motivated to continue doing my very best to try to achieve positive results for the appellants.

          “My greatest delight being a representative is experiencing the joy and relief expressed by the clients when they have won their appeals.”

          http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/students-help-disabled-brits-overturn-6232031#ICID=sharebar_facebook

          • They are all massive wankers in government and on the magistrates bench. They are all in it together on one big conspiracy against the ordinary citizen in the street.

            Roll on the revolution when we finally get to start chopping their fucking heads off and we can freely hang the bastards in power.

            • Judge Mark Rowland understands the consequences of his actions,he is willing to watch somebody die rather than upset his old bosses, the dwp.

              • They only care about feathering their own cushy nests by claiming even more expenses than they need. No wonder the country is bankrupt and they keep banging on about cutting all government departments to the bone. Money is being diverted away from essential services straight into the back pockets of the greedy, fat MPs.

      • overburdenddonkey

        it’s important to continue to mention that advice can be sought from groups such as this one, and one should always claim and/or appeal…
        http://www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/

        • Hello, OBD, Been clicking on your link, and tried the Work Prog – Information disclosure leaflet, Pdf. and the page cannot be found. Just lately, it happens more frequently. Is information that can help us being pulled from the Net?

  20. UK jobless total edges up by 25,000

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33881387

    Now will the massive wanker IDS admit defeat and fucking resign from his cushy desk job?

    • overburdenddonkey

      is it a slip but WEcan sounds like weaken….

    • Has anyone noticed that before the general election UK jobless figures always went down and after the election they keep going up. Fishy or what?

      • James,

        they’ve eased up on the “let them starve to death…” is why… but not for long

      • The Nazi Tories clearly fiddled the un-employment rates so they could brag, lie and cheat their scrawny little asses back into illegal power once more. The true number of people out of work or out or training is 10 times as much as the current jobless rates.

        It’s just that the Nazi Tory tossers like to hide the truth constantly so they can lord it over us and claim endless expenses for half mile journeys between their posh London pile and the knackered, worn-out flea-ridden Government building.

  21. paultheswineherd

    overburdenndonkey – yes, thanks – had a look at the article and
    even then, 2 years ago, press misinformation and lies were still in full swing. Nothing changes at all!
    Fen Tiger – Youre’ definitely right there – but I bet that he does’nt. IDS is like Mount Everest being attacked by seagulls with no beaks!

    • overburdenddonkey

      paul
      yep, nothing changes they were saying it back then and triggered the need for a study….
      is in same category as the myth of generational unemployment….

  22. Down with Slave Labour Tyranny and Oppression Lovers

    • I have just started my six months of workfare at a charity shop. I’m 59 so you are not safe at any age. Although everyone is polite I get the impression that the staff think that the workfare recruits are a bit simple. In fact I met four fellow workfare victims today. I’m already getting bored with opening black bin bags but hopefully I will survive the six months although with an eight hour shift on Saturday it won’t be easy with the thought that I’m only doing it to get my JSA.

      • Rob, My advice would be to ask the store manager for some training so you can put what you learnt on your CV. Apart from looking like you keen, once trained, you will be on the same level as the other staff in terms of knowledge and skills. That way it will be harder for them to keep giving you all the crap jobs to do. Remember you are not being paid a wage so don’t try too hard at shifting those bags. Don’t trust anybody who works there as they are not really your friend. In my experience just turn up at the shop at the required times, do the bare minimum of work, don’t tell anyone how you really feel and get as much training, skills and references as you can. Remember in six months time they will probably dump you.

        • By the way, if they don’t train you properly and you have an accident there because of this, then sue the bastards under the Health and Safety at Work Act . I know it’s a charity shop, but anyone who uses workfare (modern slavery) deserves to be FUCKING PUNISHED!!!

          • I am “lucky” i can stand up and break my ankles and collapse in a heap just by sitting still i can badly sprain my ankles.. I know how NOT to do it, just takes a little thinking and i am sure i could resprain my ankles.. If i am sent to a charity i will collapse in agony.. and pain and maybe sue them i mean THEY put me in a situation where i was guarenteed to injure myself..

          • James the problem is that lawyers, employers, charity shops, and doctors if medical evidence were needed are all insured by the same insurers so they there is always a conflict of interest.

            http://petercherbi.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/suicides-ill-health-financial-ruin-will.html

            • Aye, Wee Nicola hud a cheek tae complain aboot the spooks rifling through her underwear drawer n listening in tae her phone calls when it wis her that pit thi’ law intae place in the first place. Wan law fir Wee Nicola n wan law fir thi’ rest o’ us.

              • Yes McSpook and wee Nicola is a protector of Scotland’s Crooked Judiciary. We have a system where high court judges are a law unto themselves, investing in companies a member of the public may be in litigation against. They are currently fighting calls for a Register of Interests. No surprise really given than Nicola is a lawyer herself so she reinforces self regulation for Scotland’s teflon criminals, many of whom are not fit to sit on the bench. People can vote all they want, try and take a judge or lawyer to court for damages and you automatically become right-less. The Law Society of Scotland calls the shots, and our MSP’s obey, how is that democracy?

                • Police State Scotland

                  Correction: Nicola is a failed lawyer herself; same as that clown of a former “Justice Secretary Kenny ‘bawbag’ MacAskill, and the same goes for the fat fascist Salmond, and most of the rest of the ‘parcel o’ rogues’ who sit in Holyrood.

                  They crooked Scottish Judiciary, Police State Scotland, the most corrupt organisation in Scotland and the Scottish legal ‘profession; are all in bed with each other – 3 heads of the same serpent!

                  The Scottish ‘Government’ exists to cook up more and more horseshit ‘laws’ with the sole intent to to cow-tow and oppress the people of Scotland; create more opportunities for their buddies in the legal ‘profession’ and the criminal (in)justice system to profit and line their pockets; and to give the Government thugs known as Police State Scotland more powers to busy themselves with as they go about their business of harassing and intimidating the people of Scotland.

  23. paultheswineherd

    James Gaskell – Very good advice and well said.
    All of these ‘workfare’ providers need well to be well and truly screwed up, by whatever means. That includes all of the ‘Contract’ begging ‘big’ and ‘small’ companies, the ‘multinationals’ – and not forgetting the so-called ‘charities’. All of these shitsters, many of them paying little, or no tax whatsoever – getting everyone who are put onto it to work as hard as possible, for as long a possible for no wage whatsoever.
    And then, after the 6 months are done – bye mate!
    All of these ‘outlets’ should have a notice (as above introduction/article) plastered all over their windows and if they take them down, then put them up again so that as many people are made aware of it as possible.
    No ‘criminal’ act is being committed – only that the TRUTH is being told.
    Expose the uncaring greedy bastards for what they actually are.
    As I have said before, there MUST surely be some Human Rights issue here somewhere along the way.
    For example Article 4 (2) of the European Convention On Human Rights actually states (and I quote):
    ‘No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour’

  24. sabotage them as much as you can, cost them as much money as you can, change postal addresses , destroy fittings, toolings and any kit needed to run the business, computors phones faxes copyers printers an yway you can they are stealing your pay so get your own back just dont get found out

    sasabotage
    verb
    1.
    deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage.
    “power lines from South Africa were sabotaged by rebel forces”
    synonyms: wreck, deliberately damage, vandalize, destroy, obstruct, disrupt, cripple, impair, incapacitate
    “a guerrilla group sabotaged the national electricity grid”
    disrupt, spoil, ruin, wreck, undermine, filibuster, impair, damage, threaten, subvert;
    informal throw a spanner in the works of, muller;
    informal throw a monkey wrench in the works of
    “it would be very easy for me to sabotage your plans”
    noun
    1.
    the action of sabotaging something.
    “a coordinated campaign of sabotage”
    synonyms: wrecking, deliberate damage, vandalism, destruction, obstruction, disruption, crippling, impairment, incapacitation;
    “the fire may have been an act of sabotage”
    disruption, spoiling, ruining, wrecking, undermining, filibustering, impairment, damage, subversion;
    informal a spanner in the works;
    informal a monkey wrench in t
    he works
    “this procedure is open to sabotage by an awkward participant”

  25. paultheswineherd

    Alan Brown – All good ideas and that’s the way to do it!
    Meanwhile, any publicity is good publicity – except when it is bad for the bastards. Shame them, shame them and shame them again – in any way possible whatsoever. After all, a lot of them ‘have to keep their good name’!

  26. DWP + JCP = SCUM.

    • As A Step – 31 Steps To Heaven – Naughty Step.

      Step Copywrite Control.

    • Rowland and the decision makers play god with peoples lives.

    • The Nuremberg Defence: “Vi vas vonly vollowing vorders” has been found to be invalid!

    • NO IFS - NO BUTS!

      Those jobcentre cunts in the vid are pure, unadulterated fucking EVIL! BURN IN HELL YOU FUCKING CUNTS!!

    • JCP = FUCKING SCUM!

      If the guy in the video had pulled a fucking sword out and sliced those fucking jobcentre cunts heads off I really couldn’t have given a fuck. I would have fucking laughed! That is how low, despicable and beneath contempt these neo-Nazi jobcentre cunts. Tell you both those bastards are going to DIE screaming with cancer – if they live long enough! You WILL PAY you fucking EVIL, EVIL cunts!!

      • “Irate jobseeker slices off work roach’s head with sword” – wonder how many youtube views that would get 😀

    • What a crock of shit! What are these fucking jokers at the jobcentre trying to pull. They are saying that this guy has applied for jobs on 3 different websites. Then they are saying that because he hasn’t applied for any jobs on that pile-of-shite sanctioning machine, universal shitematch they are going to stop his dole!? WTF! It is not that a jobseeker even has to use this scam-riddled/bogus-job/identity theft heap of shite site. But this is the way these jobcentre cunts works – they are going to stop this guy’s money. Yeah, OK it is odds on that a Tribunal will throw this shite sanction to fuck… but in the meantime this guy is going to be struggling by on jack-shit or hardshit allowance – if he is lucky. These jobcentre cunts truly are evil personified. Pure and utter fucking scum through and through.

    • Another Time, Another Place

      Another time, another place, these Jobcentre Nazis would be employed by the Reich Labour Service (RAD) tasked with ‘deciding’ who was ‘fit enough to be worked to death’ and who was to be ‘sent straight to the gas chambers’. Two neat little piles of IBM punch-cards sat on their desks. Same people, only another time, another place.

  27. paultheswineherd

    Raining – that’s a very good and true to life video – it just shows the jobsworthness, the officiousness and the bullying that goes on nowadays.
    Incidentally – a report on Sky News says that the Daily Mirror is giving it’s support to Andy Burnham in the Labour leadership campaign.
    Labour = reddish Tories / Daily Mirror = almost reddish Tories too!

  28. stitchedupandbroken

    Anyone but Labour. Anyone but Tory. Anyone but Lib/Lab/Tory. I salute you,Jeremy Corbin,sir. Wtih you elected leader of Labour might reconsider voting voting for Labour. You not there…I’m voting for Taliban,UKIP,Green:
    cannot vote for the Machine: the Islington mafia
    Looking forward to the trial of Tony Blair. Now in favour of the death penalty.Can/should executions be made public? Cold be a crowd puller at Wembley?
    JC,you are a an if INTEGRITY

  29. i refused to sign my jsa till it was doable they will put 50 things a week if you let them get away with it so an easy sanction.

  30. The government is paying these companies vast amounts of money to be of the WorkFare books. So really it is costing loads more than paying people their benefits. Who wants Workfare on their cv !!!!!!

  31. I thought the new workfare job was tripping over all the time. Some one left a pen on the floor.

  32. Workfare workers have no workers rights which is illegal. They also can not join a union because they are owned by the DWP.

  33. Any jobs working in slavery DWP !!!! What does not exist !!!

  34. #WEcan
    “That is why we are launching the ‘WE can’ campaign to give young people practical advice about making the most of their summer holidays – and beyond – to gain valuable business skills.” – Priti Patel.

    Priti Patel’s target group appears to be school children on their summer holidays, yes #WEcan initiate third world child slave labour in the UK.

  35. DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE TO PIP CONVERSION = HALF HAD THEIR BENEFITS STOLEN ALTOGETHER ?

    This information shows that as at 30th April 2015, the Department had cleared 810,500 PIP
    initial (i.e. first assessment) claims, of which 342,100 claims were disallowed (42%). This
    includes claims that were disallowed post referral to an assessment provider (31%) and claims
    that disallowed pre-referral to the assessment due to non return of the Part2 within the time
    limit or failure of basic eligibility criteria (11%). In addition, 3% of claims were withdrawn by the
    claimant and 55% of claims were awarded PIP. These figures include both PIP new claims and
    DLA reassessment claims.

  36. Court of Appeal Statistics are mysteriously withheld, i wonder why?

    From: Klaus Zinser

    24 July 2015

    Dear Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service,

    when looking to the statistics
    court-statistics-additional-tables-jan-mar-2014 in tab 5.9. there
    is information from the court of appeal.

    In 2013 there were 1142 total appeals filed. I suppose these are
    the requests for permission to appeal.

    (1) Where are the figures for 2014 ?

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/high_court_family_division_reque#incoming-692094

    Perhaps the Judiciary fear that cases linked to suicides will become more traparent?

  37. If the government are prepared to waste twelve and a half million pounds to keep Assange locked in a foreign embassy to keep him quiet, how much are they willing to blast on keeping the lid on mortality statistics?

    (P.C.S. i’m just doing my job, murders of innocent vulnerable citizens)

  38. A tribute to JUDGE MARK ROWLAND

  39. A BY PRODUCT OF TONY BLAIR / JACK STRAW’s PHONEY WAR

  40. MartBrooks(sergeant)

    The greatest battle, not fighting the taliban, isis or rebel troops.

    Just the indignity of putting your life on the line, only to come back war torn, scarred and limbless to face Atos, Maximus, Capita or Serco.

    A battle for survival to live with the nightmares that haunt you for the rest of your days.
    A battle that divides families and friends, causes divorce and hardship and loneliness.

    For all you young kids thinking of joining up, think again real hard, for those putting you into battle are the furthest away from the arena of war.

    Once you return, you are just collateral damage. A burden to the taxpayer and better off dead on the field of combat.

    • Afraid a lot of this government does makes, you, me anyone who isnt rich.. disposable.. am just waiting for the camps for those too sick, too disabled, too “unemployed” to be sent too just you wait and see

  41. Iain Drunken Shite is already fucked-up. I hear that HMP Broadmoor is trying to locate and re-capture him before he causes anymore misery and sanction threats against the country. The lunatics are well and truly running the country.

  42. paultheswineherd

    Democracy as such in Britain is now effectively dead in the water.
    Labour is no opposition, Lib Dems are no opposition, UKIP/Greens and other minor parties under the present voting system stand little chance.
    Even ‘Labour’ allowed the ‘Welfare Reform Bill’ to continue to pass through.
    The only ones at present offering any kind of opposition to what the Tories are doing are the SNP (and good for them for trying to do so).
    Cameron & his Ministers seem to have all the say on everything – what they decide happens and the rest of the population have no say on any of it.
    It is technically now a one-party state. It would’nt be so bad if it was all going well for everyone – but as we can see everywhere it definitely is not.
    And if past history is anything to go by – then it is very unlikely to improve any time soon. What makes it really bad is the cosiness of the politicians and big business in bed together, while relentlessly and continuously hammering the poor and trying to take away our Human Rights. The EU are turning a blind eye to it all. It really makes me wonder if they are being ‘paid off’ to look the other way. Only some sort of radical ‘revolution’ will probably change things now.

  43. Santa Hates You

    I hate living in the UK under David Cameron’s Tory oppression. It’s like the Nazis have taken over this country and are hellbent on destroying it.

  44. paultheswineherd

    Santa Hates You – yes, you are right – they do seem to be acting in a ‘Nazi’ type way. Unless somehow, they are stopped then forget about taking Britain back to the 1930’s. We’ll be back in Victorian & Georgian times with all of the unfair shit that that would bring. I think that there’s a real possibility that they may try to bring in ‘private’ workhouses for the poor – probably run by Atos, Maximus, A4E, Capita etc. (they being paid millions and millions of £ of further ‘taxpayers’ money and ‘saving’ fuck all in the process). The Govt will still be raking it in, the private companies will still be raking it in and the working poor, the poor, the sick & the disabled will be fucked.
    And I am still sure that the EU will do absolutely nothing.

  45. ‘STORMIN CORBYN, THEY’RE SHITTING THEMSELVES

  46. I’m on CWP at the moment, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be placed somewhere that both needs and warrants my help and the manager is also very fair and doesn’t make me work anywhere near the 30 hours a week I’m supposed to – mostly because there simply isn’t enough work there on any given day to justify it, and she knows that. It’s a shop that only makes about £100 profit a day, all of which is for charity and spent directly by the trustees who go in person to the projects to make sure it’s being spent on the right things and the right people. Unfortunately, I am the exception to the rule as most people seem to be forced to travel for nearly an hour each way to do unpaid full-time work, plus having to travel to our provider who has no solutions and no real interest in any of us. The only thing I’ve noticed them try to do is get my colleague sanctioned by forcing him to accept a job 50 miles away that he can only access by public transport and would start at 5am each day. Aside from that, it is pure sterility and I absolutely dread going there for my job search, which I already do far more productively at home anyway. I actually hate the job search far more than the placement and I can’t imagine how hellish it must be for those referred to the placement but have to spend their entire week at the provider just searching for jobs from 9-5 every weekday. I already had to do something very similar on New Deal for the better part of two months seven years ago.

    And no, I’m not a scrounger, I’ve been to university and had jobs in that time plus I’ve volunteered and done other bits and bobs. But I won’t be forced to work somewhere I’m miserable for years of my very limited life. I’d be more than happy to work somewhere that I was merely ambivalent towards but unfortunately I’ve always been unlucky with employers.

    PS. I still trust Labour even less with welfare than I do the current government, though that might change if Corbyn becomes leader.

    • If there isn’t enough work on any given day, it, therefore does not warrant your help. Equally, if it only takes £100 per day, the prospect of you becoming a paid member of staff is zero.

      As you are incredibly fortunate, it must be a simple method of deduction to work out that your nonsense is connected to the jobcentre where working to targets (human misery), is more commonplace.

      I wish you well on your quest to try and brainwash the unwary.

      Staffordshire seems a nice venue for your university skills, there are kilns full of mugs waiting to be fired.

    • I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT HAVING A UNIVERSITY EDUCATION WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU THE MEANS TO QUESTION WHY YOUR WORK PLACEMENT COMPANY IS BEING PAID, YET YOU ARE NOT.

    • Don’t make excuses for any of them. There are no excuses. The company you’re placed with are a disgrace, as is the boss, for using workfare. Simple as that. He/she is trying to benefit from unpaid labor which is morally wrong.

  47. “WHY THE GOVERNMENT WISH TO SELL OUT THE NHS TO THEIR FRIENDS IN THE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY”

    This bill is for a rattlesnake bite !!!!

    • @Toddy
      I’ve been fitted with expensive bit of electronic kit in my chest, the cost of my device is £17.500. Having the job done privately would’ve cost me around £50,000. Those idiots who voted the Tory scum back into power should remember that their comfortable, middle-class, “sensible” little lives could be suddenly interrupted by a stroke or heart attack. Bang goes their mortgaged semi, their jobs and possibly their families. How will they pay their Unum health charges?

      • At the back-of-our-minds the middle-classes are only too wary that something ‘bad’ can happen to their bodies which would severely disrupt their lifestyles. I am surrounded by middle-class knob neighbours; lawyers, doctors, judges, that kind of thing. You see them out jogging, cycling their front room has a treadmill and a cycling machine. One of them – a lawyer – is always injuring his knee jogging lol They all have at least two fancy cars parked on the driveway, and I am not talking Nissan Nissan Qushqai either, which seem to be mentioned often on this blog, I am talking about top end Beemers and such.

        And the thing is you just know they can’t be bothered with all this exercise shit; who really wants to walk, cycle when you have a fancy car at your disposal. They only reason they go to the gym etc. is because the are SCARED – SHIT SCARED, scared of what might happen, scared of what they have seen happen to their friends relatives, colleagues and next-door neighbours.

        I have also been on government ‘schemes’ with really fit people. People who like walked/cycled everywhere; people on benefits (JSA) can’t afford a bus fare, never mind the cost of running a car. One of them used to walk 7 miles and back to the placement – and still claimed for their ‘lost bus ticket’ lol

      • Myocardial infarction

        We are all walking time-bombs – it only takes a clot of blood forming; a plaque erupting in a heart artery, or a blood vessel rupturing in your brain and you are fucked; well and truly fucked. You can go to bed one night and wake up paralysed ; go to work one morning and never return home. And the thing is that is happen so, so suddenly, usually straight out of the blue.

      • wildswimmerpete,

        When interest rates go up the tory voting fools and us will be living in ineresting times – too many people are living beyond their income.

        • One of my neighbours drives a Subaru Imprezza

          and she hasn’t got two pennies to rub together. Everything you see is built on cheap credit.

          • Hard-working taxpayer

            Motabiity – the smart way to get a brand-new Subaru Impreza for jack-shit*

            * hard-working taxpayers need not apply

          • Hard-working taxpayer who does the right thing and wants to get on

            Motability – the smart way to get a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom for free*

            * hard-working taxpayers who do the right thing and want to get on need no apply

            • You are clearly a right tit with no morals for those people unable to secure work and are being harassed daily by a corrupt government. Wake up and smell the coffee.

          • Motability – the smart way to get a brand new Aston Martin Vanquish V6 for free*

            * hard-working secret agents need not apply 😦

          • Motability – receive a 3-wheel tricycle in exchange for your (Disability Living Allowance) DLA*

            * able-bodied persons need not apply

          • Curtain Twitcher

            Bloody ridiculous – some of these ‘disabled’ have even got colour TVs!

        • Clarkson, Hammond & May

          Motability – the smart way to get a brand new Ferrari F12 for free*

          * hard-working sacked TV presenters need not apply 😦

        • Clarkson, Hammond & May

        • Speedy Gonzales

          Motability – the smart way to get a 270mph £1 million Bugati Veyron for free 😀

          • An ideal run-about-town car for a disabled person. The only thing is the boot-space might be a bit cramped if you have a trolley load of shopping to squeeze in. And taking a look under the hood we see a tiny 8 litre engine which only packs a meagre 300bhp taking a whole 2 seconds to reach 60mph and with a lacklustre top speed of 270mph the Bugati Veyron may prove a rather sluggish performer to nip round to the shops in.

            • Motability Scheme User

              Can’t wait until 2016 when Bugati scrap this slow coach car and replace it with the Chiron. That will take us us to 1,500 horsepower (300 more than the pathetic Veyron) and 1,100 pound-feet of torque. And with a top speed of 288mph we will miss less doctor’s appointments – it is not like we have all day. Can’t wait to be shot of the embarrassing-to-be-seen-in rubbishy Veyron. Even the neighbours say it is a rubbish car!

              • Fellow Motability Scheme User

                Personally I wouldn’t be seen dead in this hunk of junk. Seems like they have just given you any old rubbish that was lying around on the forecourt. If I were you I would see about getting this pile of crap Bugati Veyron replaced with a Nissan Qashqai:

          • Jeez, is this car for real?! The cruising speed of a Boeing 737 is ~ 500mph. Normal take-off speed for an aeroplane is 160-180mph (Concorde was 250mph). If you put wings on this car it would fly – literally!

            And this is like 4 times the speed limit on UK roads. It is not like the cops could catch you anyway since their cars can *only* reach ~ 160 mph. “Do you know why I pulled you over?” “Yes officer, I was doing 288 in a 30 zone 😀 ”

            And don’t think you will get very far in this before being pulled over in this rocket on wheels. Incidentally if you can’t afford a Bugati Veyron and want to get pulled over get a Mitsubishi Evo – the most pulled over car! Cops also like pulling over Subaru Imprezza too for some unknown reason 🙂

  48. “HOW EMBARRASSING FOR THE WANKER OF A JUDGE”

    Thousands of pounds raised to pay fine of woman who stole 75p worth of chocolate

    STUART CAMPBELL, the founder and editor of the popular Wings Over Scotland blog, has started a crowdfunding appeal to pay the £328.75 fine of a woman convicted of stealing 75p worth of Mars Bars.

    The campaign has already raised nearly £9,000, despite Campbell setting a target for just £500. Excess money raised will be donated to foodbanks.

    A court heard that the woman had not eaten for days after her benefits had been sanctioned, and that she recognised she had committed a crime but that she was “really hungry”.

    Quoted in the Kidderminster Shuttle, her lawyer said: “She fully accepts this offence of theft. She said she was really hungry. She had no money. She took the lowest value item she could find.”

    https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/2144/wings-over-scotland-launches-crowdfunder-to-help-woman-fined-for-stealing-food-out-of-hunger

    • overburdenddonkey

      sarah
      ‘the Howard League, Frances Crook, also told the Independent that she believes new compulsory court fines and charges are “inequitable”.
      She said: “There is no leeway. Its a fixed charge and the courts cannot vary it because of circumstance, they have to impose it”.
      She said some magistrates had resigned because of the new charges which brought in under former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling prior to May’s General Election.’
      Read more: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Mars-Bar/story-27609549-detail/story.html#ixzz3ipPawhFS
      Follow us: @BathChron on Twitter | BathChron on Facebook

    • Very bad, but still not as bad as the good ‘ole USA. There have been cases of citizens being sentenced to life imprisonment – without parole – in a Super Max facility for stealing a Mars Bar under the ‘three strikes and you are out” rule.

      • To be fair to the USA, the first two strikes have to be for serious or violent crimes.

        • something survived...

          not necessarily; can be 3 counts of littering, loitering, jaywalking etc. or 2 minor thefts and then you do a tax violation.
          If you steal a trillion dollars of course, you are George W. Bush.

  49. paultheswineherd

    Sarah7 – That’s really good news about what wings-over-scotland is doing for that poor woman – let’s wish them well with it.
    Yes – Labour is really scared of Corbyn (why would they be attacking him otherwise!) – the tabloids are tonight trying to drag up a shedload of shite to try to discredit him (according to a latest Sky News report).
    Toddy – That’s terrible – no wonder the Tories are trying to stealthily sell off OUR NHS (and it’s workers) bit by bit to the ‘lowest’ bidding company bastards, who then can then legitimately charge ‘patients’ a fortune for nothing. Credit Cards/Health Insurance beckons.
    It is nothing short of another bloody disgrace from this corrupt and cruel Government.

    • John Pring Disability News Service 13th August 2015

      A nurse working for the controversial outsourcing company Atos Healthcare repeatedly lied about a disabled man he was assessing for the government’s new disability benefit, it has been claimed.

      The Atos assessor stated in his report that claimant Colin Stupples-Whyley had attended the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment alone, even though his partner David* had sat with him throughout the interview.

      The couple, who arrived by car, had been accompanied by a friend, who stayed in the waiting-room, but the nurse claimed that Stupples-Whyley had travelled alone to the assessment in Barking on 5 June by public transport.

      The allegations raise fresh concerns about the decision of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith to award two lucrative PIP assessment contracts to Atos, when the company had already been heavily and repeatedly criticised for its performance in delivering “fitness for work” assessments.

    • “YVETTE COOPER PUTS THE KNIFE INTO THE DISABLED”
      13 April TWENTY TEN 2010

      Tens of thousands of claimants facing losing their benefit on review, or on being transferred from incapacity benefit, as plans to make the employment and support allowance (ESA) medical much harder to pass are approved by the secretary of state for work and pensions, Yvette Cooper.

      The shock plans for ‘simplifying’ the work capability assessment, drawn up by a DWP working group, include docking points from amputees who can lift and carry with their stumps. Claimants with speech problems who can write a sign saying, for example, ‘The office is on fire!’ will score no points for speech and deaf claimants who can read the sign will lose all their points for hearing.

      Meanwhile, for ‘health and safety reasons’ all points scored for problems with bending and kneeling are to be abolished and claimants who have difficulty walking can be assessed using imaginary wheelchairs.

      Claimants who have difficulty standing for any length of time will, under the plans, also have to show they have equal difficulty sitting, and vice versa, in order to score any points. And no matter how bad their problems with standing and sitting, they will not score enough points to be awarded ESA.

      In addition, almost half of the 41 mental health descriptors for which points can be scored are being removed from the new ‘simpler’ test, greatly reducing the chances of being found incapable of work due to such things as poor memory, confusion, depression and anxiety.

  50. “WHY IS JUDGE MARK ROWLAND PREPARED TO WATCH SOMEBODY DIE”

    Paragraph 35099 of the Decision Makers Guide (Vol 6 accessed online
    21/04/2015):
    “It would be usual for a normal healthy adult to suffer some
    deterioration in their health if they were without 1. essential
    items, such as food, clothing, heating and accommodation or 2.
    sufficient money to buy essential items for a period of two weeks.

    HE WILL HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO

  51. Marlene Buckley

    Could corporate manslaughter charges be brought against the judiciary, after all, they are the ones that pass deliberation on a claimants right to live?

  52. Thousands of pounds raised to pay fine of woman who stole 75p worth of chocolate.

    Pity the story is ruined by the excess donations being used to support poverty pimp food banks – financing the stand in line and beg for food charities is indirectly supporting the oppression of behaviourism.

  53. overburdenddonkey

    claiming any SS payment is tantamount to begging by cause of sanctions and conditionalities these days, including hardship payments….

    • Begging dwp behaviourism bad, food bank behaviourism good – that is hypocrisy or food bank manipulation compliments the political agenda – much of the same big society.

      • overburdenddonkey

        no none of it’s good but it’s where WE ARE…the dwp is gradually changing so it operates as a charity…to get any form of income we have to beg for it…it’s all behaviourism based as is neoliberalism…but you already know all of this so what’s your agenda…?

  54. BOLLOCKS TO AUSTERITY

    An employment agency called Staffline are recruiting people to work at Poundstretcher’s warehouse on shifts for Min. Wage but they expect you to work one week for free, unpaid, on 6 – 2 shift, before you are guaranteed an interview for the job. The Jobcentre asked if I was interested. I have no transport and would have to walk to get there which would take me at least one hour, possibly an hour & half, setting off from home at approx. 4.30am to start at 6.00am. Doing this for no wage takes the piss, and doing this anyway, especially in bad weather, also takes the piss. The Work Coach/Dole Clerk then asked if I could ride a bike. I’m in my 50’s, not very fit, and haven’t ridden a bike since I was 15, plus the fact that my journey would involve a very large steep hill, as I’m in the Pennines area of West Yorkshire. WTF do they think I am?

    • They think you are an obstacle that stands in the way of them privatising the welfare of this country to their friends in the financial and insurance sector, nothing more, nothing less.

    • Oh tell them to sod right off with that crap! Bad enough that they want you to work a week for free and that’s before you get an interview for a job!!!!!! WTF! That is taking the piss so badly.. Then they want to subject you to the danger of getting smashed by a car at 4.30am.

      Tell them where to go and quickly. And why do you need to work a week with no pay? What’s that all about?

      Another con trick to shaft you, that’s what it’s all about.

      • This is like the most dangerous time you can be on the road on a bike!

        • Plus are they (DWP) going to buy the bike required? Where’s he supposed to get that? And it needs to be a good high quality one for safety and reliability. That will be quite a few hundreds of pounds. Not to mentione wet weather gear and proper cycling clothing Where is that money supposed to come from when someone is UE? All in you’re talking £1,000 at the least. Cheap bikes are unreliable and they fall apart.

          Usual JCP shite. They truly don’t have a clue and talk the biggest bunch of nonsensical mumbo jumbo known to mankind.

          DWP + JCP = SCUM.

          • Yeah, a ‘proper’ bike is not cheap either; you could pick up a decent car for cheaper.

          • No doubt the jobcentre were expecting this guy to cycle through the rain in a pair of soaking jeans!

            • Yep they’d expect him to cycle with an ordinary pair of trousers with the legs flapping in the wind and getting caught in the chain at every turn. Then when he complained that they’d have to buy him proper bibshorts at around £50 a pop they’d tell him to get a pair of those old fashioned cycling clips that you clipped round yer trousers to stop getting caught in the chain. LOL!

          • Yeah, the very minimum spend for a ‘decent’ bike would be around £1,000. Peeps have this idea that bikes are ‘cheap’ – but they are not. Not to mention the maintenance, tyres, tools, lights, pump etc. It would cost a small fortune. “Can you ride a bike?” lol

            • Yeah it’s frickin’ hilarious. They just trot that out as if good bikes just grow on trees. Bloody morons. Everything to do with cycling is expensive! The bike if it’s a reliable one is expensive and you need clothes, tools and stuff for maintenance too. The more you think about it the more hilarious this roach’s suggestion becomes! LOL!

              The guy should have said to the roach “WTF! You obviously don’t know anything about cycling!”

      • What happened to ‘elf and safety?

    • ffs Imagine cycling across the winding, twisting Pennines at 4:30am in the pitch black. Especially so on a cold winter’s morning. And then with torrential rain, driving snow and icy roads to negotiate. With cars and lorries coming out of nowhere as they race along. An accident waiting to happen. Lucky if you completed a round trip without ending up in a wooden box.

      • That would be job done for a Work Roach then Lance. One more off the UE register.

        Yeah just casually the roach throws that line in “Can you ride a bike?” As if it’s just a question of pulling a suitable reliable bike out of thin air when you haven’t been on one for 35 years.

        What a bunch of useless tossers. God i detest JCP.

        • Yeah, a big difference between being able to “go” a bike i.e potter around a park falling off every couple of seconds: “Yeah, I can go a bike”. But to RIDE a back SAFELY in traffic is a different story: It is a skill-set acquired through years of experience and tens of thousands of miles in varying road conditions and terrain; just look at the appalling number of fatalities and injuries ‘Boris bikes’ in London are involved in.

          Riding a bike is more tricky and risky than driving a car. A car has more road-holding – you won’t get thrown off at the first pot-hole. Modern cars are also ‘alert to danger ever when you aren’t’, so they will automatically apply the brakes to prevent a skid – no such luxury on a bicycle; a small mistake with the breaking will result in the bicycle spiralling into an out of control skid. Bicycles also speed up dramatically as soon as they descend a hill; much more so than a car which is subject to ‘engine braking’; the first Pennine hill this guy descended on he would have been out of control.

          And what about inclement weather conditions – a whole new ball game. No doubt the guy can’t even drive, so will have no ‘road craft’; he won’t know the ‘rules of the road’ and be able to see things from a driver’s perspective.

          And it goes without saying that you have to be pretty fit to ride a bike especially up steep hills. This is something an out-of-condition 50 year old would really be best advised to consult their doctor about.

          The more you think about it the more preposterous the whole idea becomes: “Can you ride a bike?” RFLMAO This guy could have been forgiven for whacking this jobcentre work roach across their smug face with a bicycle chain.

          • This guy would have to watch out as he was cornering on those steep Pennine hills – make sure to level up the pedals as you corner. A common mistake with rookie cyclists is that they let the pedals hit the road surface as the bike turns a corner, and the get bike gets toppled as a result. Happened to me recently riding in the Alps – ouch! Just so much to say…. but only hope this guy never attempts this as to be honest, he would be a dead man cycling!

        • And bikes have to be suitable for the conditions they are to be used in; ‘up-to-the-job’ so to speak. They also have to be a good-fit for the rider. You just can’t ride off in any old random, unsuitable, ill-fitting bike; it won’t be long before you fall or lose control, or suffer a serious injury to your back or a muscle ligament.

        • Is anyone, even a job centre work roach really that stupid? Even stupid enough to even suggest this fast-track to a coffin in the first place! It is either going to be smashed by a vehicle, coming off the bike or a fatal heart attack pretty sharply.

      • The more I think about it the more I think that this work roach was trying to get this guy KILLED!

    • The Pennine Star

      TRAGEDY AS CYCLIST KILLED IN EARLY MORNING ACCIDENT

      A cyclist has been killed in an early morning incident in the Pennines. Job Seeker was on his way to the first day off a ‘work experience’ placement’ with Poundland when he was struck from behind by a car on the Pennine Hills. Mr Seeker was thrown from his bicycle and sustained numerous injuries. He died at the scene. The car driver was uninjured and was treated for shock,

      A Cunt the jobcentre work roach who secured Mr Seeker’s ‘placement’ said that he was ‘deeply distressed’ to hear of Mr Seeker’s ‘unfortunate demise 🙂 ‘ but added that Mr Seeker had died doing what he had ‘chosen’ to do: “Although I repeatedly warned Mr Seeker about the dangers of riding a bicycle across the Pennines at 4:30 in the morning he was adamant that this was “something that he desperately wanted to do”, and an “OPPORTUNITY” that he could not “allow to slip by”. So reluctantly I made the referral.

      A spokesperson for Pennine Constabulary commented that “although we have every sympathy for the victim, his friend and family it was “idiotic” to be out cycling at this time in the morning”.

      The victims family have been informed.

      A funeral will be held a Pennine Crematorium a fortnight on Wednesday.

      • If that happened like that i wonder what the DWP’s reaction would be? Something like this: “The safeguarding of our clients is very important to us and we make every attempt to keep them safe. However we can’t and won’t be held responsible for people who don’t do the right thing. This jobseeker couldn’t have been following the rules of the road!”

      • Mr Seeker was declared dead at the scene, but a passing MAXIMUS HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL, detected a pulse and said the man would be fit to resume work in two weeks time, neglecting the fact that the body was contained in two zip up bags.

        A spokesman for the DWP said, because of an overpayment, eviction for his family was a last resort.

        • Body halved in two? ‘No problem’ said the caring MAXIMUS HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL “We’ll get you a desk job! You should be ready to start in a fortnight. Unpaid of course as it’ll be on workfare.”

          • something survived...

            Iain Duncan Smith:
            Dear Sir, I wish to complain about this article, in which a job seeker (peasant) died. Why on earth was this event referred to as a ‘tragedy?’
            -Your leader, IDS

    • An employment agency called Staffline …

      Staffline have bought out A4e (rebranded as PeoplePlus) the business model appears to be in the mould of aggressive workfare gangmaster.

    • Norman Tebbit, eat your heart out …

      • On yer bike!

        • Thanks Norma – i’ll bear it in mind …

          • something survived...

            I have been told this as well when I have pointed out the jobs they told me to get were 25-30 miles away in the middle of nowhere. Often on no bus route, where there was a bus route but buses have been stopped due to cuts, or at times when there are no buses there and back. And I’m disabled. They don’t sell adult bikes my size, I’d need a trike, the height can’t be seen by lorries and most cars, my blackouts stop me concentrating. I have coordination problems stopping me properly swimming, and from cycling – due to nerve and circulation problems and mild form of dyspraxia. I’d be constantly freaked out by the speed of surrounding traffic, it’s bad enough trying to walk on a main road with no pavement AND dodge traffic AND try and be seen AND worry I’ll black out and fall in the road. Most of all I have severe and progressive epilepsy and some degree of narcolepsy. People say ‘get a taxi’. The other month I had 2 taxi journeys each under a mile, which were 100% necessary. It set me back £20. Motorbikes of novelty ‘mini’ size are banned even though some might fit people my size. But lorry drivers can’t see them. If cost and space and disability wasn’t an issue; they are illegal. And it’s illegal for me to drive a car or motorbike. So how come it’s not officially illegal for me to be on a bike? I am actually thinking of building a trike, because to have a trike (or bike) custom-built for restricted growth disabled people, costs hundreds or thousands. It’s a future plan and I can’t use it on roads (not safe), or the athletics track (banned racing wheelchairs and bikes). A cycle track a few hours away by bus has said, in theory I can use their track to ride a disability trike on. Here’s the fun part: a bus for me is free (epilepsy), but the buses say that even a folding trike is banned. Trains are not free, so on top of the fee for using the cycle track, I couldn’t really afford it. The TRAINS ban trikes! Even folding ones. I’m trying to challenge the ban, though the solution might mean building a trike that I have to unassemble and carry in a box on wheels. Taking the trike TO the bus or train is tricky too. I’d have to carry or push it, not ride it. The government wants us to exercise/cycle…! And people say ‘you are meant to cycle there’ (impossible due to roads, danger, distance far too great with CFS/ME, knackered on arrival so unable to practice, then meant to cycle back, weak from low/zero dole and low/zero food). Or ‘you are meant to take it in your car’. Cost, space etc. aside, I am not allowed to drive! Idiots… At the moment I’ve no time, money or energy or health to work on the trike idea. JCP then hear I can’t afford taxis, or drive a car, or get lifts from imaginary randoms. Or hitch, as they’ve told me to do. (Nobody stops; you can go days with nobody stopping; workers are banned taking people; families won’t take you; women are too scared to take you; those who DO stop can be dodgy or worse) So the JCP worm-brain comes up with: ‘We have a scheme for getting you a bike…’ (There’s a hole in my bucket….)

  55. No to Forced Slave Labour No to Oppression

  56. Will Marks & Spencer, Whitbread, Halfords and the rest of them be lowering prices to consumers due to the fact they are using unpaid youngsters who will get no training and be exploited so they can sack paid staff? They will never train anyone or employ these youngsters, they like Osbourne and his cronies want £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££. How much money in donations go to political parties from Marks & Spencer, Whitbread, Halfords and the rest of them?

  57. overburdenddonkey

    • Some advice please! Keep asking the bloggers who link to the above ‘widescreen tvs’ site, but I get no reply. I’ve never been able to get the above website to display; it’s just blank. I’ve tried disabling add-ons in firefox, and also tried it in a different browser, but I get the same problem. Any ideas?

  58. Do any of you people know what happens if you refuse point blank to go on CWP. Will you get a 3 year sanction.

    • Marie

      Things to do:
      Smile and say you are more than happy to go on CWP.
      IMPORTANT – SIGN NOTHING
      Hand over a prepared letter stating that under no circumstances will you agree to sign anything to do with it and any paperwork will be fraud and dealt with legally.
      Another prepared letter requesting that the law detailing where you MUST sign up to CWP is provided by both the provider & DWP.

      The important part is simple: No one can be forced to sign a contract of work.
      Signing anything to do with CWP is a contract.

      To threaten or otherwise force a person to sign such a contract is known in legal parlance as “Threats with Menaces” [Criminal] both CWP Provider & the Work Roach and the mangers up the line would be legally liable also for harrassment & hurt feelings etc. Be sure to have their names on the letters and request that they copies are passed on and dates wjen that take place – it would be Work Roach, Section Head, Deputy building Manager and Head Officer of that building.

      Oh, and in writing request that any further letters, meetings etc that you be informed with by Text to your mobile, a phone call and a letter about the same. It will stop the Phantom “Letter/Meeting etc” thing DWP likes to do.
      IMPORTANT. Request from DWP what happens in accordance to meeting attendance while at CWP – in writing state which take precedence – DWP/CWP? A Reply ONLY in writing is acceptable from CWP and DWP.

      ALL must be replied in writing – you have bad memory don’t you and you would want any disputes about something you were told now would you.

      If you can read out and record when passing over the letters.

      Offer to pick up the replies the next day as writing the letters will be a simple matter of consulting the rules/regulations they are acting under.

      DWP Providers say: “Sign here or face Benefit Sanctions” True or False?

      “Advice has been sought from DMA Leeds who have confirmed a person cannot be sanctioned simply for refusing to sign documentation drawn up by the Provider.
      Work Solutions have confirmed that Mr Baker was willing to participate in the CWP scheme and a sanction is not appropriate.
      As such Mr Baker has not failed to participate in the CWP scheme and a sanction is not appropriate”

      https://www.youtube.com/user/BKRTRUST/videos

  59. paultheswineherd

    Fuck only knows what it is like nowadays!
    25 years ago now I was put onto an ET scheme (benefits + £10 per week) + travel expenses. I signed up to an equine scheme (dealing with horses). I had experience with horses before this so, as far as I was concerned this was an ideal ‘placement’.
    I did a whole year, 5 days a week (apart from weekends) working full work time hours (and it was hard work at times) for the above money.
    I really enjoyed doing this. But – at the end of it I had to go back to again sign on. The ‘provider’ apparently was stopped from their funds and the person who ran it all had to give up because of this.
    All very good experience and I really enjoyed it – but it did NOT lead to a full time job at the end of it – I still had to go down to the dreaded Job Centre to sign on once again. (I was 35 years old then).
    Those bastards, even in those days (and in those days I was lucky enough to have a rust-bucket of a car) would have had me cycle to and from there everyday if needs be. (This was in the days of Thatcher and the City Yuppies!!) I have 7 years to wait now before I get my pension.
    If I lose my job now, I really dread at what is down the road for me and my family.
    And as for the ‘youngsters’ now – I really feel for them.

    • Same here my friend.. I worked at a local library service.. not admin which i was trained for as “men” dont do admin.. then i went and studied marketing and a btec.. didnt lead to a job.. even though there was a job there in the college i worked and studied. i had been doing the job for over a year for a yt.. then a proper job came up and i applied the same work i had been doing.. sorry you didnt get it.. but someone was moved sideways the assistant principles secretary.. who had no experience..or quals.. same with temporary jobs and volunteer jobs as soon as a paid job came up sorry we dont want you.. but i been doing the work.. one even asked me to teach my replacement another person moved sideways due to politics

  60. paultheswineherd

    In addition – these bastard JCP Job Advisers(?) / Job Roach’s ought to be taken out of their ‘pampered/supported’ Civil Service jobs and be put into the shoes of the ‘genuine’ job seeker ‘customers’ that they so eloquently represent. They should be made to suffer what a ‘genuine’ jobseeker has to go through – doing the ‘JobSearch’ or whatever it is called nowadays. They should be made to access the JCP Jobsearch computer system with (by what I understand!) is nothing more than a myriad of ‘jobs’, both full time and part-time which are advertised and readvertised by some ‘private’ company being paid shiploads of money to advertise ‘jobs’ which have already gone – and if they cannot get themselves a ‘job’ – then these twats should be sanctioned.
    10 Years ago now, I myself became a ‘victim’ of theirs.
    I was signing on and (because of my age!) I could not find a full time job. These bastards stopped my money for two weeks. Luckily I was already working part-time as a taxi driver (I was telling them that I was doing this at less than 16 hours per week). I was self-employed and I saw my ‘boss’ and asked if I could work full time instead. He said ‘yes’ so that was fine.
    Needless to say – if he had said ‘no’ – I would have been with no money at all for 2 weeks. I was very lucky.

  61. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33886041

    More tax evasion from umbrellas companies. More people in self employment with virtually no employment rights. So many people now victims of endless greed. I am sure one day the whole lot will collapse.

    • Another Fine Mess

      Bad for the worker and bad for the taxman, as usual it’s the non-productive parasite(s) in the middle that gain.

      • something survived...

        They want you to start a business. I had an idea today in the rain waiting hours for buses that didn’t come. Get some mouse mat type foam rubber and a service that prints images onto any surface. Buy some packs of darts. Start selling the face of IDS as a dartboard.

        Coming soon: IDS, the toilet paper.

        (IDS the potty and IDS the dog bowl. IDS the bucket, aimed at the student market so they can throw up on his face. IDS the urinal – Giving unemployed men finally something to aim at! IDS the toilet bowl, his face on porcelain staring out of the toilet above the S-bend. IDS the suppositories. IDS the sanitary towel. IDS the nappies. IDS the sickbags. IDS the punchbag.)

        It struck me as funny that in theory I/we could use money in the form of grants from IDS, to make and sell products where people throw darts at IDS or wipe their bum on him.

        Also I’m a writer. A grant for writing a book called ‘1000 Reasons To Loathe IDS’. Or ‘Adventures in Broken Britain: IDS and the Theft of the Missing Welfare State’. Or ‘Mein Kampf 2: The Sequel, For Moden Britain, by IDS’. Or ‘The History and Technique Of Assassination (Includes Maps of IDS’ House)’. Or ‘Revenge of the Unemployed: Jobcentres as Workhouses in 21st Century Britain’.

  62. paultheswineherd

    Hi Paul,
    This is much the same as taxi companies operate.
    ALL taxi drivers/private-hire drivers are ‘self-employed’. Even the ‘boss’ at the head of it all is self-employed. The taxi/private-hire licence (from your local Council) is your own responsibility, as is your 3 year ‘medical’ also – roughly £75-£80 from your doctor, (depending upon where you live!)
    If you are an ‘owner-driver’ you have to pay less to your ‘boss’, but you, as an ‘owner-driver’ have to pay your own insurance (£25 per week or more) and all of the wear and tear on your vehicle and all of your fuel also.
    If, in my own position (as I was hiring their taxi) – I had to pay half of any takings and half of any fuel charges.
    They would be responsible to pay any insurance and wear and tear on the car.
    (If you were involved in an accident/vehicle damage – this would come out of your wages)
    Unless you are a London taxi driver nowadays – I would not recommend it.
    Since the 2008 financial crash, after 8 years (I finished then!) – the wages, I understand are basically crap!

    • Another Fine Mess

      as an ‘owner-driver’ have to pay your own insurance (£25 per week or more)
      For a new-ish or young-ish PH driver their insurance can be well over £100 per week.
      Thinking of becoming a private-hire driver? – Do Not Pass Go!

  63. Social Justice Yes Death Penalty Yes

  64. overburdenddonkey

  65. stitchedupandbroken

    Look fellas. Look on the bright side,and not for yourselves only. Think o Lord West,BBC R4 this morning. He predicts parliament will okay it for our armed services to begin bombing Syria this autumn. Any shares in the armament industry? Get ’em in now! Lord West is on £80K pension now,plus House o Fraud expenses. With all the bombs killing and maimin people over in the middle east…that’s £££ to be earnt. So there’s blowback? So the refugees come here! So what! You complainin? They will help the workforce…reduce wages! Our Top Table school chums certainly know how to fix these things! Tally Ho!

    PS Read the bit on the judiciary. Corruption personified! Filth!

  66. Reblogged this on Mitherings from Morningside and commented:
    If a job needs to be done, employ someone and pay them a proper wage!

  67. Have no fear comrades, Gordon Brown has told the labour party it will be okay to continue being the tory-lite party by voting against Corbyn. What an utter shower of cunts they are at labour – utter shites and cunts – I fucking hate them and hope they die – just like most poor and disabled people in this country are doing – the fucking traitorish bastards

    • The corrupt elite level politicians are crapping themselves at the idea of Labour going back to it’s true socialist roots because they see an end to their corporate arse licking and kow towing to big business at the expense of the poor man and woman in the street.

      There’s no prizes for guessing why they’re called ‘Red Tories’ so indistinguishable are they from the Conservatives. They even vowed to beast into the unemployed more than the Tories!!! That was a cynically crafted idea to appeal to ‘hard working taxpayers who do the right thing’ who think everyone on benefits is a scrounger.

      Even if Corbyn won and caused a massive split in the party that would be a good thing and allow it to swing way over to the left again and start representing the people it should be pulling for, instead of middle class folks in England wondering where to take their second or third holiday of the year!

        • OBD: Great post mate and so true; the day the soul of the Labour party completely died. Instead of wanting to return to it’s proper socialist roots and policies it now wants to stay firmly embedded in the rotten stench of neo-liberalism and globalization that encourages rampant corporate greed while at the same time the poorest are made to suffer more and more penury.

          Corbyn stands for a Labour party that is against all that. That’s why they detest him for it.

          • overburdenddonkey

            raining
            deputy dug claiming slabs separate party…. the new michael foot trying to restore lab back to it’s roots…it’s comical so split are they…lab’s are over…

            • obd
              Yeah, the bookies have started paying out on Corbyn being the next Prime Minister and Deputy Dug being the First Woman on Mars … 😉

      • Hard-working taxpayer who does the right thing and wants to get on

        😀

  68. paultheswineherd

    jeremy – well said – Tory Lite have already lost twice and unless they go for Corbyn, then what is going to change? – nothing – they may even drift further towards the right. Corbyn is now the only choice for ‘real’ grassroots labour supporters. If so, it will probably split the Party, but if nothing is done, then they are dead ducks in the water nevertheless anyway.
    At least Corbyn is against austerity and he definitely would not have let the Welfare Reform Bill go through if he could help it.
    Tory Lite Labour are nothing more then wolf Tories in Labour sheep’s clothing.
    Who do they think they are fooling – and STILL they do not know how they lost the election – as you say, they are just a shower of traitorous bastards.
    If they do not change, then they will pay for it once again and still they will not realise how they lost.

  69. I not only hate labour but I hate the United Nations – all very well sending people over to have a look but what have they done – FUCK ALL the UN is as corrupt as everybody else – slimey bastards who pretend to be interested and fail miserably. How come such a bunch of cunts can head up such a ‘noble’ institution – they are failing the people of the world not just criminal britain

  70. New Labour die, time to kill off the red tories.

  71. paultheswineherd

    jeremy – yes exactly – the UN are just as useless as the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights and also the just as useless Equality and Human Rights Commission in this Country.
    They all should be attacking this rotten Government – but no – they are doing nothing – absolutely fuck all. I am wondering if they are all being paid millions not to do anything. After all, they would look after other countries populations if the poor, the vulnerable, this sick & the disabled were being pilloried (and killed also) by one or two Minister’s policies, with these being propped up by the most right-wing Government I’ve ever known in my lifetime. And to cover all of themselves up, they talk bullshit.

  72. paultheswineherd

    And whilst talking about disgraceful cunts – hows about this lot as the real scroungers.
    http://www.talktalk.co.uk/news/uk/article/peers-claimed-pound-360-000-over-five-years-and-never-voted/178477/

  73. paultheswineherd

    And to add insult to ultimate injury – one day I suspect that the murderous psychopath IDS will enter the hallowed halls of the House of Lords!
    Even more undeserved money and expenses for this most hated DWP Minister. Lord Iain Duncan Smith of Swanley or something silly like that!
    He will be bombastically swanning around, living it up and no doubt, in elderly life be sleeping on his bench – just like most of the other twats.

  74. paultheswineherd

    And also – please have a go at signing the petition to have a debate into having a vote of no confidence in IDS.
    It is at over 17,000 and growing (200,000 total is needed)
    Please tell everyone you know, facebook, twitter, etc, the more the better!
    Let’s get this murderer really looked into. The petition can be found at:
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104436

  75. Not a Labour Party supporter but at least Corbyn appears to have some political principles, the others are nothing more than scoundrels that would sell their grannies.

  76. paultheswineherd

    What the hell is on the way next!
    (Tomorrow) Monday 17th Aug, 2015 – The Times headline:
    UNEMPLOYED ORDERED TO ATTEND JOB BOOT CAMPS
    18-21 year olds to face training in classrooms

  77. what sort of world is it that my local authority can come after me for 90p a week housing benefit overpayment when the rich avoid tax into the billions?????

    • Jeremy a world in which we have a powerful nanny state for the rich. As someone said they want us smart enough to go to work and be competent at our job and dumb enough to accept poverty wages, no pension, etc. No doubt if they could identify certain genes which made people like human robots they would, the real goal of the eugenicist. Thatcher did believe in government intervention in the economy to make the rich wealthier at the expense of the poor. And all those hardworking taxpayers Cameron is always on about. How much of their money went to prevent the collapse of a banking system that rewarded bankers with bonuses for failure. If there was a world war tomorrow all those young people they regard as scroungers would become cannon fodder. to protect the scum at the top who want us all at each others throats to deflect attention from them. We all know Jeremy they want us homeless if we have local authority housing or if we have jobs mortgaged up to the eyeballs so we are debt slaves to employers.

  78. Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

    Animal Job Centre by Ralph kidson

  79. Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

    Atos nurse ‘lied’ about PIP claimant attending assessment alone

    DNS – 14th Aug 2015

    A nurse working for the controversial outsourcing company Atos Healthcare repeatedly lied about a disabled man he was assessing for the government’s new disability benefit, it has been claimed.

    The Atos assessor stated in his report that claimant Colin Stupples-Whyley had attended the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment alone, even though his partner David* had sat with him throughout the interview.

    The couple, who arrived by car, had been accompanied by a friend, who stayed in the waiting-room, but the nurse claimed that Stupples-Whyley had travelled alone to the assessment in Barking on 5 June by public transport.

    The allegations raise fresh concerns about the decision of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith to award two lucrative PIP assessment contracts to Atos, when the company had already been heavily and repeatedly criticised for its performance in delivering “fitness for work” assessments.

    Atos was allowed to pull out of that contract early after activists pointed to links between the way it carried out the assessments, and relapses, episodes of self-harm, and even premature deaths among those being assessed.

    But its performance on the two PIP assessment contracts in the two years since the new benefit was launched has plunged Atos back into controversy.

    Read More:
    http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/atos-nurse-lied-about-pip-claimant-attending-assessment-alone/

  80. Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

    Campaigner publishes DIY legal guide to how he won 40 discrimination cases

    DNS – 14th Aug 2015

    An activist who has brought more than 40 legal cases against organisations that discriminated against him has published a new guide to help other disabled people take similar action through the courts.

    Doug Paulley (pictured), from Yorkshire, has sued organisations including Tesco, two pubs, a counselling service, a train company, a court, a snooker club and a bus company.

    He has taken more than 40 disability discrimination cases against service-providers in England over the last 10 years, first under the Disability Discrimination Act and then using the Equality Act.

    In all but three of the cases he has acted as a litigant in person (someone who brings a court case without legal representation), but so far has lost only two cases.

    Now he has used those experiences to produce his Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool (DART).

    Paulley hopes his do-it-yourself guide will encourage more disabled people to tackle disability discrimination through the courts.

    Read More:
    http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/campaigner-publishes-diy-legal-guide-to-how-he-won-40-discrimination-cases/

    Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool (DART).
    http://www.kingqueen.org.uk/

    • But the government are wholly reliant on bent judges like MARK ROWLAND to steal disability benefits that ultimately drive the claimant to take their own life.
      ROWLAND and his ilk should be thoroughly investigated for their links to bad decisions that are related to benefit related deaths, especially now it is common knowledge that he is not fair, impartial or independent.

      How can the DWP be fielding an impostor when human lives are at risk?

      No doubt his bloated salary will numb his feelings of those he pushes into oblivion.

    • YVETTE’s BEEN LYING AGAIN

      Clarification from Dr William Weir

      Margaret Williams 7th December 2010

      Dr William Weir, Consultant Physician of 10, Harley Street, London W1G 9PF (who specialises in ME/CFS) wishes to correct the statement made in an article in The Guardian on 4th December 2010 by the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP. In an interview (“There’s nothing better than politics”), Yvette Cooper MP is quoted as saying about the time she suffered from ME: “… But my consultant did say that over 90% [of ME patients] made a full recovery, and it never came back. It’s one of those things you hope people suffering from it now will realise…” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/04/yvette-cooper-guardian-interview).

      It is in the public domain that Yvette Cooper’s consultant was Dr William Weir, since Ms Cooper herself made this information public in an interview about her illness in the Daily Mail about ten years ago.

      Dr Weir is concerned about this statement in two respects: (1) he did not give Ms Cooper such advice and (2) it is untrue that 90% of ME/CFS patients make a full recovery. Dr Weir points out that the statistic Ms Cooper is probably (mis)quoting is “Of those who recover, 90% tend to do so in the first year of the illness”, but in those who remain unwell after the first year, there is a lesser tendency towards recovery.

      It should be said that at the All Party Parliamentary Group on ME (APPGME) meeting held on 21st October 2009 in Committee Room 21 at the House of Commons, Ms Cooper was made aware of the many problems faced by people with ME/CFS in relation to the Department for Work and Pensions, specifically the way in which a patient’s own GP and specialist were progressively being removed from the opinion-gathering process and replaced by doctors who know nothing of the patient’s medical background and even less about ME/CFS.

      In response, she noted these concerns but did not indicate that there would be any shift in the DWP position (ME Association summary of APPGME meeting: http://tinyurl.com/ycnw6q5

      • something survived...

        I’ve had ME/CFS most of my life and I know she’s talking bollocks. Yes, some people get better. But most stay the same or get worse.

  81. Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

    Walsall disability benefit assessment centre run by Capita ‘is unaccessible to disabled people’

    Birmingham Mail – 12th Aug 2015

    A disability benefit assessment centre run by Capita and aimed at helping people cope with immobility is accused of being inaccessible – to disabled people.

    Valerie Vaz, MP for Walsall South, has called on the chief executive of Capita to address serious concerns over the Personal Independent Payment offices in Lower Hall Lane, Walsall.

    Her constituents have claimed that doors in the office rooms and toilets were not wide enough for wheelchairs.

    They also allege that the ramp is too steep to comply with building regulations.

    And some constituents said they were forced to climb the stairs to the interview rooms.

    The PIP beneift is intended to help people aged 16 to 64 with extra costs caused by long-term ill-health or a disability and started to replace Disability Living Allowance from 8 April 2013.

    Read More:
    http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/walsall-disability-benefit-assessment-centre-9841802

    • Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

      My Wheelchair Nah Ramp

    • SURELY NOT THE SAME CAPITA WHERE BILL GUNNYEON USED TO BE A DIRECTOR, BEFORE MOVING TO THE DWP AS CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, BEFORE JUMPING SHIP TO WORK FOR MAXIMUS.

      GUNNYEON HAS HIS SIGNATURE ON PLENTY OF WELFARE RELATED DEATHS

      • From: GEOFFREY REYNOLDS (Account suspended)

        11 February 2013

        Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
        Could you please tell me if BILL GUNNYEON, Chief medical advisor to
        the DWP and also a Medical Director of Capita Healthcare, has
        registered a “conflict of interest”.
        How many times did Bill Gunnyeon meet with Gordon Waddell and
        Mansel Aylward prior to the ATOS contract to undertake ESA
        examinations on behalf of DWP?
        Furthermore, will Bill Gunnyeon be receiving any form of
        remuneration or reward, given that attractive contracts have been
        allocated to both, Capita and ATOS.

        Yours faithfully,
        GEOFFREY REYNOLDS
        https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bill_gunnyeon_dwp_chief_medical

  82. ALL BENEFIT RELATED DEATHS STARTED HERE

    Association of British Insurers in partnership with UNUM and AXA PPP Healthcare.

    BUILDING A RESILIENT WORKFORCE

    Dialogue panel includes;

    Dame Carol Black
    James McGarry CEO UNUM
    Bill Gunnyeon CBE (DWP)

  83. Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

    Bullshitter & Disability Denial Factory Symptons

    What a load of false bogus statements.

    • Stepping Razor Sound Plate System

      Dame Carol Black ain`t got a clue about illness & disability. Work work work is the most important thing on her mind & the employers feelings.

      • something survived...

        Work makes you ILL a lot of the time, you daft bitch… ditto Yvette Cooper. It makes ablebodied people tired and ill, and it makes many disabled people worse. And when you work, is any of it respected and honoured? No. It’s an insignificant act and after you retire/die you are probably wiped out of history as just another dot.

  84. All these bastards know is lying and big stick treatment, while they ponce off the state, getting fat off the land and continually protect the bankers and their other greedy pals of theirs from paying their taxes, if anyone deserves the big stick treatment, it’s politicians, especially the tories!

    • I have an intense hatred of the Tories and everything they and their eugenic partners stand for. Politicians, bankers, IMF, those responsible for the Washington Consensus are all in it together to create a capitalist utopia for them and poverty for millions and millions of people. Give a doctors enough money and they will do Smiths work for him.

      • Same here Johannes. It’s an ideological war brought about by Capitalist greed being completely unrestrained. The Gordon Gekko character in Wall Street is the mantra they keep on repeating no matter how many of the poor go under because of massive wealth inequality.

        The whole idea is create an economic system where there few opportunities for ordinary people. Then lower the wages in jobs that those people might do to poverty level while at the same time creating a welfare system where benefits are denied. This then results in the poor having no option but to take the shit scummy job with low wage, crap conditions, no job security, no future, and no pension.

    • I would never join the Armed services to fight for the scum at the top.

  85. “The danger of the corpse factories is that today with homelessness everywhere on the increase, masses of people are continually rendered superfluous if we continue to think of our world in utilitarian terms. The Nazi’s and the Bolsheviks can be sure that their factories of annihilation which demonstrate the swiftest solution to the problem of overpopulation, of economically superfluous and social rootless human masses are as much an attraction as a warning. Totalitarian solutions may well survive the fall of totalitarian regimes in the form of strong temptations which will come up whenever it seems impossible to alleviate political, social or economic misery in a manner worthy of man”.

    Hannah Arendt The Origins of Totalitarianism.

    • Hannah Arendt The Origins of Totalitarianism

      The book was opposed by the Left on the grounds that it presented the two movements as equally tyrannical.

      • Hi Priti What did you think of the book and Arendt’s other work? I am no expert in political theory I just find it very interesting, and Arendt does warn of the dangers of ideology.

      • overburdenddonkey

        the origins of totalitarianism, is child abuse….

  86. Pingback: #WEcan and We Did Fuck Up The DWP’s Online Campaign To Promote Workfare | the void

  87. If you want change and I mean real change, then you got to do what the Romanians done when there health and welfare was under attack, They took to the Streets in demo’s and Rally’s every day till there Government was bought down and there was a General election Called.
    You can not let the people fear it’s Government, You got to make the government fear its People. Its the only way to stop governments doing what they want to, they must do want you tell them to do.

  88. Peterwytt, I couldn’t agree more!

  89. something survived...

    As I was going through the press
    I read a lot on IDS
    Sadistic creep who’ll piss from high
    Without the decency to die.

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