New Sanction Trap For UC Claimants With £250 Incentive For DWP Staff

The more that Tory governments do with regards to welfare benefits make it clear that welfare is not part of the process and punishment is becoming more and more its objective.

Rather than pay DWP staff incentives to do more, why not increase benefits for claimants, especially those who do get into work for a period of time, while they adjust to manage with work and assess any difficulties they could well experience.

Benefits should be there to help and not punish, the government needs to be educated, perhaps for the first time.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Universal credit (UC) claimants are to be faced with a new sanction trap disguised as help to move into work. The scheme has been condemned by the DWP staff union who say the government is “hellbent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits”, even though jobcentre workers stand to gain from a £250 ‘incentive’ if their office tops a league table.

UC sanctions are already at a record high. Over 98% of all sanctions are for failure to attend an interview, with over half a million claimants being sanctioned for this reason last year.

Yet, under the new Additional Jobcentre Support scheme claimants are being forced to attend  a jobcentre 10 times over a two week period.  In these obligatory sessions they will have “work search conversations” and “support sessions”. Missing a single session is likely to lead…

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MS Society – Help us win a High Court hearing

Dear Chris, We have some exciting news. Our campaign to end discrimination against people on legacy benefits is being heard in the High Court today – and you can help! The High Court is going to decide whether the UK Government was acting lawfully when they decided not to give nearly two million people on legacy benefits, including Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance, the increase of £20 per week that those on Universal Credit received at the start of the pandemic. You can Tweet your support for the uplift to be given to disabled people on benefits using the button below. Sharing your support will mean that the UK Government is less likely to appeal the decision.

Send your Tweet now→

If you don’t use Twitter, you can help spread the news by sharing the Facebook post at the top of our page or forwarding this email to your friends who do use Twitter. We will let you know when the decision of this court case is announced. While we hope the High Court will recognise the failings of the UK Government, the fight to end this discrimination may not be over. Thanks for everything you do, Angharad Campaigns Team MS Society

 

Source: MS Society

The Government needs to step up to end hygiene poverty : Govt Newspeak

I agree poverty needs to be eradicated, and especially within the UK with it being the fifth richest country in the World.

However, The Guardian in September 2018 in the article ‘How unequal is Britain and are the poor getting poorer?’, stated ‘There is a sixfold difference between the income of the top 20% of households and those of the bottom 20%. Wealth inequality is much worse, with 44% of the UK’s wealth owned by just 10% of the population, five times the total wealth held by the poorest half.’, https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/sep/05/qa-how-unequal-is-britain-and-are-the-poor-getting-poorer

Then, an article in The Guardian December 2019, ‘Gap between rich and poor grows alongside rise in UK’s total wealth’, states ‘The different rates of growth documented by the ONS Wealth and Assets survey meant the top 10% finished 2018 with 45% of national wealth, while the poorest 10th held just 2%.’, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/dec/05/gap-between-rich-and-poor-grows-alongside-rise-in-uks-total-wealth.

So, rather than the gap becoming less, it is expanding.

The Conservative Governments over the last 11 years have done little or nothing to reduce the gap, in effect their meddling with the Welfare State system could well be one of the reasons it is expanding.

The Conservative Governments have together with The Media done their best to discriminate and create a feeling of disdain towards people in poverty. How many programmes are shown on TV on people improving their lives as opposed to persons on benefits where they are shown to be ab using the system.

This gives the population of the UK that everyone on benefits is claiming illegally,when they are, in fact in the minority, as on a percentage basis the degree of people abusing the Welfare State is way much lower than MPs fiddling their expenses.

While those in all areas abusing any system need to be stopped, no matter who they are, as people in need should not be discriminated against. It is also not just based on finance and poverty, for the way Social Care has been allowed to be substantially under-funded is criminal, but nothing is being done to remedy this, only empty promises. These promises have been around for many years, for in 2015 there was a plan to alter Social Care funding but Cameron and Osborne being the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively decided to put it on hold and deffer it to April 2020.

This, as we know as come and gone, possibly COVID-19 could be blamed, but is it really the reason. More promises are being made, in fact, Simon Stevens of NHS England said it needs to be resolved within the next 12 months, but as Social Care even got 12 months.

So, with Poverty and Social Care and other areas this Government is forcing people into situations from which they can not escape, unless the Government provides the means for them to do so.

Some will say, some people have brought it on themselves and that may be so for some, but for the majority it will be because of forces outwith their control.

The Government is supposed to be there for everyone, not just the top 10 or 20%.

Labour’s new DWP shadow secretary attacked for toxic comments

Labour’s new shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds is showing that incompetents are not solely within the Conservative Party or is he a Tory plant within Labour.

Jonathan Reynolds and the Labour Party need to get their act together, otherwise we will have Tory Governments until infinity and Labour will be finished forever.

Coronavirus: Over 100 disability charities sign open letter to DWP demanding urgent benefit changes – Welfare Weekly

More than 100 disability organisations sign open letter demanding better protections for disabled people affected by coronavirus pandemic.

Source: Coronavirus: Over 100 disability charities sign open letter to DWP demanding urgent benefit changes – Welfare Weekly

UNIVERSAL CREDIT: Single mum will fight DWP in the High Court

After all this time you would have thought that the DWP would have learnt from all that has gone before.

Well, if you look at the benefits to claimants, it is clear that they have not.

However, if you look at the benefits to the DWP, then, well, all I will say the scandals keep coming, so are they learning to keep the scandals coming, what would you say.

Surely benefits should be there for the benefit of those people who need them, many of whom are there through no fault of their own, but how it appears the DWP give them no thought whatsoever.

If that is so, then that shows how the DWP have learnt, that is to learn how to make people suffer and they have learnt well.

Boris Johnson admits £111 a month Universal Credit is not enough to live on – Mirror Online

The Prime Minister said ‘in a word, no’ after being asked if the paltry sum was enough for a woman who was eight and a half months pregnant

Source: Boris Johnson admits £111 a month Universal Credit is not enough to live on – Mirror Online

UNIVERSAL CREDIT: DWP confession is horrific

So the DWP impact statements over the last 10 years have never looked at the 5 week payment delay, how can this be, when they are bound to have an impact on claimants.

If Impact Statements are supposed to cover all impacts, which they are, surely not including all impacts makes the Impact Statements ‘not fit for purpose’.

As a full assessment of Universal Credit has not be conducted, then this benefit should not be being rolled out.

With these facts it should be deemed illegal for the payment and rollout of Universal Credit to be continued, if not, the Advance Payment should be counted as compensation.

A fresh DWP confession about Universal Credit is horrific | The Canary

This new revelation shows a decade of DWP failure

Source: A fresh DWP confession about Universal Credit is horrific | The Canary

DWP clawed back £50million in Universal Credit loan repayments in just one month

A 5 week wait for a benefit to be paid is ridiculous for in this age of computers it should be much quicker.

This is completely wrong for New Claimants of benefits as in many instances the benefit will be needed urgently.

Then for claimant having to move from one benefit to another, this 5 week wait is also wrong, especially as their old benefits stop when the claim is received.

Why, in this day with all the computer systems could not the old benefit be continued to be paid until the new benefit is ready for payment, a seamless transfer, or can they (DWP) not be bothered. This is especially so, as some also suffer a benefit reduction when all the old benefits are converted into one.

This is not a welfare system, but a punishment system, but being on benefits is not a crime, but the way the Government, the Press and some misguided individuals in the UK population appear to believe that it is.