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Monday 18 December 2017

Benefit exam exemptions: a briefing paper by Winvisible for caring professionals

Women with visible and invisible disabilities — aka Winvisible — write:


Dear all,

Here is our latest leaflet directed at GPs and others about exemption from
the ESA and PIP exams.
https://winvisibleblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/10/benefit-exam-exemptions-briefing-for-professionals/
 

Happy Christmas!

KUWG Christmas Party, Monday 18 Dec 2017, 7pm-10pm at Prince of Wales PH, 101 Willesden Lane, London NW6 7SD

(Blog post by a new blogger, represented here with permalink related to an actual post title)
TO FRIENDS OF THE UNEMPLOYED
"COME ON DOWN"

THE KUWG CHRISTMAS PARTY THIS YEAR
MONDAY 18TH DEC  7PM-10PM (SETTING UP FROM 6.30PM)
PRINCE OF WALES PUB,  101 WILLESDEN LANE, KILBURN, NW6 7SD
Reservoir KUWGS
WELCOME TO THE PLEASURE-DOME!
6.30PM SETTING UP, 7PM MUSIC STARTS, 7.15 SPEECHES-WELCOMES 7.45 ACTS UNTIL 9PM, THEN SECRET SANTA, THEN 9.30 ALTERNATIVE CAROL SINGING. 10PM TIDYING UP.
One free drink if you pick up a ticket, entrance free, food free...if you want to bring a delicacy for sharing please do. If you can sing, play an instrument, anything, please do.
Due to events last year, no TWERKING permitted before 9pm. No use of 4-letterish words like “Gauke”, “IDS” or “Tom Watson.” ALL FRIENDS OF KUWG INVITED!
Don’t the great unwashed know their place anymore? The Sin
PC gone BONKERS! Financial Crimes Unfair to the Rich! illuminati news

PRINTED BY THE KILBURN UNEMPLOYED WORKERS GROUP PROPAGANDA UNIT

Friday 15 December 2017

KUWG to appear outside DWP HQ, Monday 18 December 2017, 2pm-3pm, proclaiming what we need for protection

Caxton House 
Federal government office in London, England
Address: 12 Tothill St, Westminster, London SW1H
 
This post was originally posted as:oops protest outside dwp Caxton House THIS Monday 18th December 2017  2-3pm
 
PS: Sorry for the late revision of earlier blog post 

KUWG Christmas Party, Monday 18 Dec 2017, 7pm-10pm at Prince of Wales PH, 101 Willesden Lane, London NW6 7SD

TO FRIENDS OF THE UNEMPLOYED
"COME ON DOWN"

THE KUWG CHRISTMAS PARTY THIS YEAR
MONDAY 18TH DEC  7PM-10PM (SETTING UP FROM 6.30PM)
PRINCE OF WALES PUB,  101 WILLESDEN LANE, KILBURN, NW6 7SD
Reservoir KUWGS
WELCOME TO THE PLEASURE-DOME!
6.30PM SETTING UP, 7PM MUSIC STARTS, 7.15 SPEECHES-WELCOMES 7.45 ACTS UNTIL 9PM, THEN SECRET SANTA, THEN 9.30 ALTERNATIVE CAROL SINGING. 10PM TIDYING UP.
One free drink if you pick up a ticket, entrance free, food free...if you want to bring a delicacy for sharing please do. If you can sing, play an instrument, anything, please do.
Due to events last year, no TWERKING permitted before 9pm. No use of 4-letterish words like “Gauke”, “IDS” or “Tom Watson.” ALL FRIENDS OF KUWG INVITED!
Don’t the great unwashed know their place anymore? The Sin
PC gone BONKERS! Financial Crimes Unfair to the Rich! illuminati news

PRINTED BY THE KILBURN UNEMPLOYED WORKERS GROUP PROPAGANDA UNIT

Leaflet for protesting and Alternative Carol singing by KUWG outside DWP HQ Caxton Hse, SW1H 9NA, Mon 18 Dec 2017

Leaflet for protesting and Alternative Carol singing by KUWG outside DWP HQ Caxton House, 12 Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA Monday 18th December 2017, 2pm-3pm

Still confronting the 'Rotten Rulers' ru(i)nning our lives, especially this Xmas. 

UPDATE ON THE DESPICABLE ‘IDEAS’ AND ‘POLICIES’ PUSHED THROUGH BY THE PYSCHOPATHIC HIERACHY AT DWP HQ CAXTON HOUSE, AND WHY THESE SHYSTERS SHOULD BE OUSTED.
Workers at the Rotten Caxton House have told us when we have leafleted that awful place that they are only pushing thru policies set by their bosses, and don’t agree with them. The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group are on the side of Workers and the PCS Union, and know it’s the vile ‘ideas’ of people like IDS (who resigned due to his own rottenness being too much for his own Tory MPs) which are still being pushed hard by the likes of extremely ambitious planks like David Gauke. He is on Huffington Post video expressing his greasy desire to be Chancellor. Wotta Rotter!
He was a Parliamentary candidate for Brent East in 2010 and lost so he’s not a total ‘winner’ and amongst the proposed nationwide jobcentre closures, Kilburn and Neasden, which were in that old constituency, are included in the list, so proof he doesn’t form attachments to places which get in the way of his ambitions. His sidekick Damian Hinds-is booted into the Commons when Gauke is too ‘busy’ to show his face...not that anybody wants to see that face of his. When reading Hansard, one easily sees how Gauke and Hinds twist themselves into answers that are only logical to themselves. For instance jobcentres are being closed because Universal Credit online is such a success, not so many JCPs needed. But when people have problems with UC they say there will be “Work Coaches” in jobcentres on hand to help. Completely contradictory! They have no shame!! Numb-Skulls!!
On Universal Credit the Tories have put an extra £1.5 billion in to help, but the 7 day wait was the government stealing money from the poorest people in Britain...bit like a burglar being caught taking your goods & handing them back but saying they are giving them to you as they are so  kind.
Universal Credit Implementers like Janice Hartley and Neil Couling have actually been given CBEs! What sort of world is this? Harvey Weinstein has a CBE too by the way...so has the new Minister of Defence Gavin Williamson...he’s the guy whose CBE was controversially given to him from the coward David Cameron in his resigning Honours List...nobody seems to know why...although suspected of Cronyism. Williamson is now ‘confident’ enough to be claiming ISIS Terrorists (who kill people without due process) should be killed on sight (without due process). Does seem that this Tory Government is a group of Psychopaths, who make laws, while disregarding laws like the Geneva Convention. The United Nations have reported that Britain is treating disabled people in an awful way...wotta lorra rot we got ‘in charge’. Stingy Scrooges still only giving 10 quid extra for Xmas!
David Davis stutters on providing Impact Studies regarding Brexit...when any organisation researches possibilities that may occur in the future. Gauke and Hinds refused Equality Impact Studies on Jobcentre closures, stating they will produce them AFTER the closures have happened!? Gauke is also reluctant to hand over DWP analysis on the history of implementing Universal Credit to the public. It is the PUBLIC that pays his wages & has paid for the reports. Gauke, like IDS, should resign, with Hinds, Hartley and Couling, and CBEs should be stripped off the people mentioned, or do they want to stay in the same realm as Weinstein? And let’s stop Patronage and Cronyism which is NOT part of a real Meritocracy. Workers, whether waged or not, should stick together and next time Gauke is too busy to talk at the House of Commons, transport him there in a Gramsci Wheelbarrow!!
Imagine these Ministers’ Christmases, compared to Claimants on Universal Credit this year!

PRINTED BY THE KILBURN UNEMPLOYED WORKERS GROUP POLITICAL COMEDY WING

Tuesday 28 November 2017

Child Poverty Action Group says cuts to Universal Credit push up child poverty

From CPAG enews

UNIVERSAL CREDIT IS POVERTY-PRODUCING

Evidence from CPAG's Early Warning System and analysis from our new report on the impact of cuts, 'The Austerity Generation',  helped secure important improvements to how Universal Credit is delivered in last week’s Budget. We’ve raised our concerns about the 6-week wait and the difficulty in securing advance payments extensively with the DWP, in Parliament and in the media. However, a key finding of our new report is that cuts to Universal Credit will push 1 million more children into poverty by 2020. To restore Universal Credit’s promise of greater rewards from work and to be poverty-fighting, not poverty-producing, we need work allowances to be restored and a triple-lock on child benefit and the child element of Universal Credit. The announcements in last week’s Budget are welcome, but they don’t go nearly far enough to make Universal Credit fit for families.
CPAG says cuts to Universal Credit will push 1m children into poverty, and
900,000 children including 300,00 under 5 into severe poverty by 2020


http://cpag-mail.org.uk/5MH-5AY6O-HLQZQ-2WINBV-1/c.aspx

A royal wedding announcement is a great time to bury bad news about benefit cuts

There is this from the Independent:

Government confirms freeze on working age benefits minutes after Prince Harry wedding news revealed

Freeze continues amid the longest fall in living standards for 60 years
"According to Clarence House, the wedding will take place in Spring 2018" — by which time many more parts of the UK will be experiencing the 'shock and awe' of 'Universal Credit full roll-out'. That in itself will be an opportunity to 'bury bad news'.

Meanwhile, there is this excellent Zoe Williams article from The Guardian:

Such is the poverty of Tory ideas that they deny poverty even exists

.... good intentions would manifest in curiosity about the lived experience of one’s policies, which would in turn entail figuring out what those policies amounted to in the aggregate. Failure to ask such questions is not born out of ignorance: it is critical to the Conservative narrative to deny, forcefully and sometimes gleefully, that anyone in the country is struggling.
The contrast between the royal wedding announcement and UK poverty reminds me of lines in a Harvey Andrews & Graham Cooper song, 'Targets' that was written to commemorate Margaret Thatcher's election as Tory Party leader in 1975:
We would have married long ago 
And we're still hoping one day 
Two up two down and a little lawn 
And time to rest on Sunday. 
I wish the ones who left us here 
Could live like us and borrow 
I'd place a pound for what it's worth 
That they'd be gone tomorrow
We'd like a yacht, some rooms to spare 
And horses in the stable 
We might as well believe that we 
Could buy meat for the table. 

Call us equal, call us proud, call yourself a liar 
No matter what the people do, they set the target higher
 
The Zoe Williams article even mentions nurses using food banks. So much for 'the pursuit of inequality'. Where has it got us?

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug 

Notes

  1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-freeze-working-people-typical-family-300-real-terms-cut-inflation-a8079196.html
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpsSb8AHIQ4
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/27/poverty-tory-ideas-budget

Friday 17 November 2017

Devisers of Universal Credit blithely wish claimants a rotten Christmas 2017?

Placard: "Government knows what it's doing."
Do you know what they are planning?
From Private Eye, 3-16 November issue 'In the Back' p37 (the one with a 'sex shop' photo on the cover):

With the opposition, the Commons work and pensions select committee and even universal credit's instigator, Iain Duncan Smith, lining up to condemn the minimum six-week which new recipients must undergo before they see any cash, pressure is mounting on the government to reduce the arrears period. But this initial wait for cash may not be the only period during which UC claimants go without funds.

For claimants who are in work and paid weekly (which is the case in many low-paid jobs that will qualify for UC top-ups), the small print of the benefit makes it clear that they will run into problems whenever they receive five pay packages withing the calendar months that are used to calculate their UC eligibility.

"When you have five weekly earnings payments within an assessment period, your income may be too high to qualify for universal credit in that month," say the DWP rules. "If this happens you will be notified that your income is too high and you will no longer ge universal credit. You can re-apply the following month as you should only get for wage payments in your assessment period then."

The vagaries of the calendar will not, of course, affect the amount workers are actually earning — but a month with five Fridays (this December, for example) will see them automatically lose their entire universal credit for that period. "You will need to be prepared for a month when you get five wage payments in one assessment period and budget for a potential change in your monthly universal credit payments," the DWP guidelines state blithely.

In 2018, March, June, August and November will all have five Fridays — so UC claimants who are paid weekly may have to budget for extraordinarily lean months for a third of the year. The DWP itself admitted in a report published last month that delays in UC payments were "a key factor" in claimants falling into rent arrears.

Given that UC has supposedly been designed to mimic standard work pay patterns, this fluctuation seems particularly cruel: no employer, after all, docks pay following every five-week month, or pays them less because they are on a weekly wage.

So, for those on UC and getting paid weekly this December, Christmas is cancelled!

I'm sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but maybe to be forewarned is to be forearmed?

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Town twinning within UK between those yet to receive Universal Credit 'full roll-out' and those that have already had it?

On this Scottish Unemployed Workers Network blog post,
there is a youtube video of demonstration speeches outside Dundee Jobcentre, in which 'full roll-out' of Universal Credit is compared to the Poll Tax in terms of its potential to be a counter-productive government policy.

I believe that the long delayed introduction of Universal Credit and the way that it has been targeted first at 'single people making a fresh claim' in any area has been partly designed so as to avoid Poll Tax levels of opposition.

Despite its apparent hap-hazardness, it now looks like Universal Credit roll-out has been conducted as a military operation in the war against claimants

First Universal Credit targeted single Jsa claimants at Ashton-under-Lyne jobcentre
making a fresh Jsa claim who met certain criteria

Second, it rolled over similar Jsa claimants using Wigan jobcentre

2014: Divide and roll-over single claimants makingfresh Jsa claim elsewhere...

.... then couples in Hammersmith, Bath...

Universal Credit roll-out 2016
'Live Service Areas' and 'Full Digital Service Areas'
defined
November 2014: families — couples or lone parentswith children. "Anyone claiming Universal Credit as availy were entitled to Free School Meals for their children."

Universal Credit -- at least in its current design with income caps -- attacks the working poor as well as the much demonised claimants of out-of-waged work benefit claimants, and so it can be regarded as a Trojan Horse for attacking the 'working poor' while debt slavery is introduced via the back door.

So what can claimants and their allies do about this 'divide and rule' matter?

As can be seen from the above screen captures, the history of Universal Credit roll-out can be regarded as a military operation.

Now for 'full roll-out', there is geographic phasing.
2016: Universal Credit roll-out 'Live Service Areas' and 'Fully Digital Services Areas' defined


2017: Universal Credit 'full roll-out' in 'Full Digital Areas'

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Universal-Credit-timetable/Universal-Credit-(UC)-roll-out-2018#guide-content
2018: Universal Credit 'full roll-out' in 'Full Digital Areas'

Perhaps a way of overcoming the geographic phasing barrier could be to do some 'town' or 'area' twinning between those who are yet to 'get it' and those who have already 'had it'?

Sunday 12 November 2017

Should Universal Credit 'full roll-out' be halted or scrapped entirely? And what of the 'Department for Work & Pensions'?

I would say that this approach
Yahoo News: Jeremy Corbyn calls for Universal Credit to be halted
'before millions of people are made worse off'
does not go nearly far enough. What about those who have already been made worse off under the so-called 'Universal Credit'?(2)

The 'Universal Credit is too big to fail' consensus of acquescence that has existed hitherto within the Labour Party and also the other main political parties that 'Universal Credit is a good idea' is one based largely on ignorance and prejudice.

Not only does 'Universal Credit' need to be 'stopped and scrapped'(2), but the Department for Work & Pensions needs to be changed from the benefits denial factory it seems to have been designed as

A major problem with any existing DWP system is that it leads the way to further abuses against claimants, as can be seen from my blog post Terra firma benefits services closures leave the economically vulnerable in the lurch.(3) Even before it became the Department for Work & Pensions, its decision-making by remote control mechanisms were designed as what could be called the 'detached torturer syndrome', with pay-per-minute and long delays calls to add to the financial punishment for being poor enough to require help.

Further still to the evidence brought up in that blog post about DWP as what might be called a 'claimants' rights denial factory', is Labour's previous role in bringing in Employment & Support Allowance as a more 'active labour-market programme' oriented payment, and Yvette Cooper's tightening of 'eligibility' restrictions even further in response to claimants' tribunal victories.(4) The Tories were left to pilot the outgoing Labour DWP Secretary's 'Work Capability Assessment' Mk 2 after 2010 General Election.(5)

Further reading

The above is one benefit claimant's analysis, and I 'declare an interest' in that I am a Green Party member. What do readers of this blog post say? Please comment.

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Notes

Thursday 9 November 2017

Save Our Job Centres — a 1 minute 45 seconds video by Shootroot

Video of demo outside DWP HQ, Caxton House, Monday 6 November 2017




This video was originally posted at https://youtu.be/p8jnYVjqtfQ
with this description:
Job centre closures will affect the most vulnerable who need personal and human support to find employment. They will also mean job losses and a reduction in civic spaces. There has been almost no consultation with those affected and no equalities impact studies have been done. Shame on the DWP!

See also the Kwug Blog blog post Kwuggies and friends at Caxton House as protectors of jobcentres, Monday 6 November 2017
http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/kwuggies-and-friends-at-caxton-house-as-protectors-of-jobcentres-monday-6-nov-2017.html


Wednesday 8 November 2017

Placard: Tell Department for Work & Pensions Freedom of Information is not 55p per minute extortion lines!

Inspired by the work of Kate Belgrave on FoI and DWP [supposed] 'helplines'.(1) (2)
Tell DWP FoI is not 55p per minute
extortion lines!

Placard by Dude Swheatie of Kwug, Human Placard Flower of the KUWG

Notes

  1. http://www.katebelgrave.com/?s=foi&submit=Search
  2. http://www.katebelgrave.com/?s=0345&submit=Search

Placard: Tell DWP to FoI!

Placard inspired by the work of Kate Belgrave,(1) and John Pring.(2)
Placard: Tell DWP to FoI!


Dude Swheatie of Kwug, Human Placard Flower of the KUWG

Notes

  1. http://www.katebelgrave.com/?s=foi&submit=Search
  2. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=foi+dwp

Placard: When I needed a payment, was it there? Was it there?

Inspired by report of Giselle's musical interrogation of the DWP at Caxton House.(1)
;-)

Placard asks the DWP: When I needed a payment, was it there? Was it there?

Note

  1. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/kwuggies-and-friends-at-caxton-house-as-protectors-of-jobcentres-monday-6-nov-2017.html

Placard: Kate Belgrave asks, "Is anyone getting any answers from DWP at present?"

Placard: Kate Belgrave asks, "Is anyone getting any
information from Department for Work & Pensions at present?"

Placard: What is the point of public services that are democratically unaccountable?

Placard by Dude Swheatie of Kwug following discussion on a Kate Belgrave blog post
http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/11/is-anyone-getting-information-out-of-the-dwp-at-the-moment/#comments

Placard statement: What is the point of public services that are democratically unaccountable?

Kwuggies and friends at Caxton House as protectors of jobcentres, Monday 6 November 2017

KUWG and supporting friends: Gerry Downing with placards made at the last minute for us, Peter Murry of the Green Party Trade Union Group armed with a GP banner, Rebecca (a Nurse) and many more besides, converged on Caxton House, Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) headquarters, on Monday 6 November from 3-4pm, a chilly afternoon on which we warmed ourselves by giving David Gauke a roasting. 
KUWG and friends with banners and placards outside DWP Caxton House HQ

The four security guards stationed outside the front doors of ‘Cack’ House at first looked uneasy, then bemused, then hesitantly amused...and then supportive! One of them looked to be the most experienced, he actually yelled, "They're rubbish!" in support of one Kuwg’s rant about DWP policy. 

The above mentioned Kuwg, had ranted until he turned their top security man! Another Kuwg asked this guard if he would go upstairs and fetch Gauke. He told us Gauke was out. Undeterred, she asked if there was a deputy! Uncertain if there was, he said he would get someone to come out to us. Apparently someone did come out but your roving report-backer had popped into a shop! We read aloud our statement Save our Jobcentres.

Rebecca — a nurse — spoke on the bullhorn quite few times, she told of the time a claimant had been sanctioned, such was his distress that he slit his wrists, she and her colleagues could not get through his despair to explain that he had 4 days to tell DWP why he shouldn't be sanctioned, in order get the decision overturned.

Nik — a Kuwg contributor — also on the bullhorn, very loud and very scathing, read a list of foul DWP regulations and asked if they thought these things right?

If you think things couldn't get any worse (for Gauke & DWP...KUWG & Co thought it was fab!) a Kuwg member starts singing the song with lyrics "I was cold, I was hungry, were you there, were you there?" she then answered the song in her speaking voice "Yes DWP! You were there, weren't you? You cut people's benefits and starved them! You were there alright!" and so on, a line of song, followed by her riposte.

Then there was Gerry Downing- the man who organised the placards during our placard drought. He wasn't short of words either. He led us on the slogans "Gauke for the walk!" and the uplifting, "Sack Gauke!"






Thursday 26 October 2017

Not a person to be messed with!

Trawling through my e-mail back catalogue just now in search of something else just now, I came across the following that I believe worth sharing here.
Perhaps a potential advantage of 'being known to the authorities' can be identification as 'a person not to be messed with'?

When I had my second 'Work Capability Assessment' [Feb 2011] after three deferred appointments[1] and after having won ESA tribunal [Dec 2009] they had the realisation that I had a McKenzie Friend [the person who went to my second WCA with] who could write a very direct and 'this service [sic] was substandard and degrading' type letter. (That letter had been in support of my request for a further deferment on account of the icy conditions grounding her ComCab support, even while Atos call-centre operative treated me like 'the accused' who was obliged to attend 'court appearance', with Atos assuming the role of G4S. My friend has a law degree.)

So this time round, despite the fact that the Atos 'Examining Medical Practitioner' claimed to have received none of the certification that I had sent separately from the ESA50 that I had completed with carefully customised word processed text boxes, I did not have to go to a tribunal. I was told by letter that the WCA had resulted in no change to my Support Group status.
 
Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug

DWP: (n) UK-state-run modern slavery gangmaster

DWP: (noun) UK-state-run modern slavery gangmaster

Modern slavery — that the UK Government signed up to oppose in 2014 (1) — frequently uses unjust debt as a mechanism toward further enslavement.

Yet the kinds of debt that the UK's Department for Work & Pensions [sic] (DWP) imposes on economically vulnerable people are enslaving in themselves, deducted from income at source through implementation of 'Universal Credit' as the 'Conservative government's flagship' 'welfare reform'. See Kate Belgrave's latest blog post for substantiation of this argument.(2)

I would argue that introduction of a non-conditional Universal Basic Income (3) without 'deduction of debt at source' mechanisms would be far more effective at opposing debt-related modern slavery that is instituted in the so-called 'Universal Credit'.

Reference links

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modern-slavery-strategy
http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/universal-credit-and-debt-debt-debt-universal-credit-is-really-hard-i-miss-one-bill-to-pay-another-more-foodbank-interviews/
http://basicincome.org/basic-income/

Placard and blog posting above by Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Are these the kinds of 'experimental statistics' the DWP wants to hear on Universal Credit -- publicly, I mean?

Yesterday this blogger placed a comment on Kitty S Jones' 'Politics and Insights' blog post, The connection between Universal Credit, ordeals and experiments in electrocuting laboratory rats:(1)

Thanks for this, Kitty, especially as it is now written and can thus be referenced.

I commend you to send it to:
Stephanie Sarwar
Universal Credit Official Statistics team
Digital
Data & Analytics
Department for Work and Pensions
Benton Park View
Newcastle
NE98 1YX
stephanie.sarwar@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Why?
A: “Open consultation [sic] — Universal Credit experimental statistics [sic!]: future developments:
“From: Department for Work and Pensions
“Part of: Universal Credit statistics
“Published: 13 September 2017

“Summary
“We are seeking views on plans to expand the range of our Universal Credit statistics….”
More at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/universal-credit-experimental-statistics-future-developments
Endnote (for now): “Sir Bert [Massie, who died last week] once said that disabled people ‘have been invited to look up to the stars while having the rug pulled from beneath them’.”
I met Sir Bert Massie after a Radar debate in 2008 in which he opposed David Freud’s motion: “Most disabled people can and should work.” (That was when David Freud was Labour's 'welfare reform guru' as one who had never been near the benefits system before his appointment.

(Massie and Kate Green — then of Child Poverty Action Group — in ensemble with the audience and questions and comments from the floor, heavily defeated Freud’s motion and replaced it with one that included reference to support requirements.)
In meeting Sir Bert I told  that I had met an Occupational Psychologist [sic] at a Manpower Services-run ‘Employment Rehabilitation Centre’ (ERC) [sic] in 1978 at age 24, and she — with her MSc in Experimental Psychology — told me, “You will be terminated [sic] at the end of next week,” with no further help stemming from my six-week ‘vocational assessment period’ there.
Sir Bert Massie then responded that he had ‘been terminated from an ERC ten years earlier!

Now The Guardian has produced a news story headed:

Universal credit behind rising rent arrears and food bank use, 'guinea pig' councils say

Research by Southwark and Croydon councils reveals devastating effect of new benefits system (2)
So when the DWP calls for people [and presumably welfare state privatising corporations] to send in their ideas about 'Open consultation [sic] — Universal Credit experimental statistics [sic!]: future developments', (3) what do they mean, especially given that when challenged on broadcast and Internet news media, they send statements without spokespersons, that say, "Universal Credit works wonders and is going entirely according to plan," without giving any evidence for that stance?

NB: That supposedly 'open consultation' ends at 23:45 today, and if this is a truly 'open consultation' perhaps you could dismiss the bullshit and refer to Kitty S Jones' above cited blog post, and also blog posts from Kwug Blog such as There is an urgent need for real evidence-gathering re DWP practices, not dehumanising experimentation.(4)

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug


Link references

  1. https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/the-connection-between-universal-credit-ordeals-and-experiments-that-electrocute-laboratory-rats/
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/23/universal-credit-sending-rent-arrears-and-food-bank-use-soaring-councils-say
  3. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/universal-credit-experimental-statistics-future-developments
  4. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/there-is-an-urgent-need-for-real-evidence-gathering-re-dwp-practices-not-dehumanising-experimentation.html


Monday 23 October 2017

Tues 24 Oct 2017 KUWG Public Meeting against local jobcentre closures

Agenda for KUWG Public Meeting Against Jobcentre Closures,
Tuesday 24/10/17 6.30pm-8.30pm Kingsgate  Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH

6:15pm: Room set up and grabbing a seat!
6:30pm-to-8:15pm: Meeting
8:15pm-8:30pm: Room clearance
Chairperson: A KUWG member who uses Neasden Jobcentre

Speakers

  • Giselle as KUWG and Chair of Unite Community Brent, with the aid of a big map, highlighting how people especially with walking problems will be seriously affected, and thus more easily sanctioned
  • John Kilvington from Somali Cultural Centre, on the absurd cases he has had and how it obviously will make people with language and cultural issues prone to misunderstand and get sanctioned. 
  • Winvisible [Women with Visible and Invisible Disabitlities] to confirm our experiences and offer their campaigning skills.
  • Pete Firmin as Chair of Brent Trades Council will speak about how workers could be affected, and mention how other closures of public buildings impact the community.
  • Tulip Siddiq MP has sent message of support. 
  • MP Dawn Butler has been asked to come or send message of support. 
  • Siân Berry Green Party Member of the London Assembly has sent her apologies. 
  • Brent Green Party member Peter Murry will speak from a Green Party Trade Union Group perspective
  • Green Party Member Alan Wheatley has sent KWUG placards as room decorations, while he cannot attend in person
  • Councillor Shama Tatler (Brent Council) who wrote to DWP about proposed closures has been requested to attend.
  • PCS [jobcentre workers union] speakers invited, but no response.
PS: WinVisible add:

Tues 24 Oct - WinVisible speaking at KUWG meeting vs Jobcentre closures

Tues 24 October 2017, 6.30-8.30pm

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) have invited us to speak at their:
 
Public meeting on the proposed Jobcentre closures of Kilburn & Neasden JCPs
the impact on claimants and what we can do

at Big Hall, KINGSGATE COMMUNITY CENTRE,
107 KINGSGATE ROAD, NW6 2JH
(wheelchair accessible)
Speakers include: Giselle Winston (“Benefit Tales” blogger, KUWG member); John Kilvington, welfare rights worker at Camden Somali Cultural Centre.
We’ll be speaking about how the closures will affect people, and what we’ve been doing, including pressing the exemptions from ESA/PIP exams, and about the latest benefit concessions won by public pressure.
(See our blog for self-help info, search “exemption”.) 
In March, we attended the PCS (DWP staff union) meeting in Parliament against Jobcentre closures.
Come along if you can!

Tuesday 24 October update: Cllr Sham Tatler writes:

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately I cannot attend due to a prior engagement.

I too share your concerns over the closures and the impact they will have on vulnerable residents, particularly as they are in areas in most need.

I had written to the previous minister, and am currently engaging with the DWP over the closures. I have asked to see their equality impact assessment as I am not certain they have taken into account the difficulties our residents will face. I have told them, that we do not understand the rationale for the decisions and am seeking assurances on making sure our residents are protected and not under-served.

I will be continuing to raise the issue and happy to engage with you.

Kind regards


Cllr Shama Tatler
Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills
Labour Councillor fo Fryent Ward
London Borough of Brent