Public Accounts Committee on Welfare-To-Work Fraud Today.

Public Accounts Committee 22nd May.

Subject: Fraud within welfare to work providers.

Witness(es): (at 3.15pm) Witnesses to be confirmed (at 4.00pm) Robert Devereux, Permanent Secretary, Alan Cave, Delivery Director, Department for Work and Pensions

Location: Room 15

 

The Guardian Reports,

“Auditors asked to identify financial discrepancies at two of Britain’s biggest welfare-to-work firms will tell parliament they found evidence of widespread fraud but their concerns were ignored.

The investigators employed by Working Links and A4e, which hold government contracts worth more than £100m, will tell MPs they requested formal inquiries into possible abuses of public money but their requests were not followed through.

The claims will form part of a session of the public accounts committee, which is hearing evidence from witnesses involved in the welfare-to-work sector. Committee members say they have received hundreds of claims of fraudulent activity within the sector that pays private contractors to put millions of people back to work.

One witness, the head of a forensic services department in an accountancy firm, alleges that he was asked in 2008 by Working Links to investigate allegations by whistleblowers and employees who were concerned about fraud.

He claims that, following his inquiries, he asked senior Working Links executives to ask police to launch a criminal inquiry into some allegations. This, he claims, was not followed through by the company.

A spokesman for Working Links said the company took allegations of impropriety seriously and would examine them as a matter of urgency once they had appeared before the committee.

Another witness, a senior figure in A4e’s risk and audit department in 2011, claims there was evidence of fraudulent activity in many of the firm’s offices.

He says that, in two of A4e’s offices, staff were caught with company stamps that could be used on paperwork to claim public money for placing people in jobs. Despite a formal investigation, A4e took no action, the witness claims.

Say No to Workfare: a TUC Charter on Work Experience (with comments at the end)

Say no to workfare: a TUC Charter on work experience.

This Charter explains why unions are opposed to workfare and looks at what makes the difference between good and bad work experience programmes for unemployed people.

It has been written for everyone campaigning for jobs and fair treatment for unemployed people.

Workfare Unions believe that workfare is a failed policy.

 It exploits the people who take part by paying them much less than the minimum wage.

It is unfair to other workers because it threatens their jobs and pay rates.

It is unfair to other businesses if their competitors are being subsidised by the government in this way. And it does not work – unemployed people working full-time on a workfare scheme do not have time to get training to look for a real job.

The Government’s own research (link to research) has revealed that workfare in other countries made unemployed people less likely to get off the dole and was particularly ineffective when unemployment was high. 

Workfare  is often presented as ‘the answer’ to long-term unemployment, but the government research found that people with extra barriers to work (who are most likely to become long-term unemployed) are the least likely to get proper jobs through workfare.

All workers are threatened by workfare but the poorest and weakest are threatened most because it is at the bottom end of the labour market that workers in real jobs are most likely to find themselves in competition with those on workfare, as the Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Solow has pointed out.

What’s wrong with the government’s employment policies?

Too many employment programmes assume that unemployed people are either a problem to be solved or are guilty of causing their own unemployment. These programmes presume that unemployed people have a ‘motivation problem’ and that the answer is make unemployment even more unattractive than it already is – the same attitude that inspired the workhouse.

In fact, unemployed workers have worse health than other people, are less happy, more depressed, more stressed and more likely to commit suicide. People who are unemployed are poorer, more likely to be the victims of crime, more likely to have family problems and their children are less likely to do well at school. Most unemployed people are already strongly motivated to get jobs.

Unemployed people need jobs but there are more than five unemployed people chasing every job vacancy.

Unemployed people did not cause the recession and the rise in unemployment that followed; they aren’t responsible for the policy of austerity that is prolonging mass unemployment. They aren’t criminals, they are the victims in this story.

 Bad work experience policies

Many government programmes for unemployed people and some other benefit claimants involve ‘work experience’ – which may not be substituting for the work of other workers but still has all the other characteristics of a job.

Unions are especially concerned about abuse of work experience where unemployed people are required to do a few days’ work for no pay, with no training and no expectation of an interview, let alone a job offer. When this happens, we strongly suspect that unemployed people are just being used to provide unpaid labour and it is very unlikely that it does anything to help them get real jobs.

 We are also particularly opposed to work experience that is imposed as a ‘penalty’ for becoming long-term unemployed. There is no evidence that it helps long-term unemployed people to get jobs; employers are not impressed by experience of this sort of scheme on an applicant’s CV.

 Earlier this year campaigns by unions and unemployed people and concerns raised by employers forced the government to concede that participation in the ‘Work Experience’ programme (which accounts for half the places in the Youth Contract) should be entirely voluntary.

There is now some early evidence that this programme improve the employment opportunities of some jobless young people, but significant concerns remain about the misuse of the programme by some employers and it is still too early to tell how useful the programme will be in the longer-term.

 But work experience is not always a bad idea for unemployed people who are finding it hard to get a job. Since 1989, a scheme known as Work Trials has been available for people who have difficulties getting jobs (such as lone parents, long-term unemployed and disabled people).

Work Trials are voluntary, there is no penalty for deciding not to take up the job and they must be in a real vacancy with the expectation that the participant will get the job if everything works out. The idea is that the participants test whether a particular job is suitable for them and have an opportunity to overcome any misconceptions or concerns that the employer may have.

One of the key characteristics of Work Trials is that they are voluntary and there is good evidence that Work Trials have made a difference to employment opportunities for people who would otherwise find it difficult to get jobs and that people who had taken part thought their Work Trial had given them an advantage in getting a job.

 The TUC believes that voluntary participation in employment programmes should be the norm.

Voluntary participation means that participants are likely to be motivated to get the most out of a scheme. Even more important, voluntary participation is the best quality control possible – low quality schemes will struggle to recruit participants, but experience suggests that once a programme has a record of getting people into jobs there is no shortage of people keen to take part.

Unions can help promote improved standards by negotiating for enhancements to work experience in unionised workplaces.

At the Royal Mail, for instance, the CWU have negotiated a Royal Mail Work Experience Programme that builds on the original government initiative that offers: 80 places on a scheme that lasts 4 weeks, with each participant working 25 – 30 hours a week. (NOTE by Ipswich Unemployed Action  - critics allege that this will be unpaid by the Royal Mail)  

A4E: The Beginning of the End?

Is this the beginning of the end for A4E and millionaire Emma Harrison?

The Guardian’s Shiv Malik  Reports (from Here.):

The Department of Work and Pensions has terminated a contract with a back-to-work company some of whose employees are under police investigation for fraud.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the DWP said that after its own investigation into the company, A4e, it had found no evidence of fraud but felt that it was “too risky” to allow the contract for organising mandatory work placements in the south-east region to continue.

A4e says it still operates 16 other contracts for several back-to-work schemes and that these will remain in place.

In a written statement to the House of Commons, the department found that in an investigation of A4e’s Windsor office – which is at the centre of a Thames Valley police investigation – 97% of payments to the company under the mandatory work activity (MWA) programme were correctly billed for and logged. “In the remaining 3% of cases,” the statement said, “DWP investigators were nevertheless satisfied that the anomalies were attributable to inadequate procedures rather than fraud.

“The audits for the work programme, the new enterprise allowance programme and mandatory work activity are now complete. They have found no evidence of fraud in any of these contracts.

“However, while the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified significant weaknesses in A4e’s internal controls on the mandatory work activity contract in the south-east.”

The DWP’s most severe criticism was about A4e’s supporting paperwork, which it described as “seriously inadequate”, and in a small number of cases it said claims were “erroneous”.

So, A4E can’t manage ‘paperwork’, and its “significant weakness” included “inadequate procedures”.

Readers of this Blog, and others from those caught up in the Work Programme Business, would say that there is a lot more to say on this account.

Labour’s Liam Byrne MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary,  said (Here):

“After 8 arrests at A4e the shambles in DWP contracts is now spreading.

“We demanded that the Government came clean about these contracts months ago.

“Now we hear they have been forced to cancel a contract vital to helping get people back to work just as Britain has hit a double dip recession made in Downing Street.

“The Government must now stop hiding performance information about the rest of its giant private sector contracts and publish so that Parliament can see whether public money is being well spent.”

Last night on television Margaret Hodge (Labour) of the Public Accounts Committee spoke of how she had received large numbers of complaints about A4E. Some were about “bad practice” others, we would say, sound like gross incompetence. We ourselves have had posts about bullying and systematic mismanagement.

Not to mention that the Work Programme is unable to fulfil its objectives: put hundreds of thousands of people into work, or offer genuine training.

The Guardian continues,

The most recent figures show that across the country 24,010 jobseekers have been referred by jobcentres to do MWA, which means they must work for four weeks unpaid for 30 hours a week. When the scheme was set up last year, numerous private companies and charities bid to organise the placements on behalf of Jobcentre Plus. Companies are paid an upfront fee for each month-long placement in a charity or business that they organise.

This is the worst kind of workfare.

It is obligatory unpaid work, with no normal employment rights. It has been used to fill the gaps left by government cuts. The only people getting anything out it are those, including charities, in the “unemployment business” – like A4E.

There is more:

The DWP added that the company, some of whose employees are under investigation for fraud relating to its other back-to-work contracts, was also not compliant with its own internal guidance.

“The process established prior to March fell significantly short of our expectations. As a result, the department has concluded that continuing with this contract presents too great a risk and we have terminated the mandatory work activity contract with A4e for the south-east,” it said.

The DWP said contingency plans were in place to keep placements going.

A4E brushed aside  the news, as well try they might,

In its own statement the company, whose former chair Emma Harrison recently resigned, said it welcomed he “positive findings” of the investigation and dismissed the MWA contract as “small”.

“A4e today welcomed the positive findings of the audits undertaken by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) into allegations of fraudulent activity. Both confirmed they identified no evidence of fraud, systemic, attempted or otherwise in relation to any audit completed of the contracts they hold with A4e,” the company said.

“Along with reviews by the Welsh and Northern Ireland assembly governments, this means that the majority of A4e’s business has been fully examined by external auditors – ensuring our customers and government funders can have full confidence in our organisation.”

A4e added that just five staff members were employed on the £1m contract and it made up just 0.5% of the company’s total revenues.

The chief executive, Andrew Dutton, said: “These findings demonstrate what I have always maintained to be true – that there is no place for fraud at A4e and make it clear that A4e has strong controls around its flagship contract, the work programme. Our immediate task is to further enhance our controls to cement our position as a trusted provider of frontline public services.

“As a company, I recognise that we haven’t got it right all of the time, but we are committed to taking responsibility for our mistakes and remedying them.

“No other provider has undergone such a thorough and forensic review of its contracts, and the positive outcome speaks for itself – this is huge reassurance for taxpayers and our customers.”

The company added: “Our administrative processes fell short of our own standards and those required by DWP, and to this end we have accepted that the MWA contract will be terminated.”

Two issues remain.

A4E is not alone in having ‘inadquate procedures’, not to mention being under suspicion of fraud.

And what of David Blunkett, the former Labour Minister, who as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, helped introduce this plague rat into the system?

He is still paid by A4E*

*Adviser on business development to A4e Ltd; global public service reform. (£30,001–£35,000 per financial year) This involves some travel. (Updated 18 April 2012)

Emma Harrison CBE: Benefit Tea-Leaf.

Just had to add this, nicked from the Void.

Workfare used in Hospitals?

Quacking Plums reports,

Read this.

If this is true then it warrants investigation right fucking now!

This is too horrible to countenance. Do you want unqualified workfare employees working in hospitals?

I’m posting this to spread the word. Let’s get the facts on this. I don’t have more to say, but this could potentially be the biggest story of the moment – if the right wing dominated media get their act together and do their jobs properly.

The original story (from The Green Benches by Dr Éoin Clarke (PhD))

It cites this:

Jobcentre Plus & Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Hospitals Trust have teamed up to place unpaid unemployed workers in their hospitals. After a days assessment and induction at Sandwell College, the untrained and inexperienced personnel are placed in the hospital for period of up to 8 weeks unpaid. During this time they provide refreshments to patients and transport medicines. The participants for the most part enjoyed the experience and in fact 33% of those placed actually secured jobs as a result. This however is besides the point. Freezing the recruitment of staff & replacing them with untrained staff is a deliberate downgrading & de-skilling of the workforce.

We expect that many more stories are about to break, as the media and politicians seem to have lost interest in unpaid Workfare for the moment.

Social Fund Localisation.

Not in the Queen’s Speech  ‘Family-Friendly Agenda’.

“Inclusion’s Centre for Responsible Credit is currently researching local authority plans to implement the localisation of elements of the Social Fund from April 2013. The Social Fund provides on-off financial support for low income households for a number of emergency expenses.

From April 2013, the government will abolish the existing Social Fund scheme. The current levels of expenditure on Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans Social Fund elements will be paid as non-ringfenced grants to upper tier local authorities and to the Scottish and Welsh Assembly government.

Community Care Grants currently support people with disabilities, lone parents and those at risk or moving out of institutional care. Crisis Loans tend to go to the long-term unemployed. We are keen to obtain views on current thinking about the local models of delivery which will be put in place to support vulnerable groups once budgets are devolved. “(From Here)

For “non-ringfenced” read, up to the Local Council to decide.

So essential money for those in desperate need is to be allocated according to the decisions of Councillors, advised by their officers.

We can imagine that, for  example,  Westminster Council, keen to get rid of its poor (and already cleansing them to out of London housing), will not be exactly forthcoming.

How Do We Break Workfare: National Conference Saturday 26 May‏.

Dear Friends

Under the guise of ‘helping the unemployed back into work’ the government is rolling out various workfare schemes that will provide free labour for their rich corporate friends.

Many charities and even trade unions – who should know better – have been hoodwinked into supporting these schemes. However, in March we saw the government forced on the back foot following revelations of widespread fraud at one of the main Work Programme providers and actions against high street companies involved in the Work Experience Programme.

The fact that many companies quickly responded by either withdrawing from the scheme or announcing that they were reviewing their participation shows how vulnerable the government’s workfare programme is at the moment. In addition DWP staff are now being told that referrals to workfare must be entirely voluntary on not just the Work Experience scheme for young people, but also the Sector Based Work Academies scheme and the Government’s flagship Work Programme.

Brighton Benefits Campaign has been fighting workfare since our first campaign against the Flexible New Deal in 2010. We have proved that acting against workfare gets results. But we can’t afford to be complacent – these changes are only temporary and can be easily reversed. We believe that it is necessary to build on the success so far, and break workfare before it becomes established.

A4E and Other Attacks on Democracy.

These two important Blog articles should be read together:

Undemocratic and Socially Malign

Ross McKibbin (London Review of Books).

“Whatever the outcome of the A4e affair, it is a symptom of virtually everything that has gone wrong with British political life since 1979 – and especially of the worst thing, the privatisation of the state and its functions. The decision to hand over so many of the state’s responsibilities – and not only in Britain – to the private sector or voluntary associations or charities has had several terrible consequences. First there is the loss of expertise. The state has built up historically a huge fund of knowledge and experience which is simply not available to voluntary associations, however enthusiastic they are. The result is notorious wherever the Big Society is found. The contracted bodies do the easy bits while passing back the difficult and more important bits, like finding jobs for the unqualified unemployed, back to the state. It is exactly the same as with the PFI projects: the profits are privatised while the risks remain with the taxpayer. That is why the history of the welfare state is the history of the decline of private welfare. It was, among other things, never up to the job.

Such privatisations are also profoundly undemocratic. The state might bully you or its agents be rude, but at least as a citizen you can claim legitimate rights in dealing with it. It stands for a democratic bargain. There is no democratic bargain with the privatised employment agencies or schools. As a citizen you have no legitimate or democratic claims on them. You are a social inferior who wants favours and you are expected to behave appropriately. They are there to reinforce social hierarchies and are more important to those who run them than to those they are supposed to serve. The rhetoric of social engagement, community spirit, all-in participation, is designed to conceal the reality of privatised welfare both from those who practise it and those who are subject to it. That is another reason why an increasingly democratic state once, but no longer, turned its face against private charity.”

Read the rest Here.

Quacking Plums has a brilliant post which shows just what all this means in practice,

“A current client says of their work experience: ‘It’s great, it’s enabling me to improve my skills and look at other avenues. It’s making me smile again.’

 

 That’s what the Salvation Army Employment Plus website tells me. They claim the organisation:

 

Works to redress the negative effects of unemployment on people’s lives – their self-esteem, overall well-being, families and wider communities, to provide jobseekers with targeted professional support through:

 

• our nationwide network of community and social work centres
• our teams of specialist employment advisers
• and our partners in employment services

 

 These are not negative effects caused by unemployment but by capitalism: the lack of money in a society where money is everything and the social opprobrium brought about by not being what society wants you to be: an economic drone, instead of a rounded thoughtful caring individual. That’s the first point to make; don’t be telling me that unemployment is the diseases when it’s merely an inevitable symptom of a much greater problem. As long as we keep the system as is, there will always be unemployment – and consequently there will always be people like the Salvation Army to capitalise upon it.

 

 

 

A nationwide network of community and social work centres? What the hell is this? There’s no such thing. Certainly not for me – unless tatty old church halls decorated like something from the 1970′s are what they mean. Hardly the brunt of a progressive movement toward helping people. I don’t even think they have internet access!

 

Specialist employment advisers? Well for a start they are SA officers (they really do like to think of themselves as some kind of army!) and they expect me to be 100% comfortable being in their Christian environment. Good job I’m absolutely an atheist – oh wait. I don’t see any evidence of specialism at all. Anyone could have done what P did: print out some leaflets and tell me how little they can help. I’m not sure what partners they refer to either, I’m not sure I’d want to find out.

To be honest they are using the same kind of pseudo religious work ethic nonsense as Duncan Schmidt; but then they are both followers of the same belief system. Welfare dependency – which they want to replace with what…income dependency presumably. Wage slavery. In work or not, you are still dependent on the money you receive, that isn’t being challenged.”

 

Read the rest here.

 

You can’t help feeling that the Welfare-to-Work Business is run by a combination of Dicken’s characters: Mr Chadband(oily Preacher), Mrs Pardiggle (arrogant ‘do-gooder’ who knows what’s best for the poor) and Mr Merdle. It’s the last one, the fraudulent banker, who’s in charge.

 

Working Links Under the Spotlight for Persistent Failures.

Conned into paying for failure

Solomon Hughes reports in the Morning Star today(27th of  April).

For the past decade the government has driven welfare policy in a new direction.

Warning lights started flashing on the dashboard. The engine began making a funny noise years ago. Every now and then that worrying hot-plastic smell fills the cabin.

Hughes singles out Working Links – demonstrating that A4E is not the only part of the Unemployment Business in trouble.

He says,

“Founded in 2000 as a “public-private partnership” the state has taken a “back seat” in running it. Working Links runs many activities, as a “provider of services under a range of government contracts to help Britain’s most disadvantaged communities”.

It has a £27 million turnover in 2001 and £123 million in 2010. Its profits have gone up to £5,7 million.

It paid ‘fees’ of £3 million to one shareholder, Manpower and a £1,6 million dividend to shareholders.

But its Action Team for Jobs” was found to be supremely inefficient, meeting only 78% of its targets. By comparison Jobcentre Plus teams got 140% on their targets.

The National Audit Office found Pathways to Work as “poor value for money”. “

The evidence shows Working Links were yet again ‘creaming’ the most active unemployed folk and ‘arking’ those with more problems.

They were meant to get 29& of ‘mandatory aprticipants’ into schemes but instead only got 11% into these ‘programmes’.

Working Links has now hit allegations of serious fraud (which Hughes raised in Private Eye, the same issue we reported on a couple of weeks ago. Hughes contacted us before – keep looking out for SEETEC and Papworth Trust seems to be taking its £400 fees for claimants and doing little for anybody not part of the ‘cream’,  Solomon!).

After a “compliance visit” that checked claims for 85 unemployed people, they said,

Based on the information above, none of these customers should have been considered as starts on the Working links contract.

The company should not have claimed government cash because, ‘They had all been referred to jobs by the Jobcentre plus and been succesful in securing those jobs prior to any intervention by Working Links’.

The form also “claimed cash for training them even though this training was not provided by Working Links’

What has happened?

The fraudsters were simply asked to repay the cash.

What has the government done?

“First, they are keeping all reports into financial misbehaviour by firms like Working links secret.

Second, they have banned Ofstead from inspecting the providers.

And third, Chris Grayling has given Working Links contracts to run his Work Programme in Scotland, Wales and South-west England worth £307 million.

So the next time you see somebody caught nicking something from Sainsbury’s suggest that they give it back and the company will reward them with a contract to run their security services.

Now, about SEETEC………….

Ipswich Unemployment Drops by 55, MP Gummer Praises Work Programme.

Unemployment had ‘dropped’ we are told.

In Ipswich “the count fell by 56 to 4,495 and the rate by 0.1 of a percentage point to 5.3%”

Ipswich MP, the Conservative Ben Gummer says,

“I do not want to get over-excited about this: there are four and a half thousand personal tragedies contained in these figures. But I hope, through the Government’s massive Work Programme, that one by one we will begin to turn those tragedies into personal successes.”

Here

It is widely reported that most of the new jobs are part-time, and many people who have them can expect to be hit by cuts in Working Tax Credits.

The Guardian notes (Here)

Almost a million people will have been out of work for more than a year by the end of 2012, according to research.

The IPPR thinktank said another 107,000 people will join the ranks of the long-term unemployed in the coming months, taking the total to its highest level since 1995.

The report, published ahead of new unemployment figures on Wednesday, said long-term unemployment was the “hidden crisis” facing the UK economy.

No doubt Benedict Gummer will be happy that so many people look likely to do forced unpaid labour, when one part of the government’s unemployment strategy kicks in. That is people who failed to find work despite “intensive” mentoring for two years will be made to do 30 hours of community service a week for 26 weeks a year.

Coming Flexible New Deal Providers for Ispwich.

Information (from 2006 but we doubt it’s dated) here. 

 

James Purnell: Expenses Diddler To Be New PM?

Purnell with Close Friends.

The unemployed may be interested to hear that there is a rumour (here) going round. That James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the man who brought us the Flexible New Deal,  could stand as a joint Leader of the Labour Party with John Cruddas. 

James Purnell, keen to keep the workless on the minimum of around £64 a week, has also been doing very nicely from the MPs expenses racket.

We learn that he received over the last years £143, 955 (on top of his annual salary of £142,000). Including £9,054 for groceries! The Daily Telegraph reports that the former Banking Genius managed to wheedle a substantial sum to pay for a flat that his girlfriend also forked out for. James now stands accused of being a fraudster.

We are sure the unemployed, especially those on the New Deal, sympathise with his plight.

HOW TO: Jobcentre Plus Programme Provisions

So you are unemployed and fed up of attending the detention centre that is Dencora House and wondering how hard is it to run the New Deal course? YMCA has acknowledged that the New Deal contracts are the most complex they have ever seen. Below I will quote some of the New Deal course requirements and you can compare between the guidelines and the actual delivery by YMCA Training into whether they are even following the contract.

Real Benefit Levels.

There’s a letter in the papers (Guardian) today that’s worth reading:

 

The inadequacy of the £64.30 weekly jobseeker’s allowance (£50.95 for the under-25s), noted by Paul Nicolson (Letters, 11 May) is a modern phenomenon. When unemployment benefit started in 1912 it was 7 shillings a week – about 22% of average male earnings in manufacturing. The percentage fluctuated over the succeeding decades, but by 1979 the benefit rate was still about 21% of average earnings (manual and non-manual, male and female). By 2008, however, as a result of the policy of tying benefits to the price index while real earnings increased, the renamed jobseeker’s allowance had fallen to an all-time low of 10.5% of average earnings. And while, in the past, means-tested allowances raised unemployed income to a higher minimum level, the jobseeker’s allowance rates are now the same, whether means-tested or not.

Of course, average earnings have grown but so has the relative deprivation of the unemployed. This is not a policy justified by the need to maintain work incentives. It is just a dreadful record of neglect by governments since 1979.
Jonathan Bradshaw
University of York
Tony Lynes
London

As Dan from this Blog has pointed out, if you’re under  25 you don’t have by any means less cash needs.

Birmingham March for Jobs.

Sky Report.

 

Workers are fighting to keep plants open until the economy recovers.

 

The demonstration in Birmingham was to urge the Government

Workers are fighting to keep plants open until the economy recovers

 

The demonstration in Birmingham was to urge the Government to “wake up” and take action to halt the unemployment crisis gripping the UK.

It is part of a campaign by Unite to press ministers to do more to help manufacturers ride out the recession and hold back the tide of job losses which has hit British industry in recent months.

More than 7,000 people took part including workers from firms hit by the recession, such as steel giant Corus and car companies Vauxhall and Jaguar Land Rover.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite told Sky News: “It’s no good just bailing out the banks and the spivs and the speculators who caused this global crisis.

“It’s got to be about the workerss and protecting our jobs and making sure our kids have jobs in the future so we don’t needlessly force people onto the dole.”

 

We should be marching for the rights of us on the Dole!

Jobcentre Plus illegal dismissals and sanctions

I have found a website that claims that the sanction and dismissals made through Jobcentre Plus by training providers awarded a contract by the Department of Work and Pensions are illegal. If correct, this is a major concern. This website specifically mentions about the Gateway 2 Work provision even though I presume it is the same with the main 13 week New Deal courses. New Deal participants may be extremely interested in reading this…

Pertemps Receive £2.25 Million and Breach New Deal Contract

I am aware of some unknown until now New Deal training provider called Pertemps People Development Group that has received £2,259,282 even though they significantly breached their contract. This just goes to show that the Government consisting of greedy MP’s who recently have been exposed in the MP expenses scandal like to waste taxpayers’ money beyond what they can personally claim for

Jobcentre Plus not exempt from Human Rights Act 1998

Bad treatment of participants on New Deal courses are not exempt under the Human Rights Act 1998.

Companies get £2500 to employ Jobseekers

The Government has announced a scheme that will give businesses of any size up to a £2,500 grant to employ unemployed persons who have been claiming Jobseekers Allowance for over 6 months.  This will relieve the businesses in the current economic climate and give Jobseekers a break – in fact it is a better idea then New Deal full stop.

YMCA Training: Dencora House Detention Centre

If you have been on this website for more than 10 seconds you will read Dencora House, Dencora House, Dencora House!  You may be thinking “What’s this Dencora House you talk of?“  Well it is a “training centre” operated by a faith charity called YMCA Training who happily receives £20 million from the Government every year -  and this article sets out the reasons why we go on about Dencora House so much! Well worth the read…

Purnell Tries Stout Denial of Tax Avoidance.

             Purnell’s Bedside Book.

Ipswich Unemployed Action’s fav’ Government Minister, James Purnell, takes ‘”stout denial” as the best policy faced with his latest scandal over capital-gains tax avoidance. The Daily Telegraph has reported alleged misdemeanours of the Workfare Wonder. But he has received the ‘support’ of Gordon Brown, said to be PM, for his brave attempt to face the accusations out.

We suggest that Purnell submits to the same procedures enforced on New Deal participants: he should be ‘exited’ from the Government and his pay suspended. He will then be open to re-sign on at the House of Commons.

Welfare ‘Reforms’ Under Attack.

Report from PCS (union for staff in Department of Work and Pensions) here. Staff could be reminded of the Union’s position…

This, from the Morning Star,  is the only media coverage I can find.

 

Purnell’s forced workfare plans slammed at PCS conference

Civil servants vowed on Friday to fight the government’s latest plans for reform – or privatisation – of welfare benefits.

The Civil Service union PCS conference voted to reinforce the union’s campaign against the welfare reform agenda and the privatisation of social security services.

Delegates were already angry at Work and Pensions Minister James Purnell (far right) over plans to privatise jobcentres and to force benefit claimants into “workfare,” which are contained in the government’s latest Welfare Reform Bill, before revelations that he had dodged paying capital gains tax on the sale of his second home added insult to injury.

Dorset delegate Mandy Preece, who works in Mr Purnell’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), condemned new Labour’s “obsession with attacking the poor” in pushing forward with the “ill-advised so-called reforms to the benefits service” during a time of soaring unemployment.

The government has ignored the opinions of its own social security workforce and accepted the recommendations of merchant banker David Freud that job centres should be privatised – pouring more public money into private pockets.

While being forced to admit that job centres were providing an excellent service to their users, Mr Freud went on to say the service was a multibillion-pound “market” that should be opened up to private bidders.

DWP Lincolnshire and Rutland delegate Graham Peck noted: “This Bill seeks to force claimants to work to earn their benefits,” warning that employers would use the scheme to drive down wages and make money by offering “false training opportunities with little or no prospect of employment at the end.”

DWP Avon delegate Mike Wheeler added: “This Bill has been rushed through Parliament with no scrutiny or accountability.

“It is a major attack on the welfare state, which we are told by government is already on the verge of collapse. This will penalise those who need work, not workfare.”

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka urged Mr Purnell to face “the real challenge – how to address the fastest-growing rate of unemployment in Europe.”

But Mr Serwotka lamented: “His whole plan is to attract venture capital to force the unemployed and single parents into low-paid work.”

Exposed: The Government’s Love Affair with Private Companies

It has been announced that the Government intends to privatize the benefit system. At current schemes like New Deal and the upcoming Flexible New Deal scheme are outsourced to the private sector (and third sector), soon Jobcentre Plus will be run by private companies* on like an franchise model and before you know it, benefits will be paid by private companies too. Why? Ipswich Unemployed Action explains why…

Ipswich Unemployed Action: 2 week review

Ipswich Unemployed Action Member Outside the ‘Den’.

So it has been around 2 weeks since this blog was created and the Ipswich Unemployed Action group set up. As a group we are still very young and have literally not found our feet yet. Please feel free to read our review.

Chris Mole, Ispwich MP: Work for Up to £50.95/£64.30 Quid a Week!

       Sanctions in  Mole’s ‘Win-Win’ Future?

Mole backs ‘Work for Dole’ plans ahead of Ministerial visit (here). (A friend found this while trawlling the Web. There is no date, but we can assume it was not too long ago).

New Government plans which would see local term jobless helping to improve the local community in Ipswich are being backed by Chris Mole MP today, ahead of the visit of Department for Work and Pensions Minister Mike O’Brien MP to the town.The  Minister was in Ipswich to visit the JobCentre Plus in Silent Street to see how people are being encouraged to return to work, and discuss with staff the role of sanctions on benefits for those who don’t cooperate with new training and assistance from the JobCentre. The discussion also focussed on the role of local employers in helping to encourage those who are long-term unemployed back to work. The proposals would see people who have been unemployed for two years or those who go on and off of benefits working for their benefits and for the benefit of the local community.   The proposals would see those people in Ipswich who have been through the support of the New Deal and still haven’t found work or people who have a history of going on and off benefits taking part in full time community activity in return for their benefits. This will give people work experience that employers look for and will help flush out the people who are abusing the system or working while still signing on.   Commenting on the new plans, Chris said:   “Long term unemployment is down 76% in Ipswich and more people are in work than ever before. But the days of mass unemployment have left scars and in some families worklessness has been passed down from generation to generation.”   “This could be a win-win situation. Unemployed people will get valuable experience of work and we can all think of work that needs doing in the local community.”

Mole is joined in this support for ‘Workfare’ by the Tory Party and the Liberals. None of them seem to realise what making people work on these schemes means. It will have to involve heavy supervision – overseers. It will cost  a vast amount of money and achieve little. It will stigmatise the unemployed - doing the tasks those sentenced by the Courts (‘Community Service’) currently do. It will undercut the pay of those in work.  And it will cause massive misery.

Not everyone in the Labour Party agrees with plans for forced labour. John McDonnell, MP, says, “

“As people look to it for assistance in a dismal economic climate, it seems perverse that the government’s answer is a welfare reform bill with a bloody-minded focus on New Labour’s twin obsessions of penalising the unemployed and privatising public services.

With 2 million unemployed and vacancies drying up, already 10 people are chasing every vacancy.

The “work for benefits” scheme contained in the legislation would force long-term unemployed people (disproportionately with disabilities, ethnic minorities and, increasingly, lone parents) to work for their benefits. This workfare scheme would oblige claimants to work for £1.73 an hour.”

Concerns Raised over YMCA Training Organisation.

Sexual harassment and unfair dismissal, forged signatures, tampered induction forms and timesheets, intentions of fiddling with forms, serious allegations made against staff and attempting to complete forms stating that persons completed placement even though were dismissed for disruptive behaviour… just some of the issues regarding troubled New Deal prime contractor YMCA Training. (No, not the words of an unemployed person but internal complaints regarding two staff members which ended up at a Tribunal).

Dencora House: without planning consent

Is Dencora House a Greater Blot on the Landscape?

A short while ago we announced a bunch of issues regarding YMCA Training. It now appears that YMCA Training operated without planning permission. Dencora Business Centre is B1 usage (offices). To run a training centre you require D1 usage (non-residential education and training) permission.

YMCA Training is 31 years old: and boasts over 40 training centres nationwide. You would have thought they would know about requiring D1 usage instead of being forced to submit the following planning application after Ipswich Borough Council enforcement action was made against them.

Banned For Blog: YMCA Suppresses Dissent.

WARNING: THIS BLOG IS DANGEROUS!

This morning I went to Dencora House, Ipswich. For my ‘New Deal’ induction at YMCA Training. A little while in and I was summoned. YMCA manager and colleague. Copies of this Blog, and the Ipswich Unemployed Action’s, on the table. Nervous type. Points to print-out. Picture of medieval Bastille. Legend, “Storm Dencora House“. Liked he it not. Or calling it a “detention centre”. Oh dear. Next, famous (hundreds of viewings), New Deal: YMCA Training, A Major Scandal. 

Finally, their account of  this,  

“I have placed this website as the Home Page on all computers at Dencora House today. Hopefully some of my fellow detainees here will read it. There has also been print outs of your articles left around the centre. The staff have been going round ripping them off the walls. They then get put up again. 

People who merely found this site as the home page have been undertaking these actions on their own. Hopefully more people will involve themselves in such sabotage. If we make it too much hassle for them to treat us like this then they will be forced to stop!”

Apparently, the chief said, some people are upset about this kerfuffle. Deary me.

The upshot is I face being suspended from all benefits for exercising my (see YMCA Induction Pack), “freedom of conscience”. Apparently human rights do not apply to the out-of-work on the New Deal. Still no doubt they’ll find some way of justifying themselves. YMCA Mission Statement, “Motivated by its Christian faith, YMCA Training’s mission is to inspire individuals to develop their talents and potential and so transform the communities in which they live and work.” Needs some creative re-writing.

Oh yes, one of our many invisible supporters  tells us that they’ve blocked their computers’ access to our Blog.

Some faith.

Blog hits double on news of YMCA Suppresses Dissent

After posting the news of YMCA Suppresses Dissent the Ipswich Unemployed Action blog unique hits rocketed 9 times more than the previous day and the overall record hits almost doubled.

After making their potentially fatal decision, under pressure YMCA Training staff anxiously flooded to the blog to further investigate, on their twice weekly pilgrimage, to try and justify their decision.

We will keep everyone updated on any further developments.

If you work for YMCA Training and have the confidence to read the site, copy and paste and/or print out copyrighted pages, leave a comment disputing any claims you disagree with or be deemed that you agree with the site in its entirety.

Dencora House: planning consent attempt #2 granted

If at first you don’t succeed – try again!  After their previous attempt for planning permission (which they were obligated to undertake by council enforcement action) was appealed against for problems including damage to cars, litter and youths hanging outside in the grass area behind the building; YMCA Training made another attempt for planning consent. This time it was granted temporarily for a year. Expires 31st July 2009.

YMCA: Partial Victory?

That Letter.

 

 

Latest developments.

Letter from YMCA (received yesterday lunch-time), 

“Dear Mr Coates

 New Deal Programme. Further to our meeting earlier today, I am writing to confirm that you have been dismissed from the New Deal Programme at YMCA Training, Dencora House.

As Discussed, the dismissal is due to our Health and Safety concerns due to the comment made on your Blog, ‘Tendance Coatesy’ which states ‘Storm Denocra House’. Our Duty of Care to our staff and participants on New Deal programmes remains paramount.” (my emphasis)

Operations Manager, Nofolk and Suffolk. “

Phoning my New Deal Adviser at the Dole she was surprised. Later in the day, another call, and I was told that I would indeed be treated as having been ‘exited’ (suspended) from the New Deal. Which means loss of benefits. She had seen this Blog. A special interview was arranged next week  - local manager to be present.

This morning I heard again.

It appears I will not be suspended. No special meeting will take place. I will  have to make a new claim. This means I am not sanctioned, but will have to go through the process again. Not immediately though. Not (I wonder why) with the YMCA. But, eventually, with whoever is running this autumn’s  new ‘Flexible New Deal’ .

Two observations.

Firstly, it clear that this proved more trouble than it’s worth. The YMCA letter indicates that ‘comments’ from my Blog were a cause for concern.  The picture of a medieval Bastille and the legend “Storm Dencora House” ( published start of May) was the cause. Yet, oddly, Dencora House has not been overrun by a pike-waving mob of baying leftists.

The revolutionary acts advocated were two: 1) Send E-Mails to Chris Mole MP, and the YMCA in protest at the New Deal, and 2) Stepping up the Campaign against Welfare Reform and the YMCA-run local New Deal.

It was obviously hard to pin a case against this other than on political grounds – Dodgy for the Dole, Crass for the Christians of the YMCA.

Secondly, there is little doubt that the solidarity shown here, and by many bloggers played a major partin this decision. I would like to thank everyone who did so. We often give solidarity for causes and don’t really think about what it means to those affected. I can assure everyone it means a lot.   

There are those in trouble with this system who do not have the networks we have. We must extend our solidarity to them, and continue the fight. As Harpy says, the Flexible New Deal promises to be worse. Some contracts have been won by private prison companies and similar organisations. Their victims need aid, to organise and for that they must have our solidarity.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

The Failed New Deal scheme in figures

Labour in 1997 began its welfare reform regime including Gordon Brown’s New Deal scheme aimed at getting rid of the  “life on benefits” trend. Regardless of progress made in making benefits harder to claim resulting in 2/5 of a million less claimants, 12 years on politicians are still using this but rebranding to various phrases including “passive receivers” when most of this problem is a thing of the past.  This article also focuses on the Governments aim of eradicating Child Poverty by 2020 - a mission proposed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

New Deal has cost the taxpayer £75 Billion since it was introduced – as this website states most of this amount has been pumped into Private businesses and Jobseekers not seeing any benefits from the course…

3 million new jobs, but only 400,000 less claimants – something not right here. Most claimants are due to unfair sanctions imposed and procedures tightened to prevent people claiming benefits they are entitled to. Some of this figure will be however due to Jobseekers securing employment.

1 in 9 jobs are occupied by foreign workers – gives great insight in the number of unemployed people who would have had a job if the Government didn’t let in foreign people so easily. These foreign workers have greatly taken up employment opportunities where they could have been filled by British people – remember some of these people will be skilled migrants such as doctors and entrepreneurs or investors however most are not specifically skilled (no degree or professional qualification).

51% in 1998, 34% in 2005 and 25% in 2008/09 – The percentage of New Deal participants finding work has been on the decline. This probably is due to participants doing no work experience and having no training. Please Note: The 25% is an average figure – third sector providers such as YMCA Training performed much worse.

Government failed to reduce Child Poverty by 1/4 and since missing that deadline Child Poverty has increased

New Deal final chance: Jobcentre forces Jobseekers on to New Deal

Feedback has it that Jobcentre Plus is trying to push as many people through on to New Deal courses as possible regardless of the actual legal implications of them being unable to put through a lot of them – they are still hoping to catch people out who are unaware of the rules and are happy to participate in order to secure benefits. So much for the “passive receiver” trend the DWP and MP constantly claim.

This will result in a lot of people nationwide (especially in Ipswich) to be stuck in places such as Dencora House Detention Centre to spend 13 weeks wasting away and being mistreated.  This is because the New Deal contracts end soon as the scheme is being replaced with Flexible New Deal with it’s contracts starting this October 2009.

It is then of great pleasure for me to announce the following guide I have prepared to empower you in to avoiding being stuck on a New Deal course that contradicts with the promise they make towards you of support finding and securing employment.   I hope you find it useful: links to and comments welcome!

Why YMCA Training didn’t bid for Flexible New Deal…

“YMCA Training works with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds offering apprenticeships, NVQs, adult key skills and job search training. In the past 30 years it has worked successfully with JobCentre Plus, but the size of the latest Flexible New Deal contracts has resulted in the charity reevaluating the nature of its involvement.“

http://www.cover-east.org/cms/uploads/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/Manifesto_Jul08.pdf

“New Deal contracts now cover huge
geographic areas and demand levels of
administrative experience and financial risk
we can’t consider. Future Flexible New Deal
contracts are rumoured to cover more than
one region and have a value around £40m.

The result is that YMCA Training is unable
to bid for direct contracts, because the risk
factor is too high, and in future we will only
act as a sub-contractor, which may result
in us getting less money to deliver the
programme.”

YMCA Training East, Ashley Seaborne.

What’s wrong with the truth?  Let’s rephrase this above statement…

“The Flexible New Deal demands high levels of
administrative experience, financial cash flow,
managerial performance and resources that we
simply don’t have and cannot offer or deliver.

Our Cambridgeshire & Suffolk New Deal contract
for example we lacked the staffing resources to
deliver the contract and resulted in us having to
advertise for volunteers to deliver the contract
in the Cambridge area.

It was no fun in the Ipswich area neither. We were
reported allegedly by neighbours for not having
the correct planning consent at Dencora House.

This wasn’t our main concern however. DWP set
our target of job outcomes to 45%. In the past
two fiscal years we failed to achieve this.

We were thoroughly disappointed at our
performance of 12% however satisfied that we are
making progress when the following year was 21%.

As we can only hope to gain sub-contractor
contracts for smaller parts of the region this means
our income would be smaller than the overall regional
contract – so we will have less money to deliver the
programme.

This is not initially a major concern as we have a
strong working relationship with the SCA in
Cambridge to provide volunteers to cut down the
actual staff expenditure.

We are hoping desperately to gain a sub-contracting
contract with A4e to save the majority of our employees.”

Dencora House: Safe for How Long?

 

This disgraceful information comes from the notorious ‘Tendance Coatesy’ Site.

 

“A mob of unruly Transylvanian Peasants are rumoured to be heading towards Dencora House this Saturday. To celebrate the Victory of their alleged ‘leader’.” (Vlad the Impaler Workers’ Daily)

I have to announce to the International Proletariat  and Unity of the Peoples against YMCA-Training, that guess what, Coatesy has won his epic struggle!

I was not best pleased yesterday reading some stuff from the Dole about my ‘misconduct’. Just a phase, but it rankled.

But I noted – that is after quenching my thirst on three pints of Abbot Ale – that I had got the Dole transfer in my account.

This morning, looking at the sordid pile of junk mail, I picked up a Dole paper.

Coatesy has been reinstated on the Dole.

Now the struggle has to focus on the rights of the other blokettes and blokes who have got thumped on.

 

This so-called Coatesy, more like pretentious frog eating, namby-pamy, is now saying:

 

” An injury to one is an injury to us all. We have to unite to defend ourselves: no-one else is going to do it.”

73% of employers admit to discriminating against the disabled and older ages during recruitment

A survey for the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) undertaken by “YouGovStone” returned the devastating verdict that almost three quarters of employers would not give people on Incapacity Benefit (now Employment and Support Allowance) and older people, the opportunity to return to employment.

Cambridge Jobseeker felt “humiliated and degraded” by YMCA Training

We have been biased in our coverage of YMCA Training by only including experiences of the Ipswich provided New Deal courses. Well… it is no better in Cambridge!! (this training centre is also included in the same New Deal contract as the Ipswich one) One New Deal participant spoke out against his disappointment of expecting to be given a work placement (as promised by Jobcentre Plus to get you enrolled) and be given a course of watching DVD’s, paper contests and walks.

Feel free to read the Department for Work and Pensions attempt to justify YMCA Training’s activities when New Deal participants should have been stuck in a work placement 4 days a week and been given supported jobsearch.

Conservatives to rewrite Flexible New Deal contracts

The Conservative Party has promised to implement changes to Flexible New Deal if they win the General Election.

At the Welfare to Work conference shadow Secretary of State Theresa May said if the second phase Flexible New Deal contracts have not been signed by the time they enter power, they will rewrite the contracts.

The proposals include introducing Flexible New Deal at 6 months NOT 12 months. Not really a significant big deal, as Labour currently plan to fast track Job Seekers to Flexible New Deal at 6 months anyway. We recently reported that the Jobcentre are unlawfully fast tracking “customers” on New Deal courses so it can be expected that most people would be fast tracked for Flexible New Deal.  The proposals by Labour states anyone who has claimed before, regardless of the period, will be fast tracked after 6 months, and those that make a new claim which is also their first ever claim will have to wait for 12 months.

The proposals also include changing the contracting system to allow for smaller players in particular the third sector. Figures released show that New Deal prime contractors such as YMCA Training were amongst the poorest performing New Deal programme provision providers. I am not sure why, solely due to past performance, why anyone would want to consider the worst performers of the previous failed New Deal scheme to ruin a reformed scheme.

The Conservatives want to continue New Labour’s welfare reform agenda and take it further.

This seems another reason NOT to vote for the Tories. Thousands of people including jobseekers and other benefit claimants along with various Unions and other organisations have hit out against the Welfare Reform plans and not to mention the Welfare Reform Bill which caused some major concerns.

The Conservatives have made it clear that they want to create a stronger workfare system than what Labour proposes, bring forward the default timescales by slashing it in half from 12 months to just 6 months and sticking more Flexible New Deal participants in to Community Service like activities.

YMCA Training 517 London Road: No planning permission

It has been announced that YMCA Training operating out of their London Road training centre also has NOT got planning permission for a training centre – even though they have been using it for numerous years and had enforcement action taken against their newest Ipswich location of Dencora House over a year ago, planners at Ipswich Borough Council are still waiting for an application form to be submitted.

YMCA Training Activities Exposed

Today we expose the so-called training and learning activities at YMCA Training. We are aware of these being used at Dencora House and the 517 London Road training centre even though are likely to be used at all the training centres in the region covered by the New Deal contract.

New Deal Complaints.

Is Your New Deal Scheme Resembling This?

New Deal Complaints: a must-see new site. (here)

YMCA Training Wolsey House: The TRUTH!

If you have been on a New Deal course previously at YMCA Training it may have been at Wolsey House in Princes Street or you may have heard about it.  Two main reasons given by YMCA Training as to why they left are as follows:

1. Wolsey House wasn’t big enough for their needs;  Or
2. A participant let off the fire alarm which made everyone evacuate the building including other businesses and those businesses either later sued YMCA Training or threatened to do so (conflicting reports)

Both the above reasons were given by staff at YMCA Training and not New Deal participants.

I will not state that any of the above reasons were lies – I never attended YMCA Training at Wolsey House so I didn’t know the comparison of size between Wolsey House and Dencora House or 517 London Road.

The REAL and actual reason for the relocation to Dencora House were…

New Deal fraud probe begins: A4e under investigation

Ipswich Unemployed Action can report that the Department for Work and Pensions is investigating Action 4 Employment and 2 other undisclosed New Deal training providers for fraud.

This means that A4e could lose their Flexible New Deal contract if further investigations show widespread fraud.

One of the New Deal providers under investigation have entered a contract with a local temporary job recruitment agency to gain job outcome payments while the New Deal participants gained short lived agency work until the provider profited from the bonus.

This is a concern that Ipswich Unemployed Action has previously raised with the new Flexible New Deal course – we were NOT surprised to learn that at least one provider has already been using that with New Deal.

A group called New Deal Scandal which runs the New Deal Complaints site we recently displayed on this site aims for a full investigation of the £75 billion New Deal scheme and believes that the DWP investigation is just the tip of the iceberg. Jobcentre Plus hasn’t shown any concerns from complaints from New Deal participants.

It could be presumed that out of the few providers the Department for Work and Pensions have admitted to, only Action 4 Employment has been named, could be proof of guilt. A4e is the largest New Deal provider and would have taken legal action to protect their reputation should the claims not be true.

The Guardian reports that Action 4 Employment has to repay at least £15,000 and another provider to repay £48,000. We think this provider could be Pertemps.   The article also states that the investigation has been ongoing for over 13 months and criticises why A4e was allowed to bid and win Flexible New Deal contracts while being thoroughly investigated for fraud and been found guilty of at least 20 cases from the beginning – thus the continued investigation.

New Deal: The TRUTH Exposed!

New Deal, courses to “help” the unemployed get back in to employment: overcrowded rooms, under resourced facilities, full time job search, zero rights and no independent regulation, forced short term employment just for providers to get job bonuses,  providers under staffed and using volunteers, no training or learning opportunities, identities stolen by providers in order to fraudulently gain Job Outcome bonuses, depression and boredom for participants,  decreasing the availability for the unemployed to seek jobs and apply for them,  providers not even having planning permission to provide courses,  work placements in charity shops sorting through used clothes all day,  dismissals for trivial reasons resulting in loss of benefits and sanctions imposed … the list goes on.

So why is the New Deal not helping people? We have an Government document which describes the main reasons for the New Deal – and this document isn’t leaked – readily available just under publicised.

We have Won a Small but Significant Battle.

 

The Spirit of our Goddess was with us today.

The Historic Leader of Tendance Coatesy, and activist of Ipswich Unemployed Action, (Internationally famous pioneers of fighting for the unemployed)  was in a bit of a foreboding.

The Dole had summoned me for  a special meeting.

Turns out I am excused from any version of the New Deal.

 

I wonder why…

And I get my dole!

Now if we all stood up like this we would smash the New Deal (and variants) into the ground.

Ipswich Unemployed Action Member Attacked by Security Guards.

Manuel for Job Centre Security.

News just coming in is that a prominent member of Ipswich Unemployed Action was attacked by 3 Security Guards at the Silent Street Job centre. Coz he got a bit stroppy. He managed to escape before the Police came. Details are only now emerging. But he was there because he had an interview.

So it took 3 security guards acting on a charge of “trespassing” to pin down a small working class youth.

What a fucking nightmare the Dole is becoming.

YMCA Training and the New Deal participant data breach

YMCA Training Manual.

YMCA Training keeps all New Deal participants details on file and discloses this personal information to QDP Services who then later sends a letter pretending to be YMCA Training with a poor made up letter, requesting your support to help future participants by giving feedback on the course. They claim it to be anonymous and “cannot be attributed to you” but it can as it contains a tracking code on each page of the survey.

DWP New Deal Scandal has more information on this.

We rather recently reported that:

• YMCA Training didn’t have planning consent for 517 London Road
• The REAL reason they left Wolsey House
• YMCA Training’s Training Activities
• Cambridge jobseekers have similar problems with YMCA Training
• Dencora House detention centre

Suffolk unemployment benefit claimants DOUBLE

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that the number of claimants in Suffolk has doubled in one year, where in Essex it has increased more than double. An average of 4,000 new claims per month in the last few months has been reported in the region.

YMCA Training data disclosure: take action!

What can I do about YMCA Training breaching the Data Protection Act 1998?

Read on for advice regarding resolving the unlawful disclosure of your personal details.

YMCA Training New Deal contract terminated

We have heard a rumour from someone returning back from the Jobcentre that YMCA Training has had their New Deal contract terminated with immediate effect and everyone who were on New Deal have been pushed on to Flexible New Deal Stage 3.

How to Revive the Unemployed Movement.

This list is sparse. Here.

Interesting to note the North East Unemployed Action Group.  I think we can be sure that we are in solidarity with our sisters and brothers  from the same movement.

 

But what we need is a campaign. Nationally.

Complaints Rising. New Contributions to Ipswich Unemployed Action

Letters to IUA:

I’ve been reading the blogs and swatting up for my 2nd New Deal interview 18 months after I was kicked off. I replied to the blog entry from “Ipswich unemployed action” if you need some info..
Now I’m in the process of writing a complaint letter and request another interview as I thought I unfairly treated.
 
You can publish this letter if you want, but would like some advice as to how to go about my next interview?
 
Regards,

 

NEXT:

 

Thought you might find the following message very interesting: I received it earlier from Ann who runs the Freewebs site. 

Hi, chaps, I hope this gets through. I’ve just had notification that the site has been banned because of complaints from A4e that it’s defamatory. I’m going to try to retrieve the content, so spread the word.
http://www.freewebs.com/watchinga4e/

Apologies for not posting immediately: we have so much to do on the Web.  Plus I’ve got four E-Mail accounts!

Surprise, Surprise: YMCA Training New Deal Southend; No planning consent

Ipswich Unemployed Action has previously spoke about YMCA Training not having planning permission to deliver training services at 517 London Road, Wolsey House and Dencora House detention centre. This is all part of the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk New Deal contract.

We can now reveal that, YMCA Training have traded from premises in Southend delivering New Deal to those in their New Deal Essex contract – also without the required planning consent.

Government to Create Jobs for Young People (?).

Announced by the Government a couple of days ago.  See Here.

With Comments.

A £40m campaign has been launched by the government aimed at creating thousands of new jobs for young people

‘Backing Young Britain’ will create 20,000 additional internships.

These of course are not jobs. Behind the fancy American word, internships, they mean work experience. Not to be sneered at – well not totally – but not real employment. And what about those on these schemes employment rights?

Launching the scheme, work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper said:

“We are determined not to lose a generation of talent because of the recession.

“Many young people were denied the help they needed in the recessions of the 80s and 90s, ending up out of work for months and years. Too many never got a start in the jobs market.

Very True. Let’s see what they are actually proposing.

Ministers also announced the first 47,000 youth jobs supported by the Future Jobs Fund for young people who are unable to find work or training within a year.

The £1bn investment, announced by Alistair Darling in April’s Budget, will attempt to prevent the country from losing a generation to unemployment brought about by the recession.

The jobs aimed at 18-24 year-olds will include sports coaches and teaching assistants.

 Good. At least that’s more useful than New Deal schemes teaching you how to sit in a room and endure boredom while ‘job searching’.

Latest figures show that 726,000 18-24 year-olds are currently unemployed.

In other words 47,000 jobs is a drop in the Ocean. This is not going to change the fate of a ‘generation’.

The government has called on business to support young people attempting to find work. Children, schools and families secretary Ed Balls said:

We must not repeat the mistakes of the past and abandon a generation of young people.

The government already has programmes up and running to help school-leavers, graduates and young unemployed people and wed like (?) businesses and charities to join in by offering volunteering places, work experience and apprenticeships.

Nothing new here. This has been long in existence.

As part of the campaign, a graduate talent pool website will be launched tomorrow, with more than 2,000 internships available to graduates, with 4,000 more to be added in the next few weeks.

More non-jobs.

 

Conclusion: a very small step, barely a quiver, but in the right direction.

 

A lot more needs to be done.

 

How will those in such jobs get paid? Will ‘Interns’ get more than the Dole (or even that) ? What will be their employment conditions and rights?

Workfare Coming To Suffolk.

 

From Harpy Marx,

“Workfare, euphemistically known as ‘Work for Your Benefit’ schemes,  is going to be piloted in a town near you from 2010. The pilots will take place in Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and will run for two years from October 2010.”

This is something which we will organise against. I have already had talks with the President of our Trades Council and he suggested a campaign. I was initially a little – a very little – reserved. Because nothing concrete we could target clearly was in the offing.

Now we have it.

Its official: £4 weekly travel deductions are unlawful!

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that the £4 weekly travel deduction on New Deal is unlawful.

An intense investigation reveals that no legislation warrants this £4 taxation.

The Training Allowance is mentioned in legislation but the £4 deductions is not. At current the Provider Guidance (a manual for New Deal providers) which is referenced into the New Deal contract gives permission for the New Deal provider to deduct £4 per week.  This however isn’t statutory law and thus is only a contractual agreement between Jobcentre Plus/DWP and the New Deal providers.

As this deduction was unlawfully acquired you may claim it back. The first instance would be to ask for it back. If they refuse to do so the next step would be via the legal system – if you still are a Jobseeker it would be free to do so.

Using the DWP provided data for NDYP alone up to November 2008 it leaves a pool of £68,377,400 of potential total travel deductions since New Deal started – or as an average just shy of £7 million per year. Of course not everyone will claim for travel reimbursements and we can’t assume that everyone lasted the full 13 weeks.

I would estimate it as nout less than £2 million fraud involved here. New Deal participants assumed that the New Deal training provider has the lawful authority to make such a deduction – they didn’t – they profited from it. Jobcentre Plus was involved. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did reach reach near the £20 million mark.

For each time you been on New Deal (assuming you claimed travel for whole 13 weeks) you can claim £52 plus any applicable interest – roughly a weeks money. If you had been on New Deal 3 times then you are looking at around £156 – or 3 weeks dole money.

YMCA Training forced to submit an planning application for 517 London Road

So since the D1 use of 517 London Road by YMCA Training in April 2003 – 6 years later they have finally submitted an application for D1 planning consent. This wasn’t, however, without Ipswich Borough Council pressure.

A4E and Working Links To Snaffle More Public Money.

Today’s Observer (here)

 

“A furious row has broken out over government plans to extend the “privatisation” of the job market after it emerged that two companies subject to a fraud inquiry were on the shortlist for lucrative contracts to get people with severe disabilities into work.

Recruitment companies A4e and Working Links have been shortlisted for a new programme to find work for people with long-term mental or physical needs. Both are under investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions following allegations that employees had made false claims of getting people into work.”

 

I noticed on Channel Four that some heroine from A4E is going to get the star treatment in a programme this coming Thurday. Helping single-mums back to work.

 

Those bastards don’t seem to know when a very long period of silence from them would be welcome.

Benefits Busted!

Coming to your telly this Thursday on Channel Four. More free-publicity for A4e - one  wonders why not a even a tinsey mention of the mountain of allegations against them…

 

Instead of this programme’s utter cack  – a celebration of bullying by a bunch of chancers out to grind the faces of the poor (below) those interested in this murky world should look at this and this.

 

“Hayley Taylor’s job is to persuade single mothers on benefits to go back to work.

The company she works for, A4E, which is helping to tackle the Government’s target of getting 70 per cent of lone parents into paid work by 2010, is the largest welfare reform company in the world.

A4E is run by multimillionaire entrepreneur Emma Harrison, who believes her business is ‘improving people’s lives by getting them into work.’

Until recently, the 700,000 lone parents receiving benefit didn’t have to look for work until their youngest child was 16. Soon, they must either work, or be looking for work, once their youngest child is seven.

At Doncaster A4E, Hayley runs a course called Elevate that aims to give lone parents the skills and confidence to enter the workplace and convince them they’ll be better off doing so. Cameras follow her group of ten single mothers during their intensive six-week course to prepare them for work”

 

Seeing the advance clips we’d say Hayley is a  dead-ringer for Little Britain’s Marjorie Dawes,  the terrifying, pudgy, leader of weight loss support group Fatfighters.

The Future for Workfare?

Prophecy for Workfare?

 

How will workfare develop? Its going to be difficult to keep people working for their Dole, so we know that there will be a hard time for those forced on the schemes. But, on the bright side, for some, there will be lots of opportunities to make money out of people labouring for free. Hey, the  state will pay companies and ‘voluntary’ organisations to take them on. Loads of opportunities for overseers and officious busy-bodies.

But where’s it going to end.

In a forgotten novel by H.G.Wells, The Sleeper Awakes,  the hero, Graham,  wakes up, after a few hundred years dozing, in a new world. It’s a planet controlled by huge Trusts. Futuristic cities, skyscrapers, aeroplanes, gleaming machines. But it’s no socialistic utopia. The world is run by the White Council. No democracy. Pleasure resorts for those with money. Who are they?  Graham’s own trustees, in charge of his funds as  he lay sleeping.  The legacy had been invested so well that they ended up in charge of every economy and country.

The story develops around a rebellion led by an ambiguous figure, Ostrog.

But that’s not the really interesting bit.

The world still needs workers. Clad in blue – hounded and beaten. On the bread-line. Permanently. Why? It turns out that they are directed by The Labour Department. Huh? It’s a privatised descendant of the Salvation Army, turned into a compulsory workfare system for the unemployed. Out of a job? No money? No right to benefits. Plenty of responsibilities. To this: you trace your steps there. Anyone refusing to work gets slung in prison. Anyone a bit stroppy about the set-up gets given the worst tasks. They are bound in servitude. For ever.

Who knows. A4e is already a paradise for bullies, and the YMCA run dodgy private ‘training’ schemes. Then there’s all the other job-stockers and chancers swarming around Welfare Reform. We might see this happening here. Good for the economy. A lot cheaper than employing people on real wages, with rights. To help discipline and boost identity, shouldn’t they be in serge. Like blue?

 

Who’ll bid for the contracts of the Labour Department when Cameron and Co. get their  greedy paws on the unemployed?

More Attacks on the Welfare State: Abolition of Attendance Allowance and Cut in Housing Benefit.

Brighton & Hove UNEMPLOYED WORKERS CENTRE 4 Crestway Parade, The Crestway, Brighton BN1 7BL ( & 01273-540717

PRESS RELEASE:

 Unemployed Centre Condemns Proposals to Abolish Attendance Allowance & Disability Living Allowance and Cut Housing Benefit .

Brighton & Hove Unemployed Workers Centre has sent an open letter to all 3 of Brighton & Hove’s New Labour MPs asking them to speak out about the proposals in the new Care Green Paper to abolish Attendance Allowance, which is paid to people aged 65 and over who need help with care. No sooner have MPs put behind them the scandals of Second Homes Allowances and decorating their own homes at public expense, then they are choosing to attack the most vulnerable sections of society. Housing Benefit was capped a few years ago and this attempt to make the unemployed move into the worst accommodationwas sweetened by allowing them to keep any monies below the fixed rent levels. Then this was cut to £15 a week and now it is proposed to cut any surplus altogether. DLA and Attendance Allowance, which were originally introduced by a Conservative Government, is now the subject of proposals to abolish them . In its place the Green Paper proposes that the money ‘saved’ will be allocated to care by local government. The latter pledge will no doubt be forgotten about whilst the disabled will suffer massive cuts in their living standards.

Tony Greenstein, Secretary of Brighton Unemployed Centre said: ‘I have a disabled child, who suffers from autism. DLA is not used for care but to pay for the extra expenses involved in caring for a disabled person. Things like breakages, outings, clothes etc. Pie-in-the-sky promises that it will be put in a local government pool, with all the vagaries that this involves, are unacceptable. New Labour has pilloried the poor. Welfare ‘Reforms’ that force lone parents to ‘actively seek’ work if their child is 7 are in marked contrast to the lavish lifestyle of MPs. This Government has bailed out the banks with hundreds of billions of pounds, whilst doing absolutely nothing about the payment of million pound bonuses. Yet it has audacity to cut the meagre amounts that the disabled are entitled to.’ We call on all 3 Brighton & Hove Labour MPs to make it clear that they will vote against these and any similar proposals. ’For Immediate Release For further information contact: Tony Greenstein 01273-540717/07843350343

 

Ipswich Unemployed Action notes with concern these moves. Attendance Allowance is essential for many elderly people. Housing Benefit is already difficult for the unemployed (some landlords do not like the out-of-work as tenants in the first place). The money they propose to cut can make all the difference between being able to pay utility bills and being permanently in debt.

 

We wonder if Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer – who got his garden sorted at public expense – or other local MPs, like Chris Mole, Ispwich, who has a London flat allowance to complement his local home - know what it’s like having to rely on Housing Benefits.

 On the edge of complete destitution.

More Campaigning Links All The Time.

The masses are revolting.

Not literally.

But there’s plenty of new sites and campaigns against unemployment. Welfare Reform. The activities of companies like A4e and the YMCA (to name but two). And the sheer miserable waste that is the New Deal - soon to be flexibly miserable.

There is naturally the venerable and highly-rated New Deal Scandal (here) - written by a someone not too far away from this very site.

Here are a few:

New Deal, including the valuable Diary of a New Dealer here.

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty – full of useful stuff – here.

Watching A4e, heavyweight information against the grinders of the poor - here.

Anna Raccoon has her say on New Labour’s welfare plans here.

The extremely informative Nottingham Claimants’ Action here.

Newsjiffy from Nottingham here.

The Void – doesn’t seem too fond of A4e – here.

 

Harpy Marx on the Insurance Industry trying to get money out of the welfare state – here.

Taking It Easy – speaks from the heart. Anyone who thinks life’s a doddle on benefits read this and weep – here.

Salford is part of a move to set up a National Unemployed Workers’ Union – here.

Abolition of Disability Allowance: Hits Most Vulnerable Unemployed.

From Tony Greenstein’s Blog:

 

New Labour Proposes to Abolish ALL Disability Benefits – DLA and AA included

What kind of ‘Labour’ Government are the Trade Unions Funding?

Having already abolished Incapacity Benefit, with barely a squeak or murmur from the trade unions or labour movement, New Labour has signalled that it wants to scrap ALL disability benefits.

On July 14th New Labour published a Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Care. Reading through the spin and waffle, the message is clear. DLA is ‘inefficient’ ‘poorly targetted’ [because it’s not means tested!] and has to go.

In fact DLAis the best benefit there is. If your needs are great enough, if you cannot care and need help with bodily functions for part or all of the day (and night) you are eligible for DLA. There are 3 bands – lower, middle and higher. Receipt of DLAdoes not overlap with other benefits and is not counted as taxable income. The result is that people who are the most vulnerable and sick in this society see a small increase in their standard of living.

More here.

Tony and his fellow Brighton activists think we should have a national demo against ‘Welfare Reform’. That the TUC and Unions should be pressured into action.

We need to begin by organising ourselves at the grass-roots, against a4e, the YMCA and other profiteers from the out-of-work and disabled. Above all, against the Government, and Tories’ plans to divide, harass, and grind us down.

The name of the end for many of us (and who knows, the disabled as well): Workfare. Undercutting  those in employment, and toiling for a pittance under the kind of overseer we see in the companies and the ‘voluntary’ sector now setting up the ‘Flexible New Deal’. Whether they are hectoring bullies (with all the prejudices you can imagine) or genuinely good people (who want the best for their ‘clients’) they will soon have to face a choice: collaborate with the forced labour system or be opposed to it.

Youth March for Jobs.

CAMPAIGN group Youth Fight for Jobs has warned the government that it was planning a national demonstration against unemployment as the number of youngsters out of work surges towards the one million mark.

The campaign, backed by a number of leading trade unions, is staging the event in London on November 28 and will press the government to do more to help young people through the recession.

More info here.

It would be a good idea if the March was also: Fight Welfare ‘Reform’, Against Workfare, For Decent Benefits for All!

TNG and Avanta.

The Flexible New Deal  is due to begin this October.

In Suffolk A4e was one of the preferred bidders. It will be, we assume, up and running, round here soon.  The other company in charge in the County is part of TNG, part of AVANTA here.

 

Looking at the Board of this company, which appears to do very well out of public money, we find some dodgy-looking people.

 

Comments in Bold Italics:

No company promotion at the Ipswich Jobsfair

Ipswich Jobsfair
Wednesday 9th September 2009
Ipswich Corn Exchange
10am to 3pm

What a joke!

I have never seen such a bad unprepared, underpromoted, plain and pointless event in my entire life!

I had been to an Jobsfair earlier in the year at the same place and it is obvious that the businesses featured whom want people to signup and work for them this time round didn’t stick an effort in to persuading people to join them.

Lack of promotion

If you are a Jobseeker and recently been to the Jobcentre (apart from one Ipswich Unemployed Action member who signed on the same day and wasn’t advised about its existance) you would know about the jobsfair.

Even though Archant had a table they didn’t seem to advertise it on their website. Why not?

Entrance Security

Two employees of Jobcentre Plus obstructed the corridor obtaining the Jobseeker Directions (letters from Jobcentre saying you have to attend). Not everyone have them, so thsoe attending (like myself) without one found it difficult to get through. Beside them was a table containing a map of the hall with boxes scattered around numbered from 1 to 42.

Jobsfair: disorganised

• Instead of having a stall it really did consist of nothing more than a table and above it on a board was a number.
• In order to co-ordinate where you are going you would have to non-stop read the map/Jobsfair plan
• No signs at all of company logo or brands… no Argos, no KFC logo, no Toys R Us
• No laminated sheets with the company name printed on them (just a number!)
• Every “table” was identical apart from a different assigned number and different people behind it
• No job advertisements displayed at all
• No leaflets, freebies, etc. on display at all

1. Archant
2. CV Connect
3. Reed
4. Jobcentre Plus
5. Suffolk Childcare / Redundancy Advisor
6. Navy
7. Prestide Nursing
8. Key Training
9. Les Enfants
10. Holiday Inn
11. Argos
12. Primary Homecare
13. Mencap
14. Seetec
15. Money Shop
16. CSV Media
17. Adepta
18. ITEC
19. Army
20. SCC
21. SCC
22. Fire Service
23. ISG Jackson
24. IBC
25. IBC
26. Avon
27. Stag Security
28. Handford House
29. KFC
30. Elizabeth Copdock Hotel
31. Guardian Security
32. Suffolk Employment Care
33. Label Craft
34. Nacro
35. Snap
36. Anglian Home Improvements
37. Briarcare
38. Just Tech
39. Telecom Plus
40. Toys ‘R’ Us
41. WS Training
42. Care UK

Unemployed Workers’ Union.

FROM FACEBOOK GROUP:

Alex Halligan September 10 at 2:41am Reply

Hi everyone,

I have been swamped with emails and phone calls over the last couple of weeks. The unemployed Workers Union looks like it will go far

it looks like we will be able to set up a minimum of 25 Branches around Britain and Ireland over the coming months.

*Please get in touch if you want to get innvolved
*send me your email address and town or city
*Spread the word and INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO THE UNEMPLOYED WORKERS UNION FACEBOOK GROUP

Details of a national Youth Fight for Jobs demo can be found at the following link

http://www.youthfightforjobs.com/article/6946

Solidarity,

Alex Halligan

“Massive jobs boost”: 200 new jobs in Suffolk

Evening Star has reported that the Government’s “Future Jobs Fund” will create 200 new jobs in Suffolk.

SUFFOLK’S future looked bright today after the announcement of 200 new jobs for young people.

The county council has been given the go-ahead to create the vacancies in waste and environmental work, the voluntary sector, arts and culture, general admin, social care and youth work.

Role will include library assistants, assistant rangers, and heritage and tourism positions.

The new posts were among more than 600 created across the East of England and 7,500 in the country as part of the government’s £1billion Future Jobs Fund (FJF).

They bring the total number of jobs created through FJF to almost 55,000.

It is good that new jobs are created but I have a few concerns

Ipswich Detention Centre Operated by YMCA Training to Stay

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that YMCA Training were successful in their planning permission application therefore the Dencora House Detention Centre is here to stay!

Unemployed Workers’ Centres.

Rising unemployment, Welfare Reform, The Flexible New Deal, Workfare. Against these we need strong campaigns to defend the rights of those of us who are out of work.  We need places which can offer independent advice and help, somewhere to talk, organise, maybe have a cup of tea and food. Independent and responsible to the workless.

There were, once upon a time, plenty of these. They were called Unemployed Workers’ Centres. Inspired by the unemployed, unions, and backed by the TUC, there was a network across the country. Set up with funds from the movement, and sympathetic local councils. A few still remain. Some have been changed into Community Resource Centres. Many have closed.  Faced with the cuts every political party is threatening the future for independent support for those on the dole or receiving any form of welfare payment, looks grim.

But…

The recent TUC Annual Conference passed a resolution (text available soon – we hope), calling a renewal of these Centres. Now setting up a building with staff is a big task. But we should at least ask: if the TUC back the unemployed then we should ask for support for other initiatives. Like Unemployed Unions.

These need to be independent.

Not separate (from unions, other campaigns). But free from ties with the state and the Voluntary and Charity sector.

Why?

It seems more and more obvious that with Workfare on the horizon parts of the ‘voluntary sector’ are gearing up to be the drill sergeants for the State. They will be the organisations running at least part of the schemes (in ‘partnership’ with the likes of A4e, TNG,  and the YMCA). Already trial-runs are being played out. This involves co-operation by some of  the unemployed. It involves putting pressure on the out-of-work to collaborate. Paving the way for the compulsory scheme. 

One can see the opportunities this offers for some people to excercise power over others. For some to play the Charity Prince and Princesses helping the unfortunate. And for dodgy people to become important.

Instead of being under the thumb of the private companies running the lives of the unemployed, relying on the DWP,  or trusting to the good will of the Charitable, we need independent organisations. In fact ones that can fight against this raft of would-be runners of our lives.

Unemployed Workers’ Centres would help us do this.

Scottish MSP Expenses 93% of their salaries

A FoI request reveals the Scottish MSP expenses almost as large as their salaries.

They refused to disclose the year 2008/09.

Year	Cost of Salaries	Cost of Expenses	Approx percentage
2007/08	£11,301,000	£9,727,000	86%
2006/07	£10,050,000	£9,738,000	97%
2005/06	£9,698,000	£9,572,000	98%
2004/05	£9,600,000	£8,896,000	93%

YMCA Training lies to Ipswich Borough Council

YMCA Training lied to Ipswich Borough Council to attempt to secure retrospective planning permission for 517 London Road.

1. Proposal

The non-residential education and training centre run by the YMCA has been carried
out at this site since April 2003. The YMCA were unaware until recently that they
required an application for planning permission for the change of use.

Once this was brought to their attention they applied for the formal consent.

The use operated at this site is similar to that operated from 34 Whitehouse Road
(given a permanent planning permission at the last meeting of this committee).
YMCA Training also operate from similar premises in employment areas elsewhere
within Suffolk.

Given the history relating to the use at 34 Whitehouse Road it was determined that in
this instance this application should be presented to Committee for determination.

Nonsense…

Even though YMCA Training were forced to get planning consent for Dencora House they still refused to get planning permission for 517 London Road, Ipswich, IP2 0ST.

If it wasn’t for someone reporting them to the council (wonder who that could have been?) they wouldn’t have bothered applying.

Unemployed to Be Forced to Take Drug and Alchool Tests.

Don’t Forget to Bring These!

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

 

It’s been reported (here) that the DWP will soon (if the law passes) be able to order compulsory drug and alcohol tests on those singing-on. The aim? To force anyone they consider an addict or an alcoholic to undergo rehabilitation. Usual bean-bags and people hectoring you (perhaps A4e will get the contracts?).  Otherwise: no Dole.

 

Giving these powers to your local Job Centre is not a good idea.

 

Apart from the massive intrusion into people’s lives, it will lead to all kinds of front-desk rows. Plus more people begging in the streets.

Now many of us find addicts a pretty severe problem. But this is not the way to get round it. They need real treatment. As Campaigning Groups like Release (which does a good job) say. Not anything that’s a version of the New Deal (the likely offer).

It makes me want to turn up with a four-pack of Tennent’s Super, a Bottle of Vodka and sniff some Talcum Powder (JSA does  not extend to the price of real Coke!).

Tories to Make Things Worse for Unemployed.

Update (Monday).

People on employment support allowance who are deemed fit to work would be put on the jobseeker’s allowance, reducing their benefits by £25 a week. Work ‘experience’  and ‘training’ to be compulsory after 6 months. The core elements of the Tory package involve putting everyone on a single out-of-work benefit, including the stock of 2.6m incapacity benefit claimants and lone parents. The back-to-work programme will largely be run by voluntary groups and private sector companies.

I woke up – briefly – around five-thirty this morning. Put the radio on (Radio Five I think). Some woman from (guess it!)…A4e. Haven’t heard anyone so thick. And such a  goody-two-shoes. Unable to get simple questions. Interviewer asked if there was a subsidy to take on the unemployed employers might get rid of existing workers to have the extra money. She failed to understand this. Replied about what a  wonderful job her company was doing.

These are the people who are going to Get Britain Working!

I

The media today (written Sunday) is full of David Cameron’s plans to Get Britain Working.

He plans to abolish the New Deal (in its various forms) for the Unemployed.

Good.

But what will they put in its place? And who is behind the schemes?

Details are sketchy (we will update them as they are revealed), but this (here) is worth noting. The policy is called,

“Get Britain Working” – which will see sweeping changes to policy across whole swathes of Whitehall in an attempt to “unleash investment and entrepreneurial activity that helps create more jobs”.

That is, the usual guff.

But wait..Who is the Shadow (unelected) Chap in Charge?

Mr Cameron’s article puts wholesale reform of Britain’s welfare system at heart of his drive for jobs – masterminded by Lord (David) Freud, the welfare expert who “defected” from advising the government to become a Tory shadow minister earlier this year.

David Baron Freud’s ‘expertise’ on welfare is nill. What has he done in his life? Well, he was a public schoolboy. He went to Oxford. Worked at the Financial Times. He then swanned around advising on financial deals, pilfering and making a mess of things.

 

To start with, what is his experience in life? Sketch here.

“His involvement in raising £50bn ($72bn) during some of the biggest deals of the 1980s and 1990s made him a wealthy man – yet he continues to cycle to work, swim regularly in Hampstead Heath’s ponds and conduct his business in functional off-the-peg suits.”

Mistakes he has made in his career include (here), 

He moved into advising companies, and was involved in piecing together extremely complex deals such as the flotations of Eurotunnel and EuroDisney, which cost investors millions, and the financing of the Channel Tunnel rail link. Eurotunnel opened in May 1994 one year behind schedule and £2bn ($2.9bn) over budget. Sir David later admitted the deal was a “shambles” and that he had “successfully sold the market a pup”.But his chutzpah meant his career was not held back.Hauled before furious MPs to explain the mispricing of Railtrack, he was subsequently appointed an advisor to the government on its successor, Network Rail.

As a an adviser to the Labour Government Freud was responsible for introducing the principle of Workfare and the Flexible New Deal. Now he has ratted and joined the Tories we can be sure he will have had an even freer hand. Expect loads of money for the usual suspects (A4E etc) to ’train’ the workless, and a programme of workfare. That will be as a futile, demeaning, pointless, costly, as anyone can imagine. And do absolutely nothing to deal with mass unemployment.

 

Watching A4E gives some more information on this depressing, tyrannical, absurd, scheme (here).

Welcome to the Baron in charge of Creating Social Exclusion.

Work for Benefit.

This is not so widely reported,

 

“The proposals also build on the government’s “work for your benefit” scheme, forcing long-term unemployed to engage in community work programmes to “earn” benefits.

Participation in community work will be for one year, at the end of which participants will start a fresh back-to-work cycle with a fresh assessment.

The Conservatives admitted that they were basing their ideas for the unemployed on Australia’s “work for the dole” projects.”

 

Here.

Youth Unemployment Heads to One Million.

From the Observer (Here), 

“The government’s record on youth unemployment will come under intense scrutiny this week amid fears that the number of jobless 16 to 24-year-olds will rise through the one-million barrier.

Economists believe the failure of large numbers of this year’s school leavers and graduates to find work this summer will lead to a sharp jump in those under 25 without work when the data for August is released on Wednesday.”

 

The Labour, and Conservative response is that there has to be an expansion of unpaid workplacements – ‘Internships’.

 

Perhaps they should take a Butcher’s at this site: Carrot Workers (here).

YMCA Training: We can’t give out phone numbers

A member of Ipswich Unemployed Action rang Dencora House on Tuesday asking if they had the phone number for another detention centre of theirs. Surprise, surprise, the person who answered the phone stated YMCA Training had a policy where they couldn’t disclose telephone numbers.

Unemployed FORCED to take Drug Tests.

As noted already here, this is in prospect everywhere. However even we did not realise this practice has already begun.

 

Hat-Tip to Chris.

Published: Friday, 9th October, 2009 2:00pm Full Story here.

Job centre drug test fury by Russell Steele

DRUG SHOCK: Job Centre.

SHOCKED jobseekers were subjected to ‘degrading’ drug tests in a Greenock street by a top recruitment firm, the Tele has learned.

People who were interviewed for posts with cabling firm Sanmina were left astonished this week when they were escorted outside Greenock Jobcentre by staff from Pertemps for mouth swabs to be taken – as cars drove past and pedestrians walked by. 

The tests were taken outside the Jobcentre because Pertemps did not have permission to conduct them inside during interviews. ”

 

This is a major scandal.

Vagabonds, criminals, paupers & gangrels? Variant Magazine Interview.

Interview with Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty & Edinburgh Claimants.

 

This is highly recommended reading for anyone who thinks ‘Welfare reform’ (reducing our living standards and taking away our rights)  is a good idea. .

“They hang the man,
and flog the woman,
That steals the goose
from off the common;
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common
from the goose.”
Anonymous, 17th century

A false division exists between those in work and those ‘out of work’, and, despite the correlation between welfare and work, there have been few effective movements to defend the unemployed and low-wage workers collectively. However, with the unemployed increasingly herded into a privatised workfare industry, and with the onset of large-scale unemployment under recessionary conditions, there lies the possibility of a convergence of interests and perspectives between the unemployed, people in precarious work, and all those who contribute to society outside of the wage-relation. In the context of punitive Welfare restructuring there have been some challenging community responses – ECAP and Edinburgh Claimants are among those groups that are only too well aware of the implications. Variant interviewed them, as building and strengthening coalitions between people in low paid work and people on benefits is surely (more here)

Working Links’ £13m Flexible New Deal boost

Royal Bank of Scotland has loaned Working Links £13 million via its Revolving Credit facility (designed to provide businesses with the working capital required) to help fund the initial working capital to deliver the £500 million 5-year Flexible New Deal contract allowing the employment of over 300 new employees at 40 new offices they intend to open across the UK.

SAVE DLA AND ALL DISABILITY BENEFITS.

This is cross-posted from Tony Greenstein’s Blog.

Tony is in contact with Ipswich Unemployed Action. One of his complaints (see below) is the lack of serious opposition to Welfare Reform. Here he gives further details of the threat this poses and what should be done.

There are already serious cases in Ipswich of people having their money cut. The DWP runs examinations popularly known as the Lourdes cure: the halt and the lame emerge in full health (er…). Some of the most serious examples involve people with ‘invisible’ disabilities – that is those suffering from mental troubles.

SAVE DLA AND ALL DISABILITY BENEFITS

Tony Greenstein Having already abolished Incapacity Benefit, New Labour has now made it clear that it wants to scrap ALL disability benefits. On July 14th New Labour published a Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Care. Reading through the spin, the message is clear. DLA is ‘inefficient’ ‘poorly targeted’ [because it’s not means tested!] and therefore has to go towards paying for a new national care service. DLA is the best benefit there is. If your needs are great enough, if you cannot care and need help with bodily functions for part or all of the day (and night) you are eligible for DLA. There are 3 bands – lower, middle and higher. Receipt of DLA does not overlap with other benefits and is not counted as taxable income. The result is that people who are the most vulnerable and sick in this society see a small increase in their standard of living. This is what New Labour hate most of all. The proposal is to use the money for ‘individual budgets’ run by private companies, whereby the disabled, in agreement with the local authority, can spend the money on care. Of course they’ll never actually see the money!! The whole system will be discretionary and, of course, liable to cuts. Anyone with any experience of the existing system of individual budgets knows what a nightmare the whole system is.

The Green Paper talks about abolishing Attendance Allowance which is paid to those 65 and over (AA is the equivalent of the care component of DLA). Instead they intend to force the elderly to pay £20,000 to insure themselves!! The Green Paper talks about replacing not just Attendance Allowance but ‘disability benefits’ – a clear sign that it is not just AA which is in their sights. And the Green Paper dresses up its purpose with the usual New Labour waffle such as proclaiming that “our aspiration (is) to build a stronger, fairer Britain.” The Attlee Government of 1945-51, which was a right-wing cold war Labour government, introduced the building blocs of the welfare state which New Labour is intent on dismantling. They introduced the 1948 National Assistance Act intended to act as a safety net for those who fell below a certain level of income.

Workfare (Forced Labour) to be Piloted in Suffolk (and elsewhere).

Work for Your Benefits (here)

Work for Your Benefit (WfYB) pilots were a key part of the Green Paper “No one written off: reforming welfare to reform responsibility” published in July 2008 and the response “Raising expectations and increasing support: reforming welfare for the future” published in December 2008.

1. The Work for Your Benefit programme will consist of full-time (30 hours a week) work experience, backed up with flexible employment support.
2. There will be two pilots:
3. Greater Manchester
4. Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk

 

This is coming, very soon. This will apply to people who have completed the 52 weeks programme of the Flexible New Deal. Given the rates of unemployment it means quite a few of us will be facing the prospect for working for our meagre Dole. Locally ‘voluntary; organisations are already trumpeting a ‘soft’ (voluntary) version of workfare. Well-rewarded professionals consider that we should contribute something to society  at rates of pay they would never dream of accepting. Like Housing Associations we will see some of them transform as they become publicly-funded (but privately run) bodies. Already there are some reports of dodgy individuals getting involved in these ‘projects’.  

More to the point: given Councils are cash-strapped, looking for ways to save money, how long will it before some Town Hall hits on the idea of using Workfare to replace paid staff?

Unemployment Set to Keep Rising.

Unemployment in the UK is set to hit 2.75 million by November next year as the economic recovery fails to boost the jobs market, research has claimed. (More here).

The ‘Flexible New Deal’ is to be followed by Work for Benefits. We have mentioned that East Anglia will be a Pilot area. This will be followed by the rest of the country. With these figures the signs are that a vast number of people are going to end up under the thumb of private Companies, Charities, Voluntary Organisations. Full-time. Dependent on their Good Will. Of the ‘good practice’ of the likes of a4e and Working Links. Not that, charities and ‘voluntary groups’ are exactly famous for this in regard to their own staff. As the trade unions know only too well.

New Deal Sanctions Exposed

679,820 New Deal Sanctions

So, we are always hearing about the millions of people who New Deal has supposedly helped get such jobseekers back in to work off benefits. You have also heard about how poorly New Deal participants are treated and perhaps you have your own experiences to back up this, but Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that over 679,820 sanctions have been awarded to lucky New Deal participants since the year 2000.
Whether the Government likes to admit this or not, the figures are an alarmingly high figure (equates to approx 84,977 sanctions per year) which probably suggest why the Government has refused mine and numerous other peoples attempts to reveal the numbers of people on New Deal being dismissed (or exited as they like to call it) under the Freedom of Information Act claiming an exemption.
Whereas these figures state the exact number of sanctions successfully imposed, it doesn’t state the number of times New Deal participants were exited/dismissed. It can be assumed that for each sanction a dismissal had occurred because that is the procedure however, myself and Andrew to name just two examples have been dismissed in the past without any imposed sanctions at all.
The figure of 679,820 definite dismissals with sanctions is a big figure so it is best to break it up.

New Deal

Prior to April 2004 but after April 2000, there were 193,300 sanctions awarded. At this time their systems didn’t specify which New Deal scheme it referred to. After April 2004 they are more detailed. The above figures equates to a rough average of 48,325 sanctions per year.
This is 4,027 sanctions per a month; 929 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 261 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri) solely from New Deal.

New Deal for Young People (NDYP)

Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 325,390 successful sanctions awarded.
Gateway 2 Work (GtW)
On New Deal for Young People (NDYP) Gateway to Work there were 119,570 dismissals leading to successful sanctioning.
This is 2,491 sanctions per a month; 575 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 115 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri) solely from the Gateway 2 Work (GtW) stage of New Deal for Young People (NDYP).
ETF/VSO Option etc. (Option stage)
On New Deal for Young People (NDYP) VSO etc. there were 205, 560 dismissals leading to successful sanctioning.
This is 4,282 sanctions per a month; 988 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 197 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri) solely from the Option stage of New Deal for Young People (NDYP).
Other NDYP
I assume this category refers to the Adviser stage of New Deal; there were only 260 sanctions which equates to just over 1 a week.

New Deal 25+ (ND25+)

Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 64,750 successful sanctions awarded.
Gateway 2 Work (GtW)
On New Deal 25+ (ND25+) Gateway to Work there were 7,110 dismissals leading to successful sanctioning.
This is 148 sanctions per a month; 34 sanctions each week solely from the Gateway 2 Work (GtW) stage of New Deal 25+ (ND25+).
Intensive Activity Period (IAP)
On New Deal 25+ (ND25+) IAP there were 57,640 dismissals leading to successful sanctioning.
This is 1,200 sanctions per a month; 277 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 55 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri) solely from the IAP stage of New Deal 25+ (ND25+).

Basic Skills

Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 1,700 successful sanctions awarded equating to almost 2 every working day.

IAP (ages 50-59)

Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 40 successful sanctions awarded equating to just under 1 a month.

Refusing/Failing a Jobseeker Direction while on New Deal

Does this mean refusing New Deal?! Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 70,190 successful sanctions awarded for refusing New Deal/Jobseeker Direction.
This is 1,462 sanctions per a month; 337 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 67 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri) solely for refusing New Deal.

“Unknown”

Since April 2004 up until April 2009 (not up until New Deal ended) there were 5,980 successful sanctions awarded. We assume this category of Unknown New Deal is the other schemes such as NDDP, NDLP etc. out of process of elimination (i.e. the NDYP, ND25+ accounted for).
This is 125 sanctions per a month; 29 sanctions each week or to break it down completely, 6 sanctions each working day (5 day week Mon-Fri).

Reflection

From 2000 to April 2004, there were 193,300 sanctions making a rough figure of 48,325 sanctions per year. After April 2004 (up until April 2009) there were 486,520 sanctions making a rough figure of 121,630 per year.

This is an increase of 60% in sanctions.

Flexible New Deal

The Conservatives claim they will bring tougher sanctions and the Labour Party seems to have similar ideas.

Bypass Norwich! Local benefit claimants must read

Bypass the Benefit Delay Scandal

Jobcentre Plus gets correspondence sent to the below published address for the Suffolk (?) area:

Bury St Edmunds BDC
Thorpe Road
Norwich
NR99 1AD

Claimants’ Unions National Meeting.

Signs that things are starting to happen,

No to Welfare Abolition

the national planning meeting

Manchester University Students Union, Steve Biko Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR, rooms MR1 and MR2

Saturday 14th November

Arrive 11.30am for 12 noon start. Finish 5.30pm.

* The aims: stop the implementation of the welfare reform (abolition) bill; build a network of solidarity between claimants; create links between unemployed workers and workers in the PCS

* The day: 1. Share information 2. Plan a national action 3. Build a strategy and work out how we can co-ordinate nationally

The Welfare Reform Bill is a massive attack on the disabled, single parents, unemployed workers and workers in the Department for Work and Pensions and we cannot allow it to be implemented. 

14^th November is our chance for welfare and disability rights activists, members of unemployed workers’ groups and trade unionists to get to together, build links of solidarity and plan our struggle. If you are organising against welfare abolition or want to start doing so, please make sure people from your group come along!

We say to the government and the bosses, we do not exist for your benefit!

Free lunch will be provided.

Let us know you are coming by emailing hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com.

Contact rebecca.galbraith@yahoo.co.uk if you want to use the free creche.

Contact hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com if you need transport from London

 

Naturally, Manchester is rather a long way from Ipswich….

Unjustly Imprisoned Claimants.

Mick’s Blog contains some important stuff,

“Many hundreds of claimants are unjustly imprisoned every year because overpayment amounts are being ‘wildly exaggerated’ by the DWP, welfare benefits expert witness Neil Bateman has told MPs . In one case he assisted with, a woman prosecuted for a £47,000 overpayment had in reality under-claimed benefits.  

The shocking revelations were made in written evidence to a House of Commons committee currently examining the standard of DWP decision making.”

More here.

Reed in Partnership. What Kind of Partners for the Unemployed?

Reed in Partnership - the  word ‘partnership’ should make anyone wary.

They are subcontracted to provide the flexible New Deal. In Suffolk.

Flexible New Deal has raised issues about them in the recent past.

We have yet to hear any criticisms of how they treat ‘customers’ locally. And we shall be scrupulous in fulfilling any demands they make on our members and supporters  - insofar as they correspond to Reed’s own criteria.

That is their “set of six core values “,  “Accountability, Honesty, Efficiency, Forward Thinking, High Performing and Customer Focus”. (here)

Any experiences of these – please comment.

Flexible New Deal, TNG and Sanctions.

Well, it’s all off the Flexible New Deal. Contrary to what I was led to believe by other people, it is TNG that I have to report to.

The New Deal Scandal site, and others, have  already shared their knowledge and experience of this “provider” (for example here)

I wonder if any of this relates to the contents of the Jobcentreplus Flexible New Deal document, “What you can expect and what we can expect from you.” (FNDI 10/09).

It begin with  two pages explaining what the FND is.

One page on what we can expect from you. That is  responsibilities we owe to the DWP and the ‘Provider’.

Then “What happens if you don’t meet your responsibilities”?”

Answer: Sanctions. Seven pages  ( Page 7 to 13), from a total of 14,  about them.

Ends with “How to make a complaint.”

On Page 2 there is some stuff about ‘service standards’.

It would have been more useful if they explained how the Flexible New Deal is going to be delivered, what is consists of, and what responsibilities the ‘provider’ TNG, has towards its clients.

But of this, nothing. 

 

Work For Benefit: The New Helots.

This article appears in the December issue of Labour Briefing – a left journal strongly critical of the present government. 

Work for Your Benefit: Labour’s New Helots. 

Welfare reform legislation is due to be one of this Government’s enduring legacies. From this autumn there will be two benefits: Jobseeker’s Allowance, and Employment and Support Allowance. Already there is pressure on medical assessors to channel those on Incapacity Benefit into the former, where many lone parents and others will also eventually join them. JSA brings a lower income – down to the standard rate of £64.30 a week, in contrast to £89.80, the starting point of incapacity allowance – and, after six months, puts claimants on the Flexible New Deal. This, being tried out in large parts of the country, will eventually replace all existing welfare-to-work schemes. For a year the jobless will be farmed out to private companies, intensively advised and obliged to carry out a minimum of four weeks of “work related activity” (they may be “advised” to do much more).

This sounds relatively benign. It replaces 13 weeks in “work placements” of dubious value or simply stuck in “training centres” (where the only “training” is sitting in front of computers “job searching” for work that does not exist) of the previous New Deal. However, the Government has learned nothing from its experience of farming out the New Deal to private companies, two of which at least have been accused of malpractice. The faith-led YMCA has also run schemes. Most have scraped through their contracts with low employment outcomes and feeble training standards. The approximately 600,000 claimants who have faced sanctions for not complying with every aspect of the schemes shows how they are used to punish people. If participants were in charge of inspections, the companies would fail in an instant – yet the DWP has been told to contract out its new scheme to the same bodies.

The new regime will closely regulate people’s lives. Partners of JSA claimants will also have to seek work actively. Those dependent on drugs and alcohol will undergo compulsory rehabilitation. There is no clear notion of what will happen if they fail, other than they will have no benefits.

Most worryingly, after two years unemployment people will be forced onto the Work for Benefits programme. This will involve full time activity in “training options, short term work trials, a remuneration subsidy for employers to take them, or voluntary work in the local community,” (DWP October 2009). With unemployment set to rise to 3 million by October next year, when this policy is enforced, they will have plenty of compelled “volunteers”.

Some argue that since JSA is supplemented by housing and council tax benefit, it is “fair” to work for this money. However, those further benefits are paid at varying rates, making the overall pay rates different between individuals – and still leaving them well below the minimum wage.

This all raises fundamental issues. First, why should those who through no fault of their own have no job be forced to do what has up to now been the task of those sentenced to do community service by the courts? Indeed, what will happen to community service orders when the long-term unemployed start to undertake similar “sentences”?

Second, this will corrupt the voluntary sector, parts of which are already gearing up for it. The character of the voluntary sector will change. The nature of forced labour is to give power to the employer while discouraging the worker, making them dependent on the goodwill of the employer. The rights of volunteers are not the same as those on paid contracts. Groups and no doubt individuals will profit financially.

Third, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that cash-strapped local government will see this as an opportunity to plug gaps in their services. A tied labourer is cheaper than a paid employee. In areas as disparate as home helps to environmental projects volunteering could become a new national service, replacing those working for real salaries.

Those opposed to welfare reform have to date had little impact on Brown’s take it or leave it decision that this is the direction welfare will go in. The umbrella initiatives organised by the TUC have petered out in well-meaning but ineffective lobbying by a coalition of “antipoverty” NGOs with some union support. There are now signs of a more militant approach emerging from unions of the unemployed and other groups. There are web sites promoting opposition and plans for a decent benefit system that could really cope with people’s needs. As mass unemployment returns pressure for change will increase.

 Labour looks set to leave behind a new class of helots – the work-for-the dole underclass. An incoming Conservative Administration will have plenty of conscripts for its plans for workfare. Both ideas were pioneered by the same person – once adviser to Labour and now the Tories, the exceedingly wealthy Lord Freud.

Andrew Coates

􀁺For more information, visit Ipswich Unemployed Action: http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/

TNG are racist! (Ed’s note: Ofsted alleges “inadequate” Equal Ops)

Equal Opportunities?

Ipswich Unemployed Action would like to alert Flexible New Deal clients that an Ofsted report for ”TNG (Avanta) Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire New Deal” raised massive concerns about the central structure of TNG/Avanta being racist at its core.

During the Ofsted report inspection, the inspector noted some “inappropriate language and images” by both TNG staff and subcontractor staff – whereas Ofsted didn’t state whether these fell under racism, sexism, disability discrimination or a mixture of more than one, it raises extreme concerns especially when Equal Opportunities is written in the core of New Deal contracts.

DWP/Jobcentre Plus are aware of this concern at the time prior to the inspection and forced the holding company to establish an equality of opportunity representatives’ group (although this was for Avanta not TNG itself) and to immediately implement equality and diversity policies, procedures and staff training in TNG.

The report concluded that although had given plenty of time to do so prior to the Ofsted inspection most staff did not receive training on equality and diversity and the direct results of this are present when such staff couldn’t suppress such behaviour when being inspected by Ofsted, resulting in them being caught speaking offensive language and advocating the presentation of disgusting images to participants. Any attempts to include equality and diversity in TNG’s adult training public service environment have failed. The staff racism etc. was solely noted on this contract area although the failing’s in the company as a whole was raised i.e. if they dont have policies and procedures in place and staff aren’t trained – the situation will be a problem nationally.

Although these are major concerns (and on the tendering stage potential provides have to show awareness of Equal ops, harassment policies etc. these are also policies which form part of the New Deal contract hence why providers mention them on induction as they have to) TNG kept this prime contract. They also managed to secure Flexible New Deal.

TNG Ipswich: How do we get there?

So many people in Ipswich may have got  an invite to attend Flexible New Deal at TNG.

TNG which stands for Training Network Group or more to the point Trainee Network Group. Maybe the company should be called NGT (Network Group in Training) as even though they are part of a bigger company (Avanta) and have landed huge Government contracts to deliver Flexible New Deal – they are the most incompetent useless unprofessional dim wits ever!

Before you see this as a rant against the Flexible New Deal provider, read on and see how poor their methods of communication are.

We can hear an TNG employee stating:

How come only those who came by train had arrived?

Ipswich Jobseekers should claim back New Deal travel deductions after DWP has admitted it is illegal

New Deal Scandal has just announced that the £4 weekly travel deductions are illegal when DWP finally admitted:

There is no legislation involved in this decision.

DWP has since tried to remove the Freedom of Information request from the WhatDoTheyKnow Freedom of Information website. More details (and the full response) are available on Flexible-New-Deal.co.uk : New Deal Travel Deductions: DWP admits £4 deductions are unlawful

Ipswich Unemployed Action recommends everyone who fell victim to this multi-million pound scam since 1998 should contact their New Deal training provider and demand their money back (with interest to keep with inflation).

Those in Ipswich should contact Dencora House, YMCA Training.

Their details are as follows…

Dencora House
Units 6 to 10
34 Whitehouse Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 5LU

Tel: 01473 243980

Or

517 London Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP2 0ST

Telephone: 01473 406126

Contact name: Sally Smith

YMCA Training New Deal Contract Published

So, amongst reporting about the failings of New Deal as a whole and numerous other unemployment/welfare issues including new and proposed schemes such as Flexible New Deal and Workfare; you would have read about numerous concerns regarding local New Deal prime contractor (and I hear, also a subcontractor for Flexible New Deal) YMCA Training based at Dencora House and London Road.

Just to recap:

• Poor conditions at Dencora House and mistreatment of participants (overcrowding etc)
• Leaking participants confidential information
• Sending participants on walks (Cambridge) and requesting volunteers in order to run provision
• Dismissing participants with lies including claiming someone was a breach of Health & Safety obligations for saying “Storm Dencora House” on his blog, but really was down to speaking out about the scandal *before* he started the course
• Harrassment and Diversity issues
• Not complying to the Data Protection Act 1998 i.e. overdue information requests
• New Deal Fraud including timesheet fraud – saying participants are there longer than reality
• Deducting £4 week without legal authority to do so (advice on reclaiming coming soon)

YMCA Training New Deal: no Diversity or Harrassment policies

So, YMCA Training’s New Deal contract had been recently published and one of the most interesting discoveries was no diversity or harrassment policies were included when the contract was signed.

Draconian Testing Regime.

Via Mick, (here)”

In two reports issued last month, UK charities have finally begun to wake up and challenge the government over the ‘cruel’ and ‘unacceptable’ failings of the Employment and Support Allowance, (ESA) which is to replace the sickness benefits paid to those who are to ill or disabled to work. In the article below, the web site Benefits and Work looks at the disquiet which is gradually emerging over the way claimants are tested by the DWP to find out whether they are fit for work, and thus not eligible for sickness benefits. The new system has proved especially problematical as it operates on a one size fits all computer programe, which is unable to take into account the different ways illness and disability impacts on individual claimants. Some of the examples the article throws up are shocking. For example a claimant undergoing chemotherapy was obliged to attend a medical by badly trained DWP staff and told if she failed to attend she would lose her sickness benefit. Others claimants with cancer scored very few points when assessed under the new work capability assessment and were refused ESA. One woman with cancer scored just six points and was found capable of work.

Read the rest here.

Petition to Abolish Workfare.

Petition to abolish Workfare

Please sign the following petition supporting the abolition of Workfare.

We want to abolish work for your benefit/workfare schemes in the UK. The Welfare Reform Bill will cause severe financial and emotional distress to the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

Via Harpy Marx.

Right to Work Conference.

The forthcoming Right to Work conference in Manchester on Sat Jan 30th and the transport that is being put on to get people there from our area in case you or any of the other unemployed people you have built up contact with are interested in taking part. The local contact for the conference and transport arrangements is John Curtis, and his mobile number is 07517 531733, and his e-mail address is below. The Right to Work website is www.righttowork.org.uk where you will find lots more information about their campaign. If you or other local unemployed people want to go but feel the £5 cost is more than you can afford, please get in touch with me and I will see if we can raise some financial help.

New Labour Christian Charity.

Via Fat Man on a Keyboard.

“In June of last year a young Frenchwoman jumped off the sixth floor balcony of her sister’s flat in London holding her five-month-old baby in her arms. Both were killed. A tragedy, but one with a reason. Let Jenni Russell take up the story. Christelle fitted no stereotype. She was a 32-year-old Frenchwoman living in Hackney who had lived in Britain since she and her sister moved here in 1997. In May 2008 she graduated from London’s Metropolitan University with a degree in philosophy. At about the same time she discovered she was pregnant. She looked for work while claiming jobseeker’s allowance and housing benefit.

Then in December 2008, the advisers at the jobcentre told her she no longer qualified for jobseeker’s allowance.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions the fact that she was within 11 weeks of giving birth disqualified her from being an active jobseeker. She was told to apply for income support instead. What no one warned her was that European nationals who claim income support must provide more proof of residence than jobseekers have to. All a jobseeker needs do is show they are looking for work. Income support is only given if the claimant can prove that for the previous five years they have been either in work, searching for work, studying, or self-sufficient.

Christelle had an eight-month period in 2003 when she said she had been working in a cafe but had no employment records to prove it. Her claim was turned down.

Once that happened, the welfare state stopped operating. Her housing benefit was automatically withdrawn. The state, having decreed she was not in a fit condition to look for work, took no further interest in how the penniless mother of a new baby was going to survive.

This is how it ends. All the endless measures aimed at tightening the rules on claimants and foreigners in an attempt to appease the supposed, and probably fictional, atavistic appetites of the electorate, all the cosying up to the the editors of the right wing press, all the creation of increasingly labyrinthine bureaucratic rules, they all result in two broken bodies lying on a Hackney pavement.

And now we turn to the ‘coup’ that failed – the last ditch attempt to oust the Prime Minister. I may have missed it, but I can’t recall any debate about what the Labour Party should be and what would change under a new leader. Was there a discussion of alternative ideas, philosophies and policies? Was there any mention of how to create a better Britain, one forged from the best traditions of the Labour movement, one that would not lead someone to choose death over destitution? Not as far as I could see. Instead all the talk was of who would be most likely to win an election, of who is in and who is out, of factions and intrigues. Court politics. That is what we are left with, court politics.

Jenni Russell concluded, I don’t believe this is a stance a civilised society can justify. It pitches foreign-born mothers back into a Victorian-style existence in which pregnancy may mean destitution and disgrace. I agree. And as the ghastly prospect of a prolonged election campaign, dripping with platitudes, looms, don’t expect to hear anything about the suicide of a young mother and how we should ensure that something as grotesquely tragic never happens again. It wouldn’t do to disturb the formulaic answers and sloganising with the lives and deaths of real people. Would it?”

I wept when I read this.

Claim unlawful travel deductions back

Sister site Flexible New Deal Scandal (flexible-new-deal.co.uk) is seeking volunteers who have been on a New Deal course at Dencora House within the last year to help everyone claim their travel back. Last year we exposed that such travel deductions were unlawful and now we wish to take action. 

Right to Work Conference: Welfare Reform.

A conference of resistance and solidarity Saturday 30 January, Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester 11.30am-5pm Fight for every job Organise to stop the cuts Defend services and pensions Unite the public and private sectors Demand a million green jobs Jobs not bombs Defend migrant workers – jobs for all Speakers include: Mark Serwotka (PCS), Sally Hunt (UCU), Tony Kearns (CWU), Pete Murray (NUJ), Jerry Hicks (Unite), Mark Smith (former Vestas worker), Paul Brandon (Unite bus worker), Nahella Ashraf (chair, Greater Manchester Stop the War), Dave Chapple (Chair National Shop Stewards Network), Clara Osagiede (RMT cleaners’ secretary), Kevin Courtney (NUT national executive, personal capacity), Dot Gibson (General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention). More here.

We note that there will be discussion of a campaign against Welfare Reform. In our view this is a central concern. We have posted extensively on this.

The TUC sponsered campaign had not gained momentum.

This is not just an issue for trade unions, NGOs, and left political parties. It is time that those affected, unemployed,  single parents, those on Incapacity Benefits, make our voices heard.

Councils Under Tories May Set Benefit Levels.

Tories may give councils power to set benefits

Toby Helm. Guardian here.

Under the proposal benefits would be lower where it was easier to find work, and councils would also be given incentives to help people find jobs.

The Conservative Treasury team are holding talks on handing responsibility to local councils for setting and distributing benefits such as the jobseeker’s allowance.

A move to setting benefit rates to match the needs of local labour markets has been pushed by radical Tory councils but it is the first time that the frontbench has embraced the concept.Speaking at a conference organised by the New Local Government Network in London, the shadow chief secretary, Philip Hammond, disclosed that he was holding talks on the issue with Conservative councils, including Kent.

He said: “There are some key challenges we will have to face in delivering this agenda. Can we take the public with us in this agenda? Can we persuade people living in your area, for example, they would rather see the management of workless benefits in the hands of a local authority than in the hands of a national government setting standards nationally?”

He said “huge potential savings” were available, adding that he regarded local government as pivotal to reducing the public sector deficit.

Under the proposal benefits would be lower where it was easier to find work. Councils would also be given incentives to help people find jobs. The plan has not yet appeared in any formal document.

In Ipswich this would be an utter disaster. The Liberal-Tory administration has attacked public services: shut down local Housing Offices, closed the Film Theatre, closed Crown Pools Car Park, hived off work to ‘consultants’, threatens to shut a residence for homeless families, and is now  privatising Ipswich buses. They refuse to deal properly with the needs of growing numbers of street sleepers.

Their attitude to the poor is summed up by one leading Tory Councillor saying that their new ‘Community Centre’ in an old town Church (St Lawrence Centre)  will ”keep the riff raff out“.  

Put that lot in charge of the dole and we will be queuing at Charity soup kitchens in no time.

Flexible New Deal in Ipswich

Ipswich Unemployed Action has done some primary research on the two Flexible New Deal providers in Ipswich: TNG and A4e.  (Reed in Partnership Scandal Grows).

Sanctions on Flexible New Deal.

“Should a customer not fully participate in Flexible New Deal it may be necessary as a last resort to raise either an Entitlement Doubt or Sanction Doubt“.

Entitlement  Doubts when “we suspect a participant is not complying with the basic rules of claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance

• Being available for employment, and
• Actively seeking employment.

Sanction Doubts: “are used to formally notify Jobcentre Plus of specific incidents of non-compliance by the participant with relation to his or her participation through FND, where YMCA Training’s staff make a decision that a  temporary penalty should be raised.

A doubt may be raised against your benefits it:

• You do not appear to be actively seeking work
• You do not make yourself available for work
• You refuse to apply for, or take up, a job
• You restrict your availability for training
• You leave training before it is completed. 
• You do not attend your agreed appointment
• You refuse to sign your action plan
• You refuse to do what is on you action plan.

And:

• You do not curtsey or bow when in the presence of your betters.

Actually I made that one up.

Anyway, this list of ‘doubts’ is, well let’s just say,  comprehensive.

Right to Work Conference Report.

Guest Post by “Unemployed from Ipswich” who attended the conference.

Right to Work

A Conference for Resistance and Solidarity

Central Hall, Oldham Street, 30th January 2010

Workshop 10:  The Welfare Reform agenda, fighting for our rights.

Chairman: James Eadon – Chesterfield Trades Council President.

Delegates were invited to contribute experiences to identify the issues that needed tackling and therefore, help shape future action.  Though it quickly became clear that not only was there a huge ignorance of rights, particularly by minority groups, but there is an erosion of the funding to monitor rights.

Here are selected contributions:

John Bradley of Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre.

New Labour has gone further than any previous Conservative government in its harshness of policy on unemployed people.   The majority of whom, the system treats as potential fraudsters.   No talk of wealth redistribution.  The minimum wage coupled with Tax credits has amounted to a huge subsidy to employers.

The TUC must be central in organising the 40 unemployed centres in an organised fight-back.

Scott of Cambridge Unemployed Union.

Example or a group already getting organised: defendwelfare.org

PCS member from Manchester working in the call centre for crisis loans

Money is running out at the end of the month, meaning that requests for essential items have to be refused.  The replacement with a call centre service, has led to deterioration in ‘customer’ service – coupled with staff cut-backs led to slow resolutions.

GP from East London

Ethnic minorities cannot deal with call centres because of language barrier.  Schemes turning into internships that were leading to depression among the poor.

Rights Worker from Midlands

Marginalisation through debt, Continuous amendments in law created a complexity, both in rights of individual and of the state.  Partial solution was in an understanding of the “newspeak” and that had a part to play in informing the disadvantaged.

Case study: Mick from Sheffield

His overpayment, despite his informing and resulting reassurance that there was no overpayment, wisely retained the overpayment because following a change of opinion and resulting request to return the over-payment, was able to do so.

Rachel, Welfare Rights Worker from South London

Sanctions were part of the erosion of the welfare safety net.  What has happened to the minimum amount to live on?  Her view that the poverty of people in work was meeting the same level as those on benefit.  Little debate on the matter.

ESA appeals ¾ not passing their appeals.  Lifetime DLA awards being removed leading to more appeals at which, because of the Legal Services Commission system of fixed fee, personal representation at appeals was unfunded.  Appeal tribunals taking place on 2nd or 3rd story rooms without lifts.

My contribution was to stress the need to monitor Flexible New Deal because the old scheme had been nothing more than 13 week detention for claimants and if that was tolerated, what incentive is there to make FND helpful in the present climate?  I reported the London TUC’s “unhappy with certain aspects (ND)”, but would not oppose ND stance.

Cats & Dogs aka Odds & Ends

10% cut in funding to advice centres while competition between private (A4E) and voluntary sector advisors was favouring the business organisations.

 Privatisation had returned welfare to the Poor Laws of past times.  That training had been neglected.  What training was available was too expensive.

The near-future action that was suggested included the assembling of all the campaigning groups.  To inform claimants of their rights and a  Right to Work  march at the party conferences.

Other observations There was an expectancy of about 700 people at the conference, but the estimate was 900 because the closing session was full to the rafters – delegates having to listen from the corridor.  There was much dismay with UNISON who had to be lent upon to represent cleaners in London and their intolerance of perceived factions within the union.

Logistics: left Ipswich 6.40am arrived Manchester 12.20am.  Parked beside The Britannia Hotel.

http://sites.google.com/site/righttoworkconference/

Reed in Partnership and the Carers Scam

Ipswich Unemployed Action has been tipped off about Reed in Partnership’s intention of forcing Flexible New Deal participants into Carers Jobs – which is pretty much a duplication of the Jobcentre Plus activity that was underway in 2009 at the Ipswich Jobcentre Plus Office – and a few others I know of.

Reed in Partnership is ignoring the Flexible New Deal participants’ 5 chosen job areas and in some cases forcing on participants a career in caring.

This strikes me as extremely concerning – not primarily because jobs are being unnecessarily forced on to Flexible New Deal participants – but due to the fact that the disabled, the elderly and the young requires a person undertaking a carer role who are passionate about the job and not someone who couldn’t care only not to get a 6 month variable benefit sanction.

A carer who doesn’t care really goes against the point I think…

Benefit Cheats? Rewarding Grasses?

(Response to Government Plans to Pay  those who inform on ‘dole fraud’)

By the government’s own admission, more than 1,100 people phone its benefit hotline or report online each day, and last year it claims that more than 56,000 people were caught, although there were only 6,000 prosecutions (Report, 8 February). Yet even on the DWP’s own figures the overwhelming ­majority of calls were malicious and without foundation.

Each time someone is informed upon, whether innocent or otherwise, they are summoned to an interview on pain of suspension of benefits. This causes immense stress for people who are the victims of anonymous informants.

To target people who are already vulnerable should be a clear warning that for the unemployed New Labour is no better than the Tory opposition. Most so-called benefit fraud arises from the fact that it is impossible, for any length of time, for a person to survive on £64.30 a week. The term “benefit thief” is itself derogatory and discriminatory. It implies that all benefit claimants are potential or actual thieves.

Tony Greenstein

Secretary, Brighton & Hove Unemployed Workers Centre

 

(Guardian 15.2.10)

Informal Meeting for Unemployed in Ipswich.

There will be an informal meeting of the unemployed next week in Ipswich. 

It will be on the  22nd of  February at  7pm in the  Labour Club,  Silent St (just up from the DWP, near the Old Cattle Market).

It is being held as a Right to Work meeting. That is the national campaign which we have reported here before.

Ipswich Unemployed Action is concerned with highlighting the problems we ont he Dole face. We want a fairer, better system – and ways to deal with all the miserable problems the DWP and Flexible New Deal providers throw at us. Not to mention the prospect of Workfare – slog for a pittance with no rights.

 

In this we are probably in line with the Unemployed Workers’ Unions being set up all over the country.

Anyway, this is a chance to do something about changing our conditions.

James Purnell: What a Swell!

James Purnell MP is not standing in the forthcoming General Election (here). Harpy here.

Former cabinet minister James Purnell has announced he will leave Parliament at the general election.

The MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, Greater Manchester, said it was a “difficult decision”, but he did not want to spend all his life in politics.

Mr Purnell quit as work and pensions secretary after last year’s local and European elections, calling for Gordon Brown to resign as prime minister.Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said he was “sad” about him going as an MP.

A former aide to Tony Blair, Mr Purnell has also served as culture secretary.

‘Huge privilege’

He has been an MP since 2001 and is currently leading a project on the future of the Left for the think-tank Demos.

He will be remembered by those on Benefits for introducing ‘Welfare Reform’.

That is lower benefits for the incapacitated, the Flexible New Deal, and workfare.

As the BBC report states, he had has a “huge privilege” (s).

Now he proposes to do some Lord Bountiful charity. With whatever well-paid ‘work’ he is used to.

What a swell governor!

YMCA Training and the OVERDUE Accounts

Some more on our favourite New Deal Prime Contractor and Flexible New Deal Subcontractor: it looks as if YMCA Training will be fined for failing to deliver their accounts on time. It is almost a month overdue!

Ipswich Backing Young Britain Ministerial Careers Fair

If you are unemployed, under 25 years old and have attended the Jobcentre recently you would have been invited to the “Backing Young Britain” ministerial careers fair at in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite (Ipswich Town Football Club) on Monday 15th March 2010 between 10.00AM – 11.00am.

They had even promoted it on the Jobcentre Plus website as a job.

Ipswich Unemployed Action helps YMCA Training file their accounts

Ipswich Unemployed Action is happy to reveal that within a week we have managed to advise and support YMCA Training into delivering their accounts. YMCA Training were stuck in a rut: feeling down about Flexible New Deal and their inability to competently deliver Government Welfare-to-work schemes, so they forgot to fulfil their legal obligations of filing their business Accounts with the registry Companies House.

Enter Ipswich Unemployed Action who wasn’t judgemental or discriminative of YMCA Training’s past experiences or present circumstances of relying on religion to rejoice and praise them of their sins (including but not limited to slavery) who motivated the cursed Christian faith-oriented organisation YMCA Training to inspire their staff, develop their talents by joining in union to create a powerful team and transforming theirs thoughts into action!

Yes, YMCA Training with a bit of motivational training provided by Ipswich Unemployed Action… and recognition, made the transition into submitting their accounts. Finally!

It will cost £150 fine for late filing however without Ipswich Unemployed Actions help, it could have been as much as £1500 – saving £1350… Nevermind its only taxpayers’ money…

Defend the Welfare State and Public Services. 10th of April.

Defend the Welfare State and Public Services.

London Demonstration, 10th of April.

Supported by major trade unions and pensioners’ organisations.

More Here

Forced Labour for Jobseekers Pilot.

Forced labour for Jobseekers (Via Manchester Mule here)

Despite high levels of unemployment due to the recession jobseekers in Greater Manchester will be forced to work up to 40 hours a week as part of the Work for Your Benefits (WfYB) pilot scheme. The region is set to be the trialling ground for a government initiative that will see unemployed people put into mandatory work placements for up to six months just to hold on to their Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Below minimum wage

From October Jobseekers who have failed to find a job at the end of the Flexible New Deal programme will be required to undertake full time employment for between £50 and £65 a week, the equivalent of as little as £1.27 an hour. Concerns have already been raised that, with the numbers of unemployed rising, people who genuinely cannot find a job will be forced to work for next to nothing in an unsuitable role.

Alex Halligan from Salford Unemployed Workers’ Union said, “It’s disgusting that they’ve chosen to trial this in an area with such high unemployment. This scheme is a further attack on the right of people who can’t find work to get the support they need.” Those who opposed the scheme say that it fails to take into account personal circumstances or the condition of the economy.

WfYB is being introduced as part of the government’s wide-ranging reform of the welfare system. Other elements include lowering the age up to which parents can claim child support and measures to force more people off incapacity benefits.

Workers wages could fall by 12 per cent

Some suggest that the scheme will affect the working population as well as those claiming benefits. “This flood of unwaged labour into the market will have a big effect on low waged jobs. When a similar scheme was introduced in the US there was a 12 per cent decline in pay for low-income jobs,” Rebecca Galbraith from ‘No to Welfare Abolition’ told MULE.

Commenting on the fact that private companies rather than Jobcentres will be running the WfYB programme, she added, “Whoever runs this scheme it will be a disaster, but private companies can set arbitrary targets and are much less accountable.”

Businesses will be paid for each person they get into a work placement. This has raised fears companies might ignore difficult cases or put people into unsuitable positions just to receive the commission.

Labour MP John McDonnell placed a parliamentary question in December regarding the employment rights that participants in the scheme will be entitled to. He is concerned that, since they will not be technically employed, those taking part may be put in danger as they may not be covered by health and safety legislation.

Charities set to lose out

Charities and social institutions that rely on volunteers, many of whom are also Jobseekers, have expressed concerns that WfYB will take these people out of important roles and put them into positions that have no benefit to the community.

“The government does not care that many ‘claimants’ are not actually idle and do a lot of unpaid work like caring for others. Real voluntary activities will suffer if people are kicked into work schemes under this pilot,” said Mike from No to Welfare Abolition.

Alongside the WfYB scheme an alternative Jobcentre Plus regime will be trialled, designed to offer Jobseekers increased adviser contact and access to a personal support fund. This trial will receive just £3.5 million of funding whereas the WfYB programme will receive £15 million, raising questions over the government’s priorities.

Uncertainty

Tenders for the running of the scheme have been submitted and will be allocated in April. It remains to be seen which employers will be taking advantage of the cheap labour, or the kinds of jobs people will be expected to do.

Patrick Smith

Forced Labour in Suffolk.

Just a reminder that the Manchester scheme is going to happen in Suffolk: (here)

A requirement for people who have been out of work for two years to do up to six months of valuable work experience to help them get jobs will be trialled in two pilot areas, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper said today.

The Government has already announced that every young person unemployed for a year will be guaranteed a job, training or work placement, which will be compulsory. Now, for the minority who aren’t able to find a job in two years, the Work for Your Benefit pilots will give people up to six months of intensive work experience which will help improve their employability.

The pilots will apply to people on Jobseeker’s Allowance who will already have been offered a range of alternative intensive support at an earlier stage in their claim – including training options, short term work trials, a recruitment subsidy for employers to take them on, or voluntary work in the local community. Participants will continue to receive Jobseeker’s Allowance.

The pilots will take place in Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and will run for two years from October 2010.

Yvette Cooper said:

“We are investing £5bn to help people who have lost their jobs. We are determined to give the right help and support to everyone who is unemployed. We want to make sure that short-term job losses are not allowed to turn into long-term unemployment which can scar communities for generations. The longer people are left out of work, and without recent work experience, the harder it is to get a new job.”

Jobseekers will be required to participate in the Work for Your Benefit programme for up to six months, whilst still able to retain their benefit. Failure to participate may result in the sanction of benefits.

YMCA Training have great powers to sanction

Flexible New Deal scandal has published a list of job titles at Flexible New Deal providers who have the powers to raise sanction doubts which highlights the powers YMCA Training has over participants.

Workfare for Dummies.

Workfare: Get Your Post, Helpful Suggestions.

TrueBlueBlood  offers these “helpful hints” * for future Workfare jobs here.

* We hope they are in the vein of Viz’s ‘Top Tips”.

 Imagine, if companies or the public sector were presented with extra workforce, at no extra charge to them, to help them in their business life.  Consider these ares for example:

-  Call Centres.  Rather than outsource all the call centre work to India and other Asian countries, why not staffed via workfare?

-  Schools:  Help at schools, after passing background checks, classroom help, help with PE, cleaning, making school dinners etc.

-  Manufacturing Industry:  Why not provide a stream of workers in our manufacturing plants.  This ‘free labour’ would help some of the struggling industries like the car industry.

-  Post Office:  Again, if the Post Office is to be privatised, why not utilise workfare for Post deliverers.

-  Hospitals:  Help with general work around the hospital eg the Hospital Superbug MRSA is due to dirty wards, why not have more cleaners in the hospitals instead of people sitting at home

-  Building:  with a boom in building contracts eg Olympics, more manual labour

-  Civil Service:  With so much bureaucracy, plenty of paperwork could be finally completed

-  Street cleaning & refuse collection:  (why should council pay full time salaries when this could be a workfare role?)

-  Help in Supermarkets/retail:  Be it Customer Service or managerial.

This is but a few examples of where labour can be directed.  Yes some is skilled, some unskilled.  But there are plenty of areas of opportunity to get Britain working and ensure welfare dependence does not creep in.

Ipswich Unemployed Action helpfully suggests.

Eventually one can see that all new posts would be filled as ‘Workfare Hub Interns Placement” (WHIP). These would set down all employment terms and conditions. To get a post you would apply to the Directing Initiate Co-ordination (DIC), who would contract you  to a private ‘provider’. Uniforms – ‘profile enhancing’ -  and electronic tagging – ‘ performance monitoring  – would be the responsibility of ‘arm’s length’ outsourced set of bidders. Regular  Polygraph Initiative Surveillance Statistics (PISS) would ensure Quality Control. The voluntary Sector and Faith organisation as well as private-only-for- profit organisations would be part of the new ‘Structure Holding Initiative Training’ (SHIT) coordinating the programmes. Scratch-Cards will be sold in newsagents with prizes such as Have a Workfare Servant for a Luxury Week! Your Valet for a Fortnight! A Cleaner for Life!

Apply to WHIP, with big DIC in charge, you will soon get used to PISS and SHIT.

 

Privatising Welfare: Tony Judt.

On Privating Welfare – and the Unemployed.

Last weekend a leading thinker, Tony Judt, put into polished words what most of us would say in blunter ones (here).

In effect, privatisation reverses a centuries-long process whereby the state took on things that individuals could not or would not do. The corrosive consequences of this for public life are, as so often, rendered inadvertently explicit in the new “policy-speak”. When British politicians and civil servants bother to justify the abandonment of traditional public service monopolies, they talk of “diversifying providers”. When the UK work and pensions secretary announced plans in June 2008 to privatise social services – including short-term palliative welfare-to-work schemes which enable Whitehall to publish misleadingly low unemployment figures – he described himself as “optimising welfare delivery”. The chief shortcoming of the old public services was the restrictive regulations and facilities – one-size-fits-all – with which they were notoriously associated. But at least their provision was universal, and for good and ill they were regarded as a public responsibility.

The rise of enterprise culture has destroyed all that. A private company does not present itself as a collective good to which all citizens have a right. Unsurprisingly, there has been a sharp falling off in the number of people claiming benefits and services to which they are legally entitled.

The result is a hollowed-out society. From the point of view of the person at the bottom – seeking unemployment pay, medical attention, social benefits or other officially mandated services – it is no longer to the state, the administration or the government that he or she instinctively turns. The service or benefit in question is now often “delivered” by a private intermediary. As a consequence, the thick mesh of social interactions and public goods has been reduced to a minimum, with nothing except authority and obedience binding the citizen to the state.

Jobs Centres Failing Users.

BBC Radio, File on Four, reports (here). (Hat-tips to Ipswich Mr X and Lowestoft’s Finest).

Jobcentre Plus is ‘failing customers’

A new report published by a government-funded consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus, says that job centres in England and Wales are not doing a good enough job for people during these difficult economic times. Allan Urry hears how some jobless people have fared. Jobcentre Plus is under fire in a new report by a consumer watchdog Steve Dixon started to have doubts about the kind of service his local job centre in Redcar offered when a print-out from a Jobpoint terminal in the centre advertised the post of submarine designer – no experience necessary. “We only have 20 submarines in the whole of Britain, it said no experience necessary, which sounds ridiculous,” he told BBC File on 4. “It said you would be working on a certain style of submarine redesigning a submarine and working on your own initiative and I found that strange too on the local Jobpoint.” He added: “I decided to apply for it… I was curious to see what the feedback would be, but of course there was no feedback.” On the day File on 4 visited Steve, 42, who trained as a graphic designer, he had received 12 “local” job leads. One was for Scotland, another based in the North West, one in the South West and one was nationwide. Another was based 45 miles away. ‘Speculative vacancies’ The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) maintains that vacancies are on the increase nationally but Steve doubts if some of the jobs advertised at job centres really exist. We only have 20 submarines in the whole of Britain, it said no experience necessary, which sounds ridiculous Steve Dixon, unemployed He said he had once seen 30 jobs listed with no job title, only a code number and an identical description and salary.

 

Any more Reports?

Work for Benefit: PQQ Level Successful Tenders for Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire.

Norfolk, Cambridgeshire & Suffolk

The information below identifies the suppliers who have been successful at PQQ stage of the Work for Your Benefit competition and the Contract Package Areas they have been invited to tender in.

1 – A4E

2 – Consultancy Home Counties

3 – Ingeus

4 – Intraining

5 – Reed in Partnership

6 – Seetec

7 - Suffolk County Council

8 – TBG Learning

9 – TNG

 

From Here.

Usual suspects. With a new face.

Wondered how Suffolk County Council  is going to make savings on its staff?

Work for Your Benefit: What it Will Mean.

From here.

Here’s a tasty little research report, which has been commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions themselves, the report is entitled: ‘A comparative review of workfare programmes in the United States, Canada and Australia’ (report 533) 

This report examines the impact of workfare schemes that mandate participation in unpaid work activities as a condition of receiving social assistance (‘work for benefits’).

It finds that: 

• There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work. It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers.
• Subsidised (‘transitional’) job schemes that pay a wage can be more effective in raising employment levels than ‘work for benefit’ programmes.
• Workfare is least effective in getting people into jobs in weak labour markets where unemployment is high.
• Levels of non-participation in mandatory activities are high in some workfare programmes.
• Workfare is least effective for individuals with multiple barriers to work.
• Some states in the US have scaled down large-scale, universal workfare programmes in preference for ‘softer’ and more flexible models that offer greater support to those with the most barriers to work.

Our Community Allowance model, which are keen to pilot and campaigning DWP to enable us to do so, would offer people the opportunity to try out small bits of work PLUS they would get the support that is so essential.

The DWPs current direction of travel is to get people on benefits to ‘sing for their supper’. This is very worrying. From our own experience at Community Links we think it simply will not work.  It will push more people off benefits, forced to fend for themselves, possibly by doing cash-in-hand work. (See previous blog entries)

It’s not just us saying it … it’s in their own research. A bit more evidence based policy making please.

We, by contrast,  are opposed to all Work for Your Benefits schemes.

Ipswich Unemployed Action adds that:

• These schemes will be run by companies and organisations who already have a poor track record dealing with the unemployed A4E, Reed International, for example.
• There are no  normal workers’ rights over dismissal and many other areas (except Health and Safety) for those on Work for your Benefit. Are there union rights? Are there rights to refuse to carry out unsitable tasks?
• There is no provision to make sure work for benefit employees do not replace (indirectly or directly) those working for a real wage.
• There are no real wages.
• There are obvious areas where bullying and unsuitable placements can take place.
• This will create a massive downward pull on normal pay. Why get somebody to work for a council when you can get someone for free from the Dole. The Government, the Liberals and the Tories talk about the need to cut public expenditure. Look at Suffolk County Council. It is going to reduce its numbers of  paid workers. But they still need services.  Solution? It will recruit unpaid ones.
• When employment agencies like Reed are exploiting the situation they can be obvious conflicts of interest.
• Benefits are already well below the minimum wage and are below levels considered a reasonable standard of living.
• The system is based on compulsion. It is forced labour – the most inefficient kind of labour ever known.

Workfare, “Community Service” for the out-of-work.

The Tory Adam Smith Institute calls a spade a spade,

The primary feature of ‘workfare’ is that all unemployed people seeking state support should face immediate work requirements – no work, no benefits. Subsidized jobs and compulsory work experience should be the preferred options, but if no such employment can be found then welfare claimants should have to do community service. Those with severe education deficiencies may undergo training, while claimants with alcohol and drug problems would be expected to undergo treatment.

(Here.)

So now we know.

Commit a Crime: get Community Service.

Be unemployed……

The Lords Debate Workfare.

Hat-Tip to Gerry Attric. 

House of Lords, 30th of March.

Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat)

Ipswich Unemployed Action will take this up in more detail later.

For the moment these critical comments stand out.

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for explaining these regulations, which bring in four pilot schemes-two urban and two rural-for the controversial Work for your Benefit provisions starting in November this year for two years.

“The aim of the scheme is to test whether mandatory work experience, coupled with job search support, helps the long term unemployed find and sustain work”.

Hum hum hum,

There is a view that such schemes can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and failing to provide the skills and experience that are valued by employers. One finding from DWP research report 533, A Comparative Review of Workfare Programmes in the United States, Canada and Australia, by Crisp and Fletcher, is not a surprise. It was that workfare, which is similar to Work for your Benefit, was least effective in getting people into jobs in weak labour markets where unemployment was high.

Quite right, your Ladyship!

if the jobs are not there, they are not there, and no amount of Jobcentre Plus smoke and mirrors can find them. I wonder what sort of work placements will be offered to Work for your Benefit claimants. We simply do not know. I understand that companies have to sign a declaration that the placement will be in addition to existing or expected job vacancies.

We fear that there are likely to be cuts in the near future in public sector employment. Perhaps these work placements will be in that sector.

Perhaps her Baronessesses reads Ipswich Unemployed Action and Flexible New Deal!

Perhaps one sign of a confusion of policy is that, as the Minister said, Jobcentre Plus officers are encouraged to identify for early access to the Work for your Benefit scheme some claimants who have been unemployed for less than two years, if they think that they will benefit from it. However, these people, who might think that they are being singled for preferment or extra help, will actually be in a sanctions regime, as though they were demotivated and work-shy.

In other words,one feature of the scheme will be to allow the DWP to be nasty to those they don’t like.

WorkDirections, which is a well respected provider, suggested designing the length of the placement by asking the clients some simple questions at the action-planning stage. For example, what are the constraints that the clients are facing? What does the client need to gain? How long will it take to gain the relevant skills, knowledge or experience? How can progress be verified? In other words, a six-month one-size-fits-all placement is too inflexible.

More to the point what on earth do you get from these type of placements, and what about the barriers you’ll face having to put on a CV your “community service” – like a prison record.

last thing that we want is for claimants just to default on a placement and, by doing that, to receive a sanction because the particular placement was totally unsuitable for them.

What protection is there against exploiting oppressive employers, eh?

Finally, I am disturbed that claimants will be allocated randomly to the pilots. This seems totally at odds with the whole tailored-to-the-individual approach that the Flexible New Deal was supposed to give people. My honourable friend Steve Webb in another place, who is a social scientist, makes the point that a Flexible New Deal provider should already have given the claimant work experience during the two years that the claimant was unemployed. It seems distinctly odd that such a claimant might be randomly assigned to a Work for your Benefit scheme when their only problem is that there is no suitable job available. I wonder whether part of the reason for this whole scheme is to clamp down on those who are suspected of moonlighting-claiming and working on the sly.

Well, that’s one reason. The other is to get votes from the kind of plonkers who like dreaming up schemes to get people they don’t like sweeping the streets and tugging their forelock to the likes of many of the noble Lords and Ladies.

Inside Info on Suffolk County Council and Work for Benefit.

Council statement:

Work for your benefit is a new initiative from the DWP.  It is a national initiative which is being piloted in the job centreplus districts of Norfolk Suffolk Cambridgeshire and also in Greater Manchester.

It is procured nationally and SCC’s team in Enterprise Employment Advice and Guidance have been shortlisted to deliver the whole programme for the 3 counties in the East. The reason we have bid, is because we believe we can deliver a really effective programme of work focussed activity linked to a skills and qualification pathway.

The contract award will be made in May.  Therefore we have no places associated with this as yet.  Whoever is successful, it is likely that they will approach SCC for work placements to help occupy the individuals who are referred to the programme. It is based on a highly successful model from Australia. 

We have 200 places under another government initiative The Future Jobs Fund. This initiative will be extended to 2012 according to the Chancellor’s budget. We have made a further bid to the FJF for the next round and have offered to deliver 170 opportunities for young people aged 18-25.

 

Our Informant notes: There are 3 things here:

1)       Suffolk County Council have put forward their Employment Advice team to run the whole DWP package for all of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.  They have got onto the shortlist – as mentioned in your email – but the “winner” will not be picked until May and it is most likely to be either “Reed in Partnership” or A4E that gets picked.  As I understand it only one “programme delivery contractor” will be chosen, and it is not likely to be SCC.

2)       Whoever does win the contract, whether it is SCC or not, will almost certainly want to take up work placements within SCC.  Clearly these have not yet been identified – it is up to the delivery contractor to decide whether to take up SCC places and how many to ask for.

3)       The County Council has also been offering places to young people (18-25) under the Future Jobs Fund.  I’m not quite clear how these work, but I think they are temporary jobs that are paid (albeit not very much!).  The County Council is offering 170 of these for the coming year.

Questions remain about how exactly this is going to operate.

NEETs Clamp-Down: Young People To Lose Benefits.

The BBC Reports: Neets ’should not get benefits’, say MPs

Ministers want to cut the number of Neets aged 16 to 18 to 7.6% in 2010 (Note BBC Picture of Sinister Hoodie as typical NEET) Young people in England should not receive state benefits unless they are working, training or in education, a committee of MPs says. MPs are suggesting adopting a system use in Holland reduce the number of 16 to 25-year-olds not in education, employment or training, known as Neets. They said the Dutch equivalent of jobseeker’s allowance was dependent on being in work, education or training. At the end of 2009, nearly 15% of 16 to 24-year-olds were classed as Neets. And 9.3% of the youngsters classified as Neet at the end of 2009 were aged 16 to 18. And the government looks set to miss its target to reduce that figure to an average of 7.6% for a whole of 2010.

More Here.

Anyone who thinks about it can come up with problems this will create. Not least that young people’s rights to decide what training, education or employment they take is already restricted. Not to mention the low rates of benefits, the poor quality of some ‘training’, and the lack of rights people have.

We bet there’s plenty of bad experiences  to tell.

Workfare and the General Election.

Workfare’s Model Workers.

All the parties now stand for workfare.

This goes from Labour’s plans for compulsory ’placements’ (and so on), Tory’s “Community Work Programme”, to the wilder shores of UKIP and the BNP (the latter say the “ benefit recipient must complete a certain number of hours of work per week “(here). If I could be arsed I’d probably find the Liberal Demcorats have something – nicer worded – in this line.

We at Ipswich Unemployed Action have made the case that Workfare is time-wasting, exploitative, pointless, and completely useless.

There is no real ‘training’. It drags wages down and does nothing to get rid of unemployment.

Except for those lucky to be living off the public purse in providing these schemes (Reed International, a4e and pals).

 

Who no doubt have a greater say in what has got in Parties’ Manifestos than the views of the out-of-work.

 

Unemployed Groups: Cambridge Unemployed Workers’ Union.

This looks interesting -

Cambridge Unemployed Workers Union.

The Unemployed are among some of the most dispossessed people in Cambridge. We believe that by organising together we can gain more respect, improved welfare benefits, and good jobs and apprenticeships for all.

Aims and Objectives

1. To gain socially useful jobs – this incorporates the right not to work jobs society doesn’t need, i.e. Marketing, Advertising, Non-Defensive Weapons Production
2. Access to free Education and Training of the highest standard we can maintain
3. To be treated Equally with human respect
4. To spread information regarding our rights
5. Money used for arms and business subsidy to be spent on provisions for those focussing on childcare and illness
6. To reach out and build solidarity with other workers and the general public.

Stall Outside A4e (Action 4 Employment) A4e is one of the ‘Providers’ for the DWP that will take care of the work programs dished out to those who are claiming benefits, they have been found to be corrupt and telling the government that they have found jobs for people when it wasn’t the case to get their hands on public money. A4e is a smokescreen for the privatisation of the Benefits system – most people know of them as ‘Flexible New Deal’. We will be presenting info to the public and clients of A4e their track record and what they can expect as well as alternative ways of getting help and support. A4e is currently situated in Wellington House, East Rd. We will be outside from 12 – 2pm Friday 22nd Jan 2010. Come along and join us.

More on their activities  here.

Brighton Benefits Campaign is worth a look too – here.

Unemployment Up Again.

The BBC reports.

The number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 43,000 to 2.5 million during the three months to February, official figures have shown

The jobless total is now at its highest since 1994. The rate of unemployment now stands at 8% – the highest since 1996 – the Office for National Statistics said. However, the total number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell in March by 32,900 to 1.54 million – a much sharper fall than expected. (more here.)

You wonder how many people are not counted as unemployed,  but still out-of-work,  there are.

I am on a ‘Training’ allowance – and am not (statistically) ‘unemployed’ (ho hum).

One thing that’s annoying.

I have to pay out £18 a week in bus fares. I get it back – at the end of the week. Many people in Suffolk pay more than this. As we have had our training allowance cut (we used to get a £15 a week extra) this is a hefty wedge of the Dole.

Nor is it likely, with these figures, that a job is in the offing.

With full-time workfare it’s going to be even worse: real toil for next to nothing, and having to lay out moneyin advance  for the privilege of doing ‘community service’.

But then I have helped the government’s statistics.

The Unemployment Business.

Corporate Watch  has just published an important article on the ‘Unemployment Business’ – here.

There’s plenty to chew over. Such as,

The approach taken by the government and its private ‘partners’ in reducing unemployment seems to be centred around bullying claimants into accepting any job available, based on the presumption that everyone wants to work, whatever the work is. Those who don’t are considered ‘parasitic free riders’. This logic, which blames unemployment on the unemployed and ignores the fact that job offers are subject to market mechanisms, is used to justify the criminalisation of the unemployed and the use of increasingly punitive and repressive measures against them (the ‘zero tolerance’ approach). Other possible approaches, such as reducing working hours or increasing the minimum wage, are readily dismissed as that might be politically dangerous: people with their basic needs met and a lot of time on their hands might be capable of too much.

This reminds me.

 

There is a case round here. A chap stuck out in the villages on Incapacity Benefit. It was taken away (DWP doctor, not his own).

He appealed (if you knew him he really needs every quid of Incapacity money). It took a year. Tribunal. He won.

Ten weeks later he is still waiting for his money.

Talk about bullying….

 

 

Workfare: BBC, Well-Fed Loafers Have Their Say.

‘Make ‘em work’ – could workfare work for Britain?

Lazy Loafer Eamonn Walsh says,

“The question of whether those claiming benefits should have to work for their money has long polarised political opinion, to such an extent that it has often been pushed to the political margins.

However, this week the former head of the CBI, Lord Digby Jones, told Panorama that he thought the time was right for the introduction of workfare – as the plan is often called.

Lord Jones actually took a step further than most in claiming that if he were a viewer at home, Panorama’s report on the young unemployed would make him so angry that he would want to starve some of the long-term unemployed back into work.”

Something ol’ jowelly blubber-guts is unlikely to do in the immediate future.

Digby Jones after a Good Feed.

“He added that he thought he was in step with the British public’s thinking on the subject.

Workfare is of course an alternative to the social welfare system that operates in the UK and is rooted in the US of the early 1970s.”
Yes, it is a system with earlier roots: the workhouse.

“In the UK, as long as people are demonstrating that they are actively seeking employment then – if eligible – they receive their benefits.”

In many US states – and indeed parts of Australia and Canada – unemployed have to take jobs – often in the public or voluntary sector – to continue to earn their benefits. If they don’t accept an offer of work, then they don’t receive their payments.”

Do they get paid for this? What do people getting real wages think abo0ut having the workless do their jobs?

“Panorama went to McDowell County, West Virginia in the United States for a programme broadcast on 7 April 1986 to investigate the workfare system operating there.”

Another jaunt for the loafers who ‘work’ for the BBC.

“There, they found workfare employees in almost every area of the public sector, from patient day care in health centres and residential homes, to street cleaning to, perhaps most surprisingly, walking the beat as police officers, able to do everything a regular police officer could do – except carry a gun.”

No doubt Deputy Dawg puts ‘em in irons if they get uppity and ask for some pay.

“What Panorama also ‘discovered’ was a system that appeared to be working successfully.

The kind of well-nourished ponce who did this ‘research’ probably never let off sipping mint julips with the good ol’ boys who told them this.

“Those employed claimed that workfare gave them dignity and a sense of self-worth from working for their benefits and the local mayor spoke of the contribution made to the local economy and the public good.”

We bet that Deputy Dawg was close by when this was said.

“Workfare was not without its critics. Opponents claimed that it was simply a source of cheap labour and that it actually stymied opportunity for the unemployed.”

Strike a light! Amazing. Some of the inhabitants of Houndstown in McCounty sweating on the chain-gang would like some real pay! Hot diggery-dog!

“But its popular appeal and apparent economic sense made it a vote-winner and a form of workfare was introduced nationally in the US in 1996 under Bill Clinton.”

“It remains to be seen whether workfare will be introduced in the UK after the election, but with unemployment continuing to rise and the need for public spending cuts now generally accepted, it might prove to be a tempting option for future government”

It bleeding well is going to be introduced. No doubt about that.

 

(from Here. )

Conservatives: unemployed to “work for the dole” on community programmes

In the news,

 The latest plank of Mr Cameron’s “Big Society” pitch, encouraging people to “take more control over how the country is run”.
The new welfare contract pledges to “tear up the old ways of dealing with worklessness”.

The work programme, to be up and running by the end of 2010, promises to ensure people “get help as soon as you need it”.

A range of business-led training places will be offered, starting with 50,000 in the hospitality and leisure industries, while 400,000 apprenticeship, training and college places will be available to under-25s.

Work clubs will be set up, providing somewhere for the unemployed to go during the day where they can learn skills and make contacts, and individuals looking to start businesses will be given access to a business mentor and start-up loans.

A sanctions regime will be put in place within six months of the Tories taking office, cutting Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for people who refuse to join the work programme.

Benefits will also be cut for up to three years if people refuse to take up “reasonable” job offers or if they are caught repeatedly committing benefit fraud.

Long-term claimants who cannot find work will be required to “work for the dole” on community programmes, and all people claiming incapacity benefits will be reassessed – and transferred onto JSA if they are fit enough to work.

 

(from Here) (more here)

 

How this fits in with ” encouraging people to “take more control over how the country is run” is clear.

One group of people, friends of the Conservative Party, will take control over running other – the unemployed –  people’s  lives.

 

Having just finished a ‘placement’, which might as well as have been workfare, though conditions were good and what I did was of some use, I would add this. Firstly, that if we are forced to work on a long-term basis for our miserable Dole, we will not be happy workers. Secondly, travel and other costs on the ‘wage’ we get, make a real problem. £18 a week in my case  - which we pay out in advance and get back when we present every single one of our bus tickets  - is a big sum to get us to work in the first place. Thirdly, there is nothing, nothing, that sticks in my craw like the idea that doing this for the foreseable future (Cameron’s plan, and the rest of the main parties, including the Liberal Democrats as far as I am aware – prove me wrong)  is part of building a “Big Society“.

New Government, New Business Opportunities for Welfare-to-Work Providers.

Acquisition of Cheap Labour and Easy Profits  Opportunities for the Third Sector Tuesday 27th April 2010 yesMinister As providers of welfare to work and learning and skills provision tender and compete to deliver longer and larger contracts, there are increasing opportunities for expansion. There are also concerns about the financial capacity and viability of the existing provider base. yesMinister is working with national and international clients who are actively seeking to speak with companies/organisations that are interested in discussing M&A or other formal structures. Experience in Slave-driving, Gang-mastering, and Skivvy-recrutiment preferred but not essential. Details regarding 4th June Seminar will be available shortly.	East Anglian Regional Authority Skills Development East Anglia Tuesday 27th April 2010 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire businesses have signed up to employ more than 7,000 Modern Bonded Labourers in the coming year, it was announced today. 7,000 young people and adults will start Bonded Labour in October Work-for-Benefits Pilot.

Devastating impact of late payments on SMEs Bad debts and late payment of invoices are endemic problems for UK businesses. Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Tuesday 6th April 2010 A survey carried out by RBS and NatWest found that 71 per cent of SMEs have suffered from delays in payment in the last 12 months and that the overall worth of those invoices paid outside the agreed period was £62.87 billion. Of this total, £15 billion accounted for invoices that were more than 120 days overdue. The survey, which covered 500 firms, indicated that as many as 235,000 SMEs have had to invest time and effort chasing unpaid bills. While larger firms have to shoulder a higher value of late payments, smaller businesses are hit the hardest because their unsettled bills represent a greater proportion of their turnover. Our ‘enforcer’ debt collectors advice service available 24/7.	Tackling worklessness guides published The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) has published four guides on how to tackle worklessness. Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) Thursday 15th April 2010 The guides contain advice and real examples of delivering employment initiatives for people in local areas. Guide 1: Houndstown Texas: Deputy Dawg on US Workfare. Guide 2: How to Make ‘em sweat for your Profit. Devil’s Island, a case-study and guidelines. Delivering Future Jobs, Guide 3: Shoe-shiners,chimney sweeps,  street sweeping,  mudlarks, professions of the future, Targeting jobs and training through the procurement process, Guide 4: How to Lobby with Loads of Loot. Introduction by Emma Harrison. Working in partnership with Jobcentre Plus.	The New Welfare Contract The Conservative party has published a New Welfare Contract laying out its plans to tackle worklessness and unemployment. Conservative Party Tuesday 20th April 2010 David Cameron has pledged to introduce the contract before the end of 2010 if he wins the election. A conservative government would; Cut the benefits of anyone on Job Seekers Allowance who refuses to enter the ‘Work Programme’ and tug their forelock, Cut the benefit of anyone who refuses to take up a job offer at any wage, Cut benefit for up to three years for repeated lippy attitude. Long term benefit claimants will be required to ‘Work for the Dole’ on Community Programmes, Bring Back Domestic Service for Lone Parents Oakam Picking in the Workhouse for Long-term unemployed. Disabled Benefits to be Allocated  by Lottery. Read more…. visit yesMinister’s blog

Hat-Tip to Sister S.

From Here.

DWP Phone Scandal Back.

When you’re on the Flexible New Deal you get sent on placements, and have a ‘training allowance instead of JSA. It’s around 10 pence more (I am not making this up).

When you finish the ‘training’ you have to re-apply for JSA.

Usual form-filling (I swear it’s grown  an extra few pages in the meantime). Usual letter off to – in our – case Bury St Edmunds.

Check. Always check after over 10 days.

Try to phone.

Friday. No luck.

This Morning, Monday. Two Hours trying. No luck.

Every time you get through to Income Support – not JSA. Every time. No phone queue, just this transfer. A different message half the time. We can’t say anything much. Try again. Try later. Try tomorrow. Try next bloody year no doubt….

It seems beyond the wit of the DWP to have enough people in their Call Centres, or to organise a proper queue.

I am still waiting.

Frank Field: Could You Make This Up?

Frank Field defects to Cameron’s coalition to be the nation’s ‘Poverty Tsar’

By Simon Walters
Last updated at 8:36 AM on 16th May 2010

Former Labour Minister Frank Field is to ‘defect’ to David Cameron’s new coalition Government by taking on the role of Britain’s ‘Poverty Tsar’, it was revealed last night.

Social conservative Mr Field is to lead a major review into poverty as part of Mr Cameron’s promise to tackle what he calls ‘Broken Britain’ – social breakdown, rising crime and the benefits dependency culture.

The move is a major boost in Mr Cameron’s attempt to show that his new Liberal-

Read more:

here.

Queen’s Speech: The Volunteering Big Society. Official Government Video.

Hat-Tip to ‘Brainwashed’.

Welfare Reform: It’s a-Comin’

From the documents behind the The Queen’s Speech:

Making the benefits system less complex.

Improving work incentives.

Getting the five million plus people languishing on benefits into work and out of poverty.

Reducing the scope for fraud and error.

From here.

Fine words butter no asparagus.

The point is that this declaration builds on the existing legalisation.

Specifically such documents as “No-one is written off”.

Aka  Workfare.

Thanks to all the Posters!

They say that are in need for being re-educated!

Well we at Ipswich Unemployed Action say that the people posting here are some of the best in the land.

Funny, witty, and to the point, the comments that people post here are some of the best in the ol’Blogosphere.

Flexy has done some really serious work and as we link to him all the time I recommend his sites for some really brilliant posts.

Keep it up chappettes and chaps!

Day of Action Against Flexible New Deal.

At the national meeting of ‘no to welfare abolition’ we decided to
organise a national day of action against the flexible new deal on
June 16th. We are just wondering what everyone has got planned and how
they are publicising it e.g. links to websites etc. which advertise
what you are doing.  We can then add these to our blog so we can
demonstrate that action is wider than just our town.

We would also like to suggest a regional conference of southern groups
soon to devise strategies on how we can develop this campaign. Let us
know if you think this is a good idea and please forward us the emails
of any groups who we have missed out who would also be interested.

All the best to everyone.

Brighton Benefits Campaign

We hear that our friends from  Hackney Unemployed Workers are planning something.

Ipswich Unemployed Action stands squarely behind this.

But bilmey, the cost of train to London means that we find joining in very difficult.

Top Tips for Unemployed: Cordelia Gummer Speaks.

 

Guest-Post.

Cordelia Gummer is a supporter of Ipswich Unemployed Action. She has contributed articles to radical publications such as The Lady, Country Life and The Field. Recently made redundant she has this advice to offer the out-of-work.

“Being unemployed, or a ‘Doley’, is a tragedy. My Brother the Right Honourable Benedict Gummer may claim on this site that it the fault of the lazy. But, well, he is so lazy he has his manservant put the paste on his toothbrush.”

“The first problem we down-at-heels have is money. Bills Bills Bills. I have these wizard suggestions for getting these down to a manageable size.

• Water Charges. Why not dig a well in your garden? I had a delightful little man who dug mine and it has saved me ozzles of wonga.
• Electricity. Benedict has a Windmill that generates power on top of his just-off Norwich Road Mansion. Why not make your own? I am presently making one with help from my Janet and John guide.
• Bus and Train fares? I recommend good old walking. My friend Violet-Elizabeth Carter-Bright Grummelstone Hights walked all the way to the shops (three hundred yards!) last week. Makes a change from the old Sedan Chair! Plus it’s good for those of you with weight problems. Lizy has reduced the size of her behind by over 000.1 centimetres.

Then there’s signing-on. I know a wonderful little gal who does it all for you! She takes your place on Flexible New Deal and will do all the psychological tests as well. Naturally one has to use some of Pater’s influence for this – as the beastly Benedict knows all too well. But surely you chaps and chappettes on the ‘Dole’ can find someone to do the same?  I mean you ragamuffins (no disrespect) and scroungers know all the tricks!

 

More here.

Cuts to Benefits?

From the Daily Telegraph, (here)

Yesterday, the Treasury set out the framework for a review of all government spending. The official document stated it would “comprehensively examine areas such as social security, tax credits and public service pensions”.

Plans for “savings and reform in these areas” would be unveiled later this year.

It is the first time that the welfare system – such as child benefit, disability payments and unemployment benefits – has been identified as a target for cuts. Freezing all benefit payments would save more than £4 billion a year.

As Flexy has pointed out here the real levels of benefits are lower today than they were twenty years ago.

Unions Condemn Welfare ‘Reform’.

Unemployed need support – not punitive action – to return to work

Commenting on the Government’s plans announced today (Tuesday) in the Queen’s Speech for a Welfare Reform Bill, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

‘Unions will support measures to help unemployed and disabled people into work but there is no excuse for such a heavy handed, punitive approach.

‘The recession - not lazy individuals – has caused rising unemployment and most people on disability benefits are out of work because today’s labour market is a tough place for those with severe health conditions.

‘Moves to eliminate fraud are to be welcomed but cutting the number of administrative staff will only make the problem worse. Jobcentre Plus staff are already under tremendous pressure and further cuts will lead to more errors being made and fewer fraudsters caught.’ (here)

Workless Up, But JSA Claimants Down.

The BBC Reports:

Any rise in unemployment is a “tragedy,” the prime minister said as the jobless total neared 2.5 million.

At Commons question time on 16 June 2010, David Cameron insisted the latest unemployment figures were a “mixed picture”.

He said: “On the one hand, the claimant count is down. On the other hand though, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) measure of unemployment is up by 23,000.”

The government will bring in a work programme, which is “going to be the biggest, boldest scheme for getting people back to work, as soon as we can”, he pledged.

But acting Labour leader Harriet Harman accused him of “talking the economy down to soften the public up” for cuts in next week’s Budget.

Demanding assurances that the government would do nothing to add to the dole queue in its tax and spend package, Ms Harman warned that ministers were “undermining business confidence”.

But Mr Cameron dismissed the charge, insisting Labour should apologise for having done the economy down

(from Here)

Indeed the figures indicate that the JSA claimant figure is down.

Office for National Statistics data revealed the number of people looking for work rose by 53,000 between January and March to hit 2.51m, the highest total since 1994. The UK’s employment rate slumped to 72%, the lowest since 1996.Yet despite the worsening picture for overall unemployment, the numbers claiming the jobseeker’s allowance fell by more than expected – down by 27,100 last month to 1.52m, the lowest level for a year. (More Here)

Readers of this site know full well the explanation for the fact that while unemployment figures are rising those counted (and eligible) for JSA are decreasing.

Let’s start with the Flexible New Deal….

Cuts for Unemployment Schemes.

The roll-out of the Future Jobs Fund, an extension of the Young Person’s Guarantee to 2011/12 and the two year Jobseekers guarantee – all programmes to help guarantee work or training for longer term unemployed people in the recession – were cut altogether, saving £995m.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “This is shocking short-termist and shows that the Tory-Liberal government clearly thinks unemployment is a price worth paying … it will cost us all far more in the long term in higher unemployment benefits and damage to our communities.”

A Treasury spokesman insisted that the schemes would be replaced by a new Single Work Programme, but the government could not give details of how this would operate, or what it would cost.

(From Here)

This is an outline of what we know so far (from Here).

Chris Grayling 10th of June.

(Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions; Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)

The Government have previously announced their plans for radical reforms of the welfare to work system and the implementation of the Work Programme. The Work Programme will be a single integrated package of support providing personalised help for everyone who finds themselves out of work regardless of the benefit they claim.

This will give providers longer to work with individuals and greater freedom to decide the appropriate support for them. We will also offer stronger incentives for providers to work with the harder to help, paying providers out of the additional benefits they realise as a result of placing people into work.

We are determined to move quickly and are aiming to have the Work Programme in place nationally by the summer of 2011.

Until the Work Programme is implemented, we will ensure support is in place. Where necessary, we will seek to extend current arrangements to ensure that there is no gap in provision and people can continue to receive help and support to get back into work.

Once the Work Programme is implemented it will supersede much of the complicated raft of national programmes currently on offer and these will be phased out. The support currently provided by programmes such as the Flexible New Deal will be folded into the Work Programme as soon as possible.

We are committed to supporting severely disabled people and are currently reviewing the best way of doing this.

The Government have today written to relevant providers and will be beginning one to one discussions with them to discuss what this means for them. We believe that the Work Programme will offer significant new opportunities for contractors from the private and voluntary sectors to deliver truly flexible and personalised support, building appropriate partnerships to do so. We recognise the crucial role that the voluntary sector in particular has to play in tackling worklessness, and our plans reflect this.

We will be publishing further details as the design and implementation of the Work Programme progresses.

I make the following observations.

Firstly, any work-for-benefits (Workfare) scheme in this programme will be very expensive. It needs a complicated system of ‘providers’. It needs overseers to make us toil. Secondly, if it is used to patch gaps in local services (growing with all the cuts they are making), it will cause immense resentment amongst the employees whose jobs it threatens. Thirdly, with no job guarantee at the end it will be loathed by those forced onto it.

A Budget Against the Unemployed.

Okay I’m writing in the morning and I don’t yet know the details of the Budget.

But David Cameron has called the unemployed “Welfare scroungers” in the last few days. Or rather “There is no way of dealing with an 11% budget deficit just by hitting either the rich or the welfare scrounger.”(here)

This kind of vulgar language, is a bit rich one might say coming from someone as rich as Cameron and his chums in the Bullingdon Club at Oxford. They have never done an honest days work in their lives. They have richness beyond the dreams of avarice.

This is a sign that people on the Dole, Disability Living Allowance and Invalidity Benefit, should watch out. We are fair-game.

 We can be sure he’s not going to treat us kindly.

Opinion has been softened up for weeks now.

Last night on Channel Four News we have one young unemployed woman who said she’d be worse off in a job. I don’t know about everyone but I’d be a hell of a lot better off in work than on JSA. Maybe she rented from one of those Housing Associations that charge a fortune. Well, their rents certainly aren’t going to go down after the Budget shaves more money off them. Anyway, what was the report suggesting? That she should get less money than the existing JSA pittance to force her into employment?

I predict a benefits freeze.

I predict a “crack-down” on Benefit “fraud”.

The Daily Record (Scotland) suggests that 

The Government (may)  decide to link payment levels to the Consumer Price Index rather than the Retail Price Index. The CPI, which does not include house prices, is about one per cent lower than the RPI and the move could shave more than £1billion from the £105billion welfare budget.

Some may consider that Cameron and Clegg have got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

We can be sure that with public sector cuts there’s going to be plenty more people joining us on the Dole queue.

Perhaps we’ll end up ‘volunteering’ to take their former jobs.

On Benefits that is.

Welfare Analysis of the Budget.

This is a cross-post from Harpy (here). Louise is employed full-time in the area of welfare rights. She is one of the few people who have been campaigning against Welfare Reform for the last few years. Ipswich Unemployed Action works with her. As someone based in the East End of London she knows some of the hardest edges of the system.

Louise’s Blog also has  her own, really ace,  digital photos on it.  

I note, in passing, that our old friend David Freud was on Newsnight yesterday. Interviewed by a  very anti-the-unemployed Jeremy Paxman.

 The incredibly wealthy Paxman came out with some Daily Express type tales about people living the life of Riley on the Dole.  Normally he does not bully the weak, but you could see on the programme how nasty he can turn. For some details on the kind of lies that are being peddled see this – here.

The real human cost of this miserable & draconian Budget

22 06 2010

This emergency Budget is totally draconian and utterly austere. To think otherwise (only if you are wealthy) is a fool’s paradise. Richard Murphy highlighted:

Benefits will be cut by about 10%. Departmental spending, except in health and overseas development will be cut by 25%. At least 750,000 state sector jobs will go on that basis, in my estimation. I think 750,000 more from the private sector could join them on the unemployment register. And this budget, which according to George Osborne promised growth, did no such thing.

Sunny Hundal points to this YouGov poll where 49% of the respondents believe that the cuts are a good idea (the vox pop on tonight’s C4 News concluded that it wasn’t too bad and many expected to ‘pay’ for the crisis)… . Firstly, regarding this YouGov poll, who was precisely polled and secondly, it’s the calm before the storm…and the impact has not sunk in as yet. People will pay, and pay dearly they will. But the reality is that people will suffer, a massive 25% will be slashed from public departments. Public sector pay will be frozen for two years (translated…. a pay cut). Therefore massive unemployment, poorer population and the likelihood of a double-dip recession. To put it bluntly, we are fucked….

Another area that has been plundered is welfare, Con/Dems attack the poorest and the most powerless with their raid on the coffers of welfare.

Uprating

• the government will adopt the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the uprating of benefits and tax credits from April 2011

DLA

• the government will introduce the use of ‘objective medical assessments’ for all DLA claimants from 2013/2014

Translated this means bullying people into the job market based on supposedly “objective medical assessment” when really it is based on ideology.

Benefits and children

• from October 2011, lone parents whose youngest child is aged 5 or above will be eligible for jobseeker’s allowance rather than income support, and existing claimants will be transferred from income support to jobseeker’s allowance from April 2012;
• from April 2011 the government will restrict eligibility to the sure start maternity grant for the first child (or children where the first is a multiple birth);
• the health in pregnancy grant will be abolished from January 2011; and
• child benefit will be frozen for three years from April 2011

Tax credits

• from April 2011, the second income threshold for the family element of child tax credit will reduce from £50,000 to £40,000 and, from April 2012, the family element of child tax credit will be withdrawn immediately after the child element;

Benefits and children

• from October 2011, lone parents whose youngest child is aged 5 or above will be eligible for jobseeker’s allowance rather than income support, and existing claimants will be transferred from income support to jobseeker’s allowance from April 2012;
• from April 2011 the government will restrict eligibility to the sure start maternity grant for the first child (or children where the first is a multiple birth) ;
• the health in pregnancy grant will be abolished from January 2011; and
• child benefit will be frozen for three years from April 2011.

Housing costs and housing benefit

I know there are other measures regarding Housing benefit but this below is very worrying as it will cause untold misery;

• from April 2013, housing benefit awards will be reduced to 90 per cent of the initial award after 12 months for claimants receiving jobseeker’s allowance;

This means not just that people will be finding things a bit tough but that they will not be able to pay the rent. They will be made homeless. George is putting beggars back on the street in the same way that his hero, Thatcher, did.

Unemployed people will be used to put downward pressure on wages. This the role of the employment advisers involved in the “New Deal”. The result is that the rich and their big corporations will benefit hugely at ordinary peoples’ expense. Expect more bullying in the workplace and in the Jobcentre.

We are going to be living in a very nasty and destructive society (and the CBI btw want to restrict strike action). The message people should take is organise and resist or be destroyed.

As Mark Serwotka (PCS general secretary) argues, This is one of the most regressive budgets we have seen for many years, with attacks on the low-paid, the unemployed, pensioners, the welfare state and the public sector as a whole. This is not a progressive budget to help the country recover from the worst economic crisis in living memory, it is a programme of despair for millions of people who did not cause the recession and should not be made to pay for it. We do not believe that these cuts are necessary, we do not accept the flawed analysis on which they are based, and we are committed to helping to organise joint union action and campaigning in communities to resist them.

USA: Millions Face No Dole, No Home.

American Tent City.

USA, Down and Out.

Channel Four’s Unreported World Last Night -you can watch it here.

“Unreported World meets the USA’s new middle-class homeless: families struggling to hold down jobs that pay so little they’re forced to live in tent cities or their cars and receive little help from the government.

Reporter Ramita Navai and producer Clancy Chassay begin their journey in Chicago, one of the country’s manufacturing centres, which has been hit hard by the effects of the worst financial crisis in decades. St Columbanus church is one of 600 charities across the city that gives out emergency food rations.Across America, many working people from all sectors have taken as much as 40% in pay cuts in desperation to hold on to their jobs. Their motivation is clear: if you are a temporary, part-time or self-employed worker you don’t qualify for government help. The result is that many can’t make ends meet and afford to feed themselves and their families.

From the Programme’s Blog (here)  

The producer, Clancy Chassay, and I flew to America knowing that increasing numbers of people were being made homeless. Many were just ordinary, working Americans who’d never expected to find themselves in such dire circumstances.

From the moment we landed it was clear what was happening was largely hidden – there weren’t thousands of middle-class Americans sleeping on the streets in plain view. Investigating further we were shocked at what we found. Shelters across the country were packed to capacity with people who had, until very recently, been living the American dream – the house, the job, the car and the big-screen TV. What was even more surprising is that many still had jobs, but the pay wasn’t enough to keep the roof over their heads. All the shelters had waiting lists of hundreds of people; it was clear that there just weren’t enough to cope with the explosion in numbers of people being made homeless. With so many people having nowhere to go, we found groups coming together forming new communities of their own. Many had set up camps out of view of the public – in woods, industrial areas or abandoned wasteland – operating in tandem with mainstream society.

Some of this is already happening here. There are people who get no benefits whatsoever. There are those sanctioned trying to get by on below the minimum the DWP itself  says is necessary to live on. The local Community Resource Centre is beginning to give out food parcels to those stuck in trouble with the DWP’s system. There are people sleeping on the streets of Ipswich. There are beggars.

No doubt with the squeeze on Housing Benefit we will see more of this.

Crack-Down on Incapacity Benefit Claimants, Private Companies to Benefit.

All the papers are roughly the same today: Crack Down on Incapacity Benefit.

(something else happened yesterday afternoon that got reported but I can’t remember what it was).

The fair-minded Daily Express  says (here),

BENEFITS cheats who languish on state hand-outs after lying that they are too ill to work are to be targeted in a fresh Government crackdown, it emerged yesterday.

The Daily Mail, all softy, says, (here),

Meanwhile, latest figures show that some claim to be unfit because of headaches, indigestion and even blisters.

The Guardian  says,

Ministers are to signal a tougher approach to incapacity benefit this week as the next stage of its welfare reforms, by reducing the benefit levels of those tested if they are found capable of doing some work.

Details are expected to be announced by the work minister, Chris Grayling, this week. Early pilots suggest half of those assessed are being taken off the higher rate benefit on the basis that tests reveal they are fit to do some work, government sources say.

Those deemed capable are likely to be required to do more to make themselves available for work if they are to continue receiving benefit.

Ministers have also looked at whether they can speed up the testing, but denied a suggestion that they could treble the number tested.

The chancellor, George Osborne, signalled tonight that efforts to take more of those on incapacity benefit off welfare will form a significant part of plans to cut the deficit, saying: “It’s a choice we all face. It is not a choice we can duck.”

Osborne said the trade-off between cutting the £192bn welfare bill and the level of spending cuts required in other government departments will be a central feature of the first meeting this week of his pivotal cabinet committee on public spending.

Ministers are looking to see whether existing incapacity benefit claimants can be passed to new private sector welfare-to-work providers.

More here.

Apart from this there is one thing (amongst many) that is really wrong here.

There are a lot of people on these Benefits who have psychological problems. Some times they can work. Other times not.

It is a real act of cruelty to force them to ‘work’ when they are at risk of serious difficulties.

Many of us know people like this already forced onto New Deal Schemes. Isee one frequently.

It is not fair for them, and it is not easy for anyone else,  when they are in a difficult state.

New Deal Contractors must be already aware of what’s already gone on here.

Any firm taking on a contract to force such individuals into employment (and in doing so putting them in a position where they permanently risk sanctions), is a very dubious company.

A real sack of artful dodgers.

‘Workshy’ to Live on Air for Three Years.

 Friend-of-the-Dole-Claimant, the Daly Mail, announces today (Thursday),

Ministers will today unveil a tough new benefits regime designed to drive millions of claimants back into work and smash Labour’s legacy of welfare dependency.

Under the Government’s new Work Programme, millions of people on benefits will be forced to make daily efforts to find a job.

Those who refuse to co-operate will have their benefits stopped immediately. People on Jobseekers’ Allowance would lose their entire benefit of £65.45 a week. inisters will today unveil a tough new benefits regime designed to drive millions of claimants back into work and smash Labour’s legacy of welfare dependency.

Under the Government’s new Work Programme, millions of people on benefits will be forced to make daily efforts to find a job.

Those who refuse to co-operate will have their benefits stopped immediately. People on Jobseekers’ Allowance would lose their entire benefit of £65.45 a week

So far so same old story.

 

The Work Programme will be introduced in April and will replace all six back-to-work schemes set up by Labour.

It will be operated by private companies, which will be paid thousands of paid thousands of pounds for each person they find a job, funded by savings from the welfare budget.

Anyone unemployed for more than a year will be placed on the scheme, along with all under-25s who have been jobless for more than six months. All 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit will face tough new medical tests.

Those who are deemed fit to work will also be put on the Work Programme.

Individuals placed on the scheme will be given a tailored package to help them find a job.

Those who refuse to accept a ‘reasonable job offer’ will have their benefits stopped for a month. Ministers are believed to be considering plans to stop benefits for up to three years in cases where someone refuses three jobs.

People refusing to participate in the Work Programme will also have their benefits stopped.

Anyone refusing to make serious efforts to find work will be required to undertake ‘ mandatory community activity’, such as environmental volunteering

 

Read more: here.

It looks like the dog’s dinner we already know and love.

I suspect they have had one look at the cost of a full-scale ‘workfare’ programme (overseers and the rest) and decided it’s not such a clever idea.

But exactly what are “serious efforts” to get a job and what will be “community activity“?

Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform on Government Plans.

Recently our old friend, his Lordship David Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform, DWP , made a speech (from Here).

For some unaccountable reason Ipswich Unemployed Action was not invited to this event, or sent the left-overs from  the sumptuous buffet afterwards.

We have however added our comments.

 

Address to Welfare Providers

Wednesday 2 June 2010, Church House

First of all, thanks to Chris for outlining our ambitions for radical welfare reform.As you’ve heard, it is absolutely vital that we press ahead with these reforms as quickly as possible.For one thing, as Iain Duncan Smith pointed out in his speech last Thursday, the country quite literally cannot afford to go on like this.

But just as importantly, we need to take this opportunity to tackle poverty and long-term worklessness while there is a real appetite for radical change in government and across the country.

That is not to underestimate the scale of the challenge.No-one doubts there are problems within the current benefits system.

The incentives are inadequately aligned and the system actually reinforces unemployment and the poverty trap, rather than fighting it as it should.

There are real issues with the link between risk and reward for those who want to make the journey back to work.

And there are inherent problems with a system that does not concentrate enough on outcomes as the key measure.

That adds up to the central challenge for everyone here today as we work together to address the underlying issues that have left so many lives blighted by entrenched worklessness and poverty (aka the level of benefits you propose to lower).

There is some good news though, because we now have a government that is committed to making the changes we need and a Secretary of State who is prepared to champion the reforms in Cabinet.

Our reforms will be radical, but they are based around a simple premise: re-establishing responsibility and fairness as the cornerstone of our society (who are you kidding?).

What this means for you as providers, or potential providers, is equally simple: we will pay you a fair rate, but that rate will be set by outcomes, not by input (drive ‘em off benefits for god’s sake!) .

At the same time, we will free you from the pressures of political tinkering so that you can get on with the job, making the most of your own expertise and “business practices”. ( nervous titters) .

In this way, we will fix the system so that it works better for you, works out cheaper for taxpayers, and works harder for those who are hardest to help.

Work programme rationale

This is the rationale behind the Government’s single Work Programme.

We believe the present system does not do enough to help people get back to work and keep them there. Too often the system itself is responsible for ‘churn’ – people moving off benefits, into unsustainable work, back on to benefits, and back into unsustainable work, endlessly cycling between the two (What the hell is ‘unsustinable work’ in English?)

Moreover, the present system lumps people into a series of almost arbitrary categories. Not only that, but it fails to draw an adequate distinction between those who are work ready and simply need a job, and those who need substantial help to get back into the labour market (explain how your own period as a Government Adviser under Gordon Brown failed this alter this. Answers on back of a matchbox) .

The new Work Programme will be different.

It will be designed to allow you, the people who work at the coalface(!!!!!!!!!), to run your own operations as you see fit and provide more personalised help where that works for the individual.  (Like putting Urban Foxes in charge of a chicken-coop).

If a jobseeker requires eight escalating stages of support rather than six, it will be up to you to make that decision.

If a jobseeker needs intensive support from day one and is referred to you, it will be up to you to decide what support they get. One programme also means you can tackle the collective issues of family members in a coherent way – rather than splitting them up into different programmes. (Does this mean they will be in charge of families’ private lives – because this is what it looks like).

Sustainability will be at the heart of the Work Programme. You will be expected to handle the journey into work and the early stages within a new job – when those hardest to help are in the most fragile position. (More Nosey-Parkering.)

 

Necessity of dialogue

This must involve a radical shake-up of the system – and it must happen quickly. But despite the scale of our ambition and the pace of change, I want to assure everyone here that this will be a two-way process. (That is, the  Unemployed are merchandise between the Government and the Providers).

As you know, I have been in constant dialogue with you over the last year – through bodies like ERSA and the CBI – and that process will continue.

We want to bring you all with us and we are open to any ideas that will help us get the process moving quickly (Consult Ipswich Unemployed Action and you’ll be even quicker – we would get rid of the lot of you shifty types.)

We have a very clear idea of where we are going. But we haven’t nailed down all the steps we need to get there. The obvious example is the question of how we start up the system.

Fundamentally, that is why we are here today (and for the excellent food and drink)  – so we can start that process of open and honest dialogue. We will need to create a provider-based regime that preserves and embraces the best of what we have, while building the new framework we need to move forward.

Provider capital

Many of you already know my views about the type of changes we need to make (Unlike us, poor fools, who you’ve not informed  at all).

To keep up the pace of progress we envisage, we will need well-capitalised and well-resourced groups that are prepared to take up the challenge of competition in this area. (what a profitable business running the out-of-works lives can be!)

Given the greater off-flows we expect to see through migration (!!!!) from Incapacity Benefit to ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) under the new Work Capability Assessment, we will need companies with the scale to make an impact.

And in view of the difficulties that we are all familiar with in targeting support to some of the hardest to reach, we will also need groups that already have – or can co-opt into consortia – the skills and expertise needed to provide real change to people’s lives (we are already all to aware of what ‘changes’ can happen)

Consortia formation, financing and management will, I am convinced, lie at the heart of the successful operation of the sector.

So if you represent a medium or larger organisation, you might want to accelerate your thinking about how you can work with partners with resources in other areas or locations. Many of you, I know, have already elaborated strategies in this area. (tired, opps, tried,  and proven success eh……)

We’re already seeing the emergence of groups with strong skill-sets and a solid reserve of capital (??????); groups which are in a financial position to compete and invest in moving their customers into work.

At the same time, increased competition will be fairly rewarded by a payment-by-outcomes system that will foster innovation and creativity. And we will base our payments more firmly on keeping people in employment.

This is how the Government and the taxpayer can finally harness the dynamism and initiative that is evident in the organisations represented in this room today. (Pass the sick-bucket..)

There is a unique opportunity to combine the best of the third sector, the voluntary sector and the private sector to reinvigorate our welfare-to-work system.

Industry policing

The new Work Programme will herald a fundamental recalibration of the role of the state in welfare provision.

Yes, we’ll continue to make benefit payments and support the most vulnerable.

Yes, we’ll continue to hold a stake in your relationships with Jobcentre customers.

But we will not tell you how to run your businesses and we won’t meddle in your operations. (See remarks on Urban Foxes above).

We are determined that the “black box” approach, as it has been called, will really mean that we will judge you by your results and pay you accordingly. (Translation: we put the workless in a dark hole and let you get on with it.)

Some of you will remember that this proposition was at the heart of my report three years ago, when I recommended greater private and voluntary sector involvement in the welfare system. (We remember  it well, and we’ve marked you down ever since your Lordship).

We have moved in the right direction since then, but there are still too many top-down Whitehall rules instead of a framework that frees your ability to apply your own approach to get Britain working.

These changes will allow you to individualise your services like never before.

This implies greater specialisation. Some of you will concentrate in helping lone parents into work; or providing intensive support for ethnic groups in your area who suffer particular disadvantages.

All we want to focus on, and pay you for, is your record of getting people off benefits and into sustainable work. And this really is a big change – we care as much about your record of keeping people in work as we do your record of getting them there in the first place.

Challenges ahead

I don’t underestimate the challenges ahead. We’ll have to work out a different kind of pricing structure to establish rates of payment to providers – one which reflects the cost of supporting different types of jobseekers. (We assure you, you’ll make a mint with a growing captive market!)

There will be the added challenge of former Incapacity Benefit claimants flowing onto ESA through the Work Capability Assessment – or making a claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance. (You’ll  have to put up with the lame and the halt – but we’ll pay you well.)

Rolling out the Work Programme across the country will be a challenge,(how true!)  especially with regards to managing the transition. As Chris said, we intend to provide you with specific propositions shortly.

We’ve made good progress with our plans, but we want to hear your suggestions before we finalise them. After we’ve reflected on today, officials will be writing to all providers and bidders, spelling out the implications programme by programme and competition by competition.

Communications officials will be on hand to deal with your enquiries, and we’ve even set up a dedicated email address so we can provide effective Questions and Answers. The address is:

THEWORKPROGRAMME.EXTERNAL@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK  (Please contact them asp).

Conclusion

I want to close by reassuring you that those providers who have done well and are moving into the Work Programme with a legacy of strong performance (!!!!!!) are in a good position for the future.

For smaller providers, we will examine ways to provide you with the support you need, and encourage ideas that help you to access the capital you need, so that you can play a full part in the Work Programme.

Welfare reform is at the very top of the Government’s agenda – it was right at the top of last week’s Queen’s speech – and it is a personal goal of mine.

Many of you know me. I hope I have begun to earn your trust – at least for the consistency of my message. I want to make the system work well and work for everyone – just as Chris does, just as the new Secretary of State does, and just as the entire Coalition Government does.

Because welfare reform is the key to so many of this country’s problems; and you are the key to welfare reform. We, as a government, believe in the values of freedom, fairness and responsibility (!!!!!), and these ideas embody the thinking behind the Work Programme.

So please, engage with us during this collaborative reform process. Talk to us, to DWP officials, and amongst each other. Voice your concerns and make your suggestions (Unemployed follow this example of your betters and do the same!).

This is a pivotal time for welfare in this country. I urge you all to help us implement the reforms we so desperately need, and play a part getting Britain back to work.

Thank you.

Since June, as the plans are rolling out,  one thing is becoming clearer and clearer the Likes of A4E and the rest of the scapegrace ‘providers’ are going to run amok under Welfare Reform.

  

Unemployed With No Crisis Loan or Benefit Sanctions to Get Christian Charity Food Vouchers.

Ministers consider scheme to hand out food vouchers to unemployed

Charity director says some claimants ‘on the edge’ because they have been refused crisis loan or had benefits halted

The government is considering plans to distribute food vouchers to people on the dole as part of a wider drive to empower charitiess  to supplement the support provided by the welfare state.

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has given his provisional backing to JobCentre Plus staff handing out vouchers that can be exchanged for food parcels.

The parcels, which contain enough donated items to keep a family fed for six days, are administered from 65 food banks across the country run by the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity.

The initiative could prove politically controversial, and officials at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are keen the policy is seen as an attempt to bolster the voluntary sector, rather than the state abandoning people who fall through the welfare net.

Ministers see attempts to empower charities as in keeping with the Conservative party’s “big society” theme, and hope Jobcentre Plus advisers, who encounter people in poverty every day, could direct them to a range of locally-based charities.

More Here.

Today’s Independent on Sunday runs the story about Foodbanks  - Here.

A ‘Student’ comments (here),

hm, im not sure what i think about this, on the one hand, it could stop people who live off JSA from spending their money on things they dont need(alcohol, cigarettes etc etc) and making sure they are fed properly, yes i know this isnt true in the majority of cases, but i have seen it first hand how some people dont bother working and use their money to fund their drinking and just eat chinese takeaway all the time.
on the other hand, in this current climate anyone will struggle to get a job, is it fair to cut the JSA for people who really try, but cannot get a job in the field they are qualified for, and what about the social stigma, would people not look down on people paying with food vouchers?
In a different climate where the unemployment rate would be a lot lot lower, i would be all for this tbh, but at this current time, no, bad idea imo.

Or indeed some students might spend more time learning how to spell and write.

 

But I digress.

 

Being dependent on the good-will of Charities for basic necessities is always wrong.

 

Always.

 

This is a step backwards to the days of Lord and Lady Bountiful.

Letter to DWP On Work Programme.

Sent by E-Mail this Morning.

Dear DWP Ministers,
 
Ipswich Unemployment Action is a lively Blog run by the unemployed (http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/).
 
It posts news and comments (many hundreds) on issues to do with unemployment, state benefits and schemes (such as the Flexible New Deal) which are said to help people back into work.

We have grave concerns about the new Work Programme.

A major one is that Minister, Lord David Freud, describes the new system as a “black box”. That in a speech to providers he said, “We are determined that the “black box” approach, as it has been called, will really mean that we will judge you by your results and pay you accordingly.”
 
Does this mean that there will no public scrutiny of how it works, its effects on participants, and its outcomes?
 
As a member of Ipswich Unemployed Action I  would like to see any programme that affects the out-of-work operate with maximum openness.
 
I hope you can clarify the meaning of the phrase “black box”.
 
 
Yours faithfully,

Unemployment Bound to Rise Says Think-Tank. Fairy Jobmother to the Rescue.

The employer group reckons public sector cuts could see the dole queues swell to about 3m.

The employment picture might be looking slightly healthier in the private sector, but it’s a very different story in the public sector. The CIPD warns today that the Con-Lib coalition’s aggressive axe-wielding plans will leave some 725,000 civil servants out of a job – pushing the total UK unemployment figure up to 2.95m by 2012. Worse still, it thinks this number will remain pretty steady until 2015, since the private sector recovery is likely to be too weak to pick up the slack. Arguably it’s right that the state sector should finally experience some of the pain felt by the rest of us in recent years – but it’s going to have some nasty consequences…

 

From Here.

We doubt very much that civil servants are going to turn up as debt collectors, pawn-shop managers, Big Issue sellers (more Here), aroma therapists and other much-needed areas of employment set to grow in the near future.

One thing was very noticable: if unemployment is bound to rise, why are the Government planning to close yet more Job Centres?

But, hold on, rescue is at hand.

The Fairy Jobmother is back Next Week (here).

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

 

Yes we Can!

Housing Benefit Caps To Turf Out The Poor.

This is already beginning to happen….

Coalition’s welfare cuts will combine with joblessness and home repossessions to leave thousands homeless, charities predict

By Sean O’Grady, Economics Editor The Independent.

Thousands of people will be made homeless as public spending is slashed because of a dangerous combination of higher unemployment, increasing repossessions and cuts to housing benefit, housing experts have warned.

 The retired, disabled people, carers and working families will be hardest hit and charities predict it will trigger the steepest rise in families living in unsuitable accommodation and individuals sleeping rough since the 1980s.

Those in London will be the worst affected, forcing an exodus of poorer people from the centre to outer boroughs, and adding to the financial pressures on local authorities, which are obliged to find homes, school places and social care for the newly arrived families.

The homeless charity, Shelter, said that some households in London currently receiving housing benefit will have to find a shortfall of up to £1,548 a month to meet their housing costs. The result, say opposition MPs, will be “social cleansing” of poorer tenants from richer areas. (More Here)

If  anyone thinks this will just affect people in places like London it’s already touching people in more modest locations – in Ipswich.

A case brought to our attention include a couple living in a near to centre of town flat who have to make up the shortfall on their Housing Benefit – up to £15 a week (out of the pittance you have already). 
It’s becoming increasingly common for this to happen.
Add it to the delays in getting Housing Benefit and you’ve got a recipe for getting into rent arrears.
Soon lots more people will be in this trap.

Bear in mind that after a year on the Dole,  a 10% shortfall of Benefit to Rent is programmed in this round of Welfare ‘Reforms’.

Bear this in mind – everyone will fall under this rule, not the handful of individuals the Press publicises who get vast sums.

Not that this stops Tory Councillors from saying this (here),

“ we are living in an age of austerity  in which we all need to adapt to the new economic realities of the day. Reducing housing benefit payments is a key way to do this.”

Top-Tip: Invest in the Big Issue, a paper with a future.

Hayley Taylor: Saint and Saviour.

A4E: Canonised Sainthood.

If every jobless person in Britain had Hayley Taylor on their case, we’d soon be living in a land of zero unemployment. An unstoppable life force with a neat line in off-centre neckwear (a curious choker/cravat hybrid affair), it can’t be long before Taylor gets signed by the Cameron-Clegg coalition as Minister for Positivity.

(More in same vein Here.)

Hayley Taylor is soon due to perform the same miracles in the USA – Hat-tip to Funny A4e Photos.

LA CASTING:

Have you been out of the workforce for a significant amount of time? Have you lost hope at having a career? Is the bad economy weighing down you and your family? Hayley Taylor, career specialist who has successfully helped countless numbers of people on a show of the same name in the UK, is looking to help the perpetually unemployed finally get past their problems and finally obtain and keep a job on this side of the ocean.

Seeking:

- Unemployed men and women

- Ages 18 and up

- Must be a legal US resident and able to work ( here )

I watched the first five minutes.

Noticed her make-over alone would have cost more than a fortnight’s JSA.  

She started with something like, “My job is to make the unemployed feel good about themselves”.

Charlatan barely begins to cover it.

Funny A4E Video-Clip.

As the government plans to ‘outsource’ everything to Hayley Taylor-Arthur Daley Plc. now is the time to look again at the some of the companies dealing with the unemployed.

Okay I couldn’t find any videos about the coming Work Programme.

John Bird: Cut State Benefits, Buy the Big Issue.

How to Deal with Ne’re-Do-Wells.

Jobless must earn their benefits says John Bird (MBE)

Monday 21st of June 2010

John Bird, Founder & Editor in Chief of The Big Issue, has written to David Cameron urging him to cut state benefits.

In his letter to the Prime Minister Mr Bird urges him to take measures which oblige the unemployed to become involved in community work in order to improve their life skills and readiness for work.  

It is his firm belief that long term benefit dependency is responsible for a great many ills in society, including the creation of an underclass lacking in motivation or aspiration. 

“That’s not only damaging to individuals, it’s damaging to society. The illegal drugs industry would be lost without the support of the welfare state,” he told the Sunday Times yesterday.

Mr Bird explains that it is more expensive to keep a child in care than it is to send them to Eton – like the Prime Minister.

“He has to move fast: a new government has only six months of goodwill. I reminded him that we have the most expensive poor in the world.”

From Here

Help the Big Issue, use their Job Service: Here.

More on Big Issue Scam (Flexy) – Here.

John Bird: Someone Loves Yer!

Champion of the Out-Of-Work  John Bird has many friends amongst Ipswich Unemployed Action.

His solution to mass worklessness: less dole, ‘voluntary work’ (David Cameron’s Big Society) and flog some his mag on street corners.

Bird is rapidly getting support.  Away with the Nanny State (not that we are too clear on what Nannies are)! Bring communities back in charge! Buy the Big Issue!

In Ipswich we JSA types and Flexible New Dealers are ready to volunteer to

• Take over the Drink Squad from Busy Coppers. If we see people drinking in the street, we will confiscate all tinnies of strong cider and lager and put them a socially useful purpose.
• Run the Local Library. To save space we will transfer all CDs and DVDs to our homes.
• Food Safety. Our vigilant inspectors will pounce on the slightest infraction. We will confiscate all dodgy looking take-aways and bring them to our central depot for strict tastings.

We hope that Birdy will help us a Consultant.

Bird is man with a future. As his mate Gordon Roddick says

Life as John’s friend is a series of startling incidents. He is an anarchist who enjoys a drink – evenings out with him are always slightly dangerous. You’re sure to end up embroiled in arguments or heavy scenes in restaurants. John is part of life’s rich entertainment: he makes me laugh and I love the guy.

(More, yuk, Here)

What a scamp!

Housing Benefit Cuts Will Hit Poor Hard.

 

The cuts in Housing Benefit will hit hard. I think this is going to be a major cause of distress. Not only, as people here have remarked, is it almost impossible to rent a new place when you’re on the dole but many landlords already make life difficult for anyone on Benefits. Having to fork out that ‘extra’ money – when the DWP already says the existing JSA level is the minimum you need to (barely) live on –  is a hard demand. It will also affect anyone trying to get back into work, since people on low-paid jobs are often helped out by Housing Benefit.

From the Guardian (Here.)

Almost a million of the poorest people in Britain will lose on average £12 a week next year – a drop of up to 17% of their disposable income, according to a government analysis of housing benefits cuts announced in last month’s budget. 

The figures show that 170,000 pensioners, 240,000 low-paid workers and half a million others will be affected.

The greatest impact will be felt by the unemployed, who will have to find an extra £11 a week to pay their rents – their jobseeker’s allowance is £65.

More than 40,000 households will lose more than £1,000 a year.

The government says the cuts are necessary as the cost to the taxpayer of housing benefit expenditure is now £20bn – double that of a decade ago.

The government’s analysis looks only at the effect of changes next year. These will cap the amount of housing benefit allowance, peg the amount of support to the bottom third of rents in the claimant’s borough and remove a £15 incentive paid to families who seek cheaper accommodation.

There have been persistent warnings from campaigners that the draconian nature of the reforms will lead to parts of the country being emptied of poor people.

Helen Williams, assistant director at the National Housing Federation, said: “Almost 100% of claimants will be worse off. There’s a very real risk that these cuts will push hundreds of thousands of people into poverty, debt and even on to the streets if they end up being evicted.”

Labour said the “figures prove that the government’s housing benefit cuts will push thousands of people into poverty and homelessness”. Yvette Cooper, the shadow secretary for work and pensions, said: “Almost every private sector tenant in the country on local housing allowance is going to be badly hit by these plans – including over 50,000 of the poorest pensioners.”

Cooper described the measures as just the “tip of iceberg”, representing less than a third of the putative savings of £1.76bn outlined by the coalition government. “Shocking that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as these only include figures for 2011, when many more cuts come in after that,” she said.

Today the Department for Work and Pensions appeared to accept that the changes would leave some people in receipt of housing benefit unable to rent properties in prosperous parts of the country.

“What these reforms mean is that people receiving housing benefit may not be able to live in expensive city centres, but the same applies to most working families who do not receive benefit,” it said.

The minister for welfare reform, Lord Freud, a former Labour adviser, said that the previous government had let housing benefit “spiral out of control” and left families “in properties which they could never afford to maintain”.

 

Hat tips to Homeless Harry and everyone else who’s posted on this

David Freud: His Lordship on Getting People into Work.

The Work Programme seems set to run from next year.

In the meantime we are getting reports that existing ‘providers’ (as if they are like nurturing parents…) of the Flexible New Deal  seem less and less interested in their ‘customers’.

Some people have not heard from their advisers for a considerable time.

Labour Market System Scam #485,672

Just a heads up to be careful about what jobs you apply for.

This is one example: LEAFLET DISTRIBUTOR that is NATIONWIDE, PERMANENT, 20+ HOURS WEEK and WAGE of £7.55 PER HOUR (ref: ERG/14706). The employer, AIRCELL MEDIA (Assumingly, tongue in cheek of “Air” referring to empty and “Cell” referring to a single Brain Cell) whom has a website at www.aircellmedia.co.uk (registered to “Lucent Internet Services” – lucent meaning shining, bright or translucent) and redirects via registrar domainmonster.com to aircell.homestead.com. 

Welfare Reform ‘Option’: £50 A Week Dole.

 Looking at the details of the proposed Welfare Reforms we find this,

From the Guardian.

 After the budget tinkered with indexation in a manner that will ratchet down the safety net every year, it was chilling to see one option floated in yesterday’s paper which involved cutting the basic rate of income support to just £50 per week. With that sort of idea as part of the mix, it is hard to greet other ideas – such as more regional welfare – with the open mind that they might otherwise deserve.

More Here.

Millionaire Cabinet and Welfare Reform.

From the ever reliable Daily Mail (Here. )

It is the £60million Cabinet. David Cameron’s coalition Government may have adopted ‘fairness’ as one of its defining slogans, but his team of Ministers has been drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of the financial elite – leading to accusations that politics is once again becoming the preserve of the wealthy.

Of the 29 Ministers entitled to attend Cabinet meetings, 23 have assets and investments estimated to be worth more than £1million.

Compare and contrast their cushioned lived with this (Hat-Tip to Old Timer),(more Here.)

That is the purge on people who get the miserable level of benefits for the Disabled and Ill:

The “migration” of IB claimants to the new employment support allowance (ESA) is a warning for DLA claimants. George Osborne recently announced a new medical-test for DLA claimants to reduce nonexistent disincentives to work, and to tackle the miniscule level of fraud. It will probably be the same type of unfair programme, run by private contractors Atos, aimed at reducing the caseload for DLA by 20%. This implicit target for throwing people off DLA is easily seen in June’s budget.

As for fraud, there is little justification for a catch-all punishment. Atos will get £500m over seven years for kicking people off benefits, while fraud in IB over this period will add up to around £250m: the tests intended to stop the fraud cost twice as much as the actual fraud! This means that the only way Atos can be value-for-money is if they cut £250m off the ESA caseload – so that there is indeed an implicit target, just as there is for the DLA caseload. The real story isn’t of cheating disabled people, but of a government with a badly hidden agenda.

Getting a Job: Channel Four Next Tuesday.

If anyone unemployed enjoys being a lab-rat then they will love the latest Channel Four programme: here.

The country’s top recruitment expert, Emma Harrison, and self-proclaimed political maverick Ray Lewis go head to head to prove that they know the best way to tackle a problem that’s plagued governments for decades: unemployment.

For Ray Lewis, Gang Tsar and Director of Eastside Young Leaders Academy, which helps disaffected youngsters get back on the straight and narrow, there’s only one way to get long-term unemployed back to work: ‘To keep them on track they need a strong and firm hand.’

Emma’s approach is to work with people: ‘I walk by their side, hold their hand and we go on a journey resulting in them getting a job that transforms their lives.’

Emma and Ray both select a member of the public for each other, someone who has been unemployed for over 18 months. They then work on their new client, agreeing that the best method will be the one that finds their client the highest paid job.

Emma helps 21-year-old John, who has never had a job and lives with his parents on a council estate in Leyton. Going to prison has become a real possibility for John and now he says he wants to turn his back on his criminal past.

Ray’s disciplinarian regime has been successful in transforming the lives of young men at this Academy in the East End, but how effectively will his boot camp methods work with 48-year-old unemployed Dave, who hasn’t had a job for over two years and feels that he’s already exhausted all avenues?

Ray Lewis ”

Former London deputy mayor Ray Lewis has been given a new City Hall role, two years after he resigned amid claims of financial irregularities.

London mayor Boris Johnson has recruited Mr Lewis to help stop young men from troubled backgrounds being drawn into gang violence.

The former mayor resigned as deputy mayor for youth in July 2008.

Emma Harrison needs no introduction to many readers of this site.

But for those who know nothing of her fragrant self:

John Bird and Emma Harrison Get It Together To Help Unemployed Health.

From the Friend of the Dole Queue, the Daily Mail,

An initiative to improve the health of the long-term unemployed is to be launched by Emma Harrison, founder of the A4e welfare-to-work organisation, and John Bird, who set up the Big Issue.

The joint venture will establish ‘wellness centres’ staffed with GPs throughout the 250 A4e branches.

Harrison, who will star in the Channel 4 programme Who Knows Best: Getting A Job on Tuesday, said: ‘There is a correlation between poor health and people in the subsistence culture, the dispossessed and longterm unemployed.’

(From  Here.)

 Hat-Tip to Watching A4E.

For those who have forgotten who John – cut the benefits of the out-of-work – Bird is (From  Here.)

JOHN BIRD: FOUNDER OF THE BIG ISSUE

John Bird founded The Big Issue ltd London in the early 1990′s. Since then he has spread the business all over the world. The latest was a very successful launch of the
Big Issue in Osaka and Tokyo

John is one of the most inspiring speakers you will ever meet. “I have a lifetime of experience to draw upon. I was born into the underclass, made homeless at the age of seven, in prison by the time I was a teenager, slept rough on the streets of
London, and from there went on to buying and selling products and services, and building businesses“.

Bird has spoken at some of the following places:

The UN in New York, Nairobi and Istanbul
At Number ten Downing Street
Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster.
Buckingham Palace,
The Society of Actuaries dinner
Countless after dinner speeches for charities, clubs etc

He has spoken in the presence of Prince Charles, Kofi Annan, the Late Princess Diana, Tony Blair, and the current cabinet.

And at meetings and conferences with BT, Business in the Community etc

Most of his businesses have been social businesses. That is they were set up to help people, with most of the profits going back into social support work.

But because the end has been social it does not mean that the businesses he has started do not need to be commercial. Bird has been very resolute in keeping costs down, inspiring staff, and giving leadership to many people wishing to enter business.

Bird’s major role now is coming up with new business ideas. He also speaks at business forums, in prisons, to police officers, corporate and professional bodies, from a small group to a large conference.

Now with fellow scamp Emma, Birdy has got a new money-spinner!

Bounty Hunters to Help Run Dole.

Dog the DWP Bounty Hunter.

Bounty hunters to cut benefit fraud by £1bn

Private agencies are to be paid by the Government to reduce benefit fraud by £1billion, David Cameron is to announce.

As an estimated one in three claimants is suspected at some point, either through being reported by a ‘whistle-blower’  (translation: informer witha  grudge against someone) or after suspicions are raised by staff, the financial records of millions of people could be vetted.

The credit company will be able to cross-check information about private household spending, such as utility bills, mobile phone payment details and satellite television subscriptions (Note: who can afford that for long on the Dole?), against benefit records to identify potential fraudsters.

People with “lifestyles that are inconsistent with those claiming incapacity benefit” will also be highlighted (Note: ability to walk and breath are known signs of faud).

Claimants spending large sums on gardening (?), DIY (Note:  fixing stuff yourself sign of fraud)  and foreign holidays (Note: it is presently illegal for a person on JSA to travel out of the country) may come under scrutiny.

More Here.

Dog the Bounty Hunter (Cartman) will be out there:  Respect my authoritah!

 

Training Video For Fraud Busters:

 

Emma Harrison Versus Ray Lewis: Get a Real Job, Please.

Channel Four Job Adviser.

Call me a cynical, bookie-booze-all-day, sofa-telly-glued, chips-with-everything, 40-stone-idler.

But wasn’t the Harrison-Lewis show last night dire? (site here)

Okay the Emma character got someone – that is, yes,  one - a job.

All power to him.

The real star, Emma,  got to speak about holding people’s hands. Which was all very sweet.

But the spectacle was all about the duel of the dullards: Em and Lew.

Lewy gave a bad impression of  Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction), threatening fire and brimstone all round.

The main interest in the programme was on which of these moral titans would “win”. The unemployed were their cards. Em, won.

Er, that was it.

Poundland to move in to Woolworths

Poundland Ipswich is set to relocate to the former Woolworths store. As the store they are moving in is much larger its probable that many more jobs will be created…

Get writing your speculative letters to:

Poundland
44 Carr Street
Ipswich
IP4 1EW

(01473) 232 497

This is the current store contract details – sending to the Woolworths store is risky as they might not receive it.

Not job of the century… but its a job.

Smoke A Joint, Drink A Pint of Bitter, And Get No Benefits.

 Okay I made up a bit here but this is the latest scheme of the Liberal-Tory Junta that runs this country,

Drug addicts who refuse treatment could have their welfare benefits withdrawn, it was reported.

The Home Office is considering some form of “financial benefit sanction” for claimants who fail to address their drug or alcohol dependency, the BBC said.

It would mark the revival of a scheme planned by the previous Labour government aimed at helping get drug users back into work.

Social security advisers have warned such a move could drive addicts back into a life of crime.

 

(Comment: Too bloody right!)

The idea is said to be in a consultation paper on the Government’s drug strategy for England, Wales and Scotland. A spokesman for the Home Office was unable to comment on the proposal.

It comes amid government plans for wider shake-up of the welfare system to help save billions of pounds.

The Labour government planned a series of pilot schemes this year to help drug users kick their habits and return to work.

They included applying sanctions to addicts who failed to attend treatment awareness programmes, and increased powers for the criminal justice system to help identify problem drug users not in treatment.

But the Social Security Advisory Committee – a statutory body – warned the pilot could cause “significant harm” including the “disengagement of problem drug users from the welfare to work system with…negative economic and social impacts”.

This is the latest area of drug policy to come under the microscope this week.

Here.

Cordelia Gummer Speaks: Coatesy Has Gone Abuja.

This is a guest post from well-respected Cordeila Gummer (her with the heart).

Cordellia is well known in radical unemployed circles for her tireless work in support of out-of-work nannies with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Ipswich Unemployed Action is proud to announce that former ring-leader Komrade Koates is now a leading Viagra selling-distributor in our Abuja  Branch.

All future correspondence should be addressed to the following E-Mail:

fuckoffnuuters@Hotmail.com.

Work for Your Benefit scheme axed!

Work for Your Benefit scheme axed!

Ipswich Unemployed Action can officially report (after the Government has confirmed this within the last week)  that the Work for Your Benefit scheme pilots have been scrapped by Government, however, the ConDem(n) Government will be introducing fulltime community [service] activity in the new Work Programme designed to keep longterm unemployed people in the routine and discipline of work. I would comment its too much too late.

I have always said that the Work Programme appeared to be a mix of Flexible New Deal and the Work for Your Benefit (pilot) scheme… which the outlooks seems to be confirm that it will exactly be this. Perhaps, first half of the Work Programme will be like Flexible New Deal and the other half 6 months of fulltime Community Service like activity or it could be mixed – whereas on Flexible New Deal you have the Mandatory Work Related Activity period which can be taken anytime in the 12 months as long as it can be completed; flexibility could be written in requiring Community Service activity to be started earlier. It would actually be a better way of organising resources by dividing the numbers instead of having hundreds of people starting at once.

This will become an extreme concern as unlike with the planned pilots where the person would have to be signing on for 6-12 months and do 12 months on Flexible New Deal before being referred to such pilots (i.e. up to 2 years)… ConDem(n) Government is planning of fast tracking everyone before 6 months of their claim, thus if plans happen as speculated within 12 months people will be undertaking fulltime Community Service work.

The lack of logic why the ConDem(n) Government didn’t allow the pilots to go ahead is clear. Firstly, it would jeopardise the latter Work Programme when it is discovered that the pilots were unsuccessful. Secondly, as a separate scheme, enrollment would have to be left until Work Programme ended…. thus 6 months unemployment + 12 months duration of scheme (?) … would leave 18 months before people have to do such work. Statistically, most claimants (no indication on who is unique or repeat claims) sign off before 6 months (or so was the case before Credit Crunch). Combining it into one scheme requires the unemployed to participate at least 6 months earlier – thus more people are affected… although ConDem(n) had hinted that they might fast track people near day one of their claim… which means less time before fulltime Community Service.

It is currently unknown whether the ConDem(n) Government will be influenced by Labours proposed (made law for the pilots before it was axed) Sanctions Regime including verbal Jobseeker Directions.

Feel free to discuss.  At current it is a minor victory for the unemployed in these pilot areas, however, the ConDem(n) Government is planning worse things ahead. Elsewhere, Flexible New Deal providers are still not contacting Flexible New Deal participants… leaving them without support, although the Flexible New Deal providers have heavily profited from a top heavy service fee. I am aware of many cases of this. Anyone else parked by their Provider?

Sanctions: Appeal From Our Hackney Friends.

Dear all We’re looking for cases of people’s benefits being sanctioned by the Jobcentre to make a judicial review challenging the targets for sanctioning set by the DWP (see their reply to our freedom of information request below). Members of Hackney Unemployed Workers who have been sanctioned are putting their cases forward but we need as many as possible to have a better chance of winning the case, which we think would be a good practical victory. If anyone knows someone who has been sanctioned and wouldn’t mind their cases being part of this please mail us at hackneyunemployedworkers@gmail.com. Cheers Terry and Richard Hackney Unemployed Workers London Coalition Against Poverty.

More info on Sanctions here.

Hackney Web Site Here.

Frank Field Goes Bonkers (And Cameron Wants to “to limit the “lifestyle choices” of the Poor).

Here

The interim report (by Frank Field) will give details about efforts to construct an “index of life opportunities” and suggest a “range of intelligent interventions” to focus on children between the ages or five and 10, to try to improve the life chances of those from less well-off families.

Note er, what?

However, whereas most government-commissioned interim reports are published, this one will not be. A source close to Mr Field admitted last night: “We are submitting it on Monday – but we don’t know whether they’ll publish it.”

Mr Cameron is understood not to want colourful proposals by Mr Field to be debated in public at such a sensitive time as the announcement of the CSR, which sees Whitehall departments facing cuts to their budgets of up to 40 per cent.

And what was in this report?

A proposal to “create four or five terms in the school year to shorten the long summer holiday, which he argues disadvantages the poor.” And, for “child benefits (up to £100,000 over 19 years by his estimate) to  arrive in one lump sum at birth”

Mr Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is already locked in a struggle with Mr Osborne, the Chancellor, over plans to restrict benefits to middle-income families and moves to “make work pay” for those currently on benefits.

With no deal yet on the table, Mr Osborne (Cameron’s mate) last week revealed that the welfare bill will be cut by another £4 billion on top of £16 billion of savings already announced as he seeks to limit the “lifestyle choices” of those who prefer to stay at home on benefit rather than work.

Ach, these freedom loving Tories and Liberals.

I repeat they want to “to limit the “lifestyle choices” of other people.

How precisely are they going to do that?

Have us all report daily to some private company who will tell us how to live our lives?

Give the Police powers to tell us how to live our lives?

Put CCTV in our flats and houses to check up?

Blimey!

Clegg Cheers Cuts.

Nick Clegg today issued a staunch defence of radical benefit cuts as he geared up for potential clashes with Liberal Democrat activists at the party’s annual conference.

The deputy prime minister said welfare should not be there “to compensate the poor for their predicament” but act as “an engine of mobility”.

Billions of pounds are to be slashed from the welfare budget by the chancellor, George Osborne, when he unveils the results of his drastic public spending review next month.

From Here. More on the Liberal Democrats Here.

So now we know that the poor are to receive no compensation for being poor.

Perhaps we shouldn’t get anything at all, unless we take it ourselves.

It would be interesting to know exactly how reducing the amount of money you have will make you more ‘mobile’.

Perhaps we should ask Clegg to take a pay cut and see if he gets a better job.

Work Trials:Another Racket.

Work Trails are some of the remnants of the last government’s hare-brained schemes for the unemployed. A work trial means placing someone in a job they normally would not apply for.  You work for an alloted time, up to thirty days, under high surveillance.  There is no extra payment – the employer gets labour for free.

It is becoming clear that while the present government dithers over its plans for the out-of-work ‘providers’ are pushing this scheme – down out throats.

Panny Panayiotou explains what this means.

This is how it works; A person on Job Seeker’s Allowance is presented with the opportunity to work for a company on what can be a full time basis (anywhere up to 40 hours) and will be paid in benefits, rather than with an actual wage. If, at the end of those three weeks, the employer or employee wishes to terminate the job, then the difficult search continues for the employee.

The scheme is open on a voluntary basis and is supposed to give the prospective worker the freedom to not take on a job they don’t like, however the reality of this scheme is very different indeed.

At a time when unemployment is high, it is a fallacy to believe that anyone would not take a work trial if offered. After all, a job search in the present climate is likely to be long, hard and desperate. As well as this, the unemployed have to report back on their job searches weekly and if their search is found to be insufficient, then benefits can be held back for a week.

If someone were to reject a work trial, it could be interpreted as a wilful act to avoid future jobs and this can be held against them.

In other words it’s similar to workfare (no real pay for work), and is about as ‘voluntary’ as the Mafia’s offers. It’s clearly a means of disciplining claimants. For what end? As I began above:: into taking work they would not normally (or suitably, or appropriately) accept.

More from  Suite101 Here.

Example (names removed):

 I wonder if anyone can help me out. I applied for a job at a supermarket, and they got back in touch a few weeks ago to say that all candidates have to complete a three week work trial before they would be interviewed.
The date for the trial is over the christmas and new year period, we will be interviewed in January.
I’d always assumed that work trials were voluntary and could be terminated at any time; by either side, but I have been asked to sign a form committing to the three weeks.
The Jobcentre have informed me it is my interests to do so, but to wait for an interview seems harsh.:confused:

I have a personal interest in this: it has been suggested to me that I try a “work trial” as a cleaner and general skivvy.

Youth Fight For Jobs National Demo.

demonstration against youth unemployment in 2010

Youth Fight for Jobs wholeheartedly welcomes move

At today’s Trade Union Congress Conference in Manchester, a motion was passed committing the TUC to a national demonstration against youth unemployment before the end of the year. Youth Fight for Jobs, a campaigning organisation backed by six national trade unions and seen as a key organisation in the TUC resolution, today welcomed the decision.

Ben Robinson, Youth Fight for Jobs Chair, said “This is a huge step forwards and we are extremely pleased. As fresh unemployment figures due to be released on 15 September are expected to show little change in youth unemployment, it is clear that the time for action is now. A-level students who’ve missed out on university, young workers thrown out of work because of cuts and bankruptcies, and those in work and education who will be affected by this recession, this is an essential event to attend.”

“Youth Fight for Jobs, working with the TUC, youth sections of the trade unions and its other affiliates, will seek to make this demonstration as big as possible. We urge the TUC general council to name a date as soon as possible so that we and others can start campaigning for it. Together with the demonstration called by the National Union of Students, it’s clear that young people are fighting back on a whole new level. This privileged government and their friends in the square mile better take note.”

Youth Fight for Jobs was launched at the start of the recession to combat the effects of the crisis on young people. It is backed by Unite, UCU, PCS, CWU, Bectu and RMT and has organised two national demonstrations, as well as numerous local protests, rallies and demonstrations.

From Here.

Suffolk County Council: New Blow to Jobs and Public Services.

From the BBC.

A county council has agreed to slash its £1.1bn budget by 30% by outsourcing almost all its services.

The decision by Suffolk County Council could be seen as model for other councils to follow.

Under the New Strategic Direction almost all council services will be offloaded to social enterprises or companies over the next few years.

Unions have warned the plan puts a huge number of the council’s 27,000 jobs at risk.

The aim is to turn the authority from one which provides public services itself, to an enabling council which commissions other to carry out the services.

It could eventually see the council’s workforce slimmed down to just a few hundred people who would manage the contracts.

Miliband and Welfare Reform.

Ed Miliband on Welfare Reform:

This is one of the hardest issues for our party because all of us know in our communities people who are in genuine need and who worry about the impact of new medical tests, or changes to rules on them.

At the same time, let’s be honest, we also know there are those for whom the benefits system has become a trap.

That is not in their interests or the interests of us a society and we are right when we say it must be challenged.

Reforming our benefits system is not about stereotyping everybody out of work, it’s about transforming their lives.

Real help matched with real responsibility.

That is why on welfare, I will look closely at whatever the government comes forward with: not arbitrary cuts to benefits but a genuine plan to make sure that those in need are protected and that those who can work have the help they need to ensure they do so.

Work is a central part of life. But it is not all that matters.

We all care about making a living, but we don’t just care about that.

 

More Here.

What does this mean?

One indication could show us.

There are rumours that our old friend James Purnell – the man who began the whole miserable process of ‘welfare reform’ – may seek a post in the Shadow Cabinet. In the same role?

We shall be watching developments like ‘awks.

Welfare-to-Work, Reed in Partnership “inadquate”.

Private Eye has just published (1st of October) a short piece in the latest issue on companies running the ‘Pathways to Work’ schemes. These (here) are part of ” a national back-to-work programme available to all customers claiming incapacity benefits and the Employment and Support Allowance in Great Britain.”

OFSTED inspects these firms and its report found its way to the magazine.

“The worst scheme was in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, where the government’s leading contractor, ‘Reed In Partnership’ was found to be ‘inadquate in all areas.” It does not provide good value for money. “Participant outcomes are low against contract targets.”

And so it goes.

Reed in South London was un’satifacory’. but “staff turnover is high ” (Note: a common feature of all such companies running these and Flexible New Deal schemes), and there were ”too few personal advisers”.

A4E in West Yorkshire, was marked by the fact that “action to resolve staff underperformance had been slow” (Note: Emma was not there to hold their hands).

Import from Australia,  Ingeus , was found to be “inadequate” in Southwark, City and East London and central London. A scheme in central London was found to be the worst, with ”often uninspiring” training and “insufficient access to computers”.

A4E the Eye notes (later than us lot here) employs former Annabel’s regular and part-time Minister David Blunkett.  Ingeus was employs Dean James, “former chief operating officer at Blunket’s DWP.

We await reports on the performance of these companies for the Flexible New Deal

Welfare Reform – ‘Big Work Programme’ – to Include Workfare.

The Sunday Times (which does not allow free information access) reports today on Ian Duncan Smith’s plans for Welfare Reforms. (More general outline from the BBC)

One area is of specific interest.

Unemployed to “be forced into a US-style ‘workfare’ programme to make them employable.”

Amongst the details of how benefits will continue (in a hyper-complicated way posters here have explained) when you are in work this will mean:

No  money if a you refuse a job (nothing new at all then – this is already the rule).

“”In an American ‘workfare’ style system, private companies will be paid to ‘do whatever it takes’ to make individuals employable and find them posts. As well as skills training, this could involved teaching them how to dress smartly, sending staff to force them out of the bed in the morning and offering them counselling or confidence-boosting sessions.”

The ace-reporters on the Sunday Times note that benefits are already conditional and can be withdrawn from those who “persistently refuse to work”. What is new is that this is apparently which is news to us at Ipswich Unemployed Action) “this is almost impossible to enforce, when individuals can justifiably claim that there are financially better off out of work”.

Humm.

In an inside page ‘report’ it is stated that people failing to get a job through this plan will mean US-style obligations to do ”actual work in socially beneficial projects, such as in parks and administration, as a teacher’s aid or construction work.”

For Dole Wages? No doubt a wizard plan to help, say, with Suffolk County Council’s cuts and outsourcing: replace fully paid staff on the County with workfare claimants.

Ex-Workers’ revolutionary Party member and Big Issue founder, John Bird*, is cited,  expressing his support for this “tough love”. Though many wonder if selling the Big Issue is the way to “increase social mobility” – apart from this own move ever upwards.

Labour were also planning a Work for Benefits Programme.  

The only truly new part of this part of the overall reform scheme is the plan to send private company employees round to our houses to wake us up in the morning.

 

* John Bird MBE is available for corporate functions and after-dinner speaking – Here.

David Cameron: Tooth Fairy to Reform Welfare and Cure Everything.

David Cameron Speaks,

I got a letter from a six-year-old girl called Niamh with a pound coin stuck to it. And there was a note from her mum, which said: “Dear Mr Cameron … after hearing about the budget, Niamh wanted to send you her tooth fairy money to help.”

Niamh: thankyou.

(Puts coin in his piggy bank)

Here.

Here’s how he’s going to reform public services:

The big, giant state monopolies – we’re breaking them open to get new ideas in.

Saying to the people who work in our public services – set up as a co-operative, be your own boss, do things your way.

Saying to business, faith groups, charities, social enterprises – come in and provide a great service.

The rest, fairness, fairness, two to tango etc.

Fairness?

To Begin with, Housing Benefit Reform. The National Housing Federation (here) says,

The Government should not proceed with the proposal to cut Housing Benefit by 10% for those who have been claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance for 1 year. Instead the Government should incentivise work through challenging and supporting people through job creation and the Work Programme. 

Building more social homes keeps the housing benefit bill down and far below any imposed caps for private rented sector rents.

We have demanded a more detailed assessment of the impacts of the proposals on BME households who often require larger, higher rent homes.

Rather than cutting benefit for those who are under-occupying, Government investment agencies should work in partnership with local authorities and other social landlords to help households move home, in dialogue with existing tenants. These proposals were detailed in the Federation’s Report of the Mobility Taskforce.

Reducing the Local Housing Allowance limit to the 30th percentile will not bring private sector rents down. The additional stress and hardship caused by the reduction is likely to damage people’s health, educational attainment and anxiety levels, and will also cause significant costs to the public purse.

The reforms will have a negative impact on the income of disabled people, their employment prospects and the range of housing choices open to them.

The proposal for housing entitlements for working age people in the social rented sector to reflect family size may mean that thousands of housing association tenants would have to face either a shortfall in their rent, or the urgent need to relocate.

Poor To Be Cleansed From London

Jo, the Crossing-Sweeper (Bleak House, Dickens).

“Move on, Move on, You Can’t Stay Here.”

Welfare cuts ‘will be like the Highland Clearances’

Joe Murphy, Political Editorr
07.10.10

A political storm broke today after a government minister claimed that plans to cap welfare benefits would prompt an exodus of Labour voters from London.The unnamed Conservative minister was quoted as describing the policy as “the Highland Clearances” – the eviction of farmers from the Scottish highlands and islands in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Labour  said the term smacked of gerrymandering, and recalled the scandal at Westminster City Council when poorer families were moved away from marginal wards to improve the chances of Tory wins.

Chancellor George Osborne used his party conference speech to announce plans to cap the total weekly benefit claims of any household at £500. His officials said about 50,000 claimants would be affected, almost all of them in London. June’s budget revealed plans to reduce housing benefit claims, another measure that affects Londoners most.

An article in today’s Telegraph quoted anonymous ministers as saying the housing benefit cap “will force an exodus from London and other areas with high property prices”. The author commented that the benefits cap “sounds small but politically it has the potential to be devastating to Labour”.

More Here.

We will no doubt see similar results in the rest of the country.

I suppose no-one who writes these articles has the wit to mention that moving home and finding a new one is hard, if not impossible, for anyone on benefits.

Incapacity Benefit, ‘Reassessment’ – Yet Again, and Again and….

 

 

The BBC reports,

Incapacity benefit claimants in north-east Scotland and Burnley in Lancashire are to be the first to be reassessed ahead of UK-wide welfare reform.

Those deemed fit enough to work, using a points-based system, will be moved to the jobseeker’s allowance.

The reassessment was designed to end the one-size-fits-all approach to those with illness and disabilities.

(More Here. )

Our friend Harpy Marx comments (here),

This means bullying people into the job market based on supposedly “objective medical assessment” (changes to DLA) when really it is based on ideology, it means forcing vulnerable claimants onto Workfare by some contracted-out private sector company, it means further alienation and isolation. Mental distress hits around one in four adults. That’s a helluva number of people yet it’s still stigmatised and hidden. Marginalised and vilified (apparently we are “bad, mad and dangerous to know”). During the past two years, recession and unemployment has caused:

1 in 10 had visited their GP for support
7% had started a course of medical treatment for depression
5% had seen a counsellor
Half said staff morale was low
28% were working longer hours
A third said staff were having to compete against each other.

We can only agree with Harpy’s observations.

There are many people with ‘invisible’ illnesses. Mental health issues are widespread. On the Flexible New Deal in Ipswich there was one individual who is really seriously – really seriously -  mentally ill. I pointed this out the staff at the ‘Den’. They ignored my advice, although I suggested this person’s condition was well-known in the town and no doubt to the authorities.

Putting someone like that on JSA is not only a joke but an act of great cruelty.

 

 

Note on Swearing.

I realise this will lead to a torrent of rude language (er, though I hope not).

Note on Swearing.

We’ve got an E-Mail from Norfolk saying that because the swear-words on this site he gets access to it denied through the Public Library system.

That is they’ve got some kind of filter that makes Ipswich Unemployed off limits because of bad language.

I can believe this.

So please can people stop using the f and c words – it means that other people can’t get onto here to expresses their views.

Andrew Coates

TUC on Unfair Benefit Rulings.

Unfair benefit rulings are another attack by Government on the poor, says TUC

The TUC reveals new evidence today (Friday) that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is moving people from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) purely to save money, even though the individuals are not fit enough to return to work.

The TUC has identified a number of case studies who have been awarded ’0 points’ by Atos Origin Ltd – a company contracted by the DWP to carry out ESA assessment reviews – and declared fit to work when they had all previously been declared too ill to do so.

When they met with Atos Origin Ltd, Sue Hutchings had breast cancer and was awaiting surgery, while John Watkins had his arm in plaster from his shoulder to his fingertips following an operation.

They were moved from ESA at £96.85 a week on to JSA at £65.45 a week, losing them each £1,632.80 a year in benefit support, and forcing them to start looking for work.

Atos Origin Ltd receives millions of pounds in contracts from the DWP and large employers for assessing people who have been declared unfit for work. Advice workers all over the country have voiced concerns to the TUC over the large number of people being denied benefits following disability analysis undertaken by Atos Origin Ltd on behalf of the DWP.

This week (starting Monday 11 October) the DWP began two ESA re-assessment trials in Burnley and Aberdeen. The TUC is concerned that the Government is moving many disabled and sick people from ESA on to JSA to save money even though they are too ill to work. Statistics from the Tribunals Service reveal there has been a 128 per cent increase in ESA appeals for the first quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter of last year.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘With the proposal to move more than a million benefit

More Here.

It seems that they are finally waking up to things we’ve pointing out since the dawn of time.

Anyone with similar cases should contact the TUC.

Spending Review Hits Unemployed.

This sums it all up.

With the CSR, we will certainly see more people out of work (cuts), and the DWP Budget  is for the chop.

While our trained analysts, economists, commentators, and sooth-sayers pore over the CRR the comments boxes are open.

Spending Review: Under 35s to Live in Rabbit Hutches.

Future Under-35s Accommodation.

Okay I made that headline up.

But only just.

The item that stuck out in the Spending Review (though there’s plenty else to get annoyed about) is this.

From Inside Housing, Here.

The government has announced further plans to cut housing benefit payments in the comprehensive spending review.

From 2012, single people under 35 will be paid a shared room rate rather than a rate for a full flat.The shared room rate is lower than all other housing benefit payments and is currently paid to claimants under 25. It is based on the amount of rent charged for a single room with shared use of the rest of a house.

The government expects raising the age at which the shared room rate can be paid will save £215 million by 2014/15.

Announcing the change, which comes on top of savings announced in the emergency Budget and at the Conservative party conference, chancellor George Osborne said: ‘This will ensure that housing benefit rules reflect the housing expectations of people of a similar age not on benefits.’

Today’s review also revealed a cap on benefits for out-of-work single people of £18,200. This follows the announcement of a £26,000 cap for workless families at the Tory party conference two weeks ago, and will be administered in the same way, with housing benefit being cut up to the cap.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: ‘The combined worry of cuts to housing benefit and the slashing of the affordable house building subsidy, coupled with the absence of a long-term strategy, will be devastating for the housing aspirations of thousands of young people consigned to increasing costs and bringing up their families in an insecure private rented sector.

‘The chancellor acknowledged this generational shift in housing aspiration for under 35s in his speech.’

So kind of the Chancellor to decide for anyone under 35 what their “housing aspirations” are.

They think of everything to help us, these Liberals and Tories!

UK Workfare and Training Wage Bill: Sub £2.50 wages!

This is just a post to keep the “Training Wage Bill” in active discussion. The Government has recently introduced a new National Minimum Wage (NMW) rate for apprentices in their first year of apprenticeship (or under 19) so they are only entitled to £2.50 per hour.

What you may not know is the Government is planning a secretive piece of legislation, currently in the “Bill” stage (Training Wage Bill) which has been delayed until 2011.

This “Private Members” Bill is designed to create a new wage exempt from the National Minimum Wage.

I can only think it will mean a wage lower than the National Minimum Wage (otherwise it wouldn’t be required) and could perhaps even be lower than the £2.50 apprentice rate.

With no details being released about the Work Programme (which is expected to be a combination of Flexible New Deal and the scrapped Work for Your Benefit scheme) and an workfare scheme of some sort under way shortly… it is likely this Training Wage Bill is designed for the purpose of reducing wages further below NMW in particular to legalise workfare.  The official description (all that is dislcosed at the moment) is as follows:

A Bill to make provision that persons receiving a training wage are exempt from legislation relating to the minimum wage; and for connected purposes.

Training? Apprentices already have an National Minimum Wage rate. New Deal and Flexible New Deal etc. always were marketed at giving jobseekers new skills through an “employment course” scam (reduces claimant count).

Benefit Fraud, Government Exaggerates Say Churches.

It’s worth reading this statement in full,  (from Here).

 

Chancellor got his numbers wrong in Spending Review, say Churches

Churches have voiced concern over Chancellor George Osborne’s inaccurate use of welfare fraud statistics in his Spending Review speech.

The Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church have criticised the Chancellor for claiming that welfare fraud is responsible for cheating tax payers out of £5 billion a year.

A Department of Work and Pensions report published last week stated that welfare fraud accounts for £1 billion of money lost, with tax credit fraud accounting for an additional £0.6 billion, leading to £1.6 billion lost in total. Church leaders said the exaggerated £5 billion figure depicts the poorest and most vulnerable in society as thieves.

“Exaggerating benefit fraud points the finger of blame at the poor,” said Revd Alison Tomlin, President of the Methodist Conference. “Let us be clear this recession was not caused by the poor, those on benefits, or even benefit cheats. The poorest in society only got poorer during the boom years and it’s simply not fair to make them pay for the bust.

“Questions also need to be asked about the £7 billion of uncollected tax revenues that the Chancellor claims he is targeting. According to the HMRC, there is approximately £42 billion in uncollected revenues; why does Mr Osborne only speak of £7 billion?”

Revd Graham Sparkes, Head of Faith and Unity at the Baptist Union of Great Britain, said: “There is already deep concern that the severe reductions in welfare provision will cause immense hardship to the most vulnerable. This misuse of figures to exaggerate the scale of benefit fraud only adds to the sense of injustice.”

Mr Simon Loveitt, Public Issues Spokesperson for the United Reformed Church, added: “The coalition government is very keen to talk about fairness and the false notion that ‘we are all in this together’, but the Chancellor’s exaggeration of fraud and last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review confirm the grim reality that it is those who are most vulnerable who will pay the price for that which is so clearly not their fault.”

BBC on this Here.

A theory going round is that these stories are deliberately got up to make people hate the out-of-work and the incapacitated.

Mind you the Daily Mail and Express have been doing this for a long time. The former since its days in the 30s, when it admired the Blackshirts.

Daily Mail Publisher Lord Rothmere with friend.

Council Tax Benefit Under Threat?

 Will Universal Credit be a good system?

The Guardian reports today (Here.) that it is being “strangled at birth”.

 For the sake of saving rather less cash than he has set aside for creating the new credit, Mr Osborne seriously undermined it by handing sweeping discretion over council tax rebates to local authorities, together with a sum of money which he freely admits will be 10% short of what is required for funding them properly. In response to that shortfall, new rules will claw back the cash with such aggression that it will pay less to work. And it will not be one set of rules, but different rules in different parts of the country. No universal credit – no matter how well-designed – can achieve a smooth fit with all of these rules at once.

This is no minor detail. Council tax benefit is the one means test applied to just about everyone who is poor – the old, the young, the sick, the well, homeowners and tenants alike. This one botched decision condemns all these groups to continue to live with a system that frustrates good intention and flies in the face of the common sense that Mr Duncan Smith promises.

 

This is a recipe for another Poll Tax conflict.

Thousands of Ipswich poorest struggle while £25 million wasted

As over 13,270 benefit claimants (and goodness knows how many thousands of families) in Ipswich struggle in the economic climate and Suffolk County Council plans of turning off street lights and disposing of much needed services; a £25 million scheme has been given the green light to improve transportation in Ipswich.

The End of Social Housing. From ‘Excuse Me Whilst I Step Outside’.

 

This very important article is from ‘Excuse Me Whilst I Step Outside’.

It should have maximum circulation.

This will affect the unemployed worst of all.

 

What happens to social housing in London will come to East Anglia.

Grant freeze marks death of social housing

29/10/2010

The graphic is from this week’s edition of the housing trade mag, not some alarmist leftist publication. It refers to the end of public subsidy for the capital costs of building social housing. If the Tories really mean what they say, we’re in uncharted waters.

Housing finance is notoriously difficult and dull, so let’s strip it back to its essentials: to cover the costs of building houses you can either pay a lot upfront to cover the initial costs or borrow that money and pay the loan off by hiring it out on a periodic basis. The smaller amount of money you sink into the scheme upfront the higher the periodic charge. This is not rocket science.

Since the late 1980s, we’ve not had 100% capital subsidy for social housing – indeed, housing associations have bid for funding partly on the basis of how little capital monies they need to deliver any given project. Naturally, the first result of this system was to send rents – the ‘periodic charge’ – through the roof in the early 1990s.& high rents do tend to produce very high Housing Benefit bills.

So a decade or so ago the government introduced a system of ‘target rents’ which apply to both council and housing association rented stock. Basically, this system sets the rent of any given socially rented property, new or existing, in accordance with a formula based on the size and value of the property and relative local manual wage rates. So this reined in the tendency to produce low capital subsidy/high rent schemes.

The Tories have decided to rip this system up: they want rents to be capped at 80% of the local market rate for all incoming tenants, even those going into existing social housing, which has enjoyed past capital subsidy. This is laughably called ‘affordable‘. Public capital subsidy is being reduced to more or less nothing. The promised 150,000 new ‘affordable’ social tenancies are supposedly going to be financed primarily from either these higher rental streams or via loans mobilised by big housing associations on existing stock where previous capital subsidy means the debt is now largely paid off.

Wake up at the back there – I know this is boring and detailed and rather more than you perhaps want to know. So let me put this in context: this means that rents for a two bedded socially rented property in Islington would rise from £91pw to £232pw: a three bed social rented house in Cambridge would go up from £93pw to £128pw. I can only assume that the application of the word ‘affordable’ to such rents is some kind of sick joke.

& what’s more this means that the Housing Benefit bill is going to go up, not down. The housing associations’ trade body is saying that, in Hackney, you’d have to earn £54,000 to escape HB eligibility and be in a position to keep the bulk of your additional salary and be better off in work.

For all the dull, grey complexity of housing finance it really is that simple: higher rents= deeper benefit traps for wider numbers of people. No amount of huffing and puffing about a Universal Credit is going to change that.

Nor is this simply a problem for the minority of the population who live in social housing. House prices are now such that it is increasingly difficult for people to get their foot on the ladder. A new report from the Home Builders Federation puts this pretty graphically:

“…the average first time buyer (FTB) would have to save every single penny of their earnings for more than two years to have a chance of getting a foot on the housing ladder. In London it would take three years.

Even over five years, young people have to save almost half of their take home pay every month to save a deposit for a house, with some areas even higher.”

 

 

So rents matter: even if you’re in the 70% of people who are currently home owners your children are probably not going to be any time soon if they live in London and the SE.

The Proposed Ipswich Death Trap: Transport Plans Exposed!

 

This is relevant to anyone who lives in Ipswich (Comrade Coates writes)

 

We will add that while spending money on this scheme the local authorities have hummed and hawed for years over provision for the Homeless. The money to help street sleepers  (and the numbers of the homeless is rising and will rise greatly in the coming years, thanks to Housing Benefit and Welfare ‘reform’) is not forthcoming. So look foward to seeing more people, with  all their possessions in a few sacks, asking you for cash in Upper Brook Street….

Instead we get this:

Written by Flexy as part of the series: Ipswich Exposed!

Ipswich Death Trap!
Professional consultancy designing the proposed traffic scheme by replacing a roundabout and subway network with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings functions may have proven controversial with many Ipswich residents unsure of what benefits are to come.
One of the most overlooked issues comes down to the Council’s official big plans for the £25 million grant scheme containing a severe flaw. The professional model presenting of how the replacement will look shows a major concern, added to some others with the proposed changes, which could endanger lives of many pedestrians, cyclists and drivers who use the junction.
We have published this to Ipswich Unemployed Action to save lives. (Picture of bid plan included).

Ipswich Fit for 21st Century: Lack of Infrastructure

Ipswich Fit for 21st Century: Lack of Infrastructure

The argument regarding the £25m bid recently won for Ipswich as part of a multibillion Central Government package for transport infrastructure goes on and no mention of Tesco Plc contributing to the plans. Part 1 of Ipswich Unemployed Action’s feature on Ipswich Fit for the 21st Century looks further into the lack of infrastructure and therefore raises big questions and criticisms of the proposed plans.

1,6 Million Jobs to Go in Shock Measures.

The government’s spending cuts and the rise in VAT to 20% in January will result in more than 1.6 million job losses across the public and private sectors, research suggests.

The figure from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is far higher than previous estimates.

It said the full impact of the government’s Spending Review had been “understated”.

The government has estimated around 500,000 public sector jobs will go.

The Treasury defended its spending cuts, saying: “The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has set out its forecast showing sustained economic growth in the years ahead, with employment rising and unemployment falling.”

Some business groups, including the CBI, have said that job creation in the private sector will be able to compensate for losses in the public sector.

However, the CIPD said that the private sector would be hit harder than the public sector.

An average of 320,000 private sector jobs a year would have to be created by 2015-16 just to keep unemployment steady at 2.5 million, it said.

“The full impact of the coalition government’s planned fiscal tightening has been understated,” said Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser to the CIPD.

“The 490,000 public sector job losses cited in the Spending Review looks like an underestimate, given what most public sector managers are telling [us].”

He put the total number of jobs to be lost in the public sector between 2009-10 and 2015-16 at 725,000.

The number of jobs lost in the private sector due directly and indirectly from the cuts would be 650,000, with an additional 250,000 jobs to go due to the VAT increase, he estimated.

‘Tall order’

The CIPD said the private sector was “perfectly capable” of creating more than 300,000 jobs a year, but only if the economy grew faster than 2.5% on average a year.

This, it said, “looks like a tall order”.

Initial estimates show that the UK economy grew by 0.8% between July and September, and by 1.2% in the previous three months.

However, most economists expect growth to slow as a result of the spending cuts.

More from Here.

The Liebral-Tory Government has taken advantage of the Banking crises ”shock” to impose a free-market plan. Selling off assets (from local government to forests), and slashing welfare are their first measures. They will  create a huge reserve army of unemployed which will drive down wages.  

With 1,6 million people losing their jobs the system will find it hard to cope. This  will have the effect of creating a near-Victorian underclass of the poor.

Anyone want to see the future?

Read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine.

Then watch Channel Four’s Street Kids - still available to see.

Labour Shadow Minister Backs Abuse of Incapacity Claimants and ‘Welfare Reform’.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse:

Douglas Alexander, the new shadow work and pensions secretary, today moved to clarify Labour‘s stance on welfare by saying he will back phased reform of housing benefit and stressing the party’s support for stricter incapacity benefit tests.

Note: Private companies have widely abused these tests. Big numbers of seriously ill people, charities, and pressure groups have shown, are found ‘fit for work’ . Their ‘success’ rate  has earned their surgeries the nickname of  “Lourdes’.

He also said he was broadly supportive of plans for a universal credit, the centrepiece of Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare white paper, due to be unveiled next week, but set a series of tests for his support. The universal credit will unify most benefits and tax credits into a single payment.

In his first interview since taking on what is likely to be a central political battleground, Alexander told the Guardian his preference was a Danish model of the state guaranteeing work, and then obliging people to take the job or lose benefit. “This is a form of conditional welfare. Real guarantees of work, but real sanctions if the offer is not taken up.”

Note: There is and never will be guarantees for work for all. Sanctions for those for refuse job offers, however ,exist and have done so for many many years.

Duncan Smith, he said, had by contrast been obliged by the Treasury to follow an American punitive model of simply cutting benefit, regardless of whether work was available. In return for his £2bn universal credit scheme, Duncan Smith had agreed to £18bn of welfare cuts, many of which will reduce disincentives to work. Alexander and Duncan Smith are due to clash on welfare in a Commons debate on Tuesday.

Labour has been criticised, including by its former party general secretary Peter Watt, for appearing to be siding with the feckless poor against the hard-working squeezed middle, so appearing less credible on how to tackle the deficit.

But Alexander listed a series of welfare reforms he was willing to accept, including changing access to disability living allowance, driving out fraud, temporary changes to the uprating of some benefits, and testing the availability for work of incapacity benefit claimants .

Note: so instead of defending the poor he attacks them.

On the planned reductions in housing benefit for those in the private rented sector – the issue that has led to allegations that as many as 80,000 poor families will be driven from their homes – he said Labour supported the principle.

 

Note: the principle of kicking people out of their homes.

But critically, Alexander said, the government was making an error by making the changes in one year and by cutting the level of benefit down from the 50th to the 30th percentile of rents in the local area, a move he said would mean 700,000 of the poorest people losing an average £9 a week. “The government are trying to pretend these rushed and arbitrary changes will affect a small number of people – it will affect hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.

He added: “If the government produced a proposal for a staged and lower percentile reduction over years that is something we could consider.”

Note: so he prefers removing people and slashing their benefits slowly.

That’s all right then.

But he said he was implacably opposed to plans from April 2013 to cut 10% of housing benefit from anyone claiming unemployment benefit for a year. “This is just punitive,” he said.

Note: one slender reasonable position.

Alexander acknowledged that Labour in office had made mistakes on welfare. The Labour government should have done more to tackle low pay job insecurity, he said, adding Labour came relatively late to tackling the large numbers placed on incapacity benefit for years by the Thatcher government. Labour had initially focused instead on reducing unemployment.

He also conceded the housing benefit bill had been forced to take too much of the strain “for generation-long failures in the housing market, principally the lack of affordable homes to rent and buy”.

Challenged that Labour had been slow in office to reform welfare, he said: “We made significant reforms, but welfare reform is easier to assert than achieve. Many of the government’s current reforms build on what we set in train.”

Alexander predicted: “Welfare is going to be a central battleground not just of political argument, but public discussions in the years ahead. Our responsibility is to protect people and help them into work. My grave fear is that this government, like the Thatcher government, will show themselves very good at welfare cuts, and very bad at getting people into work.”

Note: waffle, waffle and more waffle.

George Osborne, and his Liberal Democrat allies, had burnt a lot of credibility in trying to prove the overall spending package was fair, when independent thinktanks had demolished those claims.

He said the coming battle would not simply be about cuts or fairness, but about the pressure being applied on the living standards of hard-working families. He also asserted that many other Tory reforms in the spending review, including cuts to childcare, the freezing of tax credit, and the increase in commuter fares, created disincentives to work.

He added that the localisation of council tax benefit proposed by Osborne risked complicating the simplicity of the universal credit system.

The prospect is for a cross-party consensus on ending the welfare state, replacing it with a state that fits people into work, and that provides a minimum safety-net for the really hard cases.

From Here

Unemployed to be Sentenced to Unpaid Work.

Future Dole Queue.

The BBC says,

Long-term benefit claimants could be forced to do compulsory manual labour under proposals being put forward by the government, it has emerged.

More Here.

Unemployed told: do four weeks of unpaid work or lose your benefits

The unemployed will be ordered to do periods of compulsory full-time work in the community or be stripped of their benefits under controversial American-style plans to slash the number of people without jobs.

The proposals, in a white paper on welfare reform to be unveiled this week, are part of a radical government agenda aimed at cutting the £190bn-a-year welfare bill and breaking what the coalition now calls the “habit of worklessness”.

The measures will be announced to parliament by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, as part of what he will describe as a new “contract” with the 1.4 million people on jobseekers’ allowance. The government’s side of the bargain will be the promise of a new “universal credit”, to replace all existing benefits, that will ensure it always pays to work rather than stay on welfare.

In return, where advisers believe a jobseeker would benefit from experiencing the “habits and routines” of working life, an unemployed person will be told to take up “mandatory work activity” of at least 30 hours a week for a four-week period. If they refuse or fail to complete the programme their jobseeker’s allowance payments, currently £50.95 a week for those under 25 and £64.30 for those over 25, could be stopped for at least three months.

The Department for Work and Pensions plans to contract private providers to organise the placements with charities, voluntary organisations and companies. An insider close to the discussions said: “We know there are still some jobseekers who need an extra push to get them into the mindset of being in the working environment and an opportunity to experience that environment.

“This is all about getting them back into a working routine which, in turn, makes them a much more appealing prospect for an employer looking to fill a vacancy, and more confident when they enter the workplace. The goal is to break into the habit of worklessness.”

Sanctions – including removal of benefit – currently exist if people refuse to go on training courses or fail to turn up to job interviews, but they are rarely used.

The plans stop short of systems used in the US since the 1990s under which benefits can be “time limited”, meaning all payments end after a defined period. But they draw heavily on American attempts to change public attitudes to welfare and to change the perception that welfare is an option for life.

More Here.

Questions: What ‘advisers’ are going to be in charge of the sentencing process? what ‘Charities’ and voluntary groups are going to run these chain gangs along with private firms? What rights will those sentenced have?

Above all: what difference will there be between those condemned to do this community work and those sentenced by the courts to do community service?

The model is Wisconsin in the USA.

Introduced in 1997 the  programme of Workfare has been found a “total failure” – here.

The American Unemployment rate in 1997 was 5.30%

In 2010 October it  was 9,6% (Here)

Thanks to all who have already signaled this in the IUA comments.

Welfare Reform White Paper: Watch out for Terrible Thursday.

This Thursday Minister  Ian Duncan Smith (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) will publish his Welfare Reform White Paper.

 

 

 

 

We can expect lots of favourable publicity from the usual quarters.

His Lordship

Key features will include  changing the “

 

 

• a single integrated Universal Credit, which could bring together out-of-work benefits, Tax Credits and payments for needs such as housing costs;
• a Single Unified Taper which would ensure that we look at all of someone’s benefit entitlement when we look at their earnings; and
• possible changes to the conditionality rules for people getting benefits.

Meanwhile this is worth thinking about,

you hand less to poor people and therefore have less to take away – making universal credit affordable. You also make poverty a work incentive, mimicking workfare in the United States where benefit levels are so low that many people don’t apply.The message over the weekend was that the long-term unemployed faced losing their benefits if they did not partake in community service. This again is an American import: work requirements have long been used to force people off benefits. But the evidence from the US is mixed: rising numbers on food stamps and in receipt of unemployment benefit. If Duncan Smith is really dealing in such weapons of mass destitution, the political fallout will be felt for years to come.

Randeep Ramesh

(Here)

Many people have said the whole scheme does not look at  with low pay and how to end this trap.

It would also be true to say that it does not  deal with job creation at decent rates of pay, raising benefits to a level people can live decently on, offering any real training, getting rid of the expensive, useless, failing and greedy companies running the “unemployment bizness” to corral the unemployed into lives of deprivation.

Not to mention how forced labour is going to be paid for – because it will cost hard, really hard, to organise and supervise work gangs.
It would be a good idea to start thinking of some counter-proposals.

Anyone who refuses to accept a job, fails to apply for a position suggested by an adviser or does not complete a period of community work will see their handouts stopped altogether.

Thursday Update:

Yet more sanctions.

The first offence will see Jobseeker’s Allowance, worth £64.45 a week, automatically withdrawn for three months. The second offence will mean a loss of benefits for six months and the third for three years. Currently, job centre staff can withdraw handouts from those who fail  … “

And so on.

The issue here is that refusing the workfare chore gets you out in the street without a penny.

Plus that refusing a lousy job (does this happen?It’s not that easy to get offered a job in the first place) can lead in the same direction.

Jobseekers subject to workfare from day one

The BBC has announced that those making a new claim for Jobseekers Allowance are liable to begin working for their benefits from day one of their claim. This means the majority of new claims could realistically begin a 4 week “Work Activity” period beginning from the second month of claiming.

Those with the implied accusation that they might already be working or doing activity which makes them not Available for Work are more likely to be placed on to such workfare plan.

It is claimed that such 4 weeks of fulltime working is to keep people in the work routine *and* to market themselves to prospective employers – little chance of this when private businesses, councils and charities thrive on the free labour without having any job vacancies going.

There has been no discussion of a cap – so its likely jobseekers can be placed on numerous Work Activity periods – especially those where spiteful and libel rumours of being a benefit cheat has been attributed to you by a Jobcentre Plus staff member without any benefit fraud investigation ever taking place or any evidence to suggest it is even likely.

Of course, my main concerns is, how can you be Actively Seeking Employment if doing a fulltime job? Possible, but not effective.

Yesterday, a new highest unique visitor (and hits) record was reached on this blog – so concerns are steady rising (I didn’t think we would top the record achieved by the New Deal Fraud stuff etc.).

Of course, this will be a scheme that is different to the Work Programme, so further workfare is possible. I guess it similar to a New Deal Work Trial.

Implications of this means its not possible to claim Jobseekers Allowance and do fulltime work (over 16 hours of activity) unless they change the law.

It is likely jobseekers will be placed on to a “Training Allowance” (hence with referral its not realistic for a day one start, although theoretically possible, as it won’t be mixed benefit weeks – so could be from following week – especially for Rapid Reclaims and those who have claimed before) to get round the conditions of Jobseekers Allowance.

This is likely to be roped in to an “Employment Course” (or given a fancy title) and registered by statute which gives automatic exemption from the National Minimum Wage.

Universal Credit: Welfare that will not Work.

The government White Paper, Universal Credit, Welfare that Work, has stirred up a lot of comment.

Little of it has come from the unemployed.

The present system is “unsustainable”. “Welfare dependency” has taken root. We lack a “culture of work” . We need a “new contract” and a “ladder of opportunity”.

The Liberal-Tory Government offers us a “leaner but fairer” welfare state. This will be a “system that provides people with the confidence and security to play a full part in society through a flexible labour market within a competitive modern economy.”
Is this so?

Will a system based on “increased conditionality” give any security?

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The signs are not good.

• Much has been made of the details of the “universal credit” that will replace existing benefits. It will be “simpler” and enable people in low-paid work to keep more of their wages. Scepticism must be high about the ability fo a “single taper” and “earnings disregards” being any easier to administer than working tax credits – whose problems are well known.
• There is a nasty little sting in this. Central financing of Council tax Benefit will (2013 – 14) will be reduced by 10%. It will be “administered by local authorities”. they will have a “greater say” in the “amount of support” given. This will be, we are told, be more ”cost effective”. Local authorities will be able to represent the “priorities of their own local communities” (Chapter 2. 37). Some councils will decide to pay Council Tax benefit in full. Others will not.
• Conditionality and sanctions. This has got a lot of publicity. Some people like treating the out-of-work as toy soldiers they can march up and down. That is the impression given by the “tool kit” of punishments available. The real problems will start when it becomes clear that it is DWP and Work Programme (yet to be given details of) ‘advisers’ who will decide on sanctions - such as the “mandatory work activity”. On what basis are these to be judge-jury and prison wardens of the unemployed?  Giving someone the power, effectively, to turf an individual out onto the street with no money is a recipe for disaster.  The scope for abuse is immense.There are no independent mechanisms to look over the system.

The White Paper appears to think that labour markets work well.

The problem is to fit loads of reluctant people into it.

Tinkering with the benefits system to give a small increase in money to those who move into work and sanction those who are reluctant to do so, will not solve a more basic difficulty.

Labour markets are “segmented”. That is they cannot absorb anyone into any job. We go into areas where we are employable.

The White Paper will not increase employability – it will stigmatise those sanctioned. For all but a few there will be no real training - a condition responsible for much present unemployment. Reducing housing benefit will, further make people unable to take jobs. They will be preoccupied with keeping their flats and homes. Raising social housing rents (underway) will make us less likely to move. Its method of ‘targeting’ benefits means the state will make choices about our private lives and make us dependent on their judgement. The Liberal-Tories will swell the numbers of the hard-to-employ. Or simply the ‘under class’ and destitute.

Nor are labour markets so healthy. It is not the case that people will suddenly flock into work. There is less and less of it. It is convenient for employers to take on mobile young people, and migrant labour, because they have little costs and are prepared to share houses and accept lower pay. Is the intention to reduce our living standards so that we can outbid them?

But as they get older, those who do not migrate again, will demand better money and accommodation. Then  they will join the rest of us, fed up with lousy pay and living conditions.

Making Britain into a paradise for the highly paid, lightly taxed, and a hell for the rest of us, drifting between bad jobs and the dole, will not boost the economy. Or get us out of mass unemployment. There is a lack of jobs, as the TUC says. Cuts in public spending will throw more people into the hands of the DWP. Planned reductions in their staff numbers will seize up the system.

************

The White Paper is built on the principle that the state should decide who is the “deserving” and who is the “undeserving” welfare claimant. 

Behind its simplicity the reality is that the system remains complex, full of a potential for more red-tape.

It will be costly as it will be introduced with more outsourcing to inefficient private companies. 

It is unfair, as people will suffer from arbitrary judgements. 

It will not work.

Unemployment ‘Almost Unchanged’: Long-Term Jobless Rises.

The BBC Reports.

The number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 9,000 in the three months to September, leaving total unemployment almost unchanged at 2.45 million.

The overall unemployment rate was also unchanged at 7.7%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The data showed that the claimant count – those out of work and receiving benefits – also fell slightly in October, by 3,700 to 1.47 million.

This reversed a 5,300 rise in the claimant count the previous month.

The overall picture remains one of a jobs recovery that is much more sluggish than after previous recessions, analysts say.

Businesses are reluctant to take on full-time workers due to their concerns over the longer-term economic outlook”

End Quote Howard Archer chief UK economist, IHS Global Insight Part-time jobs

Overall employment in the UK economy increased by 167,000 in the three months to September, compared with the previous quarter, reaching 29.19 million, according to the ONS’s statistical bulletin.

This suggests that while some unemployed people are finding jobs, the total pool of unemployed workers is being replenished by inactive people who are choosing to re-enter the workforce by actively looking for work again.

However, most of the new jobs created were only part-time.

“Part-time workers now account for 27.3% of total employment, which is up from 25.4% at mid-2008,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

More  Here.

The TUC had already commented,

Union leaders have complained of a “distinct lack of jobs” in the UK, highlighting figures showing that the number of long-term unemployed has doubled since before the recession, with the highest number in Birmingham.

The TUC said almost 250,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales had been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for at least a year, twice as many as at the start of 2008.

Here.

Ipswich Unemployed Action says,

Our indicators of unemployment-leading-to-destitution are clear. The ‘being-asked-for-money’ in the street rate continues to rise in Ipswich. From a couple of times a week it has reached at least once a day.

Breaking News: Flexible New Deal Cost £31,284 per job!

Work Programme Network can reveal that the Flexible New Deal has cost £31,284 per job outcome!

Add Future Jobs Fund jobs that some providers claimed for (TNG!), costing taxpayers almost £4k per job for the employee salary/wages. This job creation exercise has cost up to £35,000 per an unsustainable National Minimum Wage job.

Think this is bad? Some people are still waiting referral back onto Flexible New Deal although the providers are happy enough to cash in the top heavy service fees.We need to investigate the Flexible New Deal Fraud!

Suffolk Coalition For Public Services Protest on 27th November.

For the Unemployed, we need to stop the cuts in Housing Benefit, and other cuts on Welfare. 

Suffolk County Council proposes to hive off most of its services to private companies, ‘social’ enterprises’ and voluntary groups (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11398678.)

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It’s suggested that libraries and other County Council services will see volunteers replacing paid staff.

We wonder how long it will be before the unemployed are ‘volunteered‘ to work for their dole in these areas?

Benefit Claims to Go On-Line Only.

Britons will be forced to apply online for government services such as student loans, driving licences, passports and benefits under cost-cutting plans to be unveiled this week.

Officials say getting rid of all paper applications could save billions of pounds. They insist that vulnerable groups will be able to fill in forms digitally at their local post offices.

The plans are likely to infuriate millions of people. Around 27% of households still have no internet connection at home and six million people aged over 65 have never used the web.

More here.http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/20/government-services-online-only

People may have noticed that the ‘insert link’ function on this site is not working. This is because Suffolk Library Computers have problems.

I have therefore had to insert the whole http  string.

It is not hard to foresee that people may have ‘problems’ when they fill in their JSA, Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit forms on-Line.

That is if they have access to the Net, free.

Whether they feel confident about trusting their details to such a system, or are at ease with typing on the screen, is another matter.

Students: Unemployed Protests to Follow?

Do the Out-of-Work have to do this to get Attention?

After the free and joyous protests by students, why not the unemployed?

Do we want cuts in Housing Benefit?

Do we want threats to make us work for free on Community Service?

Do we want to be stuck without decent work always harassed by the dole?

Do we want the Unemployment Bizniz to make money offering useless ‘training’?

Do we want real change to make our lives better and to get us real work?

Or are we going to accept welfare ‘reform’?

Do we want to be miserable?

No!

Follow the students!

Deeper Cuts, then Housing Benefit Cuts Delayed: Government Goes Gaga.

Are these two reports signs of a government going gaga?

Sunday.

Around 100,000 public sector workers could see their jobs saved following the Treasury’s shift away from Whitehall spending reductions to deeper cuts in welfare payments, the government’s new spending watchdog is expected to reveal tomorrow.

Here.

Monday.

The government is expected to make a vital concession in its cuts to housing benefit this week by delaying the cuts for existing private sector claimants.

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith will lay out secondary legislation for a number of the cuts announced in the emergency Budget and comprehensive spending review this week, but is expected to delay caps to the amount of  local housing allowance existing claimants can receive until January 2012.

Here.

Now you either have deeper cuts, or you don’t. If you delay Housing Benefit cuts – to let us worry long and nice – then you don’t save money.

Just thought we’d point this out.

Work Programme: Outline Released.

The Government has published some specifications of the Work Programme.

Full document, or ‘prospectus’ (as if it’s some kind of brochure for a degree course) ,  here.

Watching A4E has already underlines the main points here.

From day one on the Dole there will be job clubs (groan, ‘voluntary’ work (groan and groan), ‘and peer-to-peer support (groan, groan, and groan).

The lengthy potential time-scale people are ‘referred’ to the cowboys running these schemes, – five years and two more there is a cause of concern.

There is also this:

35. The government is clear that providers are best placed to know what works for customers and as such we will not specify what providers should deliver. However, customers should know what level of service they can expect.

As a result, bidders for Work Programme contracts will be asked to provide a summary in their tender of the minimum service they will offer to all customer groups. These minimum service levels will be translated into a small number of Key Performance Indicators within each contract and will be articulated to customers at the point they start the provision. These promised service levels will be made public so that customers and their representatives will be able to judge whether providers are delivering what they have promised. If the providers fail to deliver these minimum

What are these minimum levels?

We should like to know.

Cuts Fantastic! Says Multimillionaire Angel Emma.

“Question: Who’s going to get Britain back to work? Answer: Emma Harrison CBE

Perhaps the only person who is positive about spending cuts is the head of Britain’s biggest employment agency A4e. “The coalition government’s cuts are, in fact, fantastic!” says Emma Harrison.

 ”Cutting benefits will put a stop to people making a profession out of being unemployed. The Government is looking to put more effort into helping people get back to work which is the most important thing.”

A4e controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department of Work and Pensions.
“There are about 450,000 jobs currently being advertised with the JobCentre so there are jobs out there,” insists Mrs Harrison. 

From Here.

But Angels have wings.

The Saintly One has since backtracked,

At 7.53pm last night Emma Harrison, under the username Emmachat, posted this comment:

I did not have any knowledge of this press release. I did not ask for it, write it or approve it. My views are wholly and utterly misrepresented and from what I can determine were written by someone from Hillgrove that I have never met with, or spoken to. The blog writer by his own admission was suspicious that these were not my sentiments but he did not bother to check with me. Ummmmmm.

At 8.18pm she posted the following comment:

My PR company? I rang them. They have apologised. Junior that i do not know, trying to get the attention of editors with dramatic, distorted and what I consider to be offensive views. Not my views. Shame the blog writer did not check with me or other Guardian articles they have written about me and my views – the ones when they have actually spoken to me……. Ummmmmm

Ps I am not a baddy

TV, media, papers. A snapshot only, and only the one they want to give you.

• The article was updated on 2 December 2010 to highlight comments made by Emma Harrison in the comment threads of this blog post

The Holy One has since added,

Confused? So am I, and personally very upset too.
Sometimes in life you say something which gets misrepresented by others.

(We know how you feel Emma, life’s a bitch).

Any comments I have made recently, both on TV and in press interviews, are around the fact that more needs to be done earlier to help the unemployed back into work and that any changes which give extra support to individuals which means they are better off working than being dependent on benefits are wholly welcome.

(Well said O Essence of Celestial Grace!)

Anyone who knows me will know that I am passionate about working to lift people out of financial hardship. From the last twenty years of helping people back into work, I know that the only thing that works is ensuring people get sustainable jobs which ensure long term financial security.

People who know me will also know that I am straight-talking and to the point.

(And a Healer and Muse, Emma, don’t forget that!)

But, more importantly, I am passionate in what I do to help people who are long-term unemployed get back into work.

(Would that everyone shared your passion!)

The reason I work in this industry has always been, and will always remain to be, improving people’s lives.

(Well done yet again!)

If you want to know what I really think and believe in, then visit my blog here at Mya4e.com.

(We surely will)

We are sure you’d like to follow up this suggestion:

Also if you have any comments or questions please email me it’s eharrison@a4e.co.uk  

Emma

Hat Tip to Work Programme here.

National Day of Protest Against Welfare and Housing Benefit Cuts.

Take action now to defend the Welfare State. We will not pay for their crisis.

The National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts on 15th December 2010 aims to be the first of many and this time will concentrate on the Housing Benefit cuts. With this in mind, why not organise a sit in, protest or demonstration in your local Civic Centre, Housing Benefit Office or Town Hall.

Think Christmas party. Gather up some f…riends, take a ticket and bring cake, food to share, Christmas decorations, crackers, music and presents for the kids. Why not apply for Council Housing whilst you’re at it, ask for information about impending homelessness due to the cuts or clear up that nagging benefit issue. Then collect contact details to organise a bigger event in the New Year and spread some festive cheer.

Make sure to support people present who are in emergency need of help to access it and make sure they are treated properly. There’s no rush after all, you can easily stay late, or even all night. It’s Christmas after all.

Alternatively hold a public meeting, organise an info stall or even just leaflet your local Council offices. If you are organising an event please contact us asap to be added to the facebook page (and upcoming website).

London benefit claimants will be attending and supporting the Housing Emergency Demonstration at Downing Street, 12.30pm. Bring cardboard boxes, sleeping bags etc and create a cardboard city opposite Downing Street. then onto Trafalgar Square at 3pm for Christmas fun under the tree.

http://disabledpeopleprotest.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/housing-emergency-coalition-a-call-to-action-15th-december/

Local groups, individuals, ideas and support needed, please get in touch.

This is just the beginning, further actions and events are planned for the New Year.

latest

London confirmed – 15th December

12.30 Downing Street, Housing Emergency Coalition protest, take cardboard boxes and sleeping bags

3pm Trafalgar Square, Disabled People Against Cuts – No Room at The Inn nativity under the tree.

Norwich confirmed – 15th December – Defend Council Housing And Fight The Welfare Cuts Public Meeting – Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich, 15th Dec 7.30pm – 9.30pm.

Plans afoot so far in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Brighton, Hastings, Stoke, Lewisham, Lydney and Nuneaton

Actions called for/enquired about in Bristol, Southampton, Cambridge, Hackney, Lincolnshire, Exeter & Ipswich

Called by autonomous benefit claimants around the UK.

National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts: http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Day-of-Protest-Against-Welfare-Housing-Benefit-Cuts/106945382710717

Disabled People Against Cuts: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121196194603310

Black Triangle – Anti-Defamation Campaign In Defence of Disabled Claimants: http://www.facebook.com/blacktriangle1

Work Programme & Flexible New Deal Scandal: http://www.workprogramme.org.uk/

Benefit Claimants Fight Back: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116432071735566

Emma Harrison Champion for Families.

 

Saint Emma.

I have ‘inspired millions of people around the world to do something they did not think possible. Now I am Family Champ. Wow! There is a practical reality to taking on this task…

It’s brilliant to receive these sorts of wonderful messages. I am very excited and honoured to be asked to help make real the amazing vision to turn 100,000 ‘never worked’ families into families that are hard working, paying their own debts, living fantastic lives and, what’s more, helping others by taking ownership of their own situation.

Think smart and don’t get burned out. I have spent more than 20 years have always been passionate about helping individuals and families in the most disadvantaged communities  empower themselves, get work, regain ambition and improve both their lives and the lives of those around them.

Now, under this programme, every troubled family will have their own champion able to use every existing exciting resource to help them get going, face up to and sort out their fantastic problems, whether they be parenting challenges, poor health, debt, addiction, dependency, dire poverty,   or lack of motivation. I will tackle the economic recession and the banking crisis. Most importantly, I will involve helping people into meaningful employment to help create brilliant wonderful happy, working families with a new sense of real purpose and an active role in the big society.

Faint heart never won fair maiden.Top Tips: I will do everything in my power to inspire, to change attitudes,  using the power of the personal, to make sure that every bit of the existing government, voluntary and private effort adds up to this single goal of creating wonderful happy, working and caring  families and saving the human race.

I am going to start this initiative by recruiting six brilliant families to work alongside – and will do everything to help them become working families. Some people suffer from being shy but the work we do together will be highlighted in the wonderful media. We will create wider public understanding and knowledge about how fantastic and amazing individuals and smart families across Britain can help themselves and each other. I will also recruit, train and develop an army of dedicated great family champions who will be from really great communities up and down the country- people who are passionate about and capable of helping others. 

Please come and join me… 

Here.

More drivel Here.

Westminster Council to Cleanse Borough of Homeless Benefit Claimants.

Tom-All-Alone: Westminster’s Future Homeless Accommodation.

On the National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts Westminster Council acts.

A council has admitted it plans to move 80 per cent of homeless housing benefit claimants needing temporary accommodation out of the borough.

Westminster Council’s finance and resources overview and scrutiny committee is considering a report which says nearly 400 families will be moved into homes outside of the borough once housing benefit cuts mean their accommodation is no longer affordable.

The report predicts a shift in the proportion of accommodation that the council books within the borough. It currently houses 70 per cent of those presenting as homeless within the borough, but by 2016 this will shift to 80 per cent of claimants housed outside Westminster.

More Here.

Unemployed to Get Food Vouchers for Christian Charity Dole-Out.

The Coming Benefit System.

The BBC reports,

 Job centres around Britain are to give food vouchers to people experiencing severe financial hardship. The vouchers, which can be redeemed at foodbanks run by the Trussell Trust charity, will be handed out by staff at Jobcentre Plus (JCP) branches.

One voucher can be exchanged for three days’ worth of food. The scheme will be piloted in Salisbury and Gloucester from 4 January, before expanding across England, Wales and Scotland in April. It will run in Jobcentre Plus branches that have a foodbank in the surrounding area. The Trussell Trust already has 78 foodbanks around the country and anticipates that there will be 86 foodbanks by April 2011. Severe hardship.

The move comes after lengthy negotiations between the trust and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The charity sent a report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, in the summer.

A person experiencing severe financial hardship, caused by issues such as benefit delays or being ineligible for a JCP crisis loan, will be given a voucher that can be exchanged at a trust foodbank for three days’ worth of food. An individual can be given three vouchers in a row during one particular period of hardship, and can be helped three times in a year, meaning a total of nine vouchers a year can be given out per person.

Chris Mould, director of the trust, said: “Although it has taken two years of campaigning to get to this point, we are delighted that ministers are listening to feedback from the front line of the voluntary sector. “Their decision means people on the breadline will now get the help they need more easily and that’s of course what matters to us in the foodbank network. “This is about sensible working between a public service and the voluntary sector.”

About 41,000 people were fed by 44 foodbanks across the UK last year The Trussell Trust is a Christian charity and its staff and volunteers arrange collections of food. They ask supermarket shoppers in each foodbank area to donate an extra item from a predefined shopping list – then distribute the goods by means of vouchers. The vouchers are distributed by “statutory professionals” such as doctors, health workers, social workers, the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and probation officers among others. Some 41,000 people were fed by 44 foodbanks last year, and the trust estimates that 35-40% of them had problems with benefits.

When the first foodbanks were set up in 2000 in Salisbury, employees of the local JCP were initially one of the main distributors of foodbank vouchers. When the charity’s foodbank franchise scheme rolled out around the country in 2004, other JCPs also began to adopt the process.

However, in December 2008 the then-Labour government issued a directive stopping JCPs from referring clients in crisis to a foodbank. When the charity challenged the government over this decision, it initially responded that, among other reasons, all those entitled to benefits received them on the day if they were in crisis and that delay was not an issue. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote If you have a family to feed and no money then waiting even a couple of days is too long”

Chris Mould Trussell Trust director But the trust says it is “simply not true that all those entitled to benefits receive them on the day”. On behalf of the trust, MP Andrew Selous asked a series of parliamentary questions in 2009 and 2010 about benefit delay. The eventual response given in January 2010 stated that 37,046 people waited 17 days or more for their jobseeker’s allowance, of which 20,068 waited 22 days or more.

Mr Mould said: “We wanted to work with the job centres again because tens of thousands of people across the country are not getting paid their benefits on time. “Unless the DWP has a target of reaching 100% of people, there will be thousands of people who will be left in trouble through benefit delay, or for not being eligible for a crisis loan, for whatever reason. “If you have a family to feed and no money then waiting even a couple of days is too long.” A spokeswoman for the DWP said: “We recognise the merit of having additional targeted support in place such as foodbanks which play an important role in local communities. “Jobcentre Plus is already in discussion with the Trussell Trust and have agreed to work together in the new year.”

 

Suppliants for this charity are reminded, the Trussell Trust, states of this message,”‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was astranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me…’” Matthew 25:35-36

“We are a Christian organisation motivated by Jesus’ teaching on poverty and injustice. We operate according to Christian principles of compassion, honesty, integrity, openness, kindness and care of all people, regardless of backgrounds or beliefs. We believe in turning faith into practical action, living out God’s love for the poor…”

That’s as may be.

Some might ask why the state should rely on a group with a religious-agenda to plug the gaps in its public services.

One might ask if other religious groups will feel entitled to do the same.

More details – here.

Long-Term Unemployment Rises – TUC.

No Christmas cheer for the long-term unemployed, says TUC

Almost a quarter of a million people have now been on the dole for more than a year in the UK – more than twice as many as at the start of the last recession – and lots of them will be spending their second or even third successive Christmas out of work, says the TUC today (Wednesday).

The TUC analysis of official unemployment statistics reveals that more than a third of the 232 local authority areas across the UK (88 council areas) now have more than a thousand residents who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for at least 12 months, compared to just 26 council areas in December 2007.

At the beginning of the last recession, at the close of 2007, 117,845 individuals had been claiming JSA for more than 12 months. Now, almost three years on in November 2010, there are 243,330 who have been struggling to find work for more than a year.

More Here.

Seasonal Treat: Christmas Day in the Workhouse.

Rare Breeds: Sally Smith of YMCA Training

Before we end the year, lets recap on this year’s highlights of our favourite local christian poverty pimp YMCA Training.

I was browsing Google referrer search terms (i.e. what people search to find us) and noticed amongst the many, a lot of search terms relating to providers, the owners/founders and those who run them. This is obviously in addition to many more in regards to New Deal, Flexible New Deal and the upcoming Work Programme. This is far more than happened 6 months ago. 

Model Letter to the Dole?

From the The Black Fingernail.

I am writing to you in connection with the above vacancy, which is being advertised in the Jobcentre. Because you have chosen to advertise this vacancy through the Jobcentre, a number of unemployed and formerly long-term sick people are going to be forced by the Jobcentre into applying for this vacancy under threat of having their benefits stopped if they refuse.

They will be advised to phone you to arrange an interview or ask if they can send you a CV/written application. The Jobcentre can force the unemployed to apply for any vacancy advertised through them, regardless of their suitability for that vacancy.

The unemployed are forbidden from disclosing that they have been told to apply for a vacancy; and nor can they refuse an offer of a job either. People who are forced into taking a job under threat of having their benefits stopped if they refuse will almost certainly harbour a great deal of anger and resentment. If you employ such a person then that anger could drive them into carrying out wanton acts of vandalism to your company running into thousands of pounds. Your fixtures and fittings could be damaged, for example. Fire alarms could go off repeatedly.

 Sickness may prevent them from doing a full week’s work. And that’s just for starters. Before you go getting your knickers in a twist, just be aware that people who remain unemployed do so for a variety of reasons. They may be caught in a benefits trap; they may have been wrongly forced off incapacity benefit; or they may be caring for an elderly relative. The Jobcentre also have what they call a ninety-minute rule. This means that if a vacancy is do-able by public transport within ninety minutes (an-hour-and-a half) from where the unemployed live then they have to apply for that vacancy.

To indicate to you that they do not want this job and that they only applied for it under threat of having their benefits stopped if they refused; they will scratch their noses. And it will be done in such a way as to leave you under no illusions as to where they are coming from. Should you choose to ignore this then you will have yourself the employee from hell; and all that it entails.

Trussell Trust Christians Feed the Poor. Bless.

Hat-tip to Kate,

The Trussell Trust are coming to the aid of us them there poor folks.

Looking at the list of food they will give you (from here)

Milk (UHT or powdered)
Sugar (500g)
Fruit juice (carton)
Soup
Pasta sauces
Sponge pudding (tinned)
Tomatoes (tinned)
Cereals
Rice pudding (tinned)
Tea Bags/instant coffee
Instant mash potato
Rice/pasta
Tinned meat/fish
Tinned fruit
Jam
Biscuits or snack bars.

Bless you kind ladies and sirs.

We ‘umble folk likes our sponge pudding.

National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts: UK Round Up

News is coming in of protests and actions around the UK as part of the National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts called for the 24th January.

With a call to focus on the poverty pimps set to make hundreds of millions out of benefit reforms, many groups have chosen to target Atos Origin, the company responsible for the punitive medical testing of disability and sickness benefits.

In London a Party and Picnic has been called in Triton Square near Euston from 2pm.  Bring music, drums, whistles, banners, food to share and brighten up the faceless corporate wasteland that is home to poverty pimps Atos Origin Ltd.

In Livingston,not far from Edinburgh, protesters will be visiting Atos Origin’s Scotland Office.  Visit the facebook page for more info, and be there from 10am.

Atos will also be the scene of a protest in Leeds called by local claimants and West Yorkshire Solidarity Federation.  Be at 1 Whitehall, Leeds from 10 am then a group will be visiting notorious poverty pimps A4e at noon.

Even the Shires are revolting with a Protest Against Disability Cuts to be held in Lydney, Gloucestershire.  Meet outside the Co-op at 1pm.

A call has gone out for protests in Burnley, whilst Hastings activists will be laying a trail of Red Drops from Hastings to London.

Storm Dencora House!

It has been quite a while since we last used the phrase “Storm Dencora House”. It was a fraud by New Deal prime contractor YMCA Training, to dismiss Andrew Coates a deemed trouble maker for making comments on his blog showing YMCA Training and Dencora House Detention Centre in a bad light although fully truthful, whilst being paid full 13 weeks monies even though Andy spent no more than an hour and such dismissal decision was decided before he even attended.

There is a rumour going around on private groups on Social Networking websites such as facebook that on Monday 24th January 2011, a group of people will indeed “Storm Dencora House”! Rather than being a Health & Safety concern as previously stated for merely a blog comment, it appears under the surface of what appears to be an event bringing disorder and repute over the injustice unemployed people are suffering and will suffer, it will actually be more of a well-mannered protest in White House Road against the christian organisation YMCA Training and the ConDem(n) Government’s Work Programme plans of 7 years detention at YMCA Training’s Dencora House Detention Centre open prison while the likes of YMCA Training dish out 3 year sanctions to participants starting off with 3 months, shortly followed by 6 months, and the big one… 3 years!

There is no public event for such on facebook etc. so I cannot see how it is being organised or how many people would be turning up – and whether its local people or those coming from a far just to cause trouble. Whether its actually going ahead is unknown but there is talk of disruption to the access of Dencora House business units so I assuming a group of people will be sitting in front of the Dencora House Detention Centre gates obstructing access with picket signs and slogans etc., although someone suggested baracading the entrance with vehicles such as a white transit van so the people are less likely to be moved so easily by police.

The good news is there has been no comments suggesting any sort of criminal damage, vandalism or severe disorder against a person or property. The time hasn’t been confirmed and its likely that the people all know each other and communicate this via telephone or text message to avoid this being revealed to the public. Some people suggested similar action to the likes of A4e (who actually don’t have a place in the area – so I assume they mean subcontractor Reed) and TNG. I think the focus will be on YMCA Training.

So this appears to be a well-mannered event anyone interested in joining will have to find the private group on facebook. I don’t have a facebook account so I only know this by an email I received. If anyone is in the area and can take photos on their camera phone etc. if they see any protests please do so and upload to the internet so we can all see. Of course, if you know any more details feel free to comment below.

Youth Unemployment: Onwards and Upwards!

The latest employment figures show that youth unemployment has not yet reached the 1 million mark as many had predicted, but on long-term youth unemployment (spending six months or more out of work) it turns out original estimates were far too conservative. At over 400,000, the rate has already exceeded some analysts’ predictions for the end of 2011. More Here.

The TUC reacts:

A Future that Works: a TUC National Rally for Young People

 Sat, 29 Jan 2011 3:00 to 15:00  Platt Fields Park Manchester.
The abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance, the increase in university tuition fees, record levels of youth unemployment, and the coalition government’s programme of vicious and unnecessary cuts are hitting Britain’s young people hard.

Routes into education and employment are being squeezed as young people are made to pick up the bill for a financial crisis they didn’t create!

‘A Future that Works’ will highlight the impact of the recession and the coalition government’s cuts programme on young workers and young people in general – and promote the trade union, student movement and partner organisation campaign against the cuts and for the alternatives. ‘A Future that Works’ is being hosted by the TUC in partnership with the National Union of Students and the UCU.

Here.

We comment: until people tackle  the companies making a mint out of youth unemployment, A4E et.al, with the bogus ‘work experience’ schemes, and offer real jobs, all of this is hot air.

DWP Corruption: LMS Directgov Jobs ripped apart!

Sister site Work Programme Network, has spilled the beans on:

• Why is Jobcentre Plus’ job database so poor in quality?
• Why does Jobcentre Plus’ fail/refuse to improve such service or listen to feedback from its users?
• Why do Jobcentre Plus issue Jobseeker Directions solely for jobs advertised on their job system?
• Why does most jobs require an fully identified enquiry to Jobcentre Plus to get details of how to apply?
• Why does Jobcentre Plus ask (sometimes multiple times) whether you have applied for each (and every) job they know you have received details about?

It is the “jobseeker job denial scam trap“. The Labour Market System might appear to be the official job database “to help you find work” but the reality is so very different! 

Improved Job Search

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that sister site Work Programme Network is testing a new job search website.

For alpha testing, the site boasts a current database of 2,188 jobs by 1,068 Employers from 24 selected town/city areas in Great Britain. This amount of Jobs will grow daily from Mon-Fri when new jobs are added.

The site is a very basic implementation of a free to use upcoming  job search website. It has many advantages over DWP’s poor excuse for a job website. It uses open source WordPress to power the site (same software powering this blog) with proprietary software to obtain and manage the jobs.

Atos Origin – Harrying the Ill and Disabled for Profit.

I mention this because it has been brought to our attention that people in Ipswich are suffering under the ‘testing’ regime that this is part of. The local centre dealing with medical testing is known as ‘Lourdes’ – the sick,  and the disabled go there and, bingo, they are miraculously cured!

 

It’s got to the point where the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce (yes!) has been  concerned enough to post this:

Papworth Trust is leading a coalition of disability charities declaring that the Work Capability Assessment, which examines people’s fitness for employment, isn’t working.

Charities are being overwhelmed by evidence showing the assessment to be inaccurate and often unfair to the nation’s most vulnerable people. The assessment is too focused on physical capability, meaning that people with serious mental health issues, learning disabilities and fluctuating health conditions are often marked as fit to work.

Wendy, a Nurse Manager who had a breakdown and tried to commit suicide after being overwhelmed with stress, has been assessed as fit to work. Wendy says “I went from being a capable person to someone who couldn’t even make simple decisions such as what to eat.  I was like that for several months.” 

Her assessment was carried out by a nurse rather than a psychiatrist or psychologist.  Because Wendy could wash, dress, walk and talk coherently, she was determined fit to work. Wendy says “Our financial worries are a major stress factor. I’ve always paid into the system and have never claimed for anything before.  I desperately want to go back to work but am still unwell.  I need time and support to recover before I can hold down a full-time job again.”

Papworth Trust believes that the independent assessors have not been sufficiently trained to recognise the full range of disabilities, causing people dealing with serious health conditions to be reported as work ready.

(More here.)

 

Background.

The battle against benefit cuts and “poverty pimps”Posted by Laurie Penny – 24 January 2011 10:38

Disabled people and their allies are fighting back against cuts – shame on the rest of us if we do not fight with them.

Of all the obdurate lies peddled by the Conservative Party in the run-up to the last general election, perhaps the most callous was when the Tory disability spokesperson Mark Harmer told key representatives of Britain’s millions of disabled and mentally unwell citizens: “I don’t think disabled people have anything to fear from a Conservative government.” It turns out that disabled people have a great deal to fear.

As Big Society Fails, ‘Volunteering’ for the Unemployed.

 Are these two stories related?

February 2011 – Government unveils new plans to massively expand volunteering and training opportunities for the unemployed

Unemployed people will be able to access thousands of new volunteering and training opportunities to help them take their first steps back into work – under new plans unveiled today by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith.

Under the scheme advisers from youth charity The Prince’s Trust and other local government voluntary organisations will be located in Jobcentre Plus (JCP) offices to signpost jobseekers of all ages to volunteering and training opportunities in their area. The new initiative will particularly benefit young people as they will be able to get more support to help them into jobs, education and training.

Ministers are keen to strengthen partnerships with the voluntary sector as it is uniquely placed to help disadvantaged groups and communities. They believe that increasing the support for this sector will be crucial to get Britain working again.

Prince’s Trust advisers and local volunteering centres will start to appear in Jobcentres in the next few weeks, with a national roll out from April where possible.

For people who have claimed benefits for many years volunteering and training courses offer the ideal opportunity to make the first move into the workplace and a good way to build confidence and gain new skills. There are currently almost five million people on out of work benefits, many of whom with the right help and support could start a journey back into employment.

More Here.

David Cameron‘s “big society” is being undermined by government spending cuts which are in danger of “destroying” the country’s volunteer army, a senior figure in the volunteering sector warned today.

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless – who is stepping down after leading Britain’s largest volunteering charity, Community Service Volunteers (CSV), for more than 40 years – also said the prime minister had overestimated the amount of responsibility volunteers were prepared to take on.

Hoodless said the government had failed to provide opportunities for people to do more in their communities, adding that, in some cases, spending cuts imposed on councils had actually taken opportunities away.

A cynical person might say that the Government intends to use the unemployed as an upaid army to plug the holes left by these cuts.

More here.

Big Society, Social Stock Exchange and University.

It’s often said that we unemployed are lazy. That we sit at home, watching our plasma tellys, drinking 2 litre bottles of White Lightening with Vodka (Breakfast) , stuffing our faces with crisps and Pringles (Dinner), spending a fortune on the dogs down William Hill and the rest of the day at the local  Wetherspoon’s.

Now is the chance to prove this wrong.

Ipswich Unemployed Action is volunteering to become the first graduates of the Big Society University.

Mr Cameron and Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, will today set out new measures which they hope will bring private investment into projects run by social entrepreneurs and charities.

A “Social Stock Exchange” will allow people to buy stakes in projects that bid for contracts providing public services, receiving a return as the project gets public money on a “payment by results” basis. Such stakes could then be held in new individual savings accounts.

The Big Society Bank will co-fund charitable projects, offering start-up capital alongside private investors. There are also long-term plans for a Big Society university, which would train community volunteers and social entrepreneurs.

More Here.

We do, naturally, expect to be rewarded for our efforts.

On a scale, say, consummate with pay levels for other workers on the Stock Exchange.

Back To Work Programme; Back to Same Old Sagging Schemes?

Ian Duncan Smith (Secretary of State for Work and  Pensions).

From his speech today,

“I believe it is only right that if we are helping people to get back into work, then we also have a right to expect that those we support are ready and willing to take on work if it is offered. That is why reform of the Back to Work programme is so important. We will create a Work Programme which will move toward a single scheme that will offer targeted, personalised help for those who need it most, sooner rather than later… It seems obvious to me that if we know a particular older worker is going to struggle to get back into employment, it is only fair that we try to get them on to a welfare-to-work programme immediately, rather than pausing for 12 months as is currently the case.

“To make sure we get the best value for money, we will also be changing the framework to bring the ideas and energy of the third sector and the private sector to the forefront of the process. We will reform the regime so that we properly reward the providers who do best at creating sustainable jobs that help people move out of benefits and into work. But we are not prepared to pay for anything less. At the same time, we will also make sure the system is fair by ensuring that receipt of benefits for those able to work is conditional on their willingness to work. So to be fair to the taxpayer, we will cut payments if they don’t do the right thing.

“In addition, we will re-assess all current claimants of Incapacity Benefit on their readiness to work. If people genuinely cannot work, then we will make sure they get the unconditional support they need. However, those assessed as immediately capable of work will be moved on to Jobseeker’s Allowance straight away. At the same time, those who have the potential to return to work will receive the enhanced support they need through ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) and the Work Programme.”

Here

Work Programme has been analysing these systems for some months (Here).

Many of us are familiar with the existing schemes. That is, their providers’ incompetence, their inability to help create jobs (except for the ‘Unemployment Bizniz’), and the sheer waste of time they are for the out-of-work.

Now, watch the small print, there will be heavier sanctions for those on these programmes who get stroppy.

Apart from that….what’s new?

Well, at least this has been dropped:

U-Turn on Housing Benefit.

Hat Tip to Crystal Balls.

The government is set to unveil the biggest shake-up of welfare for a generation today, but it has backtracked on plans to cut housing benefit.

The welfare reform bill, which will be published today, will not include plans to cut housing benefit by ten per cent if someone in the household had been on jobseekers’ allowance for over a year.

“We won’t see this in the bill for one very good reason,” work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Today programme.

“The more we looked at this, the more I reviewed the interplay between that reduction at 12 months and the universal credit and work programme meant that all of these people were going to move into the work programme anyway, so they would be having intensive help to get back to work.”

Here

Work Programme: Details? Got a Spare Couple of Hundred Quid?

 

Find out out the Work Programme’s details – here.

Open Events for this Topic
05 Apr 2011	WS4047	£250.00	London Euston
06 Apr 2011	WS4048	£230.00	Birmingham City Centre
12 Apr 2011	WS4049	£230.00	Newcastle Upon Tyne City Centre
13 Apr 2011	WS4050	£230.00	Manchester City Centre
This workshop can also be run as a custom internal workshop

The DWP states that:

Members of the general public should send any enquiries or suggestions to the DWP Ministerial team who will be happy to deal with any correspondence. You can contact them on: ministers@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

People Management comments,

The government’s new Work Programme has “a high-risk financial model and unrealistic targets” which could leave training providers at risk of failure, the sector body for learning has warned.The Association of Learning Providers (ALP) said that many providers are reluctant to bid for government contracts to deliver employability skills and job support because of the way the contracts have been drawn up.

More concerns are expressed by Carley Consultants,  (here)

The Work & Pensions Committee has been listening to industry concerns about the Work Programme. In convening too late to influence the design of the Invitation to Tender itself, the Committee has turned its attention to transition issues. The Committee’s Chair, Dame Anne Begg, wrote to Employment Minister Chris Grayling, ahead of his appearance before the Committee next month. Her letter expresses concerns over the gap between the end date of existing programmes and the launch of the Work Programme which “may result in a widespread fall in capacity across services and will disrupt the service that many clients receive”.

On Flexible New Deal or New Deal? Is your data safe?

So we are all aware now that poverty pimp A4e got fined for data theft (unencrypted data on a stolen laptop).

Now DWP are warning providers to be wary of phone calls from bogus ‘employers’ with job offers!!!

The full message is as follows:

Dear Provider

DWP have been made aware of possible bogus callers contacting Welfare to Work Providers with job offers for DWP customers participating on programmes.

Although these offers appear genuine, further investigation has found some are part of a scam, organised and run by individuals based outside of the UK.

As a result of this, DWP advise contracted Welfare to Work providers ensure all job offers received by DWP customers are thoroughly checked to ensure their legitimacy, in accordance with DWP policy.

In addition to DWP Policy, the following link may provide a useful reminder to DWP customers and provider staff in relation to ensuring customer safety in relation to job offers/interviews.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Jobseekers/LookingForWork/DG_173812

Should you believe that any job offer received by a customer on your programme may be part of the scam, please contact DWP via the Security Inbox email address that you use to report security incidents – PMD.SECURITY@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK.

Steve Welch

Specialist Commercial Team

Harvesting desperate jobseeker’s information isn’t the difficult bit. The Work Programme Network exposed that 1 in 26 Jobcentre Plus advertised jobs requested a CV to be sent to a free email address (this started off as 1 in 40 but by the next week it increased to 1 in 26!). A “free email address” is one which is a) free (yes, you guessed it) and b) require no personal information to set up – so is anonymous. To name a few we are talking about email addresses ending in hotmail, msn, live, yahoo, gmail, googlemail etc. This excludes ISP mail accounts (which could also be dodgy). These can be registered within 5 minutes – 5 minutes being for a person who isn’t competent at use of computers and internet – a “whiz kid” could probably do so in a minute – thus a scammer could achieve this in 30 seconds via automated scripts.

How would these foreign criminal gangs be aware of such people being on a government course such as New Deal or Flexible New Deal? Well, collecting jobseeker details which yield some being on the Government courses. Some might even state this although I think its unlikely many would. A technical guess could be achieved by looking at unemployment gaps, with the assumption they are claiming benefits and should be on such course. Flexible New Deal is more clean cut than New Deal however due to longer scheme period.

Whats in it for the scammers? Actually, I am not too sure what the scammers can do with this practice – unless the providers choose to release an incentive to the employers which I feel is unlikely. If a scammer can obtain basic information (name, address, phone number) on someone, and the fact they are a Jobseekers Allowance claimant, and that at that moment in time are on a Government employment course; and where there is multiple providers, choose the right provider(!!), are they awaiting sensitive details being disclosed by the welfare to work provider?

Surely the “employer” would obtain this from the employee and I know many people get so desperate for a job that they lose all concept of data security. On the Labour Market System Jobs website where jobseekers may comment on individual jobs and rate them, countless people try to use the commenting feature for disclosing numerous sensitive information. We had to update the site asking people not to disclose sensitive details.

Where did the scammers get the information from? I think there is a fundamental link with a certain welfare to work provider (no names) or Jobcentre Plus themselves, to this scam. It would be rather simple to collate a database of jobseekers information, where say 9/10 are claiming benefits, 7/10 are longterm unemployed (indicated on the CV) and perhaps 1/5 potentially being on a course with one of a couple of providers in the area, however this “hit and miss” method will get far too many misses, and kill the whole scam.

Perhaps job offers are fraudulent and there is a provider link? Perhaps a poverty pimp such as A4e who has a growing worldwide presence (not an accusation against A4e but just an example) got one of their foreign offices to call in with client details to increase Job Outcomes. DWP being alerted to this “scam” of  ”bogus job offers” when a few Job Outcome claims were rejected as fake. Perhaps when a new claim of benefit was made or an “off benefit” check by DWP failed. Obviously instead of admitting to making false claims an investigation with the DWP indicated the likely source and such were issued with a provider notice.

Thoughts? Of course, any “job offer” can be found not to exist (no paid job), not legit or be withdrawn; but as my example above (speculation only) suggests to get just 20 successful claims there is going to be approx 80 unsuccessful leads. To be worthwhile you want at least 200 successful making at least 800 leads not going anywhere!! There are only a handful of providers and locations. The scam would be killed as when you made just 2 unsuccessful attempts at one location your cover would be blown and barred from that location. Its likely an internal memo will go through the rest of the organisation.

I can’t help thinking that such notice really means providers have attempted to claim job outcomes for suspected jobs with very little information on how legit it actually is. Providers live for the job outcomes so wanting to claim one isn’t a bad thing – absolutely nothing wrong with that – but whereas skipping standard procedure to make money due to low outcome rates already, nothing less than fraud!

Merthyr Shows Unemployment As It Is.

Hat-tip to Claimants’ Action South Wales.

“Gemma and Donna Griffiths, sisters and media students from Merthyr Tydfil, have made a film that exposes welfare reform for the sadistic, blinkered ideology that it really is. Amazingly, they’ve had help from the BBC (strange how the beeb’s attitude has softened, now it’s Tory “reforms” instead of almost identical Labour “reforms”), and a “behind the scenes” version of their film has been shown, available through the iplayer until the first of march - don’t miss it. There’s also youtube, but I haven’t managed to get into that yet. Now, I could go into great detail here, and took copious notes, but really it’s better if you just watch it. All the same, I couldn’t resist commenting on some of the highlights… Remember when IDS (who refused to be interviewed, what a surprise!) said that claimants in Merthyr should “get a bus to Cardiff” to look for work? We see how the first bus down (in the real world, not on the timetable) doesn’t get in until after 8am, and takes twice the time claimed by IDS. We have a clear admission by Maria Larcombe of Acorn [agency scum] that many jobs, particularly unskilled jobs, will start at 6 or 6:30, and thus are of no use to people travelling by bus from Merthyr – in any case at the time of filming there were 14,700 people unemployed in Cardiff chasing just 2,941 jobs, and as we know only too well, most of those won’t be real jobs anyway. We have an interview with the infamous Norman Tebbit who spouts on for a bit, asks the same old rhetorical questions such as why the system isn’t working, people aren’t getting off benefits and into work – when the answer, that there is no work, is obvious to anyone who cares to open their eyes. Tebbit also talks about how people in the south east of England – his area of expertise – often travel for over an hour and a half to work, but surely this is mainly due to congestion of the roads and railways, ironically another problem that has been caused by the same sort of incompetence and mis-government that has led to Merthyr, and most of the rest of Wales, being in the economic hole that it is.

Gemma and Donna, welfare claimants salute your excellent work! Now, how about exposing the fake jobs advertised by Jobcentre Plus for your next project..? And if you fancied writing an article, or several, I would love to publish it…”

Ipswich Unemployment Action publishes the Video now:

Blogs on Unemployment.

Ipswich Unemployed Action  tries to keep up-to-date on Blogs that deal with unemployment, and campaiging groups.

Here are some recent ones we’ve added to our links.

Benefit Sanctions,

“Come to the Unlawful Sanctions website! This website is dedicated to exposing the unlawful, unfair, cruel and criminally unjust financial punishments on our societys poorest people. Whats more, criminals convicted of benefit fraud are sometimes “punished” by applying the same length sanctions to their current benefit claim (instead of jail) that Joe Bloggs, the typical genuine jobseeker is receiving for arriving late to sign on because the bus was late!” More  (Part of the Work Programme Network (that is, linked to us) Here)

A4E Hell

“The hell and hummilliation I have suffered at the hands of A4E and DWP.”

Highly recommended: Here.

Campaigning: Benefit Claimants Fight Back.  Here.

This is also interesting, from Mick’s Organised Rage   - Here.

On Wednesday the 16th February I wrote a piece which condemned as unbalanced the previous nights BBC’s, TV current affairs flagship programme News-night. After it showed a film of a visit made by US Pro Lawrence Mead to Liverpool and studio discussion between him and Chris Grayling, the Tory led coalition minister responsible for unemployment benefits. Mead, a favourite of U.S. mainstream media outlets like Fox News, and a right wing academic who has outdated 19th century views on welfare benefits and the unemployed. He played a major role in implementing ‘Workfare’ in the state of Wisconsin, which resulted in many claimants plunging into dire poverty and hopelessness.

I subsequently sent a complaint to the BBC about this programe, if anything the reply I have now received is as biased and unbalanced as the program itself, and I will be pursuing this matter further. Although, as with most multi national corporations the BBC’s complaints procedures is stacked against complainants. For example a complaint, once it is received by the BBC becomes what they call ‘feedback,’ which gives a hint about just how seriously they take such matters.

Below is the BBC justification for propagandizing on Mr Mead’s and the Coalition governments behalf, for that is how I see both the programe and the BBC’s reply to my complaint. Nevertheless it is for readers to make up their own minds, above is the link to my article on which my original complaint was based, and below is the BBC response to my complaint and my reply.

Dear Mr Hall

Thank you for your feedback regarding ‘Newsnight’ broadcast on 15 February 2011. 

We understand some viewers felt the programme’s report from Lawrence Mead and discussion on the UK’s welfare system showed biased against benefit claimants.

Lawrence Mead has been a key architect of many ‘welfare-to-work’ schemes in the U.S.A, including a very influential scheme in the state of Wisconsin (where they cut the number of people on welfare by ninety per cent). His work has also had a big influence on British Government policy, for example the Welfare Reform Bill. We therefore thought it would be interesting to commission an authored film by Mr Mead to see how his views might be received in a British City with British welfare recipients.

During the piece we heard from unemployed people and benefit claimants who agreed with Mr Mead’s assertion – that the existing welfare system and economic structures unwittingly discouraged work and the seeking of employment, whilst passively making claimants benefit-dependent. The report made it clear that a number of factors have contributed to the current situation, the overarching element being the welfare system itself.

We made it very clear that the views expressed in the piece were Mr Mead’s views and not those of ‘Newsnight’. We did, of course, robustly challenge Mr Mead in a discussion after his film. It is part of ‘Newsnight’s remit to air and challenge controversial views, especially when those views have such a key influence on British policymakers.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us. 

Kind Regards

Mark Roberts

BBC Complaints

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Dear Mr Roberts,

I am bemused and totally unsatisfied with your reply as you have not dealt with the main issues I raised, which were centered on a lack of balance in the Newsnight segment. You have endorsed without question Mr Mead contentious claims about the success he had in reducing the numbers claiming unemployment benefits in Wisconsin. Your claim he reduced claimants by 90% is breathtaking in its disingenuousness. For any fool can reduce the take up of benefits, if claimants are unable to meet the new criteria set to claim them. If you cut welfare benefits for the long term unemployed as happened in Wisconsin, it is hardly rocket science there will be less claimants. 

What happened to those who were claiming these benefits after they had them taken away is the core question, and Newsnight, taking Mead at his word, failed to ask him this question in its after film chit chat. I will tell you what occurred, far from finding work as Mead implies, it drove many of the most marginalized and economically disadvantaged people in the USA further into poverty. After loosing their benefits they disappeared off the official radar into a life of hopelessness, petty crime, addiction and poverty. As an aside, if the prisons and mental health facilities, etc, fill up after benefits are cut, pray tell me how can that reduce the deficit. It cost £45,000 to keep one person in a UK prison for one year. (Yet no one at Newsnight felt the need ask Mead such questions.)

As to the group of claimants who were videoed talking to Mead in Liverpool, they were never going to argue vigorously against his nasty vindictive theories, because if they disagreed with him on camera and said they would refuse to accept ‘any job,’ and this got back to Job Centre staff, they could loose their benefit under the current UK system. That Newsnight failed to inform its viewers of this again show a lack of balance if not down right bias.

To claim after his film was broadcast, Mr Mead was ‘robustly challenge’ during a Newsnight discussion is simply untrue. (Have you watched the debate?) As I wrote in my original complaint, those in the studio consisted of Mr Paxman, who showed little interest in the subject, Mr Mead, on video link from New York,  and Chris Grayling, the Coalition Government minister responsible for benefits at the Department of Work and Pensions, who at this very time is himself engaged in cutting welfare benefits in a not dissimilar way to Mead’s reactionary 19th century theories about the unemployed. 

Despite there being countless individuals who could have offered an authoritative alternative viewpoint on this matter, none appeared in the studio debate, if one can call it that. Hence my complaint is based on the total lack of balance in this BBC Newsnight segment.

You also failed to deal with my question when I asked ask who financed Lawrence Mead’s trip from the USA to the UK and his visit to Liverpool, did the BBC cover any of his costs? This is not a minor side issue as how the BBC spends license payers hard earned cash is of vital importance today.

To date, having refused to deal with the main components of my complaint, I e lack of balance and cost, I do not believe you have dealt with it adequately. Thus I have no choice but to pursue the matter further. I would appreciate if you could tell me where I go from here.

Regards

Mr Mick Hall

It can be safely said that Lawrence Mead has joined the list of Ipswich Unemployed Action’s sworn foes.

We invite and welcome any new links.

The Adventures of Unemployed Man.

This looks interesting (More here.)

 

Will the gang visit the U.K?

 

YMCA Training – Work Programme

Ipswich – supporting FND participants to make a sustained transition into work

Project description

• YMCA Training’s FND provision follows a sub-contractor model, working in partnership with specialist agencies to provide holistic support for participants

• YMCA Training Ipswich supports participants with complex needs to access employment

• The Centre has successfully adapted its provision to achieve high numbers of job entries through the FND programme

• YMCA Training Ipswich works effectively with Jobcentre Plus, to offer customers work trails with a guaranteed job entry

YMCA Training Ipswich works closely with their prime contractor for the FND programme, TNG. Customers complete an Employability Needs Questionnaire at TNG, and the score determines whether they remain at TNG or are referred to YMCA Training Ipswich. The Centre supports customers across the age range, from 18-60 years of age. Customers are referred from TNG to YMCA Training Ipswich from Lane 2 and Lane 4 (the latter being less job ready). YMCA Training Ipswich currently has 400 customers on the FND programme, and receives 25-30 referrals from TNG a week.

Some customers are long term unemployed, and have been on a number of New Deal programmes, whilst others have been made redundant in the recession. All customers attend an initial partner interview to identify those with complex needs, which may arise from medical conditions or lifestyle choices, such as alcohol and drugs issues, and several customers have a criminal record and are on the sex offenders register.

Many of the customers have lost their self confidence and self worth in their own ability and therefore require support to re-enter employment. All customers attend an induction at YMCA Training Ipswich, covering health and safety, safeguarding, bullying and harassment, and explaining the purpose of the FND programme. YMCA Training Ipswich works closely with probation workers, NORCAS, Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations, and SNAP, who provide counselling services and support clients with financial, housing, alcohol and drugs problems.

The Centre operates a zero tolerance approach to alcohol and drugs. A high proportion of customers require ESOL, (English as a Second Language) support, and so the Centre has established a partnership with Otley College, which delivers literacy and numeracy classes in-house at the Centre and support customers to gain Level 1 qualifications.

All customers complete the mandatory elements of the FND programme, such as the induction and CV writing module, and participate in fortnightly one-to-ones with their Training Adviser to determine their personal requirements and update their work focused action plan. The Training Advisers also deliver Goals training, which provides motivational support for customers to help their progression towards the labour market.

YMCA Training Ipswich has a strong employer network. For example, companies such as Tesco, Wicks, B&Q and McDonalds conduct mock interviews at the Centre. This approach is very successful, helping customers prepare for real interviews, and providing a forum for employers to meet potential candidates:

“The employers come in and do interview techniques with [customers] and explain what they would be looking for in an employee. We’ve have some fantastic feedback… Employers wants to help the community and it promotes their company as well, and [customers can ask] about work experience, or job opportunities, and [employers] will distribute application forms and look at their CVs and give constructive feedback, so it’s a way of recruiting” YMCA Training Ipswich Employment Engagement Adviser.

YMCA Training Ipswich has developed this strong employer network by highlighting the reciprocal benefits to employers:

“We can do a one stop shop for you, we can sift the CVs, we can offer you facilities for interviewing, we can have customers here ready for you at certain times and we can do the whole process for you” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

YMCA Training Ipswich also provides practical support for customers, ensuring they have appropriate clothes to attend interviews, buys specialist clothing required for certain jobs, and pays for CRB checks. The Centre also conducts in-work calculations for customers, to check if they are eligible for benefits or tax credits, and to determine if they will be better off in work. This can be a particular issue for certain groups, such as lone parents, who often require childcare support to enable them to return to work. The Employment Engagement Adviser will also negotiate with employers where appropriate to ensure lone parents can afford to move into work.

YMCA Training Ipswich works effectively in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, to offer customers work trails with a guaranteed job entry. The work trial is the same as a work placement, but has the advantage of a 99.9% guarantee that it will lead to paid employment:

“The work trials, we are very lucky, we’ve always had very good relations with Ipswich jobcentre…the members of staff in the work trails team and the work subsidy team before them, we build good relationships with all of them…We work in partnership with them, and that has really helped us” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

This arrangement means that Jobcentre Plus consult YMCA Training Ipswich to identify suitable candidates for their work trials. For example, Rentakill recently contacted Jobcentre Plus to recruit 36 people across the business. Jobcentre Plus consulted YMCA Training Ipswich, and the collaboration resulted in 15 FND customers from YMCA Training Ipswich gaining work trails. YMCA Training Ipswich also liaises effectively with their prime contractor, TNG, to discuss employment opportunities.

The Employment Engagement Advisers from the two organisations discuss local vacancies to ensure jobs are matched to the most suitable customers. This is a win-win situation for both YMCA Training Ipswich and Jobcentre Plus, as it improves sustainable job outcomes for both organisations.

YMCA Training Ipswich has a high proportion of employers who have recruited from the Centre over a number of years. The Centre works with employers who are committed to offering customers paid employment following the successful completion of their work placement. The Centre Manager explains their successful approach to working with employers:

“It is being honest with employers, we do have customers with chequered histories and we are always open and honest… we ring them every Monday to check the customer has turned up and see if there are any issues, and the EEAs do go out and talk to the employer and customer once a fortnight” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

Empowering participants to find and retain employment

• 79% of customers at YMCA Training Ipswich recently ranked the modules a grade 1 or 2 (according to Ofsted criteria)

• Employers and employees alike view the FND provision at YMCA Training Ipswich to be an effective job matching and recruitment service

• YMCA Training Ipswich records high numbers of job entries, and work trials which are guaranteed to lead to paid employment

• YMCA Training Ipswich supports customers into work by conducting in-work calculations, to identify if the customer is eligible for any benefits or tax credits

FND customers are very satisfied with the support they receive at YMCA Training Ipswich. 79% of customers recently ranked the modules a grade 1 or 2 (according to Ofsted criteria). YMCA Training Ipswich reports consistently high rates of customers completing work placements. The Centre places customers that are job-ready into work placements as soon as possible:

“We have 72% of people in work placements at the moment, we’ve always been very very high, when we compare our weekly stats, we are consistently high” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

YMCA Training Ipswich is committed to placing customers in suitable work placements, depending on their distance from the labour market. For example, those furthest from the labour market often complete an initial work placement with a charity to update their employability skills and to gain a reference to help them progress into paid work. The success of YMCA Training Ipswich has recently been noted by their prime contractor auditor:

“The audit by the prime contractor flagged us as being particularly good with work placements…some of our customers haven’t worked for 25 years, so they aren’t going to have up-to-date skills….work placements give [customers] a bit more confidence… being in a customer focused role. So they do a soft work placement that will give them the reference they need for their CV. Then we will look at the types of jobs they want, but it is a step in the right direction” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

YMCA Training Ipswich reports one of the highest number of job entries across the YMCA Training network:

“Our target with TNG was to get 41 short jobs and we’ve currently got 45, so we are slightly over” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

The Centre encourages customers to undertake self-directed activities where possible, to develop their sense of responsibility and ownership towards securing employment. For example, the Sabo website provides ICT guidance. This works particularly well with mature customers, to improve their CVs:

“It is flexible and tailor made to their requirements…It is more self directed… We set them realistic targets that will help them move forward in life” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

YMCA Training Ipswich has a strong employer network. The Centre Manager is Chair of the local business forum. The Centre holds employer liaison events. For example, YMCA Training Ipswich hold an annual event at Jimmy’s Farm and invites its employer network. Over 90 employers attended the event last year. YMCA Training Ipswich is nominating Jimmy’s Farm for YMCA Training’s national employer award, in recognition of their support. Jimmy’s Farm provides e2e placements for YMCA Training Ipswich, in addition to hosting employer events.

The employer liaison events provide a valuable opportunity for employers who have recently joined the network, such as Calsberg and Asda, to network with companies who have worked with YMCA Training Ipswich for a number of years.

“All the companies network and it helps us sell what we do, its great…we try and look after [employers]…we build relationships with them and then a lot of our companies recommend us to other companies they know” YMCA Training Ipswich Coordinator.

Some employers contact YMCA Training Ipswich to recruit staff:

“We will select the clients for them, preinterview the clients, like a recruitment agency, but free of charge” YMCA Training Ipswich Co-ordinator.

YMCA Training Ipswich matches FND customers to job vacancies, to support people to make a sustained transition into work:

“We look at the individual and their skills and match them to the company…If something came up that we knew would be ideal we discuss it with them. We match the person to the role…It is no good putting someone somewhere they aren’t going to last, they won’t be happy and it spoils our reputation” YMCA Training Ipswich Employment Engagement Adviser.

Team working is a key success factor in the YMCA Training Ipswich approach:

“I’m very lucky, I’ve got a very good team, we all work well together, we are a team and without each other we couldn’t do it. We all chip in” YMCA Training Ipswich Centre Manager Sally Smith.

“I think we are very successful because we have such a dedicated team, they are very motivated, everyone wants to help and support people. We are very supportive of each other, there can be some challenging environments, and we have got some very strong relationships with local employers who are very happy to help out” YMCA Training Ipswich Employment Engagement Adviser.

Effective team working is also evident in YMCA Training Ipswich’s work with partner agencies:

“We work very very closely together with the job centre, as soon as they are told of a work trail they will tell us and we will try and fill it with our people. I have been in place for ten years and over time have built up a relationship with the job centre, all the staff know the advisers” YMCA Training Ipswich Co-ordinator.

The Employment Engagement Adviser provides on-going support for customers completing work placements:

“We do tell them, ‘any issues or concerns just pick up the phone and talk to us’, we don’t forget you… We also say that to the employer as well: ‘If you have any issues please talk to us and we will try and resolve any issues’. People have talked to us about little things, and we have been able to put their mind at rest, or directed them where they need to go…The placements are really good, it gets [customers] back in a routine and communicating with people. They will think ‘actually I enjoyed that, I’m going to start looking for that kind of job’. It widens the scope for their job search”

YMCA Training Ipswich Employment Engagement Adviser.

YMCA Training Ipswich have placed fifteen customers in work placements in the School Health department of Children’s Services, St Helen’s House, assisting with filing duties:

“We’ve had help from YMCA Training for two-three years on a volunteer basis…we know quite quickly when we

have a very good person… the people seem to enjoy it and it gives them more confidence. Its beneficial to us because we don’t have the staff capacity to deal with all the work we’ve got” Deputy Team Leader, Children’s Services, St Helen’s House.

The customer felt the support from YMCA Training Ipswich assisted her job search because:

“It was more individually tailored for different needs. You only had to go in once a week to do the job search and have appointments with your Training Adviser… they gave you pointers about how to approach interviews…they were really good and supportive, if you had a problem you could phone them up at any time” Employee, Children’s Services, St Helen’s House.

The customer felt the work placement enhanced her CV by providing current work experience:

“If I hadn’t come here to do the work placement I don’t think I would have got the job…If you’ve been unemployed for quite a while, a lot of [employers] might be put off by that. If you get some work experience it does build your confidence…I hadn’t done that much office work before, so it was helpful” Employee, Children’s Services, St Helen’s House.

The work placement increased the customer’s confidence as interviews can be daunting:

“When you come on a work placement they can see you over a few weeks so you can show what you can do…I was more nervous because I really wanted the job and everyone was rooting for me, I didn’t want to let everybody down, but I managed to get it” Employee, Children’s Services, St Helen’s House.

From the employer’s perspective, the work placement prepared the customer well for the role:

“[She] did a brilliant interview and I think that’s because she knew where she was and what she was doing. She came across very well… We saw [her] confidence grow as she worked with us. She has fitted in extremely well, everyone has commented on it” Deputy Team Leader, Children’s Services, St Helen’s House.

An employer from a building contractor company approached YMCA Training directly to recruit an Assistant for their maintenance department. The company was very impressed with the customer’s CV and interviewing skills:

“[We were] very impressed with the CV. [The interview] was absolutely brilliant, it was quite an informal interview, to get an idea of the person…we were very impressed” Administration manger, Maintenance department, Needhams Building Contractors.

The work placement scheme appealed to the building contractor company because:

“The option of trialling someone for a while is a good idea…I wouldn’t have any hesitation in doing it again…there is no commitment there if the person didn’t work out, that is good…We’ve employed two people from YMCA Training and we have been extremely happy with both… I would say they are amongst the hardest workers we’ve got in the company” Administration manger, Maintenance department, Needhams Building Contractors

The customer had been made redundant the previous year and YMCA Training Ipswich supported the customer with job search and interview preparation:

“I had applied for a lot of jobs and…I went [to YMCA Training] with a very closed mind… I was very surprised at the feedback and what was offered to me…I’d only had one interview from a hundred jobs I’d applied for before…The difference was the face to face contact, [YMCA Training] offered to look at my CV. I found the [CV module] interesting, they made me change a lot of things in my CV, which I think helped me to get this job…it turned my CV around…It was the best interview I’ve ever had“ Employee, Maintenance department, Needhams Building Contractors.

The customer deputised whilst her manager was on holiday and received a salary increase in recognition of her progress:

“I have spoken to the MD and he thinks I’ve settled in well and he said there’s ways I could progress in the company. If I saw this job in the paper I would probably turn the page and think ‘that’s not even a job they would give me a interview for” Employee, Maintenance department, Needhams Building Contractors.

The customer has been nominated for YMCA Training’s national learner of the year award in recognition of her achievements. The support from YMCA Training Ipswich was particularly helpful in:

“Sorting out my tax credits. That was really helpful because I would have actually turned down the job based on the salary they were offering. The working tax credit that’s helped my salary…I’ve just had positively from them…they were very approachable – if you had a question and they didn’t know the answer, they would go out of their way to find out” Employee, Maintenance department, Needhams Building Contractors.

Supporting the new work programme

• YMCA Training Ipswich is well placed to implement the new work programme through its successful delivery of the Flexible New Deal programme. YMCA Training is well placed to implement the new work programme by building on its successful delivery of the Flexible New Deal programme. The Centre Manager at YMCA Training Ipswich attributes the success of their FND delivery to effective partnership working with Jobcentre Plus and matching customers to suitable employment opportunities. YMCA Training Ipswich operates:

“Very much like a recruitment agency. We visit the employers and build up a positive relationship, and visit [employers] when participants are there on placement. We support the employer as well as the participant” YMCA Training Ipswich Employment Engagement Adviser.

YMCA Training: No comment on publication concerns

We recently published a large snippet of the Ipswich section to poverty pimp YMCA Training’s “YMCA Training – getting ready for the Work Programme” publication; a small snippet of such is as follows:

Some customers are long term unemployed, and have been on a number of New Deal programmes, whilst others have been made redundant in the recession. All customers attend an initial partner interview to identify those with complex needs, which may arise from medical conditions or lifestyle choices, such as alcohol and drugs issues, and several customers have a criminal record and are on the sex offenders register.

YMCA Training has yet to comment – likely an active refusal to participate, perhaps they are too busy with these sex offenders or don’t think this is a serious matter at all and exited the claims (as quoted from themselves) – but communication isn’t their strong point (not in English anyway, perhaps German?) with exceptions to sanction threats.

Training Wage and 3 year Sanctions

The Training Wage Bill 2011 has been published. If you are unemployed or in insecure work, you need to listen up. The Bill is worse than expected!

Any person who would otherwise qualify for entitlement to the national minimum wage, as defined in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, shall not be so entitled if he or she has entered into a written contract of employment providing that his or her entitlement is to a training wage.

So the specifying of the words “training wage” somewhere in an employment contract, which may get overlooked by the to-be employee, will dissolve such persons entitlement to the National Minimum Wage.  The employer must provide training, however, this isn’t the point. At current some employers pay out of their own pocket to train staff and some employers (especially those taking on new staff) might help the employee by paying for the training and spreading payments by weekly deductions.

YMCA Training: Safeguarding

We recently published the Ipswich snippet from poverty YMCA Training’s getting ready for the Work Programme publication and subsequently how YMCA Training is refusing to comment about such publication.

To really rub salt in to the wounds, YMCA Training is very proud to disclose on their website how it safeguards children and vulnerable adults. This happens to be merely PR spin and to please both the DWP and Learning Skills Council (where the majority of their income is from). The snippets are as follows:

About Us: Safeguarding and Equality & Diversity

Safeguarding and Equality & Diversity

YMCA Training is committed to ensuring all our learners, staff and volunteers, are effectively safeguarded.

To help us do this we have a number of initiatives in place, including a team of local safeguarding advisers, a national safeguarding manager, comprehensive recruitment policies and a variety of training opportunities for staff and volunteers.

We aim to foster a culture of openness, safety and communication in order to deliver our vision of training in a safe environment.

Work with Us: Safeguarding young people & vulnerable adults

Safeguarding young people & vulnerable adults

The security and wellbeing of our participants is of overriding importance to us and we take great care to ensure that all new staff are checked for their suitability to work with young people and/or vulnerable adults.

If you are successful in your application to join us, your details will be sent to the Criminal Records Bureau where an Enhanced Disclosure Report will be prepared by Bureau staff. An Enhanced Disclosure will show all convictions, cautions and further relevant ‘soft information’ held by national and local police forces.

A copy of this report will be sent to you. The report will help determine your suitability for the post you have applied for or you are occupying. Please note: only those convictions, cautions etc that are relevant to the position will affect our decision in relation to suitability.

You must disclose any convictions (including those that are considered ‘spent’ under the Rehabilitations of Offenders Act and driving offences) on your application form or during the recruitment process and you should ensure that the references that you give are relevant and appropriate to your employment history.

YMCA Training reserves the right to rescind any offer of employment, or terminate your employment, if your CRB check or references do not meet the standards required.

Training Wage Bill: FREE labour

We recently touched on the proposed Training Wage legislation, mostly on how employers can pay lower wages and the implementation of 3 year sanctions. What we didn’t mention was how employers are currently discouraged to defraud their employees and how employers can employ a person under this Training Wage Act (if it receives Royal Assent) at the same rate contractually as the National Minimum Wage but can opt out of paying their employees at all.

Fortnum and Mason’s

My sister worked as a ‘Lift Girl’ for this charming joint.

Despite my cold I feel it’s worth posting this:

Conservatives keep Work for Your Benefit scheme dormant

Our sister site Work Programme Network reported some time ago how the Work for Your Benefit Regulations are still active although the pilots have been scrapped, but we can reveal that the Government is aiming to address this legislation. However, it isn’t all as positive as we would hope.

The Conservatives are creating a new employment scheme called the “Mandatory Work Activity Scheme” which basically is the Mandatory Work Related Activity period from Flexible New Deal renamed, however, it is stand alone and although it may (although unlikely) be part of the upcoming Work Programme – it is designed so Jobseeker Allowance (JSA) claimants can be placed onto the mandatory scheme after being given notice – which in theory could be from day 1.

The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Mandatory Work Activity Scheme) Regulations 2011 made on the 9th March 2011 and laid before Parliament on the 14th March 2011, will come in to force from the 25th April 2011. 

Whistleblower: unemployed people are being tricked into breaching the rules.

Work Programme has already noted this.

The Guardian story continues to make waves,

The Guardian has been told that unemployed people are being tricked into breaching the rules so that benefits can be held back Link to this videoRising numbers of vulnerable jobseekers are being tricked into losing benefits amid growing pressure to meet welfare targets, a Jobcentre Plus adviser has told the Guardian.

More  Here.

This letter today is interesting: (Here)

I worked as a fraud investigator for Jobcentre Plus until last summer when I resigned over the micro-management culture setting virtually unachieveable targets aimed at specific offences. All investigators are encouraged – nay, threatened – to only investigate allegations of fraud by lone parents with undeclared partners allegedly living with them. Far more potentially serious cases of undeclared work or fake disability are pushed to one side, as managers exhort their teams to look into these types of investigations. This often results in investigators resorting to underhand tactics to “persuade” lone parents that they had or have a partner living with them. The early morning visit at the weekend that catches a benefit claimant with a boyfriend staying over for instance: job done and another tick in the box towards this

Mandatory Work Activity: extended sanction abuses

By now we have all heard about the series of articles in The Guardian about benefit sanction targets. The upcoming 4 week compulsory employment programme called the Mandatory Work Activity scheme is an extension to sanction powers of Jobcentre Plus Employment Officers. Ipswich Unemployed Action has already spoke about the Mandatory Work Activity scheme.

Not that Jobcentre Plus ever thought this underhand practice would be exposed: they created the Mandatory Work Activity scheme to make further “savings” to the “public purse”. This could now be forced to be prematurely scrapped as I explain to you what the Mandatory Work Activity is really about.

No surprises that it is really to screw you jobseekers over (including the new JSA claimants forced over from disability benefits).

Unlawful Sanctions describes it as “bribes for benefit savings”. DWP set up a tender with a unit cost benchmark of £800 per person – successful providers are those who get the cheapest cost per head. This is done by a contract value organised by how many starts (i.e. total value / starts = unit costs). Providers specify how many people they are willing to take as they calculate how much minimum they require. This payment is paid upfront regardless of a start or not.

When the Work Programme Network announced the “workfare providers” they branded this the “sham scheme”. It is of no coincidence how everything is so conveniently perfect for this (well almost, the Work Programme Network has already found a loophole in the law which will be published in May 2011).

The three main elements:

• Eligibility solely on Jobcentre Plus adviser/Employment Officer discretion at any time in the claim
• Sanctions raised from 2 weeks to 13 weeks for the first offence and appeal timescales are just 5 days
• There is nothing stopping someone being repeatedly placed on Mandatory Work Activity (other than being on another employment programme such as the Work Programme)

This is undeniable proof of the intention of increasing benefit sanctions:-

• The Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee thinks that due to the high proportion of Jobcentre Plus adviser sanction doubts overturned by Appeal Tribunals that adviser discretion should be limited not increased. (Of course the alternative option means such benefit sanction targets would have to be more open, perhaps written into regulations – this opens the scheme to too much scrutiny)
• DWP have once again refused to set in stone what the “placements” should contain. They have been kept sketchy for some reason despite thousands of complaints on New Deal, Flexible New Deal and Community Task Force. (Of course they cannot state how meaningless it will be)
• They favoured this over the Work for Your Benefit pilot scheme so they can evaluate such after the 4 years it runs for, instead of after the first year of a pilot scheme. (If they made it a pilot scheme it would be pulled)
• The Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee asked if it would be possible for someone to be referred for the third or fourth time, with the answer of “yes” although they made assurance of it being unlikely. This means such person would have had at least 6 month of benefit sanctions at that point. They also asked for guidance of the scheme where none was provided claiming it wasn’t finalised.

So adding up the pieces… it is the providers who are to be deciding how many workfare placements there are in the first year. DWP set an initial budget of some £8m for 10,000 placements at £800 each. We anticipate the bids under half so the initial budget will create approx 20,000 placements – but I suspect the budget to be increased when benefit savings are made.

How are referrals made?  Whether Employment Officers are set targets like their benefit sanction targets of how many people to refer on to Mandatory Work Activity by Jobcentre Plus working out the number of placements or whether they will refer on the fly finding whether or not a place if available, is unknown.  The latter sounds too disorganised, creating concerns of targets of referrals and therefore benefit sanctions

What are the payment terms? Providers are paid per referral not taking account of whether they do 4 weeks, leave half way through or not start. Seems a big waste of money, of course it is not if it is a bribe for a benefit sanction.

Can vexatious or malicious referrals occur? Indeed they can – and will. Numerous referrals too.

Why can you not understand it is a work placement not a sanction scam? Well… if a sanction of 13 weeks is caused; such claimant who is deemed necessary to have such experience of work discipline is not asked to do “balance of time” and the provider keeps the full amount for the 4 weeks without any further service delivery to that person. However, second (etc.) sanctions are 26 weeks if within a year of the first sanction of 13 weeks. For a latter sanction to take place the person would have to be referred back to the scheme (i.e. after 3 months). If the need for that person to be referred to such scheme to meet such objectives is so significant then “balance of time” should be as mandatory as the scheme itself, especially that such claimant may receive hardship payments and the taxpayer should be getting value for money with such payment spread out over the 4 weeks paid on attendance.

Some interesting quotes….

4.5.2 Sanction periods

If a customer is deemed to have acted in a way that could give rise to a benefit sanction as defined in 4.5.1, a referral to a Decision Maker would be made for a decision as to whether or not a sanction should be applied to the customer’s Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Sanctions will increase in length for second or subsequent breaches.

The sanctions will be of the following duration:

(a) thirteen weeks removal of Jobseeker’s Allowance for a first act or omission;

(b) twenty-six weeks removal for a second transgression leading to a failure determination which is made within 12 months of the first Mandatory Work Activity sanction starting to run.

and

4.9 Requirement to complete Mandatory Work Activity

Once a customer has been sanctioned for actions relating to Mandatory Work Activity, they will not be required to complete the balance of four weeks on the placement.
The scheme has been designed in this way to reinforce to customers that they should take the opportunity to participate in Mandatory Work Activity seriously, and cannot disengage and re-engage as it suits them.

To get a 26 week sanction its clear that such person must be referred back in 3 months time after the first sanction has ended.

Jobcentre Call Centre Workers Strike.

 

Speaking ahead of Monday’s strike by 7,000 staff in Jobcentre Plus’s 37 call centres, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka says work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith should withdraw his “thoroughly disgraceful” description of the action as “Neanderthal-like” and apologise.

Mark Serwotka added: “He’s talking about some of the lowest paid in the civil service who are being forced to take action to improve the service they provide to some of the most vulnerable people in society, in the face of unacceptable working conditions and an obsession with computer driven targets.

“The truth is, staff are monitored every minute of the day. The computer dictates start and finish times and tells them when to go for a break, with staff hauled up if they are 40 seconds late back or go over the time allowed for a call. Toilet breaks are monitored and constantly questioned.

“These call centres are a vital lifeline for members of the public when they need to claim benefits, when they’re sick or disabled or need help getting back into work. Enquiries are often complicated and many callers are understandably desperate and upset – some of them have no one else to turn to.

“Our members are not numbers, and neither are the unemployed, and they want to help people, but often they’re encouraged to just get the caller off the phone as quickly as possible and this can not be right.”

Here.

Thousands of Jobcentre staff are going on strike in a row over working conditions and management targets.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in 37 call centres are staging a 24-hour walk-out on Monday.

They have accused management of showing “little willingness” to try to resolve the dispute.

More Here.

Many of us will have problems with the Call Centres.

This strike shows that the staff and claimants have the same interests in fighting for a better service.

Jobseekers tricked into being eligible for Mandatory Work Activity

If you are issued an code LFW1 “Looking for work” form – it might be in your best interests to avoid filling it in and refuse into surrendering it for their use and abuse.

Work Programme Network has formulated a potential 8 categories of circumstances that will form someones eligibility (or chance of eligibility) onto the Mandatory Work Activity scheme. Six are as proposed by DWP, one is of claimants deemed not to be meeting the jobseeking conditions (due to this being granted as how Jobcentre Plus advisers will judge eligibility although strangely enough neither of the six proposed conditions are consisting of that) and the final one category is basically “none of the above”: even if its rare, due to the eligibility being discretion based there will be advisers over the 4 years referring someone due to dislike over other criteria.

Just to recap what this “questionnaire” (that isn’t anonymous) is for:

• Checking you are adhering to your Jobseekers Agreement
• Checking if you are Actively Seeking Employment
• Checking if you are Available for Work
• Checking if you are eligible by your own admission into the Mandatory Work Activity scheme
• Checking if you have applied for jobs (that were not Jobseeker Directions) for any employer names you specify on such form
• Checking if you have registered for recruitment agencies and jobsearch websites
• Tricking the claimant into stating they are not ready for work by means of misleading questions

This can result in:

• Eligibility to the Mandatory Work Activity scheme, and/or
• Sanction doubts deemed to be from not meeting the “jobseeking conditions” – up to 6 month benefit sanctions; or
• Claim closed

This form (although implied) isn’t mandatory, however, if you allow the Jobcentre Plus to trip you up; this form although not signed will be used against you.  If you aren’t looking for work I hope you lose your benefits but its not fair for the rest of us jobseekers to be tricked into benefit sanctions.

In regards to this LFW1 form being posted or randomly handed in… the fact that its not signed means it cannot legally be attributed to you, however when you are at an signing on appointment which you are legally obligated to declare any work or change of circumstances, it will be claimed an implied contract of the disclosure of such content was made.

This is why it asks for jobseekers to submit such at the beginning of the “discussion” this is so your signature when you sign on makes such questionnaire attributed to you. Perhaps they will get you to sign to say you have handed it over.

In some cases you might be asked to complete such questionnaire during such appointment – you must refuse.

It is absolutely useless as an anonymous questionnaire, so arguing for your name to be removed and filling in another without such information, will only result in the adviser sticking those details in at a later date.

My suggestions are:

• If we all refuse it, it becomes less likely that we will be placed on the Mandatory Work Activity scheme as default due to refusal to complete it (initially there is only a set number of placements)
• There is no law requiring anyone to complete the questionnaire
• Avoid being tricked into benefit sanctions
• Let the adviser know you are looking for work (as you have been asked to prove every 2 weeks)
• Let the adviser know the types of jobs you looking for etc. are located on the Jobseekers Agreement

The Broadest Shoulders.

“From Camcorder Guerillas.

“It’s fair that those with broader shoulders should bear a greater load” 

(David Cameron, justifying the cuts, Conservative party conference 6 Oct 2010)

 

In October 2010 the coalition Government announced public sector cuts of £81 billion, including £18 billion cuts to benefits. Whilst the rich avoid £120 billion of taxes and bankers continue to award themselves huge bonuses, “disabled people are facing the biggest attack on their rights since the 1930s”.

ATOS ‘at Work’, 3 Claimants Die.

Janine  has just pointed to this on Facebook,

 

THE deaths of two people who were waiting for appeals to be heard against the loss of benefits has prompted calls for a fairer assessment system.

The two claimants, both from West Dunbartonshire, died from the conditions which caused them to claim Incapacity Benefit (IB) while waiting for appeals to be heard against cuts to their benefits.

One was deemed fit for work during a work capability assessment, despite having a deteriorating chronic illness, and lost both incapacity benefit and disability living allowance.

When his support worker appeared at the appeal tribunal she had to report her client could not be there because he was dead. The appeal was upheld and the backpayment will become part of his estate.

The other had a congenital condition which caused difficulty in walking but was assessed capable of work and his incapacity benefit was withdrawn. He was waiting for a date for an appeal tribunal when he died.

The assessment was inadequate and very unprofessional. The doctor simply did not have the information

A third person, again from West Dunbartonshire, died recently after winning a second appeal tribunal following three years of repeated assessments and decisions being overturned.

He worked as a shop assistant in his 20s but was forced to give up due to severe heart and lung problems caused by a degenerative syndrome.

Jobcentre Plus Targets To Impose Sanctions On Claimants

Ipswich Unemployed Action would like to publish the following Freedom of Information Act request:-

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

The Guardian newspaper recently uncovered that Jobcentre Plus employees were tricking vulnerable claimants into losing welfare entitlements. A whistleblower said staff at his jobcentre were given targets of three people a week to refer for sanctions, where benefits are removed for up to six months.

The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, initially claimed it was “claptrap” that anyone would “hand out edicts to staff to sanction three people”, and said the story was a “conspiracy”.

Since then, further email evidence has been uncovered showing individual or group targets are being imposed to stop people’s benefits at offices across the country. In some cases staff have claimed they have been threatened with sanctions themselves if they do not reach the targets. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/…

I would like to know the number of claimants that Jobcentre Plus offices have imposed sanction referrals on in order to meet these targets and whether the DWP consider that these peoples Human Rights have been infringed upon.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Taylor

Which got the following response:  (we have removed a part regarding an information tool… use the above link to read it)

Dear Mr Taylor

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 14 April 2011

You requested the following information:

“… the number of claimants that Jobcentre Plus offices have imposed sanction referrals on in order to meet these targets and whether the DWP consider that these
peoples Human Rights have been infringed upon.”

From 2006 until the end of March 2011, Jobcentre Plus had benchmark levels for referrals for sanctions. These were not targets nor have we ever had targets for sanctions – there is no right or wrong level of referrals, we deal with every case fairly, on its own merits. The purpose of the benchmarks was to allow District Managers to compare their own performance against that in other Districts. If their referral rate was widely different from the benchmark, this was a signal for management to assure themselves that the referrals regime in their District was being applied fairly and consistently.  Referrals for sanctions are all subject to independent decision-making, reconsideration and a formal appeal process.

Towards the end of performance year 2010/11, it became apparent that in a limited number of cases individual Advisers had been given targets for referrals, due to a misunderstanding/communication breakdown. This practice was not supported or advocated by Jobcentre Plus senior management and Ministers have made it clear personally that this is not appropriate. Managers have been reminded that this should not happen and they have all given assurances that the practice has been discontinued in the sites where it has taken place.

From April – the start of the 2011/12 performance year – there have been no benchmarks or targets for rates of referral for sanctions. It is up to individual Advisers to make judgements about whether a sanction is appropriate. Our welfare system should be a clear two-way contract. We will do everything we can to help people find work but equally we expect customers to be doing everything they can to find work as well. The sanctions regime is only to be used when people are failing to live up to their responsibilities and will be applied with discretion and commonsense.

Section 21 of the Act allows us to direct you to information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

The Department publishes a wide range of statistics on benefit claimants and sanctions both in its regular Statistical Summaries and through the Tabulation Tool which allows you to design your own tables. [The remainder has been removed see the first link on the page for more info]

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Analysis

So DWP is trying to deny that Jobcentre Plus has never had “targets“. A “benchmark level” is a fancy word for target. A benchmark is “a standard by which something can be measured or judged” so doesn’t directly imply it has a target. A benchmark level isn’t a target directly, but indirectly policy to meet such benchmark level is a target to be set to meet the minimum standard.

This is a clever trick. I am sure nationally there is no:

• direct target for a financial level of sanctions (i.e. say £50,000 a year)
• direct target for the number of successful sanctions

But there is policy enforcing the “benchmark level” which is a target to meet the “benchmark level” of referrals (yes not the number of applied sanctions but that of the attempts).

Anyway, to keep this short:-

• Benchmark targets were to compare “performance” between districts (although different Jobcentre Plus offices were reported to have their own targets and indeed different teams within a single Jobcentre Plus office – if you aren’t too sure, notice the different colour highlighter pen on your ES40Jp signing on booklet compared to anyone elses)
• “There is no right or wrong level of referrals, [Jobcentre Plus] deal with every case fairly, on its own merits. ” although they later claim “Referrals for sanctions are all subject to independent decision-making” (for Jobcentre Plus to determine referrals (regardless of the likeihood that a referral is successful) which are done in house as “independent decision-making” whilst under targets is a severe joke)
• It gets worse… “These were not targets nor have we ever had targets for sanctions” although sanction targets operating within 4 years…”it became apparent that in a limited number of cases individual Advisers had been given targets for referrals“, so maybe not a nationwide Jobcentre Plus practice looking strictly from evidence from whistleblowers but it should be “some Jobcentre Plus offices had targets” at least. This was blamed “due to a misunderstanding/communication breakdown” that lasted half a decade: f**k the communication must have been bad!!
• It gets funny… “This practice was not supported or advocated by Jobcentre Plus senior management“… are District Managers really not senior management?! I know from a “word-of-mouth” level that any Jobcentre Plus staff who are a supervisor level or above is known informally as a “senior member of staff” or “senior staff member” but regardless of that, District Managers must be a senior member of management. Can anyone confirm if they are?
• “Managers have been reminded that this should not happen“… I want to work for Jobcentre Plus! Everywhere else its threats of dismissal, civil action or police involvement but at Jobcentre Plus courtesy of hard-working law-abiding taxpaying citizens, managers are advised that is “should not happen” rather than “must not happen.
• “Referrals for sanctions are all subject to independent decision-making, reconsideration and a formal appeal process.“… This isn’t the point, sanction referrals cannot be justified as the claimant has the right to appeal. What if s/he fails to appeal? S/he loses their money! Sanctions are automatic (to reach targets) so a decision maker rarely has the opportunity to deny silly sanction doubts.
• Gets funnier: “ Our welfare system should be a clear two-way contract. We will do everything we can to help people find work but equally we expect customers to be doing everything they can to find work as well.” Remember to quote this!!!

Hardest Hit Protests.

There have been magnificent protests, notably in London, against the cuts and the way new rules will affect disabled people.

The Employment and Support Allowance, combined with harsh reductions in local help for the disabled, are particularly controversial. As is the role of ATOS in drawing up assessments of people’s capacity to work.

One individual, claiming to be a doctor in ATOS employment, has posted on this site protesting against our ‘ Communist ‘criticism of the mutinational.

He then went on to say, after defending his actions and belief that most, if not all,  disabled are skiving,

This extends to all Activities in Daily Living (ADLs). For example, I (deliberately) booked an assessment with a claimant purportedly suffering from “depression” first thing on Monday morning. Now anyone, let alone someone with “depression” would find it burdensome to attend such an appointment. This lady who has NEVER worked and has been claiming benefits for “depression” since she left school turned up in the most presentable fashion; very well made-up, immaculately dressed, clean clothes, excellent personal hygiene, it would have been easy to mistake her for a job interviewee. A million miles away from the dishevelled smelling of body odour “depressive” that I was expecting. And before anyone says it, I know that “depressives” can have on and off days but this in itself passes the SOME work test. I failed this young lady and passed her papers to the DWP Decision Maker. Bear in mind also, that those who fail this assessment are only being moved to a lower rate Jobseeker’s Allowance, not excluded from the benefit system altogether.

I have to add that I have yet to assess anyone who was not capable of at least SOME work.

Perhaps the good doctor thinks depressed people are trying to do a Blackadder “wibble”.

Louise has some more serious thoughts here.

With the well-qualified medical assessor of how young women dress and smell in charge of ‘assessments’,  it’s not surprising that people are angry.  The Hardest Hit campaign has spread far.

Cambridge.

Protesters occupy healthcare building

Suzan Uzel

Protesters outside Atos Healthcare

Protesters last night occupied a city-based office building that is home to Atos Healthcare, claiming the firm is “victimising” those with specific needs.

Banners were strung from the roof of the building and dozens of campaigners entered the office building in Hills Road, Cambridge, pledging to stay overnight.

The office was chosen because Atos won a recent Government contract to reassess incapacity benefit claimants and the demonstration was part of UK-wide action.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling previously said there was “clear evidence” of need for change in the welfare system.

Tom Woodcock, secretary of the Cambridge and District Trades Union Council, who was at the city protest, said the building housing Atos had been occupied when he left at 5.30pm, but not the Atos offices.

Mr Woodcock said: “People are inside and there are posters all over the windows and banners hanging from the roof. I support what they are doing 100 per cent.”

Representatives from campaigning group Cambridge Defend Education were also involved in the protest.

A spokesman said last night: “The Cambridge activists have occupied the building and roof, and plan to stay the night.”

Mr Woodcock said: “The Government is attempting to decimate the social security offered to thousands of people with physical and mental health issues.

“Worse still they are allowing a private firm to profit from the process. In reality the reassessment of incapacity benefits will not increase the number of people in work but force some of the most vulnerable people into a more precarious existence.”

He added: “Atos claim they are occupation health specialists but rather than holding employers to account they are victimising and disenfranchising individuals with specific needs.”

A police helicopter was flying over Hills Road to monitor the protest. Atos was unavailable for comment last night.

From Here.

Those wanting to find out more about ATOS, or indeed tell them what they think of them, can visit their Web site here.

Anyone wanting to work for ATOS can find information on employment here.

How to claim Jobseekers Allowance without being capable of work!

It is a well established myth that you must be capable of working to claim Jobseekers Allowance (JSA).

This is not true, and has not been so since the Welfare Reform Act 2007. Anyone who is or has claimed Employment and Support Allowance might want to pay close attention to this blog article.

Mandatory Work Activity Trials Begin.

 

 

Selecting People For Mandatory Work Activity.

 Mandatory work activity contracts begin.

Submitted by (and Hat-Tip to) amielouisewilliamson Fri, 20/05/2011 – 1:03pm

This week will see the start of Mandatory Work Activity contracts in London, the East and Yorkshire & Humberside.

The Mandatory Work Activity programme will allow Jobcentre Plus advisers to refer jobseekers that need additional support to get back to work onto mandatory work activity. If an adviser believes a jobseeker will benefit from experiencing the habits and routines of working life, they have the power to refer them to a four week placement.  Placements might include doing maintenance work for housing residents, renovating and recycling old furniture, working in a local sports club or supporting charitable organisations. 

The scheme, which will be delivered by a range of organisations from the private, voluntary and third sector will be available throughout the country by the beginning of June.

Every work placement will offer the jobseeker the opportunity to gain fundamental work disciplines and will be of benefit to the local community.  Participants will be expected to spend up to 30 hours a week, for four weeks, on their Work Activity placement and will be required to continue to look for work.

Customers who fail to complete a placement without good cause will lose their Jobseeker’s Allowance for a minimum of 3 months. Here.

Comment: “I’ve Got a Little List”.

The abuse of claimants this scheme could lead to is already apparent to anyone who’s been near anything like Nuneaton PeopleServe.

Imagine putting people like them in charge of a ‘selection’ for MWA.

We don’t have to imagine: take this  comment on the Indus Delta site (from someone working in the sector with power over the unemployed):

“I can identify those customers it is aimed at. They are the ones that FTA (fail to attend) on induction day.

It might sound synical but in my area I can probably name the first 3 customers to be put on MWA.

And remember this is NOT just for the youngsters. I suspect the first draft of ‘volunteers’ will be those that fall into the 25 plus category and they really ‘don’t want to work’.”

Perhaps a compulsory literacy course with an emphasis on spelling might also help this adviser.

 

Ipswich Jobcentre Shaun Sadler encourages benefit fraud

We can reveal that an Ipswich Jobcentre Plus manager by the name of Shaun Sadler, encourages by omission,  jobseekers allowance claimants to commit benefit fraud.

Work Programme Bonanza For Private Contractors.

The disabled may be squeezed, JSA’s value may go down and down.

But one group of benefit bludgers is doing nicely.

Here is just a sample:

2010-05-07	JOBCENTRE PLUS	A4E LTD	2,630,945 GBP	full entry »
	2010-08-05	JOBCENTRE PLUS	A4E LTD	2,615,737 GBP	full entry »
	2010-07-01	JOBCENTRE PLUS	A4E LTD	2,518,567 GBP	full entry »
	2010-04-09	Employment Programmes	A4E LTD	2,447,159 GBP	full entry »
	2010-05-11	Employment Programmes	A4E LTD	2,447,158 GBP	full entry »
	2010-06-10	Employment Programmes	A4E LTD	2,447,158 GBP	full entry »
	2010-07-09	Employment Programmes	A4E LTD	2,447,158 GBP	full entry »
	2010-08-10	Employment Programmes	A4E LTD	2,447,158 GBP

More Here.

Indus Delta reports that the next wave of people-doing-very-nicely out of the Dole will be made public (here),

In a written Parliamentary Answer (Citation: HC Deb, 18 May 2011, c196W), Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, has committed the government to the ‘transparency agenda’ for Work Programme contracts.

Details on Work Programme contracts will be available on the Contracts Finder website – a free new service on Business Link to find opportunities to supply goods and services to government – once they have been signed.

Contracts Finder is part of a series of government measures aimed at making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and third sector organisations to find and apply for public sector contracts. It will become the main source of government opportunities worth more than £10,000.

Documents published on Contracts Finder relate to both live and closed opportunities with government departments and agencies:

• Live opportunities are still open for businesses to bid for.
• Closed ones are no longer open for bidding because the procurement process has moved on to the next stage. 

For further information visit the Contracts Finder.

Work Programme in Chaos, Redundancies Follow.

Work programme in Chaos.

Channel Four reports,

tonight, there are warnings that thousands of people currently employed to help people back to work are themselves facing redundancy.

HayleyTaylor Lets Fairy Job Passion Mother Rip.

The second series of The Fairy Jobmother was on Channel 4 last night.  Hayley Taylor, who is ‘passionate’ about unemployment – it as a way out of never being made redundant again – earned her crust helping unemployed people.

This comment, from Stuart Heritage , is tough but just:

Taylor is hard but fair, and the advice she gives her charges (wash your hair, be punctual, don’t get a giant cannabis leaf tattooed on your neck) is broad enough to be adopted by the viewers. At the end of each episode, truths have been learned, tears have been shed and lives have been improved for good.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because the format is almost absolutely identical to every other “expert” documentary that Channel 4 has broadcast over the past few years. Property Ladder did it with property. How Clean Is Your House did it with hygiene. You Are What You Eat did it with food. Supernanny did it with children. It’s Me Or The Dog did it with pets. How To Look Good Naked did it with clothes. Kitchen Nightmares did it with restaurants. Mary Portas: Secret Shopper did it with retailers. Heston’s Mission Impossible did it with submarines and cinemas and whatnot. The Fairy Jobmother joylessly follows this same well-worn template, being sure to superficially differentiate itself from the pack by sternly using the term ‘current  economic climate’ 400 times each episode.

Here.

Work Programme Launched: Fears Grow.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling says,

“We want to establish a deal, where we will do our bit and get people ready for work and in exchange we will expect people to take up the work that is available. We are sending out a clear message – if you can work, and we can help you find a job, you must work.

“Millions of people on out-of-work benefits who have previously been shunted from dole queue to training room to dole queue again will now finally be able to access support that’s built around their needs.

The Guardian Reports,

The coalition government will on Friday launch the biggest experiment in public service reform since David Cameron came to power when private contractors take on the task of finding jobs for 500,000 unemployed people annually on the basis of a payments by results system.

The employment minister, Chris Grayling, said the model would form the basis for further public service delivery reform covering prison rehabilitation, drug offenders and problem families.

The Work Programme, bringing together all existing schemes to help the unemployed, will go live on Friday, with some critics warning there is a danger private sector contractors may go bust as they find they are unable to reach demanding targets set to find work for the unemployed.

Private sector contractors under the Work Programme have been incentivised to find work for the unemployed on a sliding scale according to the length of time they stay in work and the unemployment group they come from.

It is estimated that 605,000 people would go through the Work Programme in 2011-12, and 565,000 in 2012-13. 

The maximum fee a provider can attract for an individual client ranges from £4,050 for a jobseeker’s allowance claimant aged 18-24 to £13,120 for an ex-incapacity benefit claimant in the Work Related Activity Group.

Government payments to contractors are staged according to length of time the unemployed individual stays in work. For the first three years there will be a small up-front payment – about 10% of the total. Thereafter it’s 100% payment by results.

The next payment only comes after someone has been in work for three months if they are from a vulnerable group, or six months if they are a conventional jobseeker.

The remainder is paid in instalments that last up to 18 months. If the person drops out of work those payments stop.

As a result providers take the financial risk for as long as two years if they are not successful.

The system is potentially high risk if the government has miscalculated the difficulty of finding work for the unemployed, especially those hardest to place such as those on incapacity benefit.

The Work Foundation claimed that in areas of Britain with the highest unemployment and fewest job vacancies, contractors will struggle.

The scheme will be mandatory for all those on jobseeker’s allowance, the employment support allowance and lone parents with children aged over five.

In practice the Department for Work and Pensions is expecting contractors to make a return of 10% on investment.

Grayling said: “What we have tried to do is create a situation where our interests and the interests of providers are really aligned. They can make shedloads of money by doing the things we would absolutely love them to do.”

JSA claimants aged over 25 who have been unemployed for less than a year will continue to be serviced by Job Centre Plus.

The scheme is to be funded from future benefit savings. Prime contractors must achieve job entry rates higher than 10% above the government’s estimate of how the client group would have been expected to fare without support from the Work Programme.

Grayling has largely left it to employers to design schemes to help the unemployed find work, but Job Centre Plus, the government employment scheme, will continue to oversee the sanctions regime if the unemployed refuse to take reasonable work.

The contracts have been let over seven years. Prime contractors, mainly highly capitalised firms such as Serco, have sub-contracted service provision to specialist local organisations, including voluntary sector providers.

The minimum performance standard that is being expected is set at a level that is essentially the highest level of performance that the New Deal for Young People and the New Deal for those who are 25-plus ever reached, even at the height of the boom earlier in the 2000s.

The Work Foundation said the programme would do little to improve employment opportunities for people living in economically weaker areas.

“It will be difficult for private contractors to deliver the programme at a profit in certain parts of Scotland, Wales and London, thus disincentivising activity in these areas.”

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne called on the government to set out in detail how many people it expected work contractors to get into work in each region.

Here.

The BBC notes that, “Outsourcing giants Serco and G4S are two of the private firms involved, while the voluntary sector groups signed up include Mencap, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Prince’s Trust and Action for Blind People.” Here.

Hat Tip to Crystal Balls.

Firstly, what inspection is there going to be of these private contractors? How far are their activities ”largely left it to employers”? We all know of the abuse going on in private homes for the disabled. How will similar conditions be avoided inside these schemes? What financial controls will there be in a system whose lack of supervision makes it ripe for exploitation?

Secondly, what are the rights of the unemployed on these schemes? We have heard of the penal punishments for those who refuse to co-operate – the ‘mandatory’ work . What other punishments do the out-of-work risk if they do not do as they are told?

Finally, what if they can’t find you a job, how must you work?

Given the growing chaos in the care for the elderly and contacted out state provision fears are growing that the Work Programme will be the next big scandal.

And don’t even think about putting private firms in charge of running the lives of vulnerable ‘problem’ families and drug addicts.

 

New Work Progamme, New Theme.

A new theme today for Ipswich Unemployed Action.

 

A new work programme for Emma and Haley.

Indentured unpaid labour on placements welcome.

Six litres of White Lightening, twenty rollies, compatible.

 

Refuse Mandatory Work Activity

Ipswich Unemployed Action reveals how you could avoid the Mandatory Work Activity scheme due to eligibility issues where the The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Mandatory Work Activity Scheme) Regulations 2011 is unenforceable.

Benefit Reform: What Will Happen.

This is cross-pasted from Harpy Marx. I cannot recommend Louise’s Blog too highly.

Here’s an article which will be in the next edition of Labour Briefing written by Tony Benson on the realities of the welfare reform legislation.

The Government’s changes to the benefit system centred on the the Welfare Reform Bill are massive and extremely complex. There are 141 clauses and 14 schedules consisting of one nasty after another. These are answers to some of the more obvious questions about what is being done.

Will the proposed Universal Credit make it easier to get back to work?

No. It will be more difficult to afford and to find childcare. The rates of benefit withdrawal will be steeper so being in work is likely to make you poorer returning to work than you would be now. There will still be no account taken of travel to work costs, often in practice the deal-breaker for people looking at minimum wage jobs. If your pay goes up and down and this is not reported back to the DWP you are more likely to get a penalty or botched benefit calculation.

Much has been made of families in which several generations are “workless”. How will the Governments changes help such people?

The changes will not help. They are actually making things worse for such families. The rate at which a parent on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit has that benefit withdrawn if their adult son or daughter returns to work has increased. This makes things more difficult for people in poor communities where young adults are forced by the housing shortage to continue to live with Mum and Dad.

The benefit system is complex and difficult to understand. The Government said that simplifying the system will help people understand how much better off they will be working. How is the complexity of the system being changed? It is being made more difficult and understand and to navigate your way through. The complexity of the benefits system comes from means-testing. Universal Credit will increase means-testing. In addition the increase in hoops that you need to jump through, sanctions for not doing/doing something have increased and the extra things such as the benefit cap all add complexity. They will do so in the most spirit crushing ways.

How will the various changes affect people’s ability to stay in their homes?

There are already a series of changes involving the calculation of Housing Benefit that will make it more difficult for people to stay in their homes once they are forced into living off benefits. Clause 11 of the Bill only provides a brief outline of the way housing costs will be addressed. The detail of what will be an area of huge complexity is being largely left to the Secretary of State to fill in when writing  the regulations that will be made under the Bill when it becomes law. It can be safely assumed that the Government will want to take on board the various interests of the mortgage firms, housing associations, private landlords and to a lesser extent local councils before writing out the regulations governing who be helped and who will not be helped to stay in their homes. The net result though is likely to be worse housing for all poor people along with ethnic minorities and people in London and other expensive cities.

How will these changes make it easier to get back to work?

The changes will make it less easy to get back to work. There will be an increase in the use of bureaucratic hoops such as “work-focussed interviews” for an unemployed jobseeker to jump through. There will be more sanctions to muck up your life if the DWP or outsourcing company in charge of peoples’ returning to work (it will not be the unemployed person in charge of this. As a de facto second class citizen they are not to be trusted with such a thing). Someone who loses their job can expect more fairy jobmother style bullying.

Social Security Committee: Mandatory Work Activity – ‘Punishment’ ‘Workfare’ ‘Stigma’.

 This is worth remembering (Extracts from Original Report) (a more finished version of this is available here):

REPORT OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE UNDER SECTION 174(2) OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION ACT 1992 ON THE JOBSEEKER’S ALLOWANCE (MANDATORY WORK ACTIVITY ) REGULATIONS 2011
May 2011.

We had a number of concerns as discussed below.

“‘workfare’ type activity improving outcomes for people who are out of work. The Department’s research indicates that “there is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work”^{1 unless conditions are as close to work as possible. This evidence suggests that the mandatory work activity must be carefully tailored to an individual’s specific needs and carefully timed to be of maximum effectiveness. “}

“also have the opposite effect to the one intended. As we discuss below, there is evidence to suggest that by limiting the time available for job search, activities such mandatory work activity can in fact reduce the participants’ chances of finding employment. “

“claimants who are satisfying the conditionality rules (otherwise they would be subject to a sanction) but who, in the view of a Personal Adviser appear to display what is deemed to be the ‘wrong attitude’”

“We are concerned that these regulations are appearing to amend the body of case law which defines what ‘actively seeking work’ means and that people will be sanctioned by being sent to mandatory work activity even though they are doing what the law requires. Although detailed guidance may be developed by the Department at this stage it seems that referral is to be based purely on the views and opinions of the Personal Adviser. Claimants can be fully engaged with the conditionality requirements but in effect a claimant can still be mandated to do more.”

“activity as a beneficial change, people will not be permitted to volunteer to take part. This seems to us to signal that being mandated to mandatory work activity is regarded as a punishment rather than an opportunity to learn and develop new behaviours and skills.”

“Employers are unlikely to value references that come from forced work schemes, as they will not perceive such a reference as evidence that the participant has the skills to undertake an actual job and are more likely to see mandatory participation as a negative sign of participants’ work readiness and willingness to work.”

“minimum to satisfy JSA conditionality, there is a risk that the presence of mandatory work activity on a jobseeker’s CV could stigmatise a jobseeker when applying for a job in the future, indicating as it does, a Departmental view that the person exhibits an inappropriate attitude to work. There is the potential for an employer to confuse this activity with ‘community payback’ further stigmatising the jobseeker.”

Placements.

“We recommend that there is robust monitoring of placements to ensure that:

Participants are treated properly and appropriately;

The placement is of the required quality – including providing access to training and provision of good quality work activity; and Employers are not using the participant, employers are not using the participant/s to replace waged workers or solely for their own financial gain.

We recommend that detailed guidance be given to employers about the type of work participants can be asked to undertake and what they will be expected to provide for the participant, including their legal responsibilities (such as health and safety law).

We recommend that as part of the agreement to take on participants employers should be required to provide a reference for the participant after completing the placement.”

Meanwhile the Socialist reports on how Work Programme schemes are already kicking in: here.
Our old friends at A4E never lose a trick:

One of A4e’s ventures involves a partnership with Finsbury Park Business Forum to provide wardens for the local tube and overground train and bus stations. These wardens are supplied by A4e from jobseekers who work in exchange for their benefits. They are doing work that had previously been done by Transport for London (TfL) staff.

Conservative welfare plans under threat

Is the game up for the Coalition Government? The attempt for NHS reforms failed miserably, multiple attempts to abolish the National Minimum Wage have all failed so far, and there are threats of huge strikes over the next 6 months… starting with one this week. This is obviously to name just a few!!

Legal Challenge to Welfare Reforms. Will Others Follow?

The Legal Challenge to Welfare Reform is in the news today.

The BBC says, “A group representing 270 disability charities is launching legal action to obtain a judicial review of the government’s plans for welfare changes.

Ministers want to replace Disability Living Allowance with Personal Independence Payment, saving £2bn.

But Disability Alliance said ministers had not properly assessed the negative impact of the changes and that they did not comply with the Equality Act.”

The Disability Alliance reports,

You may have heard that Disability Alliance might be taking legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over some Government welfare plans. Our legal advisors, Unity Law, have examined Government plans and believe there is a very credible case.

Disability Alliance is especially concerned over plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for working age people (defined as 16-64 years of age by DWP) and introduce a new benefit (Personal Independence Payment – PIP) which will have a £2.17 billion lower budget by 2015. PIP will not provide an equivalent level of support for the 652,000 disabled people currently receiving low rate care DLA payments. More Here.

Launchpad gives some background concerns,

 on benefit ‘reform’, the first ESA appeals were received in January 2009. Since that time, up to April of each year, there have been:

1,300 ESA appeals lodged in 2008-09
126,800 ESA appeals lodged in 2009-10
197,400 ESA appeals lodged in 2010-11
50,100 mental health claimants appealed and 21,200 were successful, giving a 42% chance of success on appeal.That would seem to indicate something very,very amiss with the atos assessments.

The tribunals service is creaking under this level of demand,but once appeals from newly reassessed IB benefit claimants who’ve not secured ESA really come through, then the system will be overwhelmed (and yet legal aid for welfare benefits advice is being axed..) leaving many in straitened limbo…Here.

Will the Unemployed be able to challenge the Mandatory Work Activity?

The Work Programme site gives grounds to think so – here.

Ben Gummer, Ipswich MP, Work Programme Promises “Exciting Things”.

We have received a copy of a letter that Benedict Gummer, Ipswich MP (Conservative) wrote to a constituent (in touch with Ipswich Unemployed Action)  expressing concerns about the Flexible New Deal.

He acknowledges that it was “so useful to see a first-hand account” of someone’s “frustrating experience” with YMCA Training .

Benjy (as he is known to old mates like us) hopes that the “government’s planned reforms will be the change that you are hoping for”.

He then outlines the Work Programme.

The MP’s reply reads very much as a cut-and-paste job.

But in it there are these statements worth noting,

“One of he most exciting things about the new Work Programme is that the Job Centre and Work Programme staff will actually be paid for getting people back into work. Charities, voluntary organisation and private companies will be paid on the basis of the additional benefit saving they cure, thereby incentivising higher performance levels and delivering net savings for the tax payer.”

‘Incenstivising’ does not read like  Benedict the Public School Classicist’s own word.

But it leaves an interesting possibility.

Will Job Centre staff get paid this way? How?

Another claim is interesting,

The Job Centre Plus will provide a supporting role in helping people to volunteer, do work experience or take advantage of peer-to-peer support before people enter the Work Programme. It will also continue its kep role in helping people with benefit claims, decisions and appeals. This falls in line with the wide government aim of decentralising power to local authorities.

How the Job Centre is related to local authorities is obscure. Perhaps he means that they will provide ‘volunteers’ for the ‘Big Society’ – plugging the gaps left by cuts in municipal spending. That the unemployed will be expected to help provide local services – unpaid – when County and Borough employees are sacked.

We will soon know.

What we do know is that the Work Programme Introductions at the Job Centre emphasise the penalties for not complying with whatever the providers decide the unemployed should do.

This does not look as if they have much confidence in the ability of the Work Programme to attract people on its own merits.

Boycott Workfare Campaign.

This should be signaled (from Here).

Boycott Workfare

Workfare – compulsory work for benefits – is being rolled-out across the country. It is replacing paid jobs and forcing unemployed people to work for the equivalent of £2.25 an hour.

Last year, 800 station staff were made redundant on London Underground. Early this year, 200 workfare placements were rolled out across North London stations to make “people feel much safer”. The need for a uniformed presence remains, the paid employment does not.

Boycott Workfare is a coalition of unemployed people, anti-cuts campaigners, charity workers, trade unionists and allies. It is an ongoing campaign to challenge the government’s Work Programme, or ‘workfare’, and the companies profiting from the free labour it provides.

We believe volunteering should remain just that!

More info and download a union motion: boycottworkfare.org Get in touch: info@boycottworkfare.org

Eventually it might be your job that is replaced by someone forced to “volunteer”.

We call on trade unions and workplaces to sign a pledge to boycott the scheme. Workfare threatens us all. Please take part in the campaign.

 

Motion for union branches: A call to boycott workfare

This Union Branch notes:

• That under the new ‘Single Work Programme’, benefits claimants will be placed on compulsory workfare placements. Something similar was already in place under Flexible New Deal.
• Under these reforms, ‘volunteering’ will lose its voluntary aspect and become compulsion, watched over by charities. Voluntary groups will be expected to monitor the attendance of people on these work programmes, report on their behaviour, and provide other information to the DWP that can result in severe penalties for recipients.
• Compulsory work placements are being offered to both the voluntary, public and private sectors. If the voluntary sector refuses to participate, this would make the programme much less viable.
• The reform is being rolled out at a time when education and training schemes, housing benefit and other public services are being cut. Unpaid work inevitably replaces paid jobs and pushes wages down.
• There have been 679,820 ‘New Deal Sanctions’ since the year 2000 creating great hardship for the poorest of those amongst us. Under workfare, this hardship will only be exacerbated.

Jobseeker Charter

You may have heard of the DWP Customer Charter… now you have your own: Jobseeker Charter!!

From the website:

Jobcentre Plus has the DWP Customer Charter which outlines what you can expect from their service and also your responsibilities.

The idea of the Jobseeker Charter is to extend the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg) for the jobseeker to make a pledge on punctuality, conduct, information and expected rights.

Individually its difficult to stick up for your rights because Jobcentre Plus deliberately makes sure you haven’t got the opportunity to do so. To combat this, a Jobseeker Charter has been created so all jobseekers can benefit from additional rights in exchange for greater responsibilities.

All you have to do is print off the Jobseeker Charter twice to take with you to an appointment where a Jobseeker’s Agreement is to be created or modified.

Five Day Signing On.

Word has reached us that certain batches of the unemployed in Ipswich are being forced to sign on every day – at different times.

The pointless exercise is apparently part of the general ‘get tough with the workshy’ programme.

Come back Dickens.

My granddad was a printer at the Times.

He hated injustice.

As a socialist and a member of the Clarion Cycling Club he spent his life fighting it.

His most treasured possession was the complete works of Dickens.

Like many working class people he read and re-read the books.

I have the books in my front room.

The more I hear about the way the Yorky-Porker, Eric Pickles, wants to attack us, I think: we need a new Dickens.

 

 

End of Tory Dream? Work Programme branded illegal.

Refusewp.com has responded to DWP’s reasons of authority for the Work Programme by releasing its Part 2 letter which claims there is no lawful authority behind mandating people on to the Work Programme and also criticised the reasons given in the form of listing laws in a decision as “deliberately fabricated” and “incorrect and intentional misinformation“.

It recognises two offences:-

• Misconduct in Public Office (Common Law), and
• Section 123 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992

Ipswich Unemployed Action publishes below a letter for those who have consented to Work Programme under Duress:-

[YOUR ADDRESS]

Secretary of State (Work and Pensions)
Department for Work and Pensions
Caxton House,
Tothill Street,
London,
SW1H 9DA

[DATE]

Dear Secretary of State,

I refuse the Work Programme

It has been brought to my attention that being mandated to the Work Programme was made by DWP in full vexatious dishonesty, where Jobcentre Plus has no lawful authority to request that jobseekers attend under the continuous treat of sanctions.

I have up until this point participated under duress. I no longer wish to participate in this illicit scheme.

I wholeheartedly refuse the “work programme” because my understanding is my continued participation in this illegitimate scheme may bring my benefit claim in disrepute by making me breach the jobseeking conditions. I shall not continue attending this scheme knowing this makes me a benefit thief by default.

I shall continue seeking employment whilst claiming Jobseekers Allowance in accordance with the Jobseekers Act 1995.

Under Section 10 (“Right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress”) of the Data Protection Act 1998 I request that the unlawful processing of my personal data and sensitive personal data is ceased with immediate effect in relation to the unlawful disclosure to your provider, and that stored data previously processed by the provider is destroyed without trace.

It is important that you seek legal advice on this matter before choosing ignoring this notice; as doing so and wrongly sanctioning me under Section 8 of the regulations for a different scheme will be committing a criminal offence.

This letter along with any subsequent correspondence received shall be recorded as evidence; along with any retaliatory benefit sanction; in a case investigating corruption in Government departments, which may result in civil and criminal proceedings against you.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR FULL NAME]

We recommend everyone on the Work Programme who hasn’t refused it (through Work Programme Network letters or disputing the data sharing aspects) do so now by sending the above letter in recorded delivery (with a copy sent first class to your local Jobcentre Plus office) – under the following advice:-

• Continue attending up until you are excused (protects you from benefit sanctions)

Jobless Plan Panned.

In the Guardian Today:

 

(I am having to transcribe this as it’s only in the printed version in the library):

“Cutting benefits to jobless people if they do not attend training courses - a key plank of government welfare policy – is “neither necessary nor effective for many claimants” says a leading think-tank, The National Institute of Economic and Social Research found that participants in the jobesskeing’ “conditonality” polot programme were “disappointed that they were not offered the training they felt they needed, “complained at being sent on repeated courses in jobs seach and CV wriitng,  and in the case of claimants with a criminal with a  criminal record or major health problems, needed more than generic advice to help the get jobs. More than 5,000 people who had been job less for at least six months took part on the pilot.”

Randeep Ramesh.

18th August.

Ministers to ‘Adopt’ Workless Families.

MPs to mentor out of work families

 

Some of David Cameron’s ministers and advisers are to volunteer as “family champions” and “adopt” families on benefits.

Under the scheme, designed by ‘social entrepreneur’ Emma Harrison who manages a number of the Government’s training contracts, politicians will use their contacts and help manage the family’s finances to encourage them back to work. Tim Loughton is amongst the first volunteers.

Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling said “my colleague Tim Loughton is setting up a charitable foundation to help in a sense be a thought-leader for family intervention”. He added that the Department of Work and Pensions was going to also help by helping get families back to work.

And they say that satire is dead.

 

Here.

Jobless Offenders to Face Special Penalities.

If you’re out of work and get convicted by the courts you will face a special extra penalty under new government plans,

 

Unemployed offenders face a full week of unpaid work, including the possibility hard manual labour, under plans to toughen community penalties as an alternative to prison.

 

Instructions will be issued to courts by the Ministry of Justice, urging them to make sure unemployed offenders sentenced to the “community payback” programme work a minimum of 28 hours over a four-day week. They will spend the fifth day looking for work or face losing their jobseekers’ allowance.

Here.

Government’s Work Programme at risk of financial collapse, says think tank

Embargoed to 00.01am Monday 22 August 2011 From Here.

Hat-Tip to South Wales Claimants.

Government’s flagship back to work programme at risk of financial collapse, says think tank

At least 90% of organisations involved in delivering the Government’s flagship back to work scheme, the Work Programme, risk having their contracts terminated because of unreachable performance targets set by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Social Market Foundation, the think tank originally behind the idea for the Work Programme and responsible for the analysis, said that without an urgent rethink of the performance criteria this could lead to the failure of the entire scheme with potentially dire consequences for the 2.4 million long term unemployed it is designed to help.

The SMF’s analysis uses new data on performance levels of welfare to work providers under Labour’s back to work programme, the Flexible New Deal (FND), to forecast the likely performance of organisations delivering the Work Programme. Looking at the Government’s stated minimum performance levels for getting adult jobseekers – the main target group – into work, the analysis finds that:

• The Work Programme will get around one in four adult Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) clients into work, significantly below the rate needed to meet the DWP’s expectations for minimum performance;
• Providers will fail to meet the minimum performance expected of them by the DWP by around 30,000 jobs over three years;
• Providers will also undershoot what the Government anticipates would have happened if no welfare to work scheme existed at all, suggesting that the Government’s analysis of this ‘policy-off’ scenario is over-optimistic;
• Based on FND performance levels, over 90% of Work Programme providers will be at risk of having their contracts terminated by DWP even by year three of the scheme;
• This under-performance means that funding per jobseeker will be significantly less than anticipated, threatening the financial viability of providers.

“The future of this vital employment scheme hangs in the balance,” said Ian Mulheirn, Director of the SMF. “The programme aims to get some of the hardest to reach people off benefits and into work, but past performance shows that providers will be unable to meet the criteria required of them by the DWP.

“The Government has warned that it will terminate the contracts of providers who cannot deliver these minimum levels, but has set these minimum levels almost impossibly high. This threatens to create huge instability in the programme.”

The report comes as monthly figures released last week showed a sharp increase in the numbers of people out of work to 2.49 million and a rise of almost 110,000 in Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants since bids for the Work Programme were invited.

“The Work Programme is built on shifting sands,” continued Ian Mulheirn. “As if the performance targets weren’t already too tough, the deteriorating state of the labour market is making the outlook for the scheme even more precarious.”

Criticising ATOS – and Others, A4E onwards?

From Louise’s Blog:

I posted about this a week ago. It seems Carer Watch’s forum has been reinstated. Atos contacted the internet providers who closed the forum down. It seems it’s because of a post someone wrote way back in March!! Er, why wait this long to say anything……????

One point that seems overlooked in debates about outsourcing public sector work to private companies is the use of commercial confidentiality and the defamation laws to protect these firms from public criticism and accountability? Criticise the DWP for always being incompetent at something? While in a democracy the citizen can say what he or she wants to about the government. Say the same thing about the outsourcing company that takes over the same function? Be careful you are not damaging their reputation which they view as you attacking their corporate private property. Want to know ho much they spend on consultants? Perhaps how any of these consultants were former politicians or senior civil servants? How much time to they spend monitoring what is said about them on the internet? Commercially confidential information each time.

I can’t help wondering if this has wider implications.

After all, we criticise Saint Emma Harrison, CBE, and other companies making a tidy sum out of the unemployed.

Will they try to shut us down?

An Open Letter to Atos Healthcare.

An Open Letter to Atos Healthcare

 This was due to be published this weekend.

I have signed it, as has the Suffolk Coalition for Public Services

Lisa Coleman

General Manager for the DWP Contracts

Atos Healthcare
4 Triton Square
Regent’s Place
London, NW1 3HG

Dear Ms Coleman,

We the undersigned are seriously concerned by the fact that Atos Healthcare, the provider of the Work Capability Assessment for sickness benefits, has threatened legal action against the Internet hosting companies of three websites which circulated letters from sickness benefit claimants – ‘Carerwatch’, ‘After Atos’ and ‘Atos Register of Shame’ (now relaunched as ‘A### the Truth’).

These websites have given members of society who are often isolated and have traditionally found it difficult to take joint action, the chance to come together and share their experiences. We find it unacceptable that a large IT company, which receives £100m per year for their assessment of claimants, has deployed their legal department against individuals or small organisations who dared to circulate people’s comments and concerns about their treatment at Atos’ hands. 

As acknowledged by both the recent Harrington Report and the Parliamentary Select Committee on welfare, the Work Capability Assessment implemented by Atos Healthcare was found to be mechanistic and Atos’ ‘medical reports’ far too often did not reflect circumstances and discussions that had taken place during the assessments (Harrington Report, pp. 40-41). In addition, ESA claimants have now been told that twelve members of Atos’ staff are under investigation over allegations of obscene criticism of benefit claimants and improper conduct.

Atos Healthcare has given assurances that the shortcomings identified by the Harrington Report are being addressed. Yet many claimants are still experiencing the distress of poor and rushed medical assessments based on Atos Healthcare’s computer programme.

Amid growing concern that Atos Healthcare is failing to raise its methods and professionalism to acceptable standards, the company is now attempting to silence those claimants and their small organisations who have had the courage to speak up. At a time when we see that major corporations such as News International are able to use the threat of legal action to hide their wrongdoings, it is important that Atos’ actions are brought to account.

It is also the case that government bodies are unable to sue for libel. Atos’ argument is that they are taking legal action to protect their business reputation, but in this case they are performing the work of the DWP, and receiving public money for doing it.

For these reasons, we ask that Atos withdraw these threats of libel action, that they publicly guarantee that they will not in future use the libel laws to close down criticism of their practices, and that they make a public apology to those individuals and websites which they have tried to silence.

Pip Tindall for
Brighton Benefits Campaign
Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition
UNISON (Sussex Partnership) EBCMHC Rep

http://brightonbenefitscampaign.wordpress.com/

Emma Harrison (A4E) Caught With Snout in Trough.

Oh dear! Someone’s been championing her family a bit too fervently: (Full Story Today Here.)

“David Cameron‘s senior adviser on troubled families has set up a firm to bid for work under a programme to get 120,000 households into work that she helped design, despite publicly saying that to make money from the scheme would be a “conflict of interest”, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Emma Harrison, the multimillionaire founder of private welfare company A4e, was anointed the “families champion” last December. The prime minister singled her out in a key post-riot speech last month, saying she had “develop[ed] a plan to help get these families on track”.

But documents sent to private firms who did bid for the work reveal that Harrison’s company had set up in January a “partnership” called Families Unlimited, with a former civil servant who until this year was running the Department for Education’s “support services for families with multiple needs”, to pitch for the cash.

Families Unlimited offered to execute the work won by “prime contractors” for a fee. In blunt language, the documents say that “A4e will not bid as a prime contractor … due to a conflict of interest arising from the work of its founder and chairman, Emma Harrison, through the Working Families Everywhere initiative. However, DWP [the Department for Work and Pensions] have advised that no conflict arises where A4e is acting as a subcontractor.”

Blogs on Unemployment.

Last week Radio Four Report examined the Work Programme.

We know these journalists do a  thorough job, constrained by ‘balance’. They even contacted us when it was being researched.

But what of the reality of unemployment?

A Blog can give direct information.

It does not have to be balanced. It does not have to have representatives from the Unemployment Bizniz, or ‘Think Tanks’ (created by private firms) recommending that…private firms should run the lives of the out-of-work.

A WordPress Blog is easy to set up. You can even get Word Press for Dummies to help (very useful btw).

Blogs on unemployment, perhaps even more than others, tend to get going and then halt – for a variety of reasons.

But some are long-standing.

Here are some important Blogs.

Work Programme. The mainstay of  Blogs on unemployment. Its research is through-going. It is hard-hitting and to the point. It is always worth reading. Did we mention that it is a sister-site? Opps….

My A4E Hell. Kyron tells it from the heart. Absolutely essential reading about life on disability benefits.

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger. Harrowing tales from the disability front.

Claimants Action South Wales. A fine example of a campaigning Blog.

Brighton Benefits Campaign. One of the few parts of the country where there is an independent centre for the unemployed.

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty. Another excellent campaigning Blog.

London Coalition Against Poverty. An alliance of groups, including hard-hitting campaigning against welfare ‘reform’ (we hope that at some point people will drop this confusing word ‘coalition’ – it brings to mind Clegg and Cameron).

Welfare Action Hackney. Grass-roots protests -  workfare and the work programme.

Boycott Workfare - title says it all.

ATOS Register of Shame. Exposing the misdeeds of one of the most evil organisations on the planet.

The Void. Someone else who is not fond of ATOS.

Watching A4E. Useful site, though appears to consider itself rather above all the other Blogs cited here.

Please feel welcome to add any other sites.

And remember: it’s the comments that make a Blog really alive.

Jobcentre Plus Jobcentre Security Guards: G4s redundancies?

Anyone who has been to Jobcentre Plus in Ipswich recently (in particular Door B) will notice:

• Less Security Guards (G4s)
• Jobcentre staff restricting access to those without appointment/too early

The above might not be noticeable at all times, however, its clear that there is less G4s securtity guards deployed and Jobcentre Plus staff guarding Door B.

This is just a short post to allow discussion on this issue – for example:-

• Is Jobcentre Plus reducing expenditure on G4s security guards in regards to spending cuts?
• (If so..) Are these surplus to requirements security staff being laid off / made redundant?
• Why is Door B access being restricted? Why 2 members of staff being paid to do so?
• Why are those who are “too early” being turned away and told to come back later?
• Are those who are late to appointments (perhaps a few minutes) denied access and sanctioned?
• Is this good value of taxpayers money especially in time of cut backs?

I got a shock this week – the relaxed walk in and wander to the stairs, climb the stairs, wait at “reception desk” to hand in my ES40 booklet and the mandatory 20 minutes wait to be seen to, has been replaced. No longer am I allowed to access the building freely with implied consent due to having an appointment around such time of entry. I am treated as a trespassing stranger!

Now, I have to await processing. Immediately, I must provide my full name and my ES40 or particulars of other appointment. Then its down to the two Jobcentre Plus staff to decide whether the time I have arrived is acceptable for the appointment… am I too early? Am I late? Then once clearance I have to climb the stairs… and now there is no one on “reception”. I stand 5 minutes at the “reception desk”, and only once my presence has been noted by all the staff members working on the floor does someone come out of no where (this time the person was chatting to a colleague due to perhaps boredom?) to collect my ES40. Now its the mandatory 20 minutes wait to be seen.

It seems Jobcentre control over jobseekers have stepped up a gear. Have a problem with your claim? There is absolutely no chance you are going to get in without the police being called. Likewise, if you are late by a few minutes where you would have normally blended in without a problem (still wait another 15 minutes or so) you are denied being allowed to sign on. The staff acting as security guards do not look very happy and by the time I left looked half asleep.

• Is this happening at other Jobcentres?
• What are your experiences of this?

Unemployed to Stay Homeless.

The Daily Telegraph reports – here ,

“People who are employed or are actively seeking work will take priority, ministers are to announce.

In a major shift in policy, Coalition ministers want to stop those who are hard-working being disadvantaged when social housing is allocated.

The move was attacked by campaigners last night for threatening the vulnerable. But it comes just days after Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, proposed giving council housing to those who deserve it rather than those who want “something for nothing” and do not put anything back into their communities.

Grant Shapps, the housing minister, said that he will present local authorities with a new “allocation policy” document. It will give much greater freedom to councils to decide who they put at the top of housing queues.

He said the present allocation policy guidance was too rigid and stacked against people who aspire and who work hard. Mr Shapps said: “Up until now, access to council housing has too often been blocked for hard-working families who do the right thing.

“So I’m determined to end the something-for-nothing culture and replace it with a system that actively recognises individuals who work hard and play by the rules (what of those who laze around on the job and dislike rules?)

“When someone strives hard to hold down a job, I simply don’t see why this should count against them when it comes to their housing. That’s why I plan to change the system of allocating homes to allow councils to actively support those in work, as well as continuing their duty to look after the most vulnerable in society.”

Under the revised policy, someone who has a job and has held it for two years, would be given more points to rise up the housing queue. Those who are unemployed and show little inclination to find a job (how this can be proved we don’t know – AC) would drop down the queue.

It is the latest attempt by the Coalition to tackle what ministers believe is an acute unfairness in the way council housing is allocated. Mr Shapps has already announced that he intends to stop anyone earning more than £100,000   from staying in their council home unless they pay a proper market rent,   rather than a subsidised one.

Some councils are already trying to bring in the policy of rewarding those who   have jobs in a bid to bring down housing benefit bills.

In Manchester, people who volunteer (for what? AC)  or who work or have been good tenants in   the past are given priority in council housing allocation.

In London, Newham council is bringing in a similar scheme.

Westminster Council is following suit by prioritising those with jobs and   allowing them to leapfrog those who are unemployed, a system that was used   in the heyday of council housing in the 1950s.

Alastair Murray, deputy director for Housing Justice, said: “Our concern is   that housing is a basic human right and shouldn’t be contingent on someone’s   capacity to earn a living.

“Quite a lot of homeless people do work but the kind of work they are able to   do is quite unstable so they may not be eligible.

“There is a danger of stigmatising people who are already vulnerable.””

***********

You can’t help feeling that British politicians seem to be dreaming of a revival of the  days of ‘model workers’ housing, like Port Sunlight.

………………Dad comes home from a hard day’s work installing solar panels to tend a row of runner beans in his cottage garden. A golden retriever stands at his side.  Apple-cheeked Mum, fresh from her Call Centre, greets her well-scrubbed children, as they do homework for their Free School Business Studies course.  There is a well-deserved half pint of mild (2,9% alcohol) in the fridge, and 2 litres of Dutchy of Cornwell Dandelion and Burdock. As they sit down to the meal (selected from the ’5 a day’ portions of meat and veg)  together the family talk about the Community Project. Sponsored by Tesco and the Daily Express, they help out with the volunteers who’ve replaced the local Hospital Canteen staff. At that moment Emma Harrison drops in to see how they’re getting on……

This won’t bleeding happen. 

 

Update: Harpy on Attacks on the Unemployed – here.

Ian Duncan Smith Followed by Cocaine George.

Ian Duncan Smith has spoken.

“Our Work Programme is giving new skills to people far from the jobs market. (!!!!!!!!!)

The voluntary and private sectors, paid only when they get people back in work and as they help people sustain it by developing the ‘work habit’, are delivering value for money. (!!!!!!!!)

Not just the big society at work, but the big society getting people back to work. (!!!!!!!!!)

And ending the something for nothing culture.

Promise made, promise delivered (I’ve run out exclamation marks…)

Second, we also promised to start dealing with the long term sickness benefit, too often abused as an excuse for avoiding work.

Our Work Capability assessment will review 1.5million people on Incapacity Benefit, many of whom have been written off and abandoned. 115,000 have already been through the assessment.

Those able to work immediately will look for employment and join the Work Programme; others who could work in the future, will get tailored support.

With more and more of those once parked on permanent benefits back seeking work or in work –

Third, as David Freud said, we promised to build the Universal Credit, the most radical change to benefits in a generation.

The current system, a mess of multiple benefits paid at varying rates, is open to widespread abuse – the result is massive error and fraud costing our country over £5 billion.

Worst of all, some people lose up to 96 pence of every pound earned in work because of the way their benefits are withdrawn. Would any of us work at 96% tax rates, especially if we could earn a living without any effort at all?

Universal Credit will ensure that you will be better off in work than out of it, and it will mean taxpayers get value for money.

Just imagine, a system that places work at the heart of the benefit system –

Which is why, for those fit for work I have a simple message:

Work with us to find and stay in employment and you will get all the support we can muster.

However, failure to seek work, take work, stay in work, or cooperate, and you will lose your benefits.

This is our contract with the British people. (who signed to it?)

To bring an end to the something for nothing culture (See below on Osborne)

Promise made, promise delivered.

But we are doing more:

As Maria pointed out, we are improving disability support, which is currently unfair and un-ambitious.

Too many in receipt of Disability Living Allowance are left for years with no re-assessment of their circumstances: more than two-thirds of the current case load has an indefinite award.

DLA is a lifeline for many, but it just isn’t working effectively enough in its current form. And many jobseekers who receive it are confused, often thinking that if they take work, they’ll lose support because it is complicated and oddly inflexible.

Whilst we’ll help those who can work to sustain work, we will always care for those who cannot.

But those with a disability must no longer be left behind.

And that’s not all. We are determined to help bring young people to meaningful employment – For it is they who have felt the recession the hardest

We have created funding for 250,000 new apprenticeships and 100,000 new work experience places. This alongside an innovation fund of £30 million to help our most disadvantaged young people.

 

 

 

Four years ago, when I was Chairman of the CSJ, I commissioned a national review of Britain’s street gangs to seek solutions.

Ian Duncan Smith was followed by George Osborne.

THE former prostitute who insists she watched George Osborne snort “a big, fat line of cocaine” yesterday challenged him to sue her.

Challenge illegal Jobcentre Plus ‘security’… no SIA licence?

We recently reported about Jobcentre Plus office in Ipswich having staff on Door B instead of G4s Security.

Under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, both staff members will require a frontline SIA licence that must be displayed at all times for the purpose of Security Guarding, being managers at Jobcentre Plus doesn’t excuse them.

If you are challenged by them whilst entering Door B (or any other place in the country if applicable) challenge them back by asking to see their SIA licence. If they stumble… walk on by…

Defend Welfare Gathering. Get Campaigning!

Defend Welfare Gathering.

Sunday 23rd October, 11am-5pm
Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London, NW1 1EE
(5 minutes walk from Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations)
Wheelchair accessible

Join us for a meeting with like-minded people to share ideas and strategise to stop the government’s attacks on welfare.

Welfare is being systematically attacked:

• Unemployed people are being forced to work without pay.
• Disabled people are being deprived of their entitlement to benefits through the devastating Work Capability Assessment process.
• People can now be left destitute for up to two years through benefit sanctions.
• The right to housing is under attack: Housing benefit cuts are set to make thousands homeless. The right-wing called for evictions in response to the riots, even before courts had found people guilty.
• Private companies stand to make millions through bullying claimants on the Work Programme.
• Legal aid cuts make it harder to challenge bad treatment.
• The only benefit that was available to people under 18 – EMA – has been abolished by this government.
• Single mothers are being forced to be job-seekers when their children are at an even younger age.
• Asylum seekers are forced to survive on incomes far below benefit levels, which are already set at subsistence level.
• The full impact that the Universal Credit will have is yet to be understood.

But people across the UK are organising to defend welfare. The Boycott Workfare campaign recently forced the “Making Work Pay” conference to relocate at short notice. Atos, the private company responsible for depriving hundreds of thousands of people of sickness benefits, has had many of its offices occupied, costing it thousands of pounds. Claimants are sharing information on how to challenge the bullying and discrimination that is rife in the new set-up.

This gathering is open to everyone who wants to take action to defend welfare. We are a claimant-led network – our response to welfare reforms is led by people who feel their effects the most – but the attacks on welfare will affect us all whether we are in work or may need welfare as parents, if we become unemployed, due to sickness or disability, or as pensioners.

We plan to run the day with lots of discussion and chances to share ideas and information in workshops and an open space session where we can set the agenda on the day. If you can offer a workshop or would like to propose something for the agenda, please get in touch.

Ipswich Unemployed Action welcomes any such initiatives.

It would be a good idea if the TUC, which is hosting a ‘Poverty’ conference next week, actually did some campaiging about welfare reform instead of organising meetings with well-meaning charities.

We are unable to attend – getting to and from London on a Sunday by train is a nightmare. On Sundays there are permanent engineering works on the line, and we would prefer to have a hornet’s nest in our throat, or a daily meeting with Emma Harrison, than go through that – again.

Unemployment Soars and the Work Programme Starts to Flop.

As Unemployment figures reach a new high today confidence in the Work Programme reaches a new low.

One area which the government prided itself was the claim that it would deal with hard-to-get-to groups of people. It would not contract out to Unemployment Bizniz, but use flexible charitable and voluntary oprgansiations.

 

Like the Canary in the Mine, these groups are now the first official groups sending alarms about the scheme.

The Guardian’s  Patrick Butler reports,

“When the WP was launched in June, the work and pensions minister Chris Grayling declared it to be a “boost for the big society”. However, two separate surveys published this week by two voluntary sector umbrella groups, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) and London Voluntary Services Council (LVSC), suggest the WP is more likely to bust the big society.

They reveal that charity confidence in WP is at a pitifully low ebb, just four months into the scheme. Some of the specialist charities who got involved in WP now regret it. Many fear bankruptcy, having been given no business yet from their partner prime contractors (predominantly private companies), who are supposed to refer jobless clients to them. Some primes have not issued contracts to the charities they were happy to co-opt as partners a few months ago, sparking complaints that charities have been cynically used as “bid candy”. Several charities have pulled out of WP, believing the contract terms to be financially unsustainable.

What is going wrong? Some primes claim they haven’t been referred any “hard-to-reach” clients by jobcentres. It is said high numbers of appeals against work capability assessment tests have blocked the flow of these clients into the system. Others believe primes, overwhelmed by higher than expected numbers of jobless clients coming on to the books, are simply “parking” vulnerable jobseekers and focusing solely on clients who are “job ready” and easy to place.

Whatever the reasons, the evidence so far (and the government will not publish performance data until March next year) suggests vulnerable jobseekers are being left without specialist employment support. The consequences of this are dire for many charities, but worse for the jobseekers.

Grayling has promised that “if the big guys [the WP primes] stuff the little guys [the charity subcontractors] then we will stuff the big guys”. The ball is now in his court. Ministers believe the “Merlin-standard” agreement, to which primes signed up to ensure positive partnership working within welfare-to-work supply chains, will protect charities from abuse by primes. Charities are not so confident.

It is early days for the WP but alarm bells are ringing. The Social Market Foundation, which helped design the WP, is worried that low growth and a deteriorating labour market may make the entire programme unsustainable. Against this backdrop, the annihilation of the specialist voluntary sector might feel like a secondary concern to Grayling. But it may end up being his legacy.

In his party conference speech last week, David Cameron promised to help hard-to-reach people get jobs – he hailed “an economy where no one gets left behind” – but evidence suggests the vulnerable jobless are at best in danger of being pushed to the back of the queue, at worst, being sidelined and ignored. (More Here.)

Perhaps somebody, somewhere, will think of asking those forced onto the Work Programme what they think.

SERCO, the Work Programme, and Detention Centre Cruelty.

Amongst the dodgy companies now running the lives of the unemployed SERCO must have the worst, public, record.

This group, is the ‘preferred bidder’ for two Work Programme contracts (Here). But it is also part of a world-wide company. Amongst many many government funded contracts, it electronically tags asylum seekers, and carries maintenance of the UK Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at RAF Fylingdales. Wikipedia has quite a list of the things SERCO is involved in – well funded by the public purse (Here).

SERCO also operates - some coincidence! – detention centres for immigrants in Australia. 

This  article by Nina Bernstein appeared in the Observer yesterday,

“Over the past year, riots, fires and suicidal protests left millions of dollars in damage at Serco-run centers from Christmas Island to Villawood, outside Sydney, and self-harm by detainees rose twelvefold, government documents show. In August, a government inspection report cited dangerous overcrowding, inadequate and ill-trained staff, no crisis planning and no requirement that Serco add employees when population exceeded capacity.

At the detention center Serco runs in Villawood, immigrants spoke of long, open-ended detentions making them crazy. Alwy Fadhel, 33, an Indonesian Christian who said he needed asylum from Islamic persecution, had long black hair coming out in clumps after being held for more than three years, in and out of solitary confinement.

“We talk to ourselves,” Mr. Fadhel said. “We talk to the mirror; we talk to the wall.”

Naomi Leong, a shy 9-year-old, was born in the detention camp. For more than three years, at a cost of about $380,000, she and her mother were held behind its barbed wire. Psychiatrists said Naomi was growing up mute, banging her head against the walls while her mother, Virginia Leong, a Malaysian citizen accused of trying to use a false passport, sank into depression.”

More Here.

John Humphrys to Tout for Welfare Crackdown on BBC.

This week the BBC will screen two programmes to support the Coalition’s welfare ‘reforms’. The flavour of the first, ‘exposing’ welfare fraud, can easily be imagined. The second has been presented as some kind of liberal counterweight (Here).

This is not the case.

Writing in the Daily Mail  programme producer John Humphrys touts for a crackdown on claimants (Here.)

Shameless Britain: How the welfare state created an age of entitlement

Thus begins the obligatory reference to Beveridge.

Quickly we hear a  heart-warming account of Humphrys’ working class past.

The not-too-badly-off Humphrys  contrasts the hard-grafting  life of all but the odd pariah with the idle existence of greedy claimants today,

“Inevitably our opinions (our prejudices maybe) are influenced by our childhood. I was born in a working class district of Cardiff called Splott. My father was a self-employed French polisher and my mother had been a hairdresser and still managed to do the odd home perm in our kitchen for friends and neighbours in between bringing up five children. We were often broke but probably neither much better off nor worse off than most other families in the street. All the parents seemed to work just as hard as my own – with one exception. The father in question had lots of children and no job and nor did he seem to want one. He was happy living on the dole. Because of that he was treated with contempt.

That was more than half a century ago. When I went back to my old neighbourhood we found others like him. In the words of an old lady who lived opposite my house when I was born and who lives there still: ‘If they can get money without working, they will.’ Times have changed, she told me sadly, and the ‘pride in working’ has gone.

The statistics seem to suggest she may have a point: one in four people of working age in this area are now living on benefits. But maybe that’s because there are no jobs to be had. I went to the nearest job centre, a smart modern building where bright young staff smile a lot and there are plenty of computer terminals to display what’s on offer. Last month there were more than 1,600 jobs advertised in Cardiff.”

Faced with this ‘proof’ the expert on labour markets, who thinks the Gallagher family are almost real characters,  proceeds we hear of American solutions (it is always America – a foreign country which has never had a real Welfare State and certainly no Beveridge?). There is reference to place’s their downside – soup kitchens – though not the massive (underestimated) official US unemployment rate.

Anyway to get the flavour we hear this argument advanced,

“The solution is right there, staring us in the face. You cut the benefits and people who don’t want to work will have no choice. It might be tough on them, but why should hard-working taxpayers (every politician’s favourite phrase) have to work even harder to keep others in their idleness – especially when we’re all feeling the pinch ourselves these days?”

In typical BBC fashion we don’t know if that’s his view or just some theory gently tossed around in the breeze.

But here’s the conclusion,

 ”It may well be that we really are on the brink of another welfare revolution. In my decades of reporting politics I have never before seen the sort of political consensus on the benefits system that we seem to be approaching now and our poll suggests the politicians are reflecting a changing public mood. But that consensus has yet to be converted into hard policies acceptable to the nation as a whole.

Beveridge tried to slay the fifth evil giant and, in the process, helped to create a different sort of monster in its place: the age of entitlement. The battle for his successors is to bring it to an end.”

Consensus?

Not bloody here there isn’t one!

BBC’s Anti-Welfare State Programmes Attacked.

“We are outraged that the BBC is joining the propaganda war aimed at destroying the welfare state, Britain’s most civilised and civilising legacy (Last night’s TV, G2, 28 October). In the 1940s, after years of depression and slaughter, working-class people who had sacrificed so much felt entitled to a life without the constant threat of war and poverty. Family allowance, income support, unemployment and housing benefits, disability benefits, a state pension, the NHS and free education have assumed that everyone contributed and deserved to be looked after “from the cradle to the grave”.”

Selma James Global Women’s Strike
John McDonnell, MP
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS
Bob Crow General secretary, RMT
Nina López Legal Action for Women
Kim Sparrow Single Mothers’ Self-Defence
Claire Glasman WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)
Marie Lynam Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group
Prof Peter Beresford Chair, Shaping Our Lives
Noel Lynch Chair, London Green Party
Dave Skull Mad Pride
Johnny Void Benefit Claimants Fightback
Sam Weinstein Member of Utility Workers Union of America
Alan Wheatley Green Party Trade Union Group
Joanna Long Boycott Workfare
Anne-Marie O’Reilly London Coalition Against Poverty 

More in the Guardian Saturday Here.

For the well-expressed views of one of our readers see this.

See also Left Foot Forward – here.

The BBC has also sent its well-paid staff to produce this:

Panorama Special(Documentary) Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on BBC 1 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm 

Britain on the Fiddle.

It’s estimated that twenty-two billion pounds of taxpayers’ money is effectively stolen or lost every year through fraud and error – a sizeable chunk of that is benefit fraud – money that could end up being taken out of the pockets of those in genuine need. In this Panorama Special, Richard Bilton uses undercover cameras to expose people on benefits sailing yachts and driving Bentleys. And he follows fraud investigators as they tackle the rising tide of benefits cheats using fake identities to steal millions.

BBC Documentary Follow-up on Benefit Fraud, Exclusive Preview.

]

On a more serious note the Daily Telegraph reports – Full Story here.

“GPs to tell long-term jobless to find work

Doctors will be encouraged to tell patients with long-term illnesses to find a job after the Government intervened in new guidance for GPs.”

Government May End Benefit Link to Inflation.

In the Guardian Today – a new threat.

George Osborne has instructed Treasury officials to draw up proposals to scrap inflation-linked rises for benefits, although he is unlikely to make any changes for next year.

Here.

 

So now we know the context of then anti-benefit claimants campaign.

New Jarrow March for Jobs.

Jarrow marchers in Trafalgar Square, London, 5.11.11 (from Here)

A group of activists who recreated the famous 1936 Jarrow March for Jobs completed their journey on Saturday.

They were joined by hundreds of supporters as they finished the 330-mile trek from the north-east to London to highlight how government cuts were “affecting everyone apart from the rich”.

Dozens of people took part in the march to London, where a rally was held at Temple and in Trafalgar Square.

Youth Fight for Jobs, which organised the march, handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street calling for a huge government job scheme, apprenticeships, the reinstatement of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the reopening of axed youth services and action on tuition fees.

Lizi Grey, whose great-grandfather Michael McLoughlin took part in the original march 75 years ago, was among those taking part in the protest, which started on 1 October.

The 17-year-old college student from Gateshead said: “The stories I’ve heard from his son – my grandfather – were that they were very well received in all of the towns that they went to, and we have had the same experience.

“I think a lot of that has to do with communities feeling that the cuts are starting to bite and it’s affecting everyone apart from the rich and the people making the decisions.”

She added: “It’s taken us five weeks to march the whole 330 miles but it feels amazing.”

In 1936, 200 jobless men marched from Jarrow in north-east England to London with a 12,000-name petition calling for government action to create jobs.

Here.

Some people from Ipswich went to the London Rally. We will ask them to tell us about it.

And this:

Around 200 anti-capitalist protesters entered Parliament Square as they linked with a group supporting activists who had recreated the famous 1936 Jarrow March for Jobs.

Police made nine arrests as the demonstrators – some of whom wore Guy Fawkes masks to mark bonfire night – were contained outside the Houses of Parliament.

Earlier around 20 young people finished the 330-mile trek from the North East to London to highlight how Government cuts were “affecting everyone apart from the rich”, and they were joined by hundreds of supporters for a rally in Temple and at Trafalgar Square. More Here.

Unemployed to be Sentenced to do Community Work.

Unemployed to join Offenders doing community service.

Unemployed risk losing benefits, says David Cameron

David Cameron announces scheme that will force people in government employment programme to do community work Article history

Prime minister David Cameron said anyone unable to find sustainable employment would be required to do at least 26 weeks community work. Photograph: PA

People unable to find a job after two years in the government’s work programme will be forced to do community work or face losing benefits, under a pilot scheme announced by David Cameron on Tuesday.

Cameron said anyone unable to find sustainable employment will be required to undertake at least 26 weeks community work lasting 30 hours a week in order to secure continued receipt of Job Seekers Allowance.

The scheme will be piloted in four areas before it is planned to go nationwide at broadly the same time as the introduction of the universal credit in 2013.

The former Labour work and pensions secretary James Purnell had proposed something similar in 2008, but it did not become law.

Ministers have alighted on 30 hours since they say this will be enough to familiarise the unemployed with the world of work.

Cameron told the liaison committee of MPs; “Have we created a benefit system that has insufficient responsibility at its heart? My answer is ‘yes we have’ which is why we need to change it”.

He complained the average time spent by some people looking for work on JSA is just eight minutes a day. “I don’t think that is sufficient,” he said.

Employment minister Chris Grayling added: “If people who are fit for employment, still haven’t managed to find a job after the intensive support provided by the work programme, we want them to do community work and get into the habit and routine of work. No one should expect to be able to sit at home doing nothing.”

He said that under the work programme the government was willing to spend £14,000 per long-term unemployed to find work. The still nascent work programme, largely adminstered by the private sector and voluntary groups, is designed to help the unemployed find work with help on job searches, advice on job applications and sometimes work experience.

The number of jobless likely to be forced into community work to hold onto their benefits is relatively small – the number of people out of work for more than two years is currently in the thousands.

Cameron made the announcement at a wide-ranging session of the liaison committee, broadly themed around the subject of the Big Society and the aftermath of the summer riots.

He also defended plans to increase the amount of benefit that can be withdrawn from a claimant if they break the law and are fined. The government has announced it intends to increase the maximum benefit withdrawal from £5 a week to £25 from 2013, the point at which universal credit is introduced.

He said “otherwise the man in work is forced to pay a fine whilst the person next door who is living on benefits gets off much more lightly”.

Critics claim the work programme comes perilously close to a form of compulsory work. From June job centre advisers can instruct claimants to undertake work placement activity. Participants are expected to spend up to 30 hours a week, for four weeks, on their work activity placement and will be required to continue to look for work.

“Every work placement will offer the jobseeker the opportunity to gain fundamental work disciplines and will be of benefit to the local community,” the DWP said. Customers who fail to complete  a placement without good cause will lose their Jobseeker’s Allowance for a minimum of three months.

Clearly this is forced labour. It is also likely to be used to replace properly paid workers in the public services. It puts the unemployed on the same level as those sentenced by the courts to do community service.

It is absolutely disgusting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/08/unemployed-risk-losing-benefits

Workfare – Community Action Programme – Alan B’stard Writes.

This is a guest post by renowned political commentator Alan B’stard.

“The Unemployed are to be sentenced to work! For a tenth of the minimum wage!

About time too! What do I pay my taxes for - or at least did once some years ago before I registered Alan B’stard & Co. as  a Charity with our HQ in Monaco.

All those dole blaggers swarming around Govan and Manchester, guzzling tins of Tennent’s, and snorting lines of Charlie!

The hideous Viky Pollard person, shown on a BBC documentary, with her ten brats, who can barely speak the Queen’s English!

Enough is enough.

My good friend, Deputy Dawg, from the Tea Party, Houndstown USA says: get them to work on the ‘ol chain-gang!

We have plenty of Community Service here at Goldsborough Hall.

In fact we’re rather short of grouse and pheasant beaters at this time of year – the last lot are skulking in some drab ‘hospital’ with ‘injuries’ (wait till ATOS gets ‘em!).

We need a few nannies and masseurs as well.

B’stard Babies (Registered Social Entrepreneurs) is a certified provider of high-quality training and voluntary employment.

We’ll soon get these sturdy beggars  using some elbow grease!

Here’s where we’re applying to solve the staff shortage and do our bit to help:

Community Action Programme (CAP) Provider Guidance Here. 

Now, piss off you lot!”

SEETEC and Rising Unemployment.

On the day of the new unemployment figures this tale may be relevant.

It was told to me two days ago.

It comes from a former employee of the notorious SEETEC (Ipswich).

Now over the years I’ve met a number of former employees of the Unemployment Bizniz.  

That is the companies that are meant to ‘help’ us back to work.

But this one gave me the frankest insight into their mentality that I’ve yet got.

According to this person (I quote liberally),

“We used to give them help in their CVs and all that stuff but they all turn up on drugs and booze and, hey what can you do? “

On asked how people on the Dole could afford to buy enough Blow, Charlie, Tinnies of Tennents’  Super to last them a whole long course at SEETEC, I got this reply,

“Ah but they do. You just don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Next came the view, unasked for, that the sonner people were put into labour camps the better.

The person claimed to have worked for SEETEC in Ipswich for two years.

This story is not made up.

Youth Unemployment Scheme. Huh?

The BBC Reports,

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says a £1bn plan to provide subsidised work and training placements will “provide hope” to thousands of young people.

The youth contract scheme will give employers subsidies worth £2,275 to take on 160,000 18-to 24-year-olds, for six months, over three years.

Youth unemployment hit 1.02 million in the three months to September.

Labour questioned how it would be funded, following reports that working tax credits were to be squeezed.

Asked about the reports on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Mr Clegg said the initiative would not be paid for by one single tax or spending measure.

He confirmed the government was considering a “number of savings” – likely to be announced by Chancellor George Osborne when he gives an update on the state of the economy in his Autumn Statement on Tuesday.

The Daily Mirror carries this comment, “

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Burn said: “You couldn’t make it up. They are now proposing to cut working families’ tax credits to pay for a back to work scheme.”

We say:

Watch out for the “number of savings” – much worse than that.

And what about, btw, the scandal of young people working for Poundland etc for their dole on existing Placement schemes?

We wonder if this bonanza, announced by Nice Mr Clegg, will not go in this direction.

Unemployed as it is lived.

Ipswich Unemployed Action aims to give the unemployed a voice.

The contributors to the comments boxes are as much a part of the site as the posts.

It strikes us that from them, the experience of our supporters, and simply people we meet, that three themes come out.

Firstly, being unemployed is hard. Above all because of lack of money. JSA is, for all the Daily Mail and Express say, a pittance - and even less for the under 25s.

All of us know the sinking feeling about bills. Then there’s the sudden need to pay out for something you can’t budget for.

But most of all there is the daily grind to buy food and essentials.

You look at the price every single time. You buy the cheapest you can get for reasonable quality. Sainsbury’s basics (and other supermakrets’ equivalent)are often rubbish but for some things (cartoons of tomatoes – always there for a cheap stew –  veggy or not) they are okay. A friend tells me that even when you get a job you’re still left with this constant price-checking.

Then there’s transport. The government wants to remove as much subsidy as possible, in order to subsidise its priorities elsewhere. This means that buses, let alone trains, cost a fortune. If you live in a suburb this means up to £4 a two-way journey to Ipswich town centre. A hefty sum.

Next, there’s the way the government pokes its nose into our lives. The Liberal-Tory Coalition says it wants to deregulate. but it regulates our lives down to the  last detail.

The Work Programme places us in the hands of private companies who have a great deal of power over us. This is clearly open to abuse – the companies with the right to sanction us act as judges with non of the normal legal responsibilities.

Instead of offering decent training (beyond elementary stuff about CVs) they try to coerce us into a life of constant ‘job-seeking’ – when there’s little work around. There’s ‘courses’ that are like some American ‘self-help’ therapy (one I was on actually had Men are From Mars and Women from Venus on the book list).

Instead of offering real jobs they want to squeeze you into some zero-hour contract substitute. Which when you’re under 25 – I suppose you can stand this. But to make a life this is a joke.

Finally, as Christmas is coming up, there’s the dull feeling that you are about to get clobbered again. After a while all this stuff in the papers, the BBC echoing the Daily Mail’s loathing of the out-of-work, Clarkson no doubt wishes we’d also be shot, along with strikers.

When we’re not abused we’re patronised by the likes of Emma Harrison.

As people here have said, we need a campaign to fight for our rights.

There are campaigns, and we have publicised them.

Let’s start with Boycott Workfare – here.

Watch this space.

Rant ends.

 

Boycott Workfare.

 

 Photo from Harpy Marx (see below).

 

People have asked ‘what can we do?’

 

Well here’s a campaign worth supporting: Boycott Workfare.

 

Workfare – compulsory work for benefits – is being rolled-out across the country. We call on public sector bodies, voluntary organisations and businesses being offered these placements as well as union branches to join others in signing a pledge to boycott the scheme.

 

Harpy Marx reports on her efforts to stop Councils using Workfare – here.

Louise also reports on her concerns about how ‘volunteering’ can be use to replace paid jobs and MIND’s reply to her Here

Work Programme and Papworth Trust: are you disabled?

Simple question if you are sent to The Papworth Trust (or similar charities like it) for the Work Programme… are you disabled?

Ipswich Unemployed Action suspects many sent to the Work Programme subcontractor doesn’t have a disability of any description.

Work Programme prime Seetec refuses travel expenses

Work Programme prime contractor Seetec is reportedly refusing to reimburse travel expenses for those attending for less than 2 hours.

Is this happening with other Work Programme providers? As far as Ipswich Unemployed Action understands, Work Programme adviser appointments last under an hour. Work Programme participants have the right for their travel to be reimbursed as long as its reasonable (i.e. cheapest possible method).

Hopefully this means Seetec is close to liquidation rather than trying to force people into benefit sanctions for those who fail to attend further appointments. If there is money issues then are people being laid off?

Workfare rebellion begins!! More jobseekers reject slave labour

More jobseekers are pursuing judicial reviews against the Government in regards to its workfare schemes.

Cait Reilly joins others such as Jonathan Shaw, challenging the Governments Section 17A workfare schemes.

Cait Reilly said she risked losing her benefits if she refused to work for free stacking shelves in Poundland

The Work Programme could be the next to collapse… (if it doesn’t go due to financial difficulties)

Work for Your Benefit scheme to be axed… finally!

Since the Community Action Programme has been formulated, they are now going to scrap the Work for Your Benefit regulations via a new proposed regulation: The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Jobseeking and Work for Your Benefit) (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2012.

 Revocation of the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work for Your Benefit Pilot Scheme) Regulations 2010

4. The Jobseeker’s Allowance (Work for Your Benefit Pilot Scheme) Regulations 2010(7) are revoked.

We recently reported how the Conservatives had left the scheme dormant. 

Dencora House Detention Centre… gone!

Ipswich Unemployed Action is delighted to announce that Dencora House Detention Centre is of no more. We had this confirmed when Units 6-10 Dencora House (“Dencora House Detention Centre”) was been put up for sale (also available leasehold for £8 psf).

We knew it laid unused but we weren’t sure whether the detention centre would come back for use by a subcontractor as part of:

• Mandatory Work Activity scheme
• Work Programme value added services
• Community Action Programme

It is now clear after YMCA Training finally splashed out on planning consent (IP/08/00082/FUL) a couple of years ago, that even with more attacks to those on welfare including the disabled and unemployed, there was no place for the Christian faith motivated detention centre.

Jimmy’s Farm Enters the Unemployment Business/Censored.

From Channel Four.

Subject: Channel 4 documentary series

Channel Four has demanded that we take their part of this post down because it is confidential (it took them some 22 days for them to discover this).

Always happy to bow to the censorship of the rich and powerful we have complied.

 Reply.

Thank you for your interest.

I doubt if many unemployed people in Ipswich regard Jimmy’s farm as ‘ethical’.

It is a high-priced niche company that charges people to walk on its ‘Woodland trail’ (when there are plenty of public footpaths in more attractive sites nearby) and sells packets of maize for children to feed their own fowl at over a pound.

In reality it’s  not much of a rural farm, being only a few minutes drive from Ipswich.

Apart from that anyone on JSA would, even if they wanted to, be hard pressed to afford its products.

So, as for helping this exercise in self-publicising, we would say, no.

Yours faithfully,

Ipswich Unemployed Action

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Work For the Post at Christmas? And what do you get?

I know some people who had temporary jobs with the Royal Mail over Christmas.

The Unemployed  are encouraged to take us these posts, and normally this works out well.

Things have changed.

That is, they now worked not for the Royal Mail but for a private agency ANGARD STAFFING AGENCY-.

This was set up by the Royal Mail – to employ them as lower wages.

There are accounts, (first hand) that conditions of work for these temporary staff were extremely poor.

Many of these people (including in Ipswich)  only got paid – late – by vouchers (print-outs) which they had to cash at Post Offices.

Now, as we all know, signing back on (Housing Benefit included) is never easy.

This will have been helped by this experience.

But no doubt somebody at ANGARD STAFFING AGENCY is coining it in at their expense.

Work Programme ‘in Dire Straits’.

The reality of the work programme, which Worky here, and many of our valued posters, began to describe some months ago, is now making the national press.

Polly Toynbee writes in the Guardian on Saturday,

IDS’s other big idea, the Work Programme, is already in dire straits as contractors and charities can’t get enough people into non-existent jobs – unless they cheat or demand lots more money.

Here.

It’s worth reading the article in full.

It describes the mess that everything from the new universal credit system will create, the effects of the changes in disability benefits,  the abolition of the social fund, putting council tax benefit at the mercy of local councils, to the misery housing benefit reform will create.

Toynbee asks why Labour is not putting up a fight against this.

We think that it will expand and create a Victorian underclass, dependent, if they can get it, on charity.

She says,

“Shadow ministers should roll up their sleeves and demolish a plethora of similarly disastrous policies.”

 

Unemployment: A Response to the Sunday Times.

Under this picture of the Gallagher family “Ipswich Unemployment Action Spokesman” Andrew Coates is quoted in a Sunday Times article (8.1.12) titled, “End of the Something for Nothing Culture“.

With by the by-line Jon Ungoed-Thomas there is a page about the Work Programme, “Mandatory Work Activity” and the coming “Community Action Programme.”

What is the central problem about unemployment?

On a  brief venture to a Birmingham dole queue a reporter eventually  found someone saying what they wanted to hear, “why should I work for nothing when I can get money for nothing?”

That was not the only ‘investigation’ they undertook.

On Friday there was a brief trip to Ipswich.

Not the Sunday Times but a journalist for Anglia Press Agency visited the town. He also telephoned me and interviewed  me – by phone.

During our conversation I told him of Boycott Workfare and the case of Cait Reilly in Birmingham who was made to work unpaid in Poundland. These duly figure in the report.

The main plank of End of the Something for Nothing is the Work Programme.

Work Placements are there.

The investigators did not find time to trace the history of this – from the New Deal to the Flexible New Deal.

The Liberal-Conservative Coalition says its Work Programme is different.

They might have asked about the drift – which we predicted – from genuine ‘work experience’ to filling in jobs in places like Poundland.

As part of the Work Programme people who are  under suspicion (or in fact those who refuse to obey instructions from Work Programme Advisers) , can find themselves on Mandatory Work Activity. That is unpaid work for four weeks.

We learn of the chief Minster for Welfare  Ian Duncan Smith’s pre-election visit to a Job Centre. He heard of how tough measures had support.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling is cited saying that ‘work for welfare’ will be introduced. The article fails to mention the time, but it is said to apply for anyone unemployed for over two years.

“Claimants can expect to be involved in working in parks, helping in community centres, and picking up litter”.

I am cited as saying

“People sent out on the community action programme have said they are being made to feel like criminals – working alongside the people ordered to carry out community work by magistrates for breaking the law. It seems increasingly the government  wants to punish people who are not working.”

This is a fair summary – although I said programmes like the Community Action Programme.

I also described Placements and Courses I had been on and how doing this had failed to get me work.

A serious article would have investigated why this has happened, not just in one case, but in tens of thousands (and there is a Parliamentary Committee report last year which – ignored by Ian Duncan Smith and Grayling – did just this)

In an Editorial, The Year to Tackle Welfare Reform The Sunday Times, concentrates on Mandatory Work Activity. Its says the DWP ”appears” to have selected some of those it suspected of playing the system”. In reality people can only be sent on this because they fall in this category.

The Editorial  mentions “the problem of welfare and the claimant culture”.

It then says, “But the government must ensure that jobs exist”.

Its solution?

Get the economy moving, and “securing Britain’s borders”. There is, it notes, legal immigration and illegal immigration. In fact the sole concrete way the Sunday Times foresees creating a better job market is to crack down on illegal immigrants.

We have some questions for the Sunday Times.

No doubt it would give Grayling pleasure to see the assorted Gallaghers, Coateses and no doubt other ne’er-do-wells, picking up litter in the streets for the sum of just over sixty quid a week.

But to do so will cost more money than our Dole payment.

Assorted Gallaghars and Coateses will need some pretty tight supervision to make sure they keep the pavements spotless and the parks immaculate, not to mention the fact that Community Centres may not relish the prospect of our help.

Elsewhere in the paper Nicholas Hellen reports on Entrepreneurs make millions helping Jobless.

So we can get a  fair idea of who will organise this ‘Community Payback’ for the out-of-work.

But hold on.

Aren’t these tasks already carried out by paid employees?

The National Union of Litter Pickers, Rag Collectors, Community Workers, and Leaf Sweepers, may not like the idea of their members’ jobs being replaced by unpaid Benefit Claimants.

Those recently made redundant by public sector cuts may not enjoy the prospect of seeing their old employment transferred to the Community Action Programme.

Ian Duncan Smith attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He spent six years in the Scots Guards.  Chris Grayling attended the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe. He then went on to Cambridge University. He has worked for the BBC and has been a ‘Management Consultant’.

Admirable qualifications no doubt for understanding unemployment.

Cait Reilly Forced Labour Case Goes Forward.

Museum volunteer told to work unpaid at Poundland

By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 12 January 2012

Cait Reilly [David Sillitoe/Guardian]

Cait Reilly was told she otherwise would lose her Jobseeker’s Allowance

A university graduate was told she had to stop volunteering at a local museum for four weeks and do unpaid work in a Poundland store in order to continue receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Cait Reilly, who graduated from Birmingham University in 2010, was regularly volunteering part-time at the Pen Museum & Learning Centre in Birmingham because she hoped to pursue a career in museums.

But last autumn she was told by her local Jobcentre Plus that she had been placed on a “sector-based work academy”, a four-week programme made up of two weeks’ employability training and two weeks’ unpaid work at Poundland.

Reilly has this week launched proceedings to seek a judicial review of the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Employment, Skills and Enterprise Scheme) Regulations 2011, which include a power to compel JSA claimants to carry out work.

Her solicitor, Jim Duffy of Public Interest Lawyers, said Reilly had been volunteering at the museum since May. He said she was placed on the work academy programme by her local Jobcentre Plus and agreed to do it after being told about the scheme in “vague and inaccurate terms”.

Duffy said when Reilly found out more about the programme, she told staff at the Jobcentre Plus that she did not want to take part, but was told that it was mandatory. She did the Poundland placement in November.

Brian Jones, another volunteer at the Pen Museum, a registered charity, said Reilly was not able to give much notice that she would have to stop her work for a month. “She is a valued volunteer here, so to lose her in that period was very difficult for us,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Working in retail is perfectly good experience for a career in a museum. There are very similar transferable skills involved.”

Here.

Comment.

The Daily Mail seems to think that working for your dole in Poundland is a good idea.

Someone calling herself Dominique Jackson writes, “We should be grateful that Poundland has signed up to the scheme to provide work placements, training and a guaranteed interview for kids trying to improve their employability.” (Here)

I suppose anyone under 25, who gets a reduced JSA, is a “kid”.

To be treated as such.

The idea that Poundland have found a nice little earner – getting workers for free – seems to have escaped her attention.

Or that it is indeed a human right to be able to choose your job.

As in, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice  of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (Here)

Naturally for those who want to see the unemployed forced to clean the streets (and why not with Toothbrushes – there was a Pilot Scheme in Vienna in the late 1930s) this right does not exist.

On the Background to Workfare and details of how Private Companies, Local Government, the Third Sector and Charities are going to exploit this Harpy Marx is highly recommended – here.

Cait Reilly and the History of UK Workfare.

 

Support this Campaign (see Box Bottom Right for link).

The Cait Reilly case has brought workfare (unpaid work for benefits)  to people’s attention.

Some seem to think this is a new policy.

Red Pepper reports,

Karina was mandated to work in Primark under New Labour’s Flexible New Deal. She had been sent to a private ‘welfare to work’ provider whose regime included putting claimants to work without pay in businesses, charity shops and public sector workplaces. Although regulations meant that she could only be obliged to work for up to 12 weeks without pay, she worked for 24 weeks, fearing she would have her benefits stopped if she did not agree. She had signed up to and paid for a college course that would help her find work but she had to give it up to do the placement: ‘They told me they would stop my JSA, so I stopped my English course.’

This sytem  began with the New Deal in 1998.

This is what the programme offered, (Wikipedia),

The NDYP begins with an initial consultation session, referred to as Gateway, that focuses on improving job search and interview skills. This training is provided by an external organisation such as a4e, CSV or YMCATraining. If the search for employment is still unsuccessful after the Gateway sessions, to continue to receive unemployment benefits, one of four options must be chosen:

• A subsidised job placement. The subsidy is £60 per week, and lasts 6 months; a £750 training allowance is also available to participants. Clients are paid a wage from the employer.

• Full-time education and training, for up to 12 months.

• Work in the voluntary sector, the client is paid JSA plus a £15 training allowance. This is called Community Task Force.

• Work with the Environmental Task Force.(DWP website; Peck, “Workfare” 304; Glyn 53)

Participation in one of the four options is mandatory to receive benefits, refusal to participate will lead to the benefit being stopped and will be referred to a Decision Maker who will decide whether a recipient should receive a sanction should they decide to reclaim.”

Gateway normally meant some CV writing (highly useful) job application and interview techniques (also useful).

It could also included less useful ‘courses’ including those based on the kind of self-help manuals that made Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus school of thought.

Despite appearing to offer a number of ‘options’ most people were put, without any choice, on the 3rd (I know nobody who did the first, which meant they got paid). Placements were rapidly extended beyond the ‘voluntary sector’ and the ‘Community Task Force’. They included working in local government, and private companies.

Why did people participate?

‘Work experience’ might be useful (for your CV for example). There was always the possibility of paid work. But more important perhaps was that getting an extra £15 and doing something was preferable to sitting in a room being hectored and told, 5 days a week, to do “job search”.

These Placements lasted from 13 weeks to 26 weeks.

I know personally cases of people of working in Ipswich warehouse-mega-stores shelving and carrying stuff around. One told me that his boss bought him a couple of drinks at Christmas – as well he might.

Charities and the ‘voluntary sector’ might seem a good idea. The Labour Government began farming out welfare services to them. The unemployed were used instead of paid employees – when they were not working alongside people sentenced to do Community Service.  Or, in Ipswich, working alongside prisoners on day release from Hollesley Bay.

Without the rights of salaried employees the unemployed were open to a wide range of abuses. Charites (often with highly paid executives) and the Third Sector are not always good employers.

I know of a number of significant cases where people felt ill-treated.

In nearly all cases when the Placement ended there was no job.

The attitude is thank you very much and now for the next placement-person.

The Flexible New Deal was introduced in October 2009.  James Purnell Work and Pensions Secretary was behind the change, though he had to resign that years when his expenses claims were found out.  

The Flexible New Deal reduced the time of Placements to 6 weeks. It got rid of the ‘sitting in front of a computer doing job search’ (though not the ‘courses’). It abolished the £15 bonus.

But the slide towards using the unemployed as free labour became more explicit.

They also used ‘volunteers’ from the Dole in place of genuine volunteers.

The Work Programme was introduced last summer. On this site Worky has explored its details.

Cait Reilly appears to have got into one of its programmes, a 2 week placement.

There is already the Mandatory Work Activity to punish people – which we have discussed here.

The plan now to make everyone who is unemployed for over 2 years participate in the Community Action Programme.

This is full-time unpaid workfare.

When it’s introduced it will be used to fill the gaps in public services - caused by the Liberal-Conservative Coalition cuts.

That is “picking up litter”  tidying up parks, and no doubt carrying all kinds of tasks not getting done because of government cuts.

It will be US style workfare.

There is conclusive evidence against workfare – here.

But, as reactions to Cait Reilly show, there are people in this country who simply want to order the out-of-work around, and make them sweat.

Something that Lord Freud, a former banker and wheeler-dealer, the man who advised the Labour Government on the Flexible New Deal and now, the Coalition on the Work Programme, has only ever done in a Sauna.

Cait Reilly, ‘What a Snooty So-and-So” says Ian Duncan Smith.

Cait Reilly: Singled Out For Attack by Ian Duncan Smith.

In the Sunday Times today (22.1.12) Ian Duncan Smith Work and Pensions Secretary says of Cait Reilly,

“What a snooty-so-and-so. She seemed to say she shouldn’t stack shelves because she’s intelligent . The way she sneered -as if she was too good for it,” he says,. “She’s wasting our time and money going to court. It’s ridiculous. What about the human rights of the taxpayer. It’s a human right for the taxpayer to know you’re doing something productive instead of wafting around looking for the job you want while someone else pays for it.”

We can be sure Cait Reilly will receive a fair hearing with that kind of comment from a Minister flying around.

Not to mention his novel definition of human rights.

Wikipedia says “His wealth is estimated at £1 million much of which has been earned by working as a high end after dinner speaker”.

Ian Duncan Smith has never done an honest day’s work in his life.

Boycott Work Programme.

It seems we have started a mini-revolution with thousands of people sticking up for their rights and rebelling against the Work Programme and other workfare schemes. 

We would like to remind people, however, that there is more to refusing the work programme than refusing data protection waivers, as this articles explains.

Ipswich Jobseeker removed from Ipswich Jobcentre by Police

An Ipswich jobseeker was escorted out of Ipswich St Felix House this week by two police officers.

News have reached Ipswich Unemployed Action that a jobseeker was forcefully removed from the Ipswich Jobcentre by two police officers before almost arrested and banned from the town centre for 48 hours under a Section 27 order (IUA note: s27 is just for drunk and disorderly in a public place?)

We had previously reported about the Nazi security at Jobcentre Plus offices back in 2009!

A fellow concerned jobseeker has described in an email how he experienced in the third person severe abuse of powers at Jobcentre Plus in Ipswich from jobcentre staff, G4s security guards and the even the police!!!

I am sure 1% of the jobseekers in viewing this website might be hoping an employment officer got his or hers comeuppance, perhaps knifed, punched, reduced to tears by insults or soaked with water…

Before we disclose the reasons why police were dispatched and a jobseeker escorted off the premises, the reason for this post is to highlight this ever increasing trend of abuse by G4s security in jobcentres – it seems the police are on side also. Perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise to some.

Community Action Programme: Provider Guidelines for Work-For-Nothing.

Community Action Programme (Workfare).

Government Guidelines for Providers (Extracts and Comments).

From here.

“This scheme  is for “very long-term JSA claimants who  may reach the end of the Work Programme from 2013.”

Note: There are 750,000 long-term unemployed. This figure is not expected to go down by 2013.

The government’s approach, already in place, and adopted by Work Programme providers,  is summed up in the Guardian today,

“The subtext is that external economic factors can never be the cause of someone’s unemployment: the problem must somehow lie with the individual.”

Those long-term unemployed who have gone through thee Work Programme will now have to face up to this further effort to make them solve ‘their’ problems.

“10.  Participation is mandatory and a claimant’s benefits may be stopped if they fail to start or complete the programme. “   

Those who will have to participate  include,

3.  The majority of these claimants will have been unemployed for a substantial amount of time, and having received support through both Jobcentre Plus and contracted provision, should display similar characteristics to those we expect of claimants still out of work at the of the WP.
 
4.  The claimant group set out above will include a range of claimants with circumstances that need be taken into account in designing CAP  support. These will include:
•  claimants with caring responsibilities, including lone parents
•  disabled claimants or those with health conditions
•  claimants who are over 50 years old
•  claimants serving a community sentence which could involve
Community Payback
•  socially excluded claimants, including ex-offenders, offenders,homeless claimants, and claimants with a drug or alcoholdependency problem.

Truth behind Jobcentre Plus advertised jobs

We are currently analysing past jobs advertised at Jobcentre Plus (be it the Jobcentre Plus website, directgov, job points, jobseekers direct and jobs handed over by advisers) to bring back some pretty nice statistics on the UK labour market.

Every jobseeker knows that:

• Most agency jobs on there do not exist
• Jobs from time to time are fake
• Sometimes job vacancies are merely sting operations by Jobcentre Plus
• etc.

But did you know that amongst the thousands of new vacancies posted daily, that hundreds are unpaid work trials (workfare) or employment programme “opportunities” that inflate the real number of jobs advertised?  By workfare, we are excluding workfare “work placements” handled by providers…

New builds, many workers not on a wage

A genuine job advert (posted 14/09/2011) is as follows:

Job Title:    CLEANING OPERATIVE
Job Code:    OLD/35697
Location:    OLDBURY B69
Hours:          30 PER WEEK OVER 5 DAYS
Wage:            JSA CONTINUATION
Description:   This is a Work Experience opportunity. Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directly. You should be able to clean to a high standard and be flexible, reliable and thorough. Duties include different stages of cleaning new build houses in preparation for handover to clients and tenants. A driving licence and previous experience in using scrubber dryers and carpet cleaning equipment would be advantageous. This could lead to permanent employment. A CSCS card would be reqd and I have suggested to the employer that this could be financed through the flexible support fund.

This is clearly not a job. Regardless if the gained CSCS certification improves the person’s prospects in the future. Even in the recession, house prices are still of very high value. Someone shouldn’t be doing this work for free, on the expectation that there might be work for them in future… why would there be? They will just get more from the same method, the workfare circle continues…

Work Trial but no job…

Job Title:    CLEANING OPERATIVE
Job Code:    ROC/68444
Location:    ROCHDALE OL16
Hours:          16 HRS WEEK, 5 DAYS FROM 7
Wage:            BENEFITS PLUS EXPENSES
Description:   Experience preferred but not essential as full training will be given, good communication skills are essential as you will be expected to liaise with our clients.Duties will include general cleaning, vacuuming, mopping and cleaning toilets of domestic, industrial and office locations. The successful applicant will need a full UK driving licence as they will be required to travel around various sites in the North West.Work trial only.

Are you having a f**king laugh? Driving around the North West cleaning toilets for free 5 days a week?! We know the 16 hours is excluding travel time. We assume expenses mean fuel costs.

Workplace training, great but not a job…

Job Title:    CLEANING PRINCIPLES PATHWAY
Job Code:    RMF/23868
Location:    EAST LONDON RM1
Hours:          16 HRS P/WEEK OVER 5 WEEKS
Wage:            N/A
Description:   Skills Conditionality Mandatory referrals for JSA and ESA WRAG customers only.A comprehensive training package for entry into cleaning roles in offices, schools, hospitals and factories. Course consists of a Level 2 Award in Cleaning Principles, awareness of COSHH, identifying risks in the workplace and preparation for entry into work 1.Refer to Initial Provider Interview LMS Opportunity RMF 23670 and send REF 2 form.Course will begin in October.SL2 must be sent to the College prior to start date for result to be recorded under Skills Conditionality rules.

Just some notes

You may have noticed the above examples are all of cleaning. This is mostly down to a huge database of a million or so entries… and having to work out what looks like paid jobs (regardless if fake or not) and what are workfare. As you can see I got to job titles beginning with C… but I can safely say there are at least a few thousand of these “opportunities” last year across all different industries…

There is volunteering for your local community and/or for a charity, then there is working for free to benefit some profitable company. We do not recommend it. I am sure as these are on the Labour Market System, some people were forced to apply at threat of benefit sanctions.

Only a few examples, to keep the research under-wraps prior to realising statistics on the entire year.

Breaking News: Work Programme reforms

A reliable source overheard provider discussion on one of the Work Programme providers in Ipswich, Papworth Trust (on behalf of Ingeus) or Seetec, likely to lose their contract come Summer 2012.

Prince’s Trust: Are they actually helping young people?

Previously we have criticised charities such as the Papworth Trust and YMCA Training; and those that people think are charities (when they are not) such as The Big Issue…

Today, we will focus on The Prince’s Trust, who took the risk of using the riots as an opportunity for a fund-raising campaign to raise over £1.5 million of additional money with the assumption that by donating to Prince’s Trust will stop the youth having to resort to such measures in the future (although it clearly states most young people weren’t involved – but no mention of the demographics of the rioters).

Workfare workers are employees of the Crown?

A new blow for the Government with its Work Programme, Community Action Programme, Mandatory Work Activity and Work Experience schemes as it has been suggested that the jobseekers being placed on mandatory placements through statutory legislation are in effect Crown employees.

Regardless of being assigned to the premises of an company (we prefer not to say employer in such context) or the street:-

• there is no employment contract expressly written, verbal or implied between the worker and the company;
• no payment in cash or in kind from said company;
• jobseekers on the employment programme schemes are statistically employed; and
• such appointment is exercised through statutory instrument (of an Act of Parliament)

Thus these workfare workers are employees of the Crown, an employee of the State and a public sector worker (regardless if you are operating in a private sector environment) – this is what workfare is all about, working for your benefits.

So, when you are about to start a 6 month stint at Poundland or Tescos stacking shelves with threats to your benefits, make sure you:-

• Register with UNISON (public sector trade union) for around 81p per week
• Serve notice on the workfare general (the company you are based at) to alert them of your union membership status
• Remain active within the union in particular about your working conditions

Why did Waterstones end workfare at its stores?

Whereas its a minor victory for anti-workfare campaigners when Waterstones recently acknowledged it was ending unpaid work placements forever, what made them decide to stop?

Unpaid work placements forced under statutory law where jobseekers allowance claimants are threatened with benefit sanctions up to 3 months without benefit sanctions for being late on the first occasion,  were no more immoral then, than it is now. Why the change of heart?

Perhaps Waterstones were threatened with legal action? Perhaps an incident occurred at one of its stores where they realised their insurance didn’t cover the forced placements?

Perhaps they are planning to employ a few thousand more staff to Get Britain Working. Who knows?  Do you? 

ConDem BusinessCompact:- List of Work Experience placement companies

The list of companies who signed up to provide workfare placements for 18-24 year olds are as follows:-

A4E
Accenture
ACCA
Addleshaw Goddard LLP
Adecco Group UK & Ireland
Airbus
Allen and Overy
Alliance Boots
Anchor Trust
Arriva
Asda
Ashurst LLP
Associated Newspapers
Association of Accounting Technicians
Atkins
Aviva plc
AXA
BAE Systems
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Bar Council
Barcelo Hotels UK
Barclays
Bauer Media Group
BP
BT Group
Cancer Research UK
Carillion
Centrica
Channel 4
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
Citi
CMS Cameron McKenna LLP
Coca Cola Enterprises
Coca Cola Great Britain
Compass Group
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
E.ON UK
Ernst & Young
Evening Press Corporation
Eversheds
Everything Everywhere (Orange/T-Mobile)
Experian
Fujitsu
G4S UK
GE
Greggs
GSK
Guardian News & Media
Hewlett Packard
Hilton Worldwide
Hogan Lovells
House of Fraser
HSBC
IBM
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
Institute of Healthcare Management
Irwin Mitchell
Jaguar Landrover
J.P. Morgan
Jurys Inn Hotels
Kempt
KPMG
Legal Services Board
Liberal Democrats Headquarters
Loreal (UK)
Marks & Spencer
McDonalds
McGinley Support Services
Mears Group
Media Trust
Microsoft
MITIE Group PLC
Morrisons
Mothercare/Early Learning Centre
National Grid
Nationwide Building Society
Nestle UK & Ireland
NHS Employers
Norton Rose
O2
Pertemps
Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA)
P&G
Prudential UK & Europe
PWC
Radio Independents Group
Red Consultancy
Research In Motion (Blackberry)
Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
RBS
RWE Npower
Sainsbury’s
Santander UK
Serco
Shell
Siemens
Simmons & Simmons LLP
Sony
Starbucks
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Global Beverages
Tata Steel
Teach First
Teleperformance
Tesco
The Co-operative Group
University Partnerships Programme (UPP)
Vodafone
Watershed PR
Wates Group
WPP

Brighton Campaign Victory On Poundland Workfare Placements.

Cross-Posted from Brighton Benefits Campaign – Here.

They tell us, “after just one demo that branch has pulled out of the ‘work experience’ scheme.”

 

Brighton Benefits Campaign’s successful Poundland picket

The government would have us believe that the growing army of the unemployed – including over a million under twenty-fives – are ‘scroungers’ who will avoid work at all costs.  They conveniently ignore the fact that for every job vacancy there are tens or even hundreds of applicants. And that at the same time, increasing numbers of sick and disabled people and single parents are being forced into the job market.

In the right wing media, workfare is portrayed as a way to prevent the ‘lazy’ unemployed getting ‘something for nothing’ by forcing them to ‘volunteer’ or face sanctions. To those signing on, particularly young people, it is promoted as work experience that will improve their chances of employment.

Of course in reality, workfare provides free labour for companies such as Poundland and other large retailers, enabling them to make yet more massive profits, and to cut the jobs, wages and conditions of their paid workers.    Last Saturday activists from Brighton Benefits Campaign, together with members of Brighton Solidarity Federation and other supporters, took part in their first picket of the Poundland store in Western Road Brighton, in protest against this misuse of the unemployed as unpaid labour under the workfare scheme.

Over a thousand leaflets exposing the truth behind the government’s propaganda were handed out to shoppers outside the shop.  Many showed interest and stopped to discuss the issue.  Some  shared their own experience of workfare.  We were told by one woman that her daughter worked for a Tesco store where workfare had resulted in paid staff being told ‘no more overtime’.

The Poundland manager came out almost immediately and tried to argue the case for workfare as ‘work experience’. Within a short time a whole group of Poundland employees were standing just inside the doors either joining in or listening as we explained how exploitation of the unemployed as free labour is an attack on those in work as well as those without, and that all work should be properly paid.

Interestingly, although the store manager obviously felt somewhat besieged, there was no sign of the police, not even community officers who have turned up at other pickets. Or maybe they were all too busy at the Brighton match!

More pickets are planned as the campaign hots up.  Hopefully this kind of action will be taking place in many other places,  as unions and anti-cuts groups join the fight against workfare.

Latest workfare jobs advertised

Following on about numerous topics on workfare such as list of workfare placement companies, Waterstones ending workfare placements, Poundland stopping workfare… at its brighton store and workfare employees being employees of the Crown…  today we are listing a few examples of workfare vacancies that are flooding the Labour Market System making it appear like there are more jobs advertised then in actual reality.

Jobcentre Plus uses workfare!!!

The UK workfare debates heats up… and it soon comes apparent that even yours truly Jobcentre Plus is using workfare participants to make up it numbers.

Is Jobcentre Plus trialling workfare to replace its Admin Officers? 

No workfare participant will be able to undertake an Employment Officer role, however, DWP is cutting its “corporate administration budget” by 36% over 4 years.

PCS is already upset with DWP plans to close contact centres and get rid of over 1,900 job vacancies. Labelled a staffing crisis and defending jobs as more centres scheduled to close.

It is now clear, that the least important jobs could soon be replaced with workfare participants.

The workfare job adverts

Lets select 3 - magic number lol. Just to make it clear, you have to contact Jobseeker Direct to find out who the employer is with… they were a little too shy to place “Jobcentre Plus” or “DWP” in the employer box, however, of course its workfare not paid employment (although they pay your benefit so are in every way your employer).

Technically speaking, “Secretary of State” holds the title… so you are in effect slaves of these persons (yes, the term applies to all Secretary of States – not just Work and Pensions).

JOB CENTRE PLUS ADMIN OFFICER

Yes, why not shout about it?! No idea why the uppercase. This one too close to home… in Bury St Edmunds of the same county. The job description:-

This is a work experience placement available to customers claiming Jobseekers Allowance with little or no work history. The placement is working at the Job Centre at St Andrews House in Bury St Edmunds. Through a combination of job-shadowing,mentoring and coaching, the participant will gain an overview of office administration. Duties including (but not exhaustive); filing, minute taking/general admin duties/use of IT and possibly use of telephone to contact customers. A full CRB check will be conducted prior to starting. Personal Advisers must ensure interested customers sign a work experience consent to share form. CV and JCP application form should then be sent to Bury St Edmunds EA team.

With a wage of “JSA + TRAVEL”, hours of “25 – 30 per week” (was also in uppercase… ), location of ” EAST ANGLIA, IP33 ” and reference of “BSD/27427″.

Wait… a CV AND application form?! Not even a paid job …

ADMIN OFFICER (REF 1863)

Unlike the above (yes its uppercase again..) this is placed with a proper SOC code. The job description:-

 ***Work Experience Customers Only***Applicants must be aged 18 – 24 with little or no work experience and interested in administrative or general office work. Will be working with the public dealing with a diverse range of customers. Researching vacancy opportunities for customers (non LMS). Gaining customer service skills. Helping promote digital channels with customers.Must be able to provide acceptable means of identification for standard security verification checks. CRB checks will need to be undertaken and cleared before an offer of a placement can be made

With a wage of “BENEFITS + TRAVEL EXPENSES”, hours of “30hrs per week” (was also in uppercase… ), location of “CRAMLINGTON NE23″ and reference of “CRM/20576″.

This job is probably posting jobs on twitter lol…

ADMIN OFFICER – WORK EXPERIENCE

Call centre job! The job description:-

  ***TELFORD Contact Centre*** TF3 4HB Working in a Contact Centre enviroment, Admin duties in an office enviroment. Will be expected to go to a 20 minute informal interview in the Telford room, Ground Foor, New Town house, Telford. START DATE: 19/12/11. ELIGIBILTY: Primarily aimed at younger JSA claimants aged 18-24 from week 13 up to referral to the Work Programme. There is discretion to refer claimants earlier than week 13 &, exceptionally, those aged 25+ who have no recent work history, & 16/17 where agreed – see guidance and/or RC.

With a wage of “NA”, hours of “25″ (how lazy), location of ” TELFORD TF3 ” and reference of ” TEL/64684 “.

Please Note: Did you see the start date? Job was actually posted on the 6th February 2012… so it seems this job has been advertised previously and a lazy copy and paste job without bothering to read it.

Recap

Do you work for Jobcentre Plus? Are you worried about your job?

Are you a jobseeker? Would you work at Jobcentre Plus for no pay?

Monster to redevelop directgov job search

Just when you thought there wasn’t enough money left, the Government has splashed out around £20m paying Monster, famous for its poor security allowing hackers to obtain millions of CVs on numerous occasions, to redevelop its directgov website enabling it to manage a quoted 10,500 new vacancies and over a million searches, each working day.

Sounds good? Well, directgov gets around 8000 new entries (be bit jobs, workfare, agency jobs, scams etc.) each working day (as of 2012). Sources claim its 10,600 and already over a million searches a day. Its not much more – but if you believe the hype it works out as less. Furthermore, the DWP could have came to a commercial agreement to piggy bank on Monster for free… in a similar concept how so many search engines are powered by Google.

In this model, Monster would gain by increased visitors, more sales (of your CV to potential employers) and advertisements on site. Now it seems Monster, armed with its handful of patents just for a website, will be paid £20m to achieve nothing greater merely a change of infrastructure and design (we assume) giving similar functionality using the same old Labour Market System but with some third party adverts being included.

Latest gmail.com job advert scams

Watch out, potentially hundreds of fake vacancies have been posted to the Jobcentre Plus job database so all jobs from directgov, job points, jobseeker direct and from Jobcentre advisers are at risk of stealing your identity.

These are primarily jobs requesting a CV sent to a gmail.com email address although any free email provider are vulnerable for scammers using their service. Ipswich Unemployed Action has two tips to give worried jobseekers.

Jobcentre Plus falsifying new job counts

Seems DWP is up to its old tricks again. On the day the DWP Press Office announces a “Rise in employment and vacancies shows a stabilising labour market” the 9621 vacancies for that day showed some major concerns especially how Jobcentre Plus is using the job database as a spamming ground for work placements, job search sessions and misc “opportunities”.

The latest figures also show that there are more jobs in the economy. With 476,000 vacancies available at any one time, this is a rise of 11,000 on the three months to October 2011.

So how much of these 476,000 “vacancies” are real? Lets take Wednesday 15th February (the day the press release was released)…

WP/JSA PRISON LEAVERS/PG9

Job Description: None Entered.

This is not a job vacancy.  This is not a job vacancy.  This is not a job vacancy.

Out of 9621 listings (we prefer not to use the generic term jobs as many are not) for that day, 1555 “job” listings (approx 16% – Approx 1 in 6!) were WP/JSA PRISON LEAVER/PG9 (x27) and WP/JSA PRISON LEAVERS/PG9 (x1528).

Most are duplicates anyhow. Some “job” reference codes:-

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(MAL/25620) (MAL/25621) (SUS/55265) (SUS/55266) (GSL/15802) (GSL/15803) (LHI/28957) (LHI/28958) (CSR/16803) (HBB/19412) (PON/3962) (PON/3963) (FHM/30487) (FHM/30488) (HBB/19413) (ASH/21675) (ASH/21676) (CHE/92667) (CHE/92668) (EVA/21290) (EVA/21291) (WOA/50466) (WOA/50467) (CMN/32589) (CMN/32590) (BAL/77564) (BAL/77565) (KBS/34386) (KBS/34387) (KBS/34388) (QBO/43026) (QBO/43027) (QBO/43028) (KIK/37677) (KIK/37679) (BHL/15089) (BHL/15090) (SCA/55651) (BEZ/23747) (GOV/44396) (GOV/44397) (DID/28790) (DID/28791) (ELT/16359) (ELT/16360) (ELT/16361) (IBK/27771) (IBK/27772) (CFH/12594) (CFH/12595) (LGS/14477) (LGS/14478) (LGS/14479) (IMM/10904) (IMM/10905) (BLG/9311) (BLG/9312) (LEO/26242) (LEO/26243) (HRA/10944) (HRA/10945) (HRA/10946) (CHN/52136) (CHN/52137) (BRH/23866) (BRH/23867) (EVE/37687) (EVE/37688) (CHO/58160) (CHO/58161) (DBY/159176) (DBY/159177) (CHF/47052) (CHF/47054) (HJN/53338) (HJN/53339) (HJN/53340) (SAY/27355) (SAY/27356) (GSN/13788) (GSN/13789) (TUN/52792) (TUN/52793) (BWH/40243) (BWH/40244) (ALA/5621) (ALA/5622) (MAG/7122) (MAG/7123) (IRV/33466) (IRV/33467) (OLH/85770) (OLH/85771) (OLH/85772) (TIP/28106) (TIP/28108) (CMB/13654) (CMB/13655) (CMB/13656) (STG/26583) (STG/26584) (ING/16181) (ING/16182) (SKP/37164) (SKP/37165) (ADV/23259) (ADV/23260) (MDD/19216) (MDD/19217) (MDD/19218) (WAS/26576) (WAS/26578) (DUR/76966) (DUR/76967) (LAB/25475) (LAB/25476) (MHH/24189) (MHH/24190) (QTK/6254) (QTK/6255) (QTK/6256) (RHM/16888) (RHM/16889) (RHM/16890) (DIG/11728) (DIG/11729) (MOL/8756) (MOL/8757) (CRM/20594) (CRM/20595) (EMH/10536) (EMH/10537) (EMH/10538) (SLU/42245) (SLU/42246) (DUC/47463) (DUC/47464) (WNS/15831) (WNS/15832) (HEU/47487) (HEU/47488) (HLY/4986) (HLY/4987) (TUO/24217) (TUO/24218) (PWL/14675) (PWL/14676) (HTF/26011) (HTF/26012) (LCH/11604) (LCH/11605) (IRL/10811) (IRL/10812) (IRL/10813) (CAD/13964) (CAD/13965) (GAR/24232) (GAR/24233) (RMF/25208) (RMF/25209) (RMF/25210) (ROI/81322) (ROI/81323) (MIR/15918) (MIR/15919) (RKH/29921) (RKH/29922) (CFB/181721) (CFB/181722) (BUX/27260) (BUX/27261) (HAF/67320) (HAF/67321) (OXD/102865) (OXD/102866) (HNY/22082) (KAN/16619) (KAN/16620) (NKN/9547) (NKN/9548) (NKN/9549) (BXY/19791) (BXY/19792) (BXY/19793) (HST/19759) (HST/19760) (DEV/43440) (DEV/43441) (HNY/22083) (CTM/28696) (CTM/28697) (LLF/43945) (LLF/43946) (WHS/15220) (WHS/15221) (KIJ/39528) (KIJ/39529) (WMT/21631) (WMT/21632) (GOE/18766) (GOE/18767) (ROC/70814) (ROC/70815) (ROC/70816) (WBG/21951) (WBG/21952) (EST/19649) (EST/19650) (JAR/28709) (JAR/28710) (SOD/23623) (SOD/23624) (OSW/32709) (OSW/32710) (WII/25409) (WII/25411) (BWK/7258) (BWK/7259) (ROF/14746) (ROF/14747) (SOL/17486) (SOL/17487) (RDC/22699) (RDC/22700) (FOK/12976) (FOK/12977) (ERG/22905) (ERG/22907) (STA/63817) (STA/63818) (CAG/9343) (CAG/9344) (LLJ/29487) (LLJ/29488) (PTK/24686) (PTK/24687) (PTF/12383) (PTF/12384) (BOQ/29276) (BOQ/29277) (REB/30106) (REB/30107) (GIR/10004) (GIR/10005) (WCG/25494) (WCG/25495) (ABH/30536) (ABH/30537) (ALN/17991) (ALN/17992) (ALU/81039) (ALU/81040) (ALU/81041) (BRJ/44625) (BRJ/44626) (HOR/33285) (HOR/33286) (HOR/33287) (WET/38011) (WET/38012) (SFB/1775) (SFB/1776) (QPU/33935) (QPU/33936) (QPU/33937) (SOO/66760) (SOO/66761) (SOO/66762) (PEX/33969) (PEX/33970) (BUA/14665) (BUA/14666) (NEP/85291) (NEP/85292) (CHA/18121) (CHA/18122) (HKH/15996) (HKH/15997) (HKH/15998) (CDN/15705) (CDN/15706) (CNN/27091) (CNN/27092) (BSK/46618) (BSK/46619) (REN/18264) (REN/18265) (PED/22775) (PED/22776) (RFM/7657) (RFM/7658) (BNB/28849) (BNB/28850) (BEZ/23746) (RID/29084) (RID/29085) (BRC/60724) (BRC/60725) (BIE/22002) (BIE/22003) (ROJ/9054) (ROJ/9055) (IKE/15139) (IKE/15140) (CFA/53125) (CFA/53126) (HKB/11355) (HKB/11356) (HKB/11357) (WTF/33129) (WTF/33130) (BOO/37847) (BOO/37848) (REH/26968) (REH/26969) (NEU/28809) (NEU/28810) (YEA/37370) (YEA/37371) (WIU/28199) (WIU/28200) (IVA/36104) (IVA/36105) (COW/26712) (COW/26713) (BRL/15963) (BRL/15964) (PRT/13837) (PRT/13838) (PRT/13839) (CHT/27827) (CHT/27828) (CHT/27829) (NOL/13060) (NOL/13061) (HAJ/43742) (HAJ/43743) (SME/37353) (SME/37355) (WIC/19090) (WIC/19091) (DLG/2327) (DLG/2328) (GUS/17451) (GUS/17452) (DRU/9705) (DRU/9706) (COU/51145) (COU/51146) (YAT/33196) (YAT/33197) (COF/25629) (COF/25630) (BRT/26642) (BRT/26643) (NEK/20675) (NEK/20676) (BXN/2889) (BXN/2890) (BXN/2891) (DUE/97461) (DUE/97462) (KLB/24933) (KLB/24934) (KLB/24935) (OLS/18931) (OLS/18932) (AYY/22697) (AYY/22698) (DIF/31953) (DIF/31954) (DIF/31955) (TNY/4318) (TNY/4319) (ACB/7728) (ACB/7729) (BTG/12088) (BTG/12089) (RUT/23401) (RUT/23402) (HGT/53374) (HGT/53375) (ASO/16510) (ASO/16511) (DOV/31669) (DOV/31670) (LIU/33545) (LIU/33546) (WHB/12975) (WHB/12976) (BPS/18522) (BPS/18523) (LET/15046) (LET/15047) (BDC/154969) (BDC/154970) (WEL/61314) (WEL/61316) (STH/16018) (STH/16019) (MOD/30569) (MOD/30570) (LGF/6920) (LGF/6921) (BRK/69356) (BRK/69357) (WJN/24574) (WJN/24575) (WJN/24576) (MAS/24360) (MAS/24361) (LSH/23810) (LSH/23811) (RMG/8763) (RMG/8764) (SOS/37478) (SOS/37479) (BRV/36292) (BRV/36293) (TOR/73872) (TOR/73873) (EYE/8984) (EYE/8985) (DUS/29407) (DUS/29408) (LAU/23381) (LAU/23382) (KET/57850) (KET/57851) (PNZ/13841) (PNZ/13842) (BEH/23029) (BEH/23030) (BUR/67113) (BUR/67114) (BUR/67115) (BAG/35130) (BAG/35131) (BGN/10014) (BGN/10015) (FOW/25996) (FOW/25997) (MIO/19627) (MIO/19628) (BUW/39449) (BUW/39450) (BAT/85105) (BAT/85106) (PLA/20930) (PLA/20931) (PLA/20932) (THO/17421) (THO/17422) (DER/25086) (DER/25087) (AML/4177) (AML/4178) (KIW/16372) (KIW/16373) (GSO/10101) (GSO/10102) (STM/43399) (STM/43400) (STM/43401) (CGI/60266) (CGI/60267) (ACQ/13780) (ACQ/13781) (ACQ/13782) (CUP/20384) (CUP/20385) (UPT/19843) (UPT/19844) (REA/128694) (REA/128695) (MDS/42993) (MDS/42994) (MRR/14845) (MRR/14846) (HBA/22944) (HBA/22945) (OLD/36818) (OLD/36820) (ITH/22125) (ITH/22126) (ITH/22127) (ECC/25934) (ECC/25935) (ECC/25936) (BCH/59373) (BCH/59374) (SAB/26244) (SAB/26245) (YLY/35386) (YLY/35388) (WEH/31528) (WEH/31529) (ARB/27003) (ARB/27004) (DAA/28485) (DAA/28486) (HDW/12071) (HDW/12073) (ORM/30843) (ORM/30844) (LRH/16376) (LRH/16377) (MFH/21773) (MFH/21774) (CLC/9145) (CLC/9146) (CAT/6582) (CAT/6583) (SUH/17548) (SUH/17549) (SUH/17550) (WYU/26938) (WYU/26939) (FRO/17105) (FRO/17106) (HNS/29760) (HNS/29761) (HNS/29762) (JOH/19548) (JOH/19549) (FIN/26691) (FIN/26692) (FIN/26693) (KIM/40053) (KIM/40054) (NSS/6722) (NSS/6723) (HOY/15118) (HOY/15119) (SAD/40548) (SAD/40549) (GAT/91193) (GAT/91194) (MOF/28082) (MOF/28083) (PPD/21378) (PPD/21379) (HEH/10283) (HEH/10284) (CHR/60090) (CHR/60091) (DUA/53079) (DUA/53081) (COT/8642) (COT/8643) (COT/8644) (NEV/20667) (NEV/20668) (NEV/20669) (BPC/12127) (BPC/12128) (FAR/49748) (FAR/49749) (HIN/45473) (HIN/45474) (NSN/25085) (NSN/25086) (NEH/50180) (NEH/50181) (BIW/18162) (BIW/18163) (CAL/19971) (CAL/19972) (GAI/22843) (GAI/22844) (BMC/99662) (BMC/99664) (BOL/114058) (BOL/114059) (BOL/114060) (ACC/52738) (ACC/52739) (PLE/54356) (PLE/54357) (FUL/14501) (FUL/14502) (FUL/14503) (CON/27545) (CON/27546) (CRY/79825) (CRY/79826) (CRY/79827) (MCC/22589) (MCC/22590) (STW/50670) (STW/50671) (BLV/8532) (BLV/8533) (ABF/29139) (ABF/29140) (SEA/40988) (SEA/40989) (WLC/14033) (WLC/14034) (WLC/14035) (COA/51684) (COA/51685) (CRO/9502) (CRO/9503) (SPL/24511) (SPL/24512) (SKM/33378) (SKM/33379) (SUD/26813) (SUD/26814) (BEG/43169) (BEG/43170) (EPS/55759) (EPS/55760) (PAL/63302) (PAL/63303) (WOR/26743) (WOR/26744) (WOR/26745) (HOX/12279) (HOX/12280) (HOX/12281) (MAC/57548) (MAC/57549) (MAC/57550) (WSQ/140190) (WSQ/140191) (SPH/44631) (SPH/44633) (HBH/27109) (HBH/27110) (NOI/40932) (NOI/40933) (PTS/12800) (PTS/12801) (YEV/32559) (YEV/32560) (AMA/6743) (AMA/6744) (HER/24253) (HER/24254) (CHY/32856) (CHY/32857) (CHY/32858) (PET/29281) (PET/29282) (MAY/28863) (MAY/28864) (WAN/24244) (WAN/24245) (WAN/24246) (TRJ/9134) (TRJ/9135) (FOR/21152) (FOR/21153) (GRX/37978) (GRX/37979) (EDM/26814) (EDM/26815) (EDM/26816) (GLE/40008) (GLE/40009) (LCS/18394) (LCS/18395) (LCS/18396) (EAD/12488) (EAD/12489) (NCS/58954) (NCS/58955) (MOC/20890) (MOC/20891) (HYH/18468) (HYH/18469) (WIN/25902) (WIN/25903) (BEF/10496) (BEF/10497) (FAU/20467) (FAU/20468) (FAU/20469) (ELS/23540) (ELS/23541) (ELS/23542) (LIC/48651) (LIC/48652) (BOY/44761) (BOY/44762) (BOY/44763) (PCH/46113) (PCH/46114) (SHN/49006) (SHN/49007) (WYS/23259) (WYS/23260) (WYS/23261) (LCB/24317) (LCB/24318) (NEA/37780) (NEA/37781) (ADB/32112) (ADB/32113) (SUN/77277) (SUN/77278) (UXB/54593) (UXB/54594) (UXB/54595) (TAM/57308) (TAM/57309) (BIG/24133) (BIG/24134) (HTN/6170) (HTN/6171) (EAK/55298) (EAK/55299) (BNP/22570) (BNP/22571) (BRI/21916) (BRI/21917) (EAS/44485) (EAS/44486) (POL/12166) (POL/12167) (KIT/51315) (KIT/51316) (KID/10685) (KID/10686) (WYB/32613) (WYB/32614) (MTF/10998) (MTF/10999) (COS/44308) (COS/44309) (MAE/36393) (MAE/36394) (RIG/29336) (RIG/29337) (SOH/68945) (SOH/68947) (SNS/32315) (SNS/32316) (LUN/40858) (LUN/40859) (YOR/172232) (YOR/172233) (BAP/34962) (BAP/34963) (HRG/37935) (HRG/37936) (HUT/55304) (HUT/55305) (SHW/78771) (SHW/78772) (GLO/20411) (GLO/20412) (WAR/41916) (WAR/41917) (NOR/36780) (NOR/36781) (NOR/36782) (RED/69250) (RED/69251) (NEE/45802) (NEE/45803) (PER/69876) (PER/69877) (LOF/5788) (LOF/5789) (DMT/4789) (DMT/4790) (BUL/19094) (BUL/19095) (DAV/30404) (DAV/30405) (AST/35214) (AST/35216) (STV/20184) (STV/20185) (LYM/26088) (LYM/26089) (DCB/24013) (DCB/24014) (SEY/19165) (SEY/19167) (KIR/31225) (KIR/31226) (SLL/5153) (SLL/5154) (SLL/5155) (WHC/17129) (WHC/17130) (GCE/33306) (GCE/33307) (NNT/22256) (NNT/22257) (GNT/18023) (GNT/18024) (LLC/22385) (LLC/22386) (TRR/49523) (TRR/49524) (WLA/20057) (WLA/20058) (WLA/20059) (HEK/31475) (HEK/31476) (BRQ/26436) (BRQ/26437) (CST/8434) (CST/8435) (BOD/21559) (BOD/21560) (CLW/10340) (CLW/10341) (CRN/8051) (CRN/8052) (LGB/30457) (LGB/30458) (HAY/27201) (HAY/27202) (HAY/27203) (BSW/17798) (BSW/17800) (WIS/29500) (WIS/29501) (LEN/49373) (LEN/49374) (CRJ/23129) (CRJ/23130) (WAB/96216) (WAB/96217) (ALE/22851) (ALE/22852) (DIN/18710) 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(SJC/30049) (TIV/27118) (TIV/27119) (CAI/8498) (CAI/8499) (SBR/2377) (SBR/2378) (MAV/37647) (MAV/37648) (SPS/51812) (SPS/51813) (CRK/11922) (CRK/11923) (PAP/19794) (PAP/19795) (PAP/19796) (CHG/114297) (CHG/114298) (KLL/12493) (KLL/12494) (LEZ/45546) (LEZ/45547) (BAA/8885) (BAA/8886) (BRW/23827) (BRW/23829) (RHL/20864) (RHL/20865) (WAV/29098) (WAV/29099) (SOM/61097) (SOM/61098) (SHL/34217) (SHL/34218) (KIB/20115) (KIB/20116) (BHF/32584) (BHF/32585) (RSQ/6183) (RSQ/6184) (RSQ/6185) (NAL/25693) (NAL/25694) (PYL/14776) (PYL/14777) (BIS/30300) (BIS/30301) (LAN/23640) (LAN/23641) (HBD/44324) (HBD/44325) (HWY/37718) (HWY/37719) (HIS/10107) (HIS/10108) (HIS/10109) (GRW/49238) (GRW/49239) (WAF/23010) (WAF/23011) (ABG/8909) (ABG/8910) (DIS/27724) (DIS/27725) (GUF/42585) (GUF/42586) (BED/24324) (BED/24325) (STS/54057) (STS/54059) (BLY/22884) (BLY/22885) (SEH/12763) (SEH/12764) (WEG/35592) (WEG/35593) (STD/38053) (STD/38054) (DAG/29837) (DAG/29838) (DAG/29839) (WAD/26173) (WAD/26174) (LIS/23150) (LIS/23151) (BEK/31551) (BEK/31552) (WAX/38965) (WAX/38966) (WWJ/55328) (WWJ/55329) (WWJ/55330) (AVO/35941) (AVO/35942) (BLO/109197) (BLO/109198) (LEL/18340) (LEL/18341) (WIL/28705) (WIL/28706) (WIL/28707) (GTT/33084) (GTT/33085) (GOR/28818) (GOR/28819) (CIN/13162) (CIN/13163) (FPK/16339) (FPK/16340) (FPK/16341) (BDG/4446) (BDG/4447) (SHV/4654) (SHV/4655) (SUO/49697) (SUO/49699) (BEP/21833) (BEP/21834) (CUN/17871) (CUN/17872) (TOS/28973) (TOS/28974) (HYT/14955) (HYT/14956) (STK/23066) (STK/23067) (STK/23068) (WRT/30914) (WRT/30915) (WHX/29715) (WHX/29716) (GRA/18159) (GRA/18160) (SLE/23393) (SLE/23394) (PTM/5618) (PTM/5619) (LEK/19837) (LEK/19838) (LLD/35984) (LLD/35985) (PAS/16479) (PAS/16480) (ATS/22074) (ATS/22075) (NEL/30517) (NEL/30518) (ENF/41067) (ENF/41068) (ENF/41069) (MAM/27519) (MAM/27520) (WLG/19089) (WLG/19090) (GOO/28194) (GOO/28195) (NEQ/41677) (NEQ/41678) (WEJ/17722) (WEJ/17723) (IWM/82056) (IWM/82057) (IWM/82058) (LIW/71779) (LIW/71780) (GVS/11536) (GVS/11537) 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Other vacancies

Amongst the remainder:-

• At least 263 (approx 3% of the total) are “zero opportunities”:- These are Government schemes and appointments that are not jobs or work placements
• Around 742 (approx 8% of the total) are advertised by a known recruitment/employment agency:- Many jobseekers believe they either are duplicating a vacancy already advertised or advertising jobs that don’t exist (such as future jobs)
• At least 558 (approx 6%) are burst vacancies:- These are self-employed opportunities. Self-employed people are sole traders and employ themselves, thus its not a job vacancy. Its merely an enterprise opportunity. Advertisers are not employers for the aforementioned reason.
• At least 165 (approx 2%) were known workfare positions:- These are a position of work without pay, and forced for benefits.

To recap… 18% (the remainder – approx 1 in 5) also cannot find you employment. Lets combine these… makes approx 35% known to be not jobs. This strictly excludes fake jobs and scams.

Approx 1 in 3 jobs are not jobs

Just in one day, 35% of the so-called jobs are  not job vacancies. DWP Press office lying again?!

How we calculated it:-

• dgJobs has access to the database – wasn’t searched from directgov – would have broken before then!
• From the total listings we noticed so many of the “prison opportunities” so we did a search for the remainder and found 1555 in total.
• 263 “zero opportunities” are determined by SOC 0 (internal) code.
• 742 “agency jobs” determined by employer name (agency) and job description containing the “XYZ is operating as … ” line
• 558 self-employed positions determined by job description
• 165 workfare positions determined by phrases such as SBWA and work experience in the title or job description

Tesco workfare debate escalates

Tesco last year made £3.8bn in profits. That is around £10m profit a day.

Losses made pursuing a global business (3rd largest by revenue, 2nd largest by profits) in the US are being heavily subsidized by slave labour in the UK via the form of compulsory workfare.

Anger has been expressed on the Tesco Facebook and twitter (#Tesco) – most aren’t using the hash tag though.

There is speculation of flashmobs and protests on 3rd March 2012.

Watch this space for developments (post comments for updates)

Protests against Workfare and Tescos Grow – Latest.

 

Joe380Joseph O’Brien

 

Tills have been closed in #Tesco Westminster #workfare http://pic.twitter.com/EDcsqdhD

55 minutes ago

 

Tesco, Portcullis House, Bridge St, Westminster, SW1A 2JR – opposite Parliament
10am,

Background.

From the Guardian here.

[We hear that despite Tescos claim that this is all a mistake not only the above but further  protests are going ahead. One group involved is the Right to Work campaign - here]

“The supermarket giant has amended an advert looking for permanent workers in exchange for expenses and jobseeker’s allowance, saying it was a mistake.

Twitter and Facebook users had highlighted the advert for a night shift worker at a store in west Suffolk on the Jobseekers’ Plus website. It was offered under the Government’s “sector-based work academy scheme” which is linked to payment of benefits – but Tesco said the impression that it was seeking to replace full-time workers was mistaken.

The error comes after unions called for high street chains to withdraw from Government programmes that require the unemployed to work for up to six months or face losing their benefits.

Tesco has explained that the advert was “a mistake caused by an IT error by Jobcentre Plus” which was being rectified. It was an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a Government-led work experience scheme.

However, right to work campaigners are pressing on with the protest, at Tesco in Portcullis House, opposite the Houses of Parliament. A spokesman for the protesters said: “Tesco reports that over the past four months some 1,400 people have worked for them without pay. Only 300 got a job with the company.

“The Tory Government is slashing jobs and then punishing the jobless. And to add insult to injury, they are forcing people to work for free to boost profits for big business. That’s why we will be demanding that workfare be scrapped immediately.”

Sam James, joint national chair of Right to Work, said: “This is another example of working class people being forced to pay for a crisis created by the greed of the rich. Tesco is cashing in on people’s misery. Perhaps this is what it means by ‘every little helps’.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “We would never offer longer term work on an unpaid basis. The Department for Work and Pensions has acknowledged that the advertisement was an error on the part of JobCentre Plus. Work experience at Tesco should, wherever possible, be a pathway to a paid job with Tesco.”

A DWP spokeswoman said: “As we made clear on Thursday, this role was incorrectly described and advertised by Jobcentre Plus; not by Tesco – there was no error whatsoever on their part.”

See Boycott Workfare for more information on the campaign.

A4e under investigation for fraud… AGAIN!

A4e, poverty pimp, workfare pimp, experienced fraudster and serial thief from the taxpayers’ purse, is under investigation for fraud once again. On Friday afternoon, Thames Valley Police launched an 4 hour raid on A4e in Slough, demanding staff to hand over computer files and documents from the last 2 years.

DWP has confirmed there is another fraud probe into A4e. Police may also raid other A4e offices across the country. As it wasn’t simultaneous there is much chance for these records to vanish or be tampered with.

It is alleged that the fraud mostly consisted of sticking people into jobs for merely a day but claiming sustainable job outcomes.  

Workfare, PCSO, DWP admin and Job Interviews

We have criticised Jobcentre Plus’ Labour Market System, workfare job vacancies advertised on there, Jobcentre Plus using workfare and false job advertisements to distort job counts.

Police uses Workfare

Who else could be using workfare apart from the DWP and local councils? The police of course, an institution assumed of moral standards and ethical legitimacy. However, in this case its not about some IT staff member or glorified tea maker, but a Police Community Support Officer, permanent role on a Training Wage.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICER (NEP/84870)

As featured on dgJobs (reference DG/28472/NEP33120/1) :-

Routeways to Work-Gwent Police. Applicants must have extensive checks carried out into theirs & their families background. DNA/Drugs Test will also be required later in the application process. Must have lived in the UK for 3 years prior to application. A basic standard of literacy is required. Must achieve a driving licence within 24 months at their own exp. Be prepared to work in any location in the Gwent Force area. Be prepared to work shifts between the hours of 8am and midnight – Thursday to Sunday. Have good listening/communication skills. Health Check will also be required later in the application process. Training course delivered from 5th March 2012 to 27th April 2012 in Cwmbran at Torfaen Training, Springvale Industrial Estate. If successful through the initial sift, will be required to attend an information session (date to be confirmed)

Job interview… a job in itself!

Why not? A clever way of doubling up a vacancy is to advertise the vacancy to get written applications/CVs; then to create a new “job” advert as an internal SOC code (SOC 0 – zero opportunity) to hide it from listings, for such job interview.

The trouble is you cannot apply for the job interview directly and primarily, to get a guaranteed job interview.

INTERVIEWS FOR CONTRACT SECURITY OFFICER (CHO/58119)

Interviews for local Security vacancy.

It is not a job and should have never been listed to boost the vacancy counts.

More DWP vacancies

Yes, DWP has more use for workfare (some adverts pre-date dgJobs showing an ongoing recruitment drive). Concerns show that DWP may have as many as 2000 workfare participants lined up to provide work for them! Some of these go back to 2011 as in when they were posted initially. Click title to view more information such as job reference code.

ADMIN OFFICER (1967 – 1970)

***Work Experience Only***Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentreplus to see if they are eligible but MUST NOT contact apply to the host employer directly .Post is based at TyneView Park,Newcastle. For general clerical and office related duties including filing, photo copying etcSmart business dress standard applies.4 posts available – will all start together 12/3/12

First we can assume they are talking about year. However, “4 posts”… 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970.. this coincides with a previous post of ”ADMIN OFFICER (1870-1871)MARCH12″ etc. for 2 positions. The above (WAC/18918) appears to based as Jobcentre Plus and international Pension service, such as exporting benefits abroad.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER – REF 890

This is a Work Experience opportunity. Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directly”.Elligibility – open to customers aged 18-24 with little or no work experience. Will be required for general admin duties and gaining some basic knowledge of the workings of a jobcentre and the customer journey. Duties include filing, preparing marketing materials and data analysis. Communicating with employers/updating records. Identifying vacancies on the internet and local newspapers. Supporting customers using jobspoints and. A full CRB check will be conducted prior to start.

CUSTOMER SERVICE DWP REF

Administrative duties within city jobcentre – plse see itinerary. THIS OPP IS FOR STATION STREET SITE – currently DWP REF. This is a Work Experience opportunity. Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directly”

 ADMIN ASSISTANT (DWP – PDCS)

 This is a Work Experience opportunity. Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directlyNO CRB requiredHoping to start 06/02/12. Working within a government department as an administration assistant.Gain experience of admin support and associated tasks. Develop a work orientated routine and an understanding of the processess involved working within a large organisation.DWP Visiting Team – Bellshill JCP

DWP ASSISTANT EMPLOYER ADVISERS

You will be working alongside the Bailey Court Labour Market Team. Duties include Marketing Employers with mailshots and by phone. Making up packs for Group sessions. Matching customers to vacancies and supporting Jobpoint Support team offering advice and support to customers. Cavendish Court, Eastern Ave, Hillsborough, Woodhouse and Chapeltown customers only. Customers to bring Cv and identification either passport or driving licence.

ADMINISTRATION OFFICER

WEX opportunity for 8 weeks.You will gain experience in all departments of this Housing association over 8 weeks. It will include the following duties: ADMIN – assisting with basic office duties, archiving, database updates, data inputting.OPERATIONS- assisting with research, reports, policies and procedures, operational administration. HOUSING- rent controls, spreadsheets, assessments, maintenance referrals, etc This association supports Blind and Partially sighted Service Users. Applicants must have a good telephone manner, strong IT skills a business administration qualification would be useful. Employment may follow for the right candidate.

ADMINISTRATION OFFICER-DWP REF 1905

THIS IS A WORK EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITY.Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directly.. Administrative and general office work. IT skills are essential. CRB check not required

Other Government departments

Remember, these are merely examples presented here – they are not exhaustive… you will find hundreds of others if you look hard enough. VOSA and Councils also getting in the act of workfare.

ADMIN / CLERICAL OFFICERS

Skills to gain during placement: data entry, indexing, scanning, and general admin duties including some customer service on the telephone. Applicants should have some experience using computers. Participants will be helping with the Council Tax Billing/recovery of Ctax, business rates, car parking fines/benefit overpayments and sundry debts. ***Only open to 18 to 24yr olds eligible for GBW Work Experience*** Your participation is voluntary but once a placement is accepted your benefits could be affected if you fail to start, or fail to comply with the terms of your placement, without showing good cause.

ADMINISTRATON OFFICER

This placement with the Local Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) will cover a range of administration duties and offer succesful applicants the opportunity to develop communication and team working skills and gain work references to include on their CV. Succesful applicant will be required to undergo a security/ID check. This is a Work Experience opportunity. Interested customers should contact their local Jobcentre to see if they are eligible but must not apply to host employers directly/DPA Consent form to be completed by Adviser at the time of the referral.

Oh the errors in some adverts… these aren’t errors (typos, spelling or grammar mistakes) on our part.

Old active listings

Of course you cannot always get the staff! There are many job vacancies listed as “active” that have been on for many years. We at dgJobs have only been running for a couple of weeks, we have deleted hundreds of vacancies with a posted date ranging back pre-Jobcentre Plus, and even pre-DWP and Department of Social Security (DSS)!!

It has left some however, like an RMN NURSE… (See more old vacancies from the same employer)

RMN Nurse (BNB/12371)

RNMH or RMN Level 2 required. Must be a registered mental nurse with experience in working with dementia with the elderly an advantage, must have good communication skills. Duties to include being responsible for managing a complete shift, dealing with all issues arising, supervising staff and administrating all nursing duties as required. To register as a nurse or midwife in the UK visit www.nmc-uk.org Opens new window (unless Javascript disabled) . Successful applicants are required to provide an enhanced disclosure. Disclosure expense will be met by employer.

You can apply for this job by telephoning 01295 262083 and asking for Mrs Taylor.

Added over 4 years ago!  No really, open up directgov and paste the reference code in! If anyone is feeling brave give the number a call and ask if the job is still available. LMS jobs only are stored for a year giving two scenarios… 1) either someone input the date incorrectly or 2) the job has been relisted with the old date so it counts as a vacancy but not displayed.

Bad attitudes

Of course, most vacancies do not have a job closing date… therefore they are never removed from the system unless specifically requested.

Work Experience, Workfare: the Real Programme is Worse.

“Snobs” is how Chris Grayling attacked those who criticise the ‘Work Experience’ programme for the under-25s.

The Employment Minister now  says, ” “The idea that people are being press-ganged for long periods of time to work for nothing to provide cheap labour for big companies is totally untrue.”

It’s all a helping-hand for young people.

Grayling  promises, however, to ‘review” the scheme.  (Here)

Protests have grown.

It’s grabbed people’s attention because big stores, like Tescos and Poundland, are involved.

The Cabinet’s Spin at the moment is to play on the fears that most of us have, righly, for the future of young people.

Who could condemn them, they seem to say, to a life without a job?

In reality this is a subsidy for the companies that take on the under-25s, and the sweetener is unpaid labour.

This undercuts normal employment rights, not to say the rights of those on Work Experience.

But ‘Work Experience is  just one of the Government’s many plans to for the unemployed.

For those 25 and over there is “Pathways to Work”. This is similar to Work Experience, but there is even greater room for exploitation.

It is less visible. But, as Work Programme has exposed on the Ipswich Unemployed Action Blog, government bodies, like the Police, and the DWP, are taking people on through this programme.

The Government says that these programmes are ‘voluntary’. This is far from the case. But it is true that they claim to lead, in theory, to work.

The Coalition has further plans.

They intend a very large number of people to work for their benefits.

This has begun.

People on this site (who we consider contributors not just commentators) point out that Mandatory Work Activity is already clearly workfare. It is not voluntary. It is a kind of punishment.

As the DWP says (Here)

“From today Jobcentre Plus advisers can refer jobseekers that need additional support to get back to work onto mandatory work activity. Where advisers believe a jobseeker will benefit from experiencing the habits and routines of working life, they have the power to refer them to a four week placement.

This could be in a wide range of roles, including doing maintenance work for housing residents, renovating and recycling old furniture, working in a local sports club or supporting charitable organisations.

Participants will be expected to spend up to 30 hours a week, for 4 weeks, on their Work Activity placement and will be required to continue to look for work.

This kind of scheme is to be extended.

Chris Grayling said to the Sunday Times (8.1.12).

“Claimants can expect to be involved in working in parks, helping in community centres, and picking up litter”.

From next year anybody who’s been unemployed for more than 2 years will be expected to undertake the Community Action Programme. Pilots are up and running.

This will be “Mandatory Work Activity” – for  six months.

Why is the government doing this?

They are building on New Labour’s ‘New Deal’ and ‘Flexible New Deal’.

These schemes made claimants do ‘placements’ for their benefits, though they claimed it would help make people more employable and update their skills.

Now work for your Dole is the aim.

What’s the Economics?

Many employers are now used to treating workers like their products.

They only hold the minimum in stock (‘just in time’) and want to get rid of anything they don’t want as easily as possible. They want employees whenever they need them, and to get rid of them as simply as possible. They want to pay them the least they can. In many cases they use Agencies, with Zero Hour Contracts.

Work Experience, or Pathways to Work, fits into this. It  reduces the of getting somebody new. The threat of benefit sanctions makes people do what they’re told. The main risk is taken by the state. People can also be sacked easily during the trial – and benefit sanctions will result.

Workfare is another angle. It  could replace the paid public sector workers Coalition austerity budgets  are cutting. It’s also another kind of discipline. It makes life hard for anyone on benefits. It gives an incentive to find a job, however badly paid at least you’d get something more than JSA. The work is an unopaid bonus for whoever runs the schemes.

Neither plan creates real work, or solves growing unemployment.

Expect of course for those private companies running the schemes that push the out-of-work around.

People sometimes talk of a return to Victorian values.

More Tesco workfare placements

OK, not a fully exhaustive break down… we really don’t have the time for that, and most placements will be made through a poverty pimp (welfare to work provider) for the Work Programme, Mandatory Work Activity and Community Action Programme etc.

There is a good reason why we are highlighting two specific vacancies… (if your blood is already close to boiling point we do not recommend you read this):-

Why “Work Experience” scheme is not voluntary

There is much confusion as to work placements on the Work Experience scheme being voluntary or mandatory.

It is mandatory, we will explain why:-

1. It is an employment programme (treats participants as employees and the placement as a job) that carries benefit sanctions as penalty for non-compliance
2. An employment officer at the Jobcentre has to mandate the jobseeker on to the scheme in a similar way to the Work Programme, Community Action Programme, or Mandatory Work Activity scheme.
3. It is supposed to be offered to the jobseeker as a suggestion, allowing the jobseeker to decide whether to take the opportunity or not; however, in some cases known to Ipswich Unemployed Action, some jobseekers are forced on to the scheme by their adviser.
4. A jobseeker cannot apply for the scheme, it is the jobcentre adviser that actions such referral and has control - for example, a jobseeker cannot enter the scheme if his or hers adviser refuses to do so and likewise cannot opt out if the adviser is stubborn and refuses to accept no as an answer.
5. If the jobseeker refuses, fails or gives up a place on Work Experience he or she will have a sanction doubt raised against him or her.
6. Technically, a jobseeker leaving in the probation period (first week) still should get a sanction doubt raised against him or her.
7. The probation period is good cause - that is a valid defence to a sanction doubt; not immunity from one being raised. (In a similar way to a case of killing someone in self-defence most would still have to stand trial in most cases, the lack of penalty isn’t the same as lack of action)
8. To save money from no chance sanction doubts - someone leaving in the probation period is unlikely to have a sanction doubt raised when the law clearly states the jobseeker is protected. It could be argued it is vexatious if this proper procedure was to be active.
9. The jobseeker once signed up to the scheme cannot opt out after changing his or hers mind. The jobseeker must attend the first day to avoid a benefit sanction.
10. The jobseeker must attend and participate on the first day. If a change of heart is made before the scheme commences, in order to get out of the scheme, he or she must work the whole first day - this is forced labour.
11. If the jobseeker decides half way through the first day that he or she doesn’t want to do the work placement he or she cannot stop performing labour without getting a benefit sanction.
12. Jobseekers were not made aware of the probation period - many people have said it was voluntary up until mandated where the jobcentre have said its mandatory now and you will be sanctioned if you refuse.
13. If there is a family emergency, the jobseeker cannot pack up work and leave without getting a sanction doubt raised – in most circumstances the jobcentre might consider such as “good cause” in itself but a decision maker is left to decide and a family emergency in your mind might not be the same in the DWP guidance.

To Recap:-

• You cannot individually apply for such work experience placement by freedom of thought, freedom of expression and your own will without influence, persuasion, bullying or acceptance by your jobcentre adviser
• You have no right to cancel prior to the placement commencing or on the first day
• You have no right to cancel in the second to eighth (if that long in duration) week
• You must work the first day or be sanctioned

Work Programme in Disarray: Up the Ante!

With ‘Work Experience’ programmes in disarray now is the time to up the ante: Fight the plans for Workfare as a central part of the Dole!

Ipswich Unemployed Action, formed in 2009,  has protested against these schemes since they first appeared.

We have supported

• Decent benefits for all – a raise so people are not forced into poverty and debt.
• No compulsion on back-t0-work schemes.
• Measures to stop the bullying and exploitation of claimants.
•  Genuine training  – not just the endless ‘job preparation’ courses that we all get.
• If we can’t find work the government should create real jobs of community use, paid for at the minimum wage, and the ‘rate for the job’.

As work experience schemes for the under 25s are collapsing, we learn that A4E are being investigated for fraud.

This, we suspect on the basis of what we hear about how many of the companies involved in the Unemployment Business operate, , is the tip of the Iceberg.

We are pleasantly suprised to hear that the public is turning against this profitable industry.

That they want people paid for their work – not workfare.

So we now should campaign against:

• The remaining unpaid work experience providers – especially government ones.
• All providers for the Mandatory Work Activity – workfare.
• All providers bidding for the Community Action Programme – 6 months workfare.

Johnny Void offers some Companies and Charities to start with Here. 

A4E: Are They the Only Ones to Face Charges of Abuse?

Emma Harrison is again  in the line of fire.

A4E is accused of getting people on the Flexible New Deal (New Labour’s own launch into this sorry mess) to work in its offices (Guardian).

Let’s ignore, for the moment, the howls of laughter across the country at seeing Emma Harrison having to hold her own hand.

Was A4E  the only Provider to do this?

We find this hard to believe.

We have heard that other providers routinely did this.

In the Eastern Region, there should be an investigation into, to start with, SEETEC and the YMCA, particularly the former.

Investigations should be made across the country into every single one of these companies.

Now we are beginning to hear more about workfare for older people: the Mandatory Work Activity (MWA).

Ian Duncan Smith says that the present Work Programme is not open to abuse because companies won’t get paid for six months (???).

But let’s look at Mandatory Work Activity, which will be expanded to all thos out of work for over 2 years under the Community Action Programme.

The same SEETEC is cited in the Guardian today,

Seetec, which won two contracts to run the MWA scheme in London and the East of England told the Guardian that “community benefit” also includes private companies.

In a statement Seetec said: “There are occasions where people taking part in MWA would carry out a work placement with a local employer who may be a private company, but this would be a placement that does deliver community benefit.”

What exactly is ‘community benefit’?

Obviously SEETEC and the private companies are, community’ and they will certainly benefit.

The article continues,

The DWP has now clarified that private companies can also be included in the definition of “community benefit”. Official figures show that 24,000 mostly young jobseekers have been made to do MWA but since this entire scheme is administered by private companies, information on where worked has not been made public. In response to questions about mandatory placements from the Guardian, a spokesperson for Ingeus Deloitte, which administers MWA in the east Midlands and the north-east, said: “We have not sought the permission of MWA placement providers to publish their names so will not be able to issue you with a list at this time. However, I can confirm that our clients are placed with wide range of community-based organisations and charities which benefit the local community, in accordance with the provider guidance issued by DWP.”

Still,

Both Seetec and Ingeus said that they did not place jobseekers on MWA placements within their own company.

That is a mercy.

Its all OVER for A4e… and Emma Harrison!

As more revelations arise over a second criminal fraud inquiry under way on A4e, the fact of DWP investigating the company 9 times in recent years, (they say a cat has 9 lives) and more scams entering the limelight… can Emma Harrison out run the Government and Police to a safe haven?

There is speculation that A4e will have all its Government contracts suspended, that their Work Programme contracts will be terminated, that the sum paid to A4e to terminate the Flexible New Deal contracts will be paid back to the treasury and possibly Saint Emma’s CBE to be annulled.

The Commmunity Action Programme – Slave Labour – Pinnacle People in Suffolk.

Yesterday was Business Day.

David Cameron began by saying “attacks on business are motivated by “snobbery” and that enterprise is a force for “social progress”. He also “defended the government’s welfare-to-work schemes.” (here)

Radio 4 The World at One had Liberal Democrat supporter Will Hutton  and former Tory Minister Baron Michel Heseltine debate the virtues of business. Hutton said that “nobody” was against capitalism.

In the Evening Newsnight had four prominent business figures on to explain further the virtues of business.

Then there was a piece on the Emma Harrison and A4E.

In the afternoon Newsnight had phoned us.

They wanted somebody - in London – who’d been on the Work Programme to talk.

We discussed the various welfare-t0-work schemes.

On the programme we had a brief reference to how many of these were.

 The researcher said that the DWP had not replied to a request (4 hours before) to give them the numbers of people on Mandatory Work Activity.

That evening they announced that the DWP had still not replied.

Then it was back to A4E.

To cap it, Chris Grayling talked about how good the Work Experience was for people.

Switching over we noticed that Question Time took the topic up.

The articulate Christian journalist Christina Odene complained that debate on this had been sidetracked by an  ungrateful articulate woman who didn’t like working for nothing.

The issue of forced unpaid labour was drowned in a sea of self-righteous claims that Work Experience was the only means to help young people avoid the fate of  Spanish youth, and no doubt a life of drugs, crime and cider drinking.

But what of this issue: Workfare?

Yesterday afternoon we were given a document by ‘X’.

This outline the Community Action Programme pilot in Suffolk – delivered by Pinnacle People.

Who are they?

We’re part of the Pinnacle Regeneration Group (PRG) which currently delivers public services to over 750,000 people each year. PRG is a privately owned holding company for a group of companies providing housing and urban regeneration services to local authorities and the wider public sector.

Pinnacle PSG, its subsidiary, has been providing housing and neighbourhood management services for local and housing authorities since 1995. Finally, Regenter is a joint venture with John Laing Plc investing in PFI (private finance initiatives) and PPP (public private partnerships) housing and community schemes. PRG’s property asset management division, PILA, invests in long term inner city regeneration projects.

The document begins,

• The programme lasts for 6 months and is a  combination of a work placement and a job search support.
• Work placements last up to 30 hours per week and up to 10 hours of job search support per week.
• Work placements are of benefit to the community.
• Mandatory participation for people selected to take part in the programme - DMA Action may be taken is a customer fails to start or participate in the programme
• Customers continues to sign fortnightly for benefit.

Stories of abuses  on the Community Action programme are already rolling in from elsewhere in the country, as Boycott Workfare reports.

Chaos is the rule,

We were actually told that in our Area the person whose job it is to secure placements is struggling, that the opportunities have dried up, that… “IF WE COULD HELP THEM BY LETTING THEM KNOW OF ANY COMPANY THAT COULD TAKE US ON, THEY WOULD BE MOST APPRECIATIVE” ARE YOU BL**DY KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!

What of the rest?

We already know that “community benefit” includes benefit to business.

So Cameron is right: capitalism is a great source of wealth.

Particularly if you have people forced to work for free to help Pinnacle People make a profit.

A4e Fraud.

In this article we intend to highlight the business practices of A4e. We know A4e will threaten to sue us for this but its only makes the process of such more fun. I personally think its best to throw a few pieces in and allow people to work it out themselves instead of writing it start to finish persuading people to think a certain way and be accused of being propaganda. In our defence this article will be sent to all news channels, the papers etc. and on the internet via twitter and facebook. 

A4E Insight: Replacing Council Staff with Unpaid Workfare?

The Independent on Sunday reports on the A4E scandal.

This stands out,

“A4e Insights, which is designing workfare programmes for local authorities. It was already the case that, once those programmes were developed, A4e itself would not bid for the work. Here.

What is A4E Insight?

A4e Insight is the Research and Consultancy arm of A4e, a market leader in global public service reform and in the design, development and delivery of front-line public services that benefit individuals, organisations and communities.

We work at the boundary between the public and private sectors and provide a range of strategic services to private sector companies, private investors and public sector organisations.

For  example,

A4e is now a mentor to public sector organisations wishing to become mutuals or other forms of social enterprise.  A4e was named as one of the new mentors to offer their support to fledgling public service mutuals when Francis Maude, Cabinet Office Minister, launched the second wave of mutual pathfinders on a visit to Swindon on 2 February.

It is interesting that a company shrouded in allegations of corruption and fraud should be ‘mentoring’ schemes to take public services out of public ownership and into shady ‘mutuals’ and ‘public interest’ companies.

These plans always involve job losses, and lots of profit for top managers and shareholders.

Are they, and local government, going to use unpaid labour as well?

Is this the real aim of the Community Action Programme?

That’s blue-sky thinking for coping with what Emma Harrison calls “fantastic” cuts.

The future of A4E: helping people make money out of slave labour.

A4e history exposed

Surprise surprise, prior to getting down to business… I will take this opportunity to expose the lying scum A4e really is. Rewind to Flexible New Deal… lets hear a statement from A4e Emma Harrison CBE herself.

It is out of the Flexible New Deal booklet titled “Welcome Aboard – your journey starts here!” with reference code CLNT001. Here it goes…

Welcome!
Hello… we’re delighted to have you with us.

Whatever your employment history has been like up to now, we’ll be able to improve your prospects for finding work. All it takes is for you to be as determined as we are that you’ll succeed.

Not everyone starts life with great opportunities and encouragement. But now we’re here, every step of the way, to help you reach your full potential.

That may involve you acquiring new skills. It may also mean getting help with things not directly linked with employment, such as debt management. Because we know that what holds people back is often nothing to do with their ability to work.

Our system of training, confidence-boosting and mentoring really works. We’ve been so successful at helping people to find employment, we now employ 3,500 ourselves. Across four continents.

A4e (or Action for Employment, as we were then) was originally set up in the ‘80s to help redundant steelworkers in Sheffield retrain for other careers.  We’ve lost count of the number of people we’ve help back into employment since then. And that’s mainly because it happens every 10 minutes of every working day. Right across the world. From Sheffield – where out headquarters remain to this day – all the way to Sydney.

The figures are so impressive because we never treat our customers themselves like statistics. We work with you to achieve your own individual goals.

Glad to have you’re here. And good luck!

Emma

Chairman, A4e

Okay, we really do not need to explain how patronising lies the above nonsense is. I am sure they lost count of the actual number of “people” (that is physical human beings). I hope there isn’t a fraud every 10 minutes!

A4e Emma Harrison CBE fraud creates record hits

There is a positive side of the major systematic fraud imposed on the taxpayer by A4e, Ipswich Unemployed Action has received record hits!! Its not much of a consolation prize for millions wasted both in dodgy job outcomes, clothing vouchers designed for the unemployed being used as bonuses and benefits lost due to benefit sanctions for mere lies.

Keep visiting, commenting and sharing the new articles on A4e and Emma Harrison.  (No, we are joking… although we got record hits there is no positive side to this fraud!)

Emma Harrison has been sacked

It appears as A4e Emma Harrison CBE has been sacked. According to a statement by Andrew Dutton:-

As a result of Emma Harrison’s resignation, announced on 24 February, she is no longer a Director or Chairman of A4e which means she cannot participate at Board meetings. The governance of A4e has therefore changed with immediate effect and decisions relating to future dividend policy will be determined by the Board under a new, independent non-executive Chairman. In addition, Emma’s salary and payments made by A4e in respect of Thornbridge Hall have ceased.

Not only has Emma Harrison stepped down as Chair and lost her salary (its loose change compared to the dividend payments) it also claimed she has ceased her directorship and A4e having ceased payments to Thornbridge Hall.

This is very concerning as it appears to be done in spite of guilt?

If it is A4e who is guilty of fraud,  being some employees of A4e… and everything above board… why would Emma Harrison have to terminate her directorship? Why would rental of Thornbridge Hall have to cease?

It all appears to be a case of damage limitation, although, as previously stated losing her previous status as a director and Chair doesn’t limit her liability in criminal proceedings. As she is a majority shareholder she is still treated as a “shadow director” at current anyway – and its the position held at the time of the crime.

Although A4e Emma Harrison CBE is the founder of A4e… if it is just another few bad apple employees there is nothing for her to step down about.

Emma… are you going to sell your shares next and break all tie with the company? Or are you planning of setting up another business as we speak to continue welfare to work contracts?

Emma Harrison, A True Romance.

Emma: Halcyon Days.

Emma sat in the Orgone Energy Accumulator. She sipped a cup of Fair Trade rooibos tea. Through the windows she could see Community Action Programme workers pruning the Thornbridge Hall Maze.

Turning around the brunette beauty began counting a sack of £50 notes.

A happy smile came over her. There had been the halcyon days of Dave and the ‘gang’.

The Inspirational Leader  remembered housing a problem family in a Forest of Dean Tepee. The grateful looks on their well-scrubbed faces as the T.V. cameras rolled…

Her face darkened as she lighted on newspaper clippings. Nothing could be the same since…

A knock rang out.

“Come in! I’m decent!” she shouted, almost her old cheery self

A Work Experience Butler entered.

“A Mr Blunkett to see you M’am.”

David Entered, Cosby at his side.

“Lass, I hear there’s trouble t’Mill. Where there’s brass there’s muck!”

“Oh David, I don’t know what to do. I had to..”

“Nay lass” replied the man from the land of Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at, “The’s not to vex thysin. I recall when I were a lad and we had nowt but ..”

The Commander of the British Empire (CBE) firmly interrupted the kindly Yorkshireman.

“But Dave doesn’t even return my phone calls.”

Her gruff friend moved closer. He was about to touch her heaving chest…

A lump came to Emma’s  throbbing throat. Her heart of gold was fit to burst.

She pulled away and walked over to the window sill.

In the grounds a hail storm was pouring down over the Community Action Workers.

Turning and flipping her long locks the Secret Millionaire said,

“It, it’s not  to be David.”

A roguish grin swept over his rugged  face.

“Well,  Tony sends his best. I’ll be off t’ club then.”

He left.

Emma turned back to her sack of notes.

She noticed that it was a couple of bundles short.

Perhaps….?

Apologies to Craig Brown.

A4e corruption is utterly rife

Whistleblowers flood into giving evidence in the form of witness statements to the police, DWP and the press, like a pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims.

Hundreds of A4e past and present employees have come forward to testify against A4e, many retaining their anonymity… but not one Tracie Spiers, a mother of two, who has publicly spoke of her horror of being asked to forge a signature. She refused. Many other volunteers offered to do so, and the job was done. Ker-ching!

But this is not any A4e employee –  the remainder working out of many locations around the globe as we are constantly reminded of – but the same office as is currently the centre of fraud investigations by Thames Valley police.

A4e staff routinely forged signatures and champagne was handed out as an incentive (lets get HMRC involved for fun, wonder if they claimed such in business expenses?)

Jobseekers at A4e were asked to sign blank timesheets every Friday, colleagues created bogus signatures, faked timesheets and ultimately claimed jobseekers cash by bogus employer signatures for those not even in work and for jobs that had not even existed.

Meanwhile A4e is hiring a firm to audit documents for the unlawfully intention of making them not available to police and other Government bodies investigating the fraud.

David Cameron and Co already has faith that he has pulled enough strings to cover this up…

Keep the pressure up people, its not just taxpayer cost for the contracts, and non-genuine job outcomes but millions for the investigations. However, I do think us taxpayers can afford a few more million to keep a hundred of so A4e employees locked up, include A4e Emma Harrison CBE and the entire management team.

Lets not forget Saint Emma, who implemented a 50% check on job outcomes the last time A4e was publicly investigated for fraud (which we criticised was a cover for not checking 50%) is now more responsible than before such checks.

PHA Media defends fraudsters A4e

Reputable PR agency firm, PHA Media, with clients like Duncan Bannatyne and Jacqueline Gold on their books… (and A4e’s Mark Lovell…) has reportedly been sending out letters threatening legal action. It is almost like they believe they are an law firm. (Originally learnt about this situation from our own comments on this blog)

Assuming the above is genuine, and complete (other than the personal information hidden) – this makes it very tricky for A4e to commence legal action at a later time. It is more of an embarrassment than anything else.

A4e Emma Harrison vows to sue anyone who stands in A4e’s way

According to a statement made by Mr and Mrs Harrison (featured in The Star), Emma plans to sue anyone she even dares to consider is making “false” statements. (I am not sure what it has to do with her husband Jim, but I can only assume that A4e had paid into one of his companies for using Thornbridge Hall – although its apparently personally owned?)

A snippet of the statement is as follows:-

We have never misused or redirected funds through our companies. Any transactions between our companies is 100 per cent legitimate and has a full audit trail.

We own personal properties personally, not through companies. We own business properties in businesses, not personally. The two are not to be confused.

Our personal finances, and the finances of the companies we own, are legal, above board, open and transparent and fully audited for legality.

To suggest or report otherwise is false and we will take the appropriate legal action if claims to the contrary are made.

Does a blog constitute reporting? (I assume its addressed at the press)

A4e Fraud: Your country needs you!

As more and more people come forward to talk about A4e and its “business practices” – you should too!

If you have any information about:

• Action for Employment Ltd
• A4e Ltd
• Industrial Training Agency Ltd

Either as a previous employee, current employee (where applicable), partner (including w2w subcontractors) and as a “customer”, for any reason including the below examples, do come forward! Report it the the police, DWP, SFO and/or Press. Alternatively (or in addition) you can comment below this article.

•  Actual or alleged fraud claims
• Character references of any employee
• Information on management
• Facilities and environment
• Services provided (or not provided)

The DWP and Police are merely investigating the latter “allegations” of fraud… these are so severe A4e Emma Harrison CBE has stepped down from her business as well as her Government role. This isn’t significantly adequate enough for such a corrupt business – which has had over 9 fraud investigations in recent times – we need all people to come forward from early as 1991 and whereas earlier under ITA Ltd, to really get to the bottom of this.

OR, if today under the Work Programme or other contracts, that is equally as important. If the Government makes this investigation a whitewash; there will be a private prosecution.

A4e were also predators of the young, vulnerable women

A true New Deal complaint about A4e, harbouring predators under support roles.

We recommend you read the below snippet however to summarise it involved a vulnerable young girl who used to attend a mental health clinic, suffers from depression and in debt, A4e ran her into the ground so she couldn’t cope only to be sent to an A4e employee who shattered her dreams for uni, suggested she go live with him, so he can be her sugar daddy… later she saw a manager who suggested going on anti-depressants!!

DWP and Fraud: rules vary depending on which side

DWP are bastards; the definition of fraud varies depending on what side of the table you are at: as a partner organisation or benefit claimant.

Individuals

Everyone knows it is wrong to work without declaring it (we are trying to make it not about A4e here, but this is exactly what they tried to force someone to do) or to live with a partner without declaring it. Simple stuff.

Actually, in the most basic terms – fraud in these prescribed circumstances is if you do not declare a Change in Circumstances/Change of Circumstances.  This could be because you are a crook, that you forgot, didn’t know about the requirement to or another handful of reasons – this makes you a benefit fraudster with all scenarios having the same extent of being guilty – with exception to prosecution in court.

If someone tips you off (DWP/Government never seem to catch anyone themselves) they will investigate you. Even if the tip off is without merit.

They work out how much is “stolen” by when the date the Change in Circumstances/Change of Circumstances occurred and the date they prosecute you – this is normally why people are caught late as they like it to rake up to make good headlines.

So even if you are a jobseeker who popped down to your girlfriends for a night or two for some hot passionate love making, but didn’t declare you were away from your claim address, although you were still looking for work and available, and got found out 6 months later… not knowing you were supposed to declare it, how much you received in that 6 months would be how much you “stole”.

The irony is that after reporting these changes, wouldn’t affect your benefit at all unlike say a part time job of 5 hours a week which would be deducted from your JSA (minus £5 disregarded)… it is still treated as theft.

W2W contractors

Forget timesheet fraud and forged jobseeker signatures… DWP isn’t interested in this. The only fraud they are interested is claiming for job outcomes for jobs that don’t exist.

Someone with A4e’s value of contracts will need to commit £1 million+ of fraud for any chance of the management to be prosecuted. Any less, A4e will need to just pay it back.

If this is the case A4e will be fined £5000 for each “act” of fraud or irregularity under £25,000 or a fine of £15,000 for each “act” of fraud or regularity equal to or exceeding £25,000.

An “act” here probably means per person responsible – try not to laugh if A4e gets away with this all and gets a fine of £25,000 to £75,000! – of course you wont be laughing. Neither of us will be.

Half of A4e directors dodge paying National Insurance

According to Private Eye, 3 in 7 (now half with Emma Harrison’s resignation as a director) of A4e’s directors are paid into personal service companies such as ROY NEWEY LIMITED (since resigned as a director) and JANRICH LIMITED.

This means they avoid paying National Insurance. Some may call it Tax Avoidance – its not tax evasion – its perfectly legal?!

This just goes to show the sort of people that works for A4e. We all know that National Insurance pays for state pensions and contributory Jobseekers Allowance, and someone with such money probably couldn’t care less about either; however, although A4e tried to set up with IMPROVING PEOPLE’S HEALTH LIMITED (since dissolved) they are in effect robbing money from the NHS!

Not illegal but not entirely ethical or moral…

What was A4e’s slogan? No, the other one (known as a “principle“) “doing well by doing good“. Hardly.

Civil servants warned to carry out checks on Emma Harrison

The Guardian has claimed that ministers were warned by civil servants to carry out checks on Emma Harrison.

Leaked documents show that civil servants implementing the Family Programme, a government scheme to turn around the lives of 117,000 households, suggested that Harrison’s appointment should be checked by the cabinet’s propriety and ethics team.

It continues…

Calls have been made for a full disclosure from the government over which ministers were aware of fraud allegations against A4e when Harrison was given the government post.
David Cameron’s judgment in appointing Harrison has been questioned.

Ex-Tesco (infamous for being one of the country’s largest workfare employer placement providers) boss was also considered:-

In it, civil servants outline proposals to employ two “national champions” of the government’s policy on problem families.

“It may be that no one person combines these skills and we may therefore wish to have two national champions. We propose Sir Terry Leahy and/or Emma Harrison,”

However, ironically enough Sir Terry wasn’t suggested to be checked…

Notably, officials did not suggest that Leahy, the former chief executive of Tesco, should also be checked. Leahy did not take up a post.

The propriety and ethics team provides advice to ensure standards of propriety, integrity and governance within government, according to the cabinet office’s website.

Even the Government has doubts about A4e Emma Harrison CBE.

Polly Toynbee: SWP are Right!

On the BBC news this morning.

Polly Toynbee and John Bird.

Both on the Work Experience programme.

I was expecting to choke on my toast at what they had to say.

But Toynbee spoke sense and so, for once, said Birdy.

Work should be paid.

Anyway the biscuit (or toast) should go to Polly.

Challenged about the SWP-led Right to Work Campaign that’s been one* of the groups protesting against the scheme she said,

“They’re right”.

As do we all.

* We are not SWP, to say the least!

A4e slough flooded?

A4e caught out for fraud; chairperson and founder forced to step down, terminate her directorship and leave a position in an unpopular Government… what else could go wrong? A flood… maybe?

John Dickens, Slough Observer, 29th Feb 2012 @ noon – “Branch at centre of the A4e fraud storm shut up shop“

ANY hopes the branch at the centre of A4e’s headline-grabbing fraud investigations had of putting the fiasco behind them have been dampened.

A leaking pipe flooded the offices, in High Street, forcing them to shut up shop on Monday morning.

The company had to turn people away at the door, sending customers to the nearest branch in Reading.

A spokesperson said: “There has been a flood in the offices and we had to temporarily close them.

“Customers who had an appointment have been referred to the nearest branch, which is mostly Reading.”

The offices remain closed while the problem is fixed.

Well this is what the Slough Observer reckons, although within 2 hours of being reported, the article vanished (thanks to Google cache, we have the article text above).

This may have been a joke/vexatious report (although its a leap year, its not 1st April) or perhaps A4e have threatened the Slough Observer with legal action?

Scenarios:-

• Hoax
• Exaggeration (leaking pipe maybe, but not a flood?)
• Incidental
• Deliberate

I sure hope this isn’t intention to create a distraction, destroy documents/evidence or claim on the insurance!!!

‘Trots’ Victory on Work Experience: Now onto Workfare!

Breaking news from the BBC:

Ministers have dropped the threat of sanctions for unemployed youngsters on a controversial work experience scheme.

It follows a meeting with dozens of firms with concerns, after criticism it amounted to “unpaid forced labour”.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron said 200 small- and medium-sized companies had expressed an interest in joining the scheme in recent days.

He urged firms to “stand up against the Trotskyites” protesting against it.

Here.

 

He paused to let the gales of laughter from Ipswich pass by…

Workfare: Get Rid of the Whole Kit and Caboodle.

Yesterday the Government came undone.

They were very firmly told by business - mainly retailers - that they do not want to be associated with free forced labour.

Ministers went off muttering about us ‘Trots’ and ‘Anarchists’  who’d protested against their scheme.

Their impotent rage is highly amusing.

Ipswich Northgate  Library rang out with joy yesterday (thanks W for pointing out the climb down as it was announced).

More developments are happening this morning.

 A Mr No comments on this site (we suspect this may not be his real name),

“In a separate development, Boots has stopped some of its stores participating in a different scheme – the government’s flagship work programme – aimed at helping the long-term unemployed find jobs. Some stores had been approached locally to provide placements but would no longer be doing so, it said.

And of course the same principles of punitive measure removal should apply to any and all other similar schemes that fall under WP and CAP and any yet to be determined.

And if the pressure is kept up a lot more companies might actually be seen to be doing the right thing and demanding that benefits should not be stopped for any claimant on any benefit who declines or withdraws from any ‘work experience’ scheme, whoever provides it.

There should be no mandatory, compulsory, forced, coerced work (That’s work! Not experience, never mind the spin and deception and psychological aspects!) put upon anyone, unless they want to in my opinion! Of course, many may want to, fine, but that’s not what the head honchos want. Any of them! They want their little scams to run. I’m rambling a bit now!

Ramble all you like.

You are 100% right!

Work Experience is Mandatory

The latest DWP Press Release:-

 29 February 2012 – Statement from the Minister for Employment Chris Grayling on the Work Experience scheme

“Following a productive meeting with employers I am delighted that we have pledges from some of the UK’s top companies to take part in the scheme. The likes of Airbus, Centre Parcs and HP Enterprise Services will join in Voluntary Work Experience helping our young unemployed people get their first vital step into employment.

“Despite the persistent campaign of the last two weeks we have had contact with over 200 small or medium enterprises also wanting to get involved. The work experience scheme remains and is totally voluntary.

“The sanction regime remains in place. Employers continue to have the protection with the use of sanctions for gross misconduct. We have used the meeting to explain how the regime applies. It has never been an issue with the programme as only 220 people have been sanctioned since it started.”

Just a few pointers:-

1. Chris Grayling is the biggest idiot ever in politics (this is beyond the previous candidates of Boris Johnson and Gordon is a moron Brown)
2. Prepending the word “Voluntary” in front of “Work Experience” doesn’t make it voluntary – in fact, its not what the scheme is defined as under law (its “Work Experience” not “Voluntary Work Experience” or “Mandatory Work Experience”)
3. It is not voluntary – it wasn’t before and there has been no legislation changes
4. What a contradiction – on the next line! It cannot be voluntary WITH sanctions. Employers? They are NOT employers of these people, or are they? This is the significant bit here… why “gross misconduct”? Surely if your voluntary work placement for whatever reason was inappropriate you would ask them to leave and call police for backup if they do not? Under Social Security law, although there is no employment contract and no wages, the company offering you unpaid work is indeed your “employer” in such circumstances. On New Deal etc. the provider you are at is your employer – this is how “employment programmes” work – distort statistics and sanctions.
5. The voluntary nature has never been an issue which is why there has been 220 people sanctioned? (tory spin, probably 220 unique people, not to be confused with 220 sanctions). The scheme came in April 2011 (if I recall correctly), statistics are never up to date (so could be first 6 or 9 months statistics) and assuming its for 2 weeks sanction, one per person, saved £23,518. 220 is small compared to other schemes, however, it is still not voluntary

If you are mandated to Work Experience, as of 1st March 2012 or later… please let us know if you have the same mandated letter as those before did (threatening benefit sanctions). The law hasn’t changed, so even if you leave in week 2 or later, you should be sanctioned.

A4e Work Programme performance revealed

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal A4e’s performance on the Work Programme.

Despite clear instructions not to reveal ANY information on the scheme, A4e decided to publish the statistics on its website. I assume they don’t understand the clear instruction of not to defraud the taxpayer either!

Is fraud in welfare to work a thing of the past?

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that since the Work Programme commenced the DWP has sent memos out to providers at least THRICE (3 times) to clarify particulars in particular relating to job outcomes and attachment fees that are already readily available and clearly set out in the contract and guidance.

It appears some providers are making claims with irregularities – we aren’t suggesting this is fraud; it could be a common mistake without intent of malice; but appears to be rather widespread.

A4e (in particular its employees) has been found guilty of fraud on New Deal and Flexible New Deal… can they now make the triple and make it the Work Programme also? (Yes, they had more contracts than these, for the purposes of this thrice should suffice?)

Some whistleblowers seem to think so.

DWP & Workfare… full steam ahead!

As the National Day of Action against Workfare nears closer this weekend, two very interesting parliamentary Bills are due to be debating within the next 2 months.

The first is the Department for Work and Pensions (Relocation to Leeds) Bill 2010-12 - so descriptive I probably do not need to explain it further!

A Bill to require the Secretary of State to relocate the headquarters of the Department for Work and Pensions to Leeds; and for connected purposes.

It does seem a good idea to move it away from the capital – not just for financial reasons but for political also. The protests against DWP and its policies will be increasing in the years to come.

The second is,  if you didn’t think that the Work Programme, Community Action Programme, Mandatory Work Activity scheme, SBWA, Work Experience etc. was enough, a National Service Bill 2010-12 is to be debated on the 16th March 2012.

A Bill to provide a system of national service for young persons; and for connected purposes.

Probably unlikely to make it past the Second Reading, but youth unemployment is so high, if “young persons” mean school leavers before they have to do this mandatory workfare bullshit, the Tories will probably think its a good idea. Last year sister site WPN reported it had been delayed, as it hasn’t been scrapped in the meanwhile it might stand a chance of Royal Assent.

DWP Aftershocks!

Oh dear, it seems like the initial earthquake has caused numerous after shocks.

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that:-

• Providers are starting to quit the Work Programme
  Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change – established for 10 years – has terminated its contract with Work Programme prime contractor Prospects.You couldn’t have chosen such a bad name for this news. Prospects? of losing subcontractors? lolOther subcontractors, including charities, are also considering pulling out of the scheme and have been for a while.

  Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change decision could persuade even hundreds of third sector providers on bad terms with prime contractors, to quit the scheme.  We wonder if the A4e performance statistics listing poor performing providers will force some into withdrawing from the scheme also

• Businesses were concerned over the Work Experience scheme last December
  Yes, companies were uneasy after hearing news reports about benefit sanctions and the mandatory nature of Work Experience.Also credited is concerns of Trade Unions – in particular, regarding the retail industry, a typical person works 16 hours and overtime. Work Experience influx of 25 hours per week workers displaced overtime for existing staff.

End of welfare to work?

A4e Work Programme dismal results 

It appears all that is needed for A4e is the final nail in the coffin, not only have A4e selected where to rest, the type of coffin and jumped in.. it has even put the lid on! They might have even planned and paid for the funeral.

What has once been a few fraud allegations and four arrests has been growing due to A4e stupidity. This began back in 2010 just before David Cameron appointed her. Emma Harrison CBE, got cocky – some would say too cocky – after the big relationship with the Government landed her an role paid in kind by opening doors for more contracts. A sort of gentleman’s agreement. Yes, Emma is a woman although a tom boy type – only female using chairman instead of chairperson. She plays a lot on it ffs Emma, there is women in business too!!

A4e, despite a large turnover, and nice profits, is a very poorly run enterprise. Criticised for every aspect of delivery (or lack of). Most popular in 2010 was failing to file business accounts (so did YMCA Training), losing peoples personal information, another fraud enquiry hotting up and if that wasn’t enough Emma Harrison CBE opened her big mouth saying cuts are fantastic!

A4e got fined a record £60,000 for the data security breach. Emma Harrison got appointed to work for the Government for free (in kind for contracts for A4e aka corruption). She upset a few people with her comments before trying to claim she never said the words or knew the person who did. Something along the lines of the person who wrote the story didn’t know her and never met her – the same can be said for me, I have never met her – doesn’t change the facts being reported here.

So at this point it wasn’t looking too good for A4e: fraud, fines, bad publicity, and doubt. They got away with it for another year or two… or so they thought. Previously been investigated and found guilty of fraud – they thought it would again be swept under the carpet so no one would notice. Indeed one wouldn’t, except it was clearly visible under the carpet… line a big hill or mountain.

They in effect created a time bomb, the problems didn’t go away, although the criticism died down for a while. It just got more intense waiting for the shit to hit the fan! In 2010, people had patience with A4e, it seems its growing thin now even with politicians.

What else went wrong? Emma Harrison CBE was greedy… she decided to pay herself (and other shareholders) a bumped dividend. All fair and well, (from a private company perspective, not performance/taxpayer perspective) but was at the wrong time. She couldn’t have any control over timing, so its fate. Appears her luck has run out forcing her to step down from A4e.

We will get to the Work Programme figures in a little while!!

Then what could get worse? A4e deploying PHA Media, a PR agency not solicitor, trying to censorship the internet and silence people it sees as a threat. Emma Harrison CBE threatening to sue everyone who stands in A4e’s way. Paying money into 2 companies and a pension fund for hiring out her home for meetings – which might be money laundering and tax evasion. And as recently, publishing statistics against DWP’s wishes, and hundreds of other documents; some of which are entitled “PRIVATE” in the filename without any other form of protection/security.

A4e cannot be trusted with taxpayer money, its own data OR jobseekers personal information!

A4e Feature & Benefits

Feature	Benefit
We have in excess of 100 office locations in the UK from as far North as Scotland, right through to the South coast.	We are able to cover all your sites / locations because we have National coverage.
We are one of the largest providers of DWP contracts in the UK.	The Government has put faith in A4e to help the unemployed back into work, highlighting our ability to “get the job done”. This means you can be confident in our ability.
We have 24 Years experience within Welfare to Work.	A4e are very experienced in what we do to get people back into employment. We have been established for over 24 years and are highly regarded within the industry, meaning you can have confidence in our service.
We are a social purpose company.	This means that re-invest in the community, such as projects like our VOX centres. These support people of all ages, particularly focussing on children at the risk of exclusion in the community.
We do not charge a fee to employers for our service.	This means there will be no cost to your bottom line, making us more appealing than recruitment agencies. Our aim is to ensure our customers sustain employment over a long period of time, unlike a typical agency.
We have 20 years experience working with Top 100 and small to medium organisations.	We have National teams in place that understand what your organisation requires from a local through to National level.
We have experienced employees.	This means we can service and manage local contracts or master vendor agreements because of the level of experience in our employees.
We offer bespoke Employer Solutions.	This means we are able to build an employer solution specifically for your organisation, making the process more cost effective and beneficial to you. To do this, we will initially need to understand your current recruitment needs.
All applications will be fully pre screened prior to being submitted.	The benefit to you is that the initial part of the recruitment process will have been completed prior to you receiving any potential applicants. This saves you time in sifting applications.
We offer ‘in work’ support once your successful employee has started.	We will ensure that all our customers who join your business are settling in well, understand their role and are happy in their job. This will ensure that productivity is at an optimum and we can reduce fall out rate, improving your sustainability.
We can offer specific employer route-ways where required.	For specific programmes of recruitment where a particular qualification is needed (i.e. SIA Badge), we will attempt to add this into the programme of training each customer receives. This means all applications from A4e will have the correct certifications or likewise will be fully informed on your organisation and requirements.
A4e have a Vacancy Management Service.	This is one point of contact for all vacancies regardless of location which is available to all employers. This means all your vacancies will come to one central point for internal distribution, saving you time in contacting multiple offices.
We are very much a process driven business.	When we understand your business, we will drive the process through our network of offices and our 3500 colleagues to ensure communication of objectives is very clear. This means you will receive a consistent approach from any of our offices.
We have a strong Account Management team in place.	We will dedicate an Account Manager to your business to provide excellent service, relationship management and continuous improvement whilst also ensuring you have only one point of contact.
We offer support with online applications for our customers.	Our branch teams will support our customers through the online application process to make sure you get completed applications to review. We can also facilitate any testing that needs doing from our offices if required. This ensures you are only receiving quality applications from suitable applicants passing your essential vacancy criteria.
We partner with 700 organisations.	Our partners can offer expertise in certain areas for specific training programmes that you may require. Still under our management and guidance so you don’t need to spend time looking for a provider, ensuring a consistent approach.
We can offer diversity assistance.	We can assist with your diversity policy when you consider the customers that we help back into full time employment and out of social and financial inclusion, thus supporting your organisation.
7000 employers use our service every month.	We engage with 7000 employers every month helping to up-skill their workforce with a direct impact on productivity. This means we are a reputable and experienced Welfare to Work provider.
We helped 32000 people get back in employment in 2009.	We have the infrastructure, the people, the experience and most importantly the desire to deliver ‘job ready’ customers to your door – at no financial cost to you.
Corporate social responsibility agenda.	We can help you achieve your CSR Objectives particularly by recruiting people from the local community that has an effect on the area. We can help with local PR and Media Opportunities to highlight this excellent work, demonstrating our partnership.

Something to do with “National Employer Service“? Another contract to lose? Dated December 2011.

Some commentary on those figures:

1. As “far North as Scotland” – Where in Scotland? Border? Highlands? Why is north a noun in this instance?
2. True. DWP are wrong to put “faith” in your biblical bullshit Saint Emma.
3. 24 years experience? A4e founded in 1991 (approx 20 years) however apparently got its first Welfare to Work contract in 1994 which was a pilot (A4e’s own claims in publicity material) before they scooped many in 1997. So is that 17 years? That is an overstatement of 7 years. (29% incorrect inflation) Correct me if I am wrong!
4. Social purpose? No, VOX is Corporate Social Responsibility (i.e. where you invest money in the local community etc. in return for publicity etc.). However, Brixton VOX didn’t get a single person a job in its first year.
5. The taxpayer picks up the bill. A very expensive, not cost effective bill
6. This claim is disputed. Established 20 years but were they working with top 100 businesses? We assume they mean FTSE 100! Anyone know what they did before the 1994 pilot contract? (Industrial Training Agency Ltd was active then)
7. Experienced employees. In what? Life? Fleecing the taxpayer?
8. Sales talk. Yawn
9. Pre-screened… nothing much to say here
10. “In work support” w2w slang for “we will contact you so we can claim a (sustainable) job outcome from the Government”
11. Might offer training. No guarantees.
12. Basically ”vacancies done centrally not on local basis”…
13. BUT most processes (such as job outcomes, data protection etc.) are not followed correctly.
14. OK, you will be given a name to contact.
15. To silly to comment on this one.
16. 700 organisations? We want a list!
17. 7000 “employers use our service every month” but only 55 get employed each month (averaged)
18. How many in… say 2010? Or is that disputed due to fraud investigation? Actually, A4e were investigated in 2009 for fraud also!
19. Laughable! ”We can help you achieve your CSR Objectives particularly by recruiting people from the local community” NO! That isn’t CSR but how recruitment usually works, you need someone who can make their way successfully to the workplace each day! 20? 24 years experience? How many in common sense? 0? Like length of jobs claimed?

Comments and questions on the above welcomed.

Also, considering that over a thousand people now have these documents do you want to see them published online so you don’t need to download them? 

Someone wants A4e to survive

We can reveal that someone (or should I say, a group of people) wants A4e to survive. It wont come as a surprise how corrupt the UK Government is. (So lets not compare countries!!) How the current administration are in bed with News International. Scrub that. Are conjoined twins! Blah blah blah, you get the picture!

We at Ipswich Unemployed Action have a confession to make:-

• Our members (mentioning no names) have reported (anonymously tipped off) A4e no less than 12 times since 2009 to the authorities (Serious Fraud Office, National Audit Office, and the police) with evidence… no action was taken

Then you can see how, even now, many MPs are opposed to saying enough is enough for A4e. Not many MPs see A4e as a bad waste of money, not to mention, even concerned about millions being defrauded each year by their rogue employees.

When, if ever, will this change? Has A4e’s luck changed recently? We know Royal Mail cannot be totally trusted, but we cannot see how they would lose 12 batches of letters (formally called large letters/packets). Anyone have any clue or ideas how and why?

Lets not forget that hundreds have wrote to their MPs about A4e since then (2009), and probably many to different authorities, probably the most popular other destination is the ICO. Some how, A4e and such complaints/allegations (whatever you want to call them) got totally under the radar. Even with an administration change, one of which sharing power with two rivals of the previous one, this process of careless neglect on taxpayers money went on…  we know they want to “massage” unemployment figures but at least give the contract to someone else?!

Saturday the 3rd of March marks the beginning of major actions against the Government in regards to welfare to work and workfare… people want PAID jobs (even at NMW which is the norm these days) to provide for their families. Enough is enough, people don’t want to keep attending and jumping through hoops of Jobcentre Plus and providers like A4e. We want REAL JOBS NOW!

watching Watching A4e

Is it time for historian to hang up her boots? Was a good sport..

As Watching A4e hits all time lows, this has lead to one of the largest independent groups sticking up for unemployed rights, Ipswich Unemployed Action, criticising Watching A4e and the direction its heading.

“Internet-imperialism” aside, Watching A4e isn’t the site it used to be. What was once an impartial criticism site of A4e has now become A4e’s press office. Widespread refusal to publish comments as an extreme form of moderation/internet censorship to paranoia of legal action from past threats received. Watching A4e appears to be a combination between an  arms-length  extension of Indus Delta and some form of official  partnership  with A4e.

Let me quote half of their most recent article:-

When A4e’s main website went down recently there were some of us who felt that it was the result of a decision to revamp the site as part of an image makeover. But no. It’s back, with no changes. Even the link to “Emma’s blog” is there on the home page, even though it hasn’t been updated since last November.

Andrew Dutton has posted a response to the various accusations, and he ends with a note on “A4e and Emma Harrison”. “As a result of Emma Harrison’s resignation, announced on 24 February, she is no longer a Director or Chairman of A4e which means she cannot participate at Board meetings. The governance of A4e has therefore changed with immediate effect and decisions relating to future dividend policy will be determined by the Board under a new, independent non-executive Chairman. In addition, Emma’s salary as Chairman and Director and payments made by A4e in respect of Thornbridge Hall have ceased.” So who made the decisions about dividends before? And that last bit about Thornbridge Hall is interesting. The Board are really seeking to distance themselves from the woman who still owns most of the company.

But back to the websites. The MyA4e site looks like something designed by professionals who have no clear idea of who their target audience is. One could say the same about the multitude of other sites set up by A4e. There’s A4e Voicewhich is a blog for good news items. The latest, posted on 2 March, is aimed at refuting the criticisms of A4e for using clients in work experience roles in its own company.

Then there’s A4e Transitions which is an arm of the company which provides services to companies which are making lots of people redundant. Very different is A4e Careers which apparently seeks to recruit people to work for the company. It’s a mess, with cartoons, handwriting-style fonts and all the familiar slogans. Much more sober is the Direct payments for social care site. Eleven local authorities contract with A4e to deliver this service.

Then there’s A4e Skills which is “the direct delivery arm for vocational learning, delivering Apprenticeship programmes, work based learning (QCF & NVQ’s), in-house training and vocationally related courses, accredited courses including e learning courses. Most training takes place within the workplace, working flexibly to meet the needs of both organisations and individuals.”

Finally there’s A4e Insight, their “research and consultancy arm”. This is where the line between private company and public sector becomes dangerously blurred.

What annoys me was, after A4e took down their main website (whereas historian even acknowledge about the released figures) she assumed, and wrongly stuck it out there that the site was going to be redesigned? What the fuck gave you that impression?  Obviously not leaked information or a rumour from a reliable source. Lost many friends over the years? 

Sounded so much like an excuse to cover up a data protection breach (which historian hasn’t mentioned) in defence of A4e to which you emulate to be criticising: how does that work?  With no statements made to the media or on social networking, it appears Watching A4e was the ones to pick up on the hundreds confused why they cannot access the A4e website.  Someone had mentioned in a comment that a redesign would be left with a splash page. In reality, a web design company would test it on a test machine, then the previous site will be replaced within minutes. No downtime.

Historian (someone correct me if I am wrong) used to work in welfare-to-work and is a fan of that “concept” – probably working for A4e once? (assumption) Has she been offered a job (or have a job) working at A4e now, so cannot step out of line?

Not watching A4e too well?

She reports Andrew Dutton’s blog comment… this is NOT a new change on the website… It has been there for a few days. We reported this on February 27th 2012! We aren’t sure how long this has been up prior to us reporting it but A4e website states “Posted on February 26, 2012 by admin“. This is just very sloppy. The reasons they ceased the payments for Thornbridge Hall is (like we reported) due to damage limitation. If, fraud is widespread… that money is illegal money (“proceeds of crime”)… pouring it into a different account (business, personal, or overseas… whatever it doesn’t matter…) is money laundering.

I agree about the lack of target market comment, however, was it 1 + 1 = 3? You hate a website, it goes down… you assume its being redesigned. We were first to report it was due to the DNS records for mya4e.com (and the www version) being set to 127.0.0.1 (loopback address). Someone tried A4e’s website by changing mya4e.com in their hosts file to point to the IP address that the website is hosted on. This apparently (we didn’t confirm it) resulted in a password protected page being displayed, not a new site – suggesting it was down for security reasons. Rumours were made that it was down due to such instructions being ordered by DWP.

Anyway…. A4e Transitions used to be A4e Tomorrow apparently. Then talking about A4e Insight. Old news, I think you already reported about them anyhow and is inconsistent with the “attack the design” theme, to which you mention nothing about.

What we are getting at

Since the latest claims of A4e fraud has been released, Watching A4e has been very quiet. Too quiet. Hundreds of people visiting the website for latest news… me included, nothing other than links to Financial Times requiring a subscription, and relaying information already reported in the press knowing well that the newspaper etc. would have checked the sources first to minimise any risk of legal action.

We reported more on A4e than Watching A4e in the recent month… it shouldn’t be that way at all!

To report a statement almost a week late is just pathetic. To make silly claims of a website redesign because it was shit before it went down is also pathetic. I am annoyed at A4e, as unlike the majority of websites using an open-source blog system like wordpress (this site uses it, so did WPN etc.) who have the decently to keep the credits in the footer intact… multi-million pound profit business A4e, who doesn’t want to spend money on a commercial alternative, removes such credit.

Assuming Historian isn’t working for the devil lol… you cannot fear legal threats. You report facts and opinions, not vexatious or false, with evidence to support it. You cannot be sued for giving someone bad press if its accurate and truthful. If A4e has sent you a Cease and Desist (not the case with PHA Media, they don’t know what one is, they are a PR firm), remove your personal details, and upload it… you will have the support of ALL the like-minded individuals on the internet.

Seems rather pointless for such a website to clamp down on free speech and limits its reporting in such a way. I would go as far as saying Watching A4e is a traitor to the online movement of justice amongsts jobseekers and taxpayers alike. Personally, I don’t think there is any longer a need for Watching A4e, how it currently is. I hope this is a wake up call. Your thoughts on the site truly welcomed!!

A4E LTD (02631340) Company Record

For those who might be interested:

The Company Record for: A4E LTD  02631340

Companies House is a registry of corporate information. We carry out basic checks to make sure that documents have been fully completed and signed, but we do not have the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that corporate entities send to us. We accept all information that such entities deliver to us in good faith and place it on the public record. The fact that the information has been placed on the public record should not be taken to indicate that Companies House has verified or validated it in any way.

Company Register Information

Company Number:	02631340	Date of Incorporation:22/07/1991
Company Name:	A4E LTD
Registered Office:	BESSEMER ROAD
	SHEFFIELD
	S9 3XN
Company Type:	Private Limited Company
Country of Origin:	United Kingdom
Status:	Active
Nature Of Business (SIC):	96090 - Other service activities not elsewhere classified
Number of Charges:	39 ( 31 outstanding / 0 part satisfied / 8 satisfied )
Previous Names
Date of Change	Previous Name
19/10/2005	ACTION FOR EMPLOYMENT LIMITED
06/08/1991	BROOMCO (490) LIMITED
Key Filing Dates
Accounting Reference Date:	31/03
Last Accounts Made Up To:	31/03/2011 (GROUP)
Next Accounts Due:	31/12/2012
Last Return Made Up To:	25/11/2011
Next Return Due:	23/12/2012
Last members list:	25/11/2011
Last Bulk Shareholders List:	Not available

Current Appointments

Number of current appointments: 7

SECRETARY:	WATSON, NEIL MARTIN
Appointed:	03/03/1998	Date of Birth: 31/01/1966
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	23
Address:	THICKWOOD LODGE BASLOW ROAD
	SHEFFIELD
	SOUTH YORKSHIRE
	S17 3BQ
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

DIRECTOR:	BLUNDELL, JOANNE MS
Appointed:	07/04/2011	Date of Birth: 12/01/1963
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	4
Address:	BESSEMER ROAD
	SHEFFIELD
	S9 3XN
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

DIRECTOR:	BOYFIELD, STEPHEN ANDREW MR
Appointed:	10/02/2004	Date of Birth: 23/01/1947
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	23
Address:	FIR TREES
	BEECHWOOD LANE CULCHETH
	WARRINGTON
	CHESHIRE
	WA3 4HJ
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

DIRECTOR:	DUTTON, ANDREW MARK MR
Appointed:	01/10/2010	Date of Birth: 30/09/1971
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	9
Address:	BESSEMER ROAD
	SHEFFIELD
	S9 3XN
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

DIRECTOR:	LOVELL, MARK MR
Appointed:	07/05/1998	Date of Birth: 12/05/1970
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	18
Address:	GROOM HOUSE 9 GROOM PLACE
	LONDON
	UNITED KINGDOM
	SW1X 7BA
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

DIRECTOR:	SYKES, HUGH RIDLEY SIR
Appointed:	07/07/2005	Date of Birth: 12/09/1932
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	59
Address:	BROOKFIELD MANOR
	MAIN ROAD, HATHERSAGE
	HOPE VALLEY
	DERBYSHIRE
	S32 1BR
Country/State of Residence:	ENGLAND

DIRECTOR:	YOUNG, ROBIN URQUHART SIR
Appointed:	01/01/2007	Date of Birth: 07/09/1948
Nationality:	BRITISH
No. of Appointments:	9
Address:	37 WARKWORTH STREET
	CAMBRIDGE
	CAMBRIDGESHIRE
	CB1 1EG
Country/State of Residence:	UNITED KINGDOM

This Report excludes resignations

Mortgage Charge Details

Number of Charges:

39 (31 outstanding / 0 part satisfied / 8 satisfied)

charge details:
Description:	MORTGAGE DEBENTURE
Person(s) Entitled:
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK PLC
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER
Acquisition Date:
Created: 24/04/2001	Form Type: 395	Registered: 28/04/2001
Short Particulars:
A SPECIFIC EQUITABLE CHARGE OVER ALL FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES AND/OR THE PROCEEDS OF SALE THEREOF FIXED AND FLOATING CHARGES OVER UNDERTAKING AND ALL PROPERTY AND ASSETS PRESENT AND FUTURE INCLUDING GOODWILL BOOKDEBTS AND THE BENEFITS OF ANY LICENCES

charge details:
Description:	DEBENTURE
Person(s) Entitled:
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK PLC
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER
Acquisition Date:
Created: 07/05/2002	Form Type: 395	Registered: 10/05/2002
Short Particulars:
FIXED AND FLOATING CHARGES OVER THE UNDERTAKING AND ALL PROPERTY AND ASSETS PRESENT AND FUTURE INCLUDING GOODWILL BOOKDEBTS UNCALLED CAPITAL BUILDINGS FIXTURES FIXED PLANT AND MACHINERY

charge details:
Description:	ASSIGNMENT OF KEYMAN LIFE POLICY
Person(s) Entitled:
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK PLC
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 25/03/2003	Form Type: 395	Registered: 26/03/2003
Short Particulars:
ASSIGNS THE POLICIES, ALL SUMS ASSURED AND ALL BONUSES AND BENEFITS AND THE WHOLE RIGHT, TITLE AND INTEREST IN THE POLICIES SEE THE MORTGAGE CHARGE DOCUMENT FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	DEED OF DEPOSIT
Person(s) Entitled:
RAVENSEFT PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 26/06/2006	Form Type: 395	Registered: 29/06/2006
Short Particulars:
THE SUM OF £10,575.00 TOGETHER WITH OTHER SUMS TO BE ADVANCED FROM TIME TO TIME

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
FREDERICK SION KELATY AS EXECUTOR OF SOLOMON KELATY
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 16/10/2006	Form Type: 395	Registered: 21/10/2006
Short Particulars:
£13,108.59 TO BE HELD IN A SEPERATE BANK ACCOUNT

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LTD
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 11/05/2007	Form Type: 395	Registered: 12/05/2007
Short Particulars:
£12,130.00

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LTD
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 11/05/2007	Form Type: 395	Registered: 12/05/2007
Short Particulars:
£4,812.00

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
HINDMARCH PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 15/08/2007	Form Type: 395	Registered: 21/08/2007
Short Particulars:
THE SUM OF £9,693.75

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
SHELL TRUST (UK PROPERTY) LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 05/11/2007	Form Type: 395	Registered: 13/11/2007
Short Particulars:
THE AMOUNT STANDING TO THE CREDIT OF AN INTEREST EARNING DEPOSIT ACCOUNT CONTAINING THE INITIAL DEPOSIT OF £15,275.00 SEE THE MORTGAGE CHARGE DOCUMENT FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 05/03/2008	Form Type: 395	Registered: 12/03/2008
Short Particulars:
£13,005.78

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
MAPELEY STEPS LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 03/03/2008	Form Type: 395	Registered: 19/03/2008
Short Particulars:
THE COMPANYS RIGHTS TITLE AND BENEFIT IN THE ACCOUNT SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
WH SMITH RETAIL HOLDINGS LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 08/05/2008	Form Type: 395	Registered: 17/05/2008
Short Particulars:
THE RENT DEPOSIT BEING £6,991.25 AND THE DEPOSIT BALANCE

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
HANSON CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 09/06/2008	Form Type: 395	Registered: 13/06/2008
Short Particulars:
INITIAL DEPOSIT OF £6,250 AND ALL MONIES HELD IN A SEPARATE INTEREST BEARING DEPOSIT ACCOUNT. SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£13,005.78 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 12/11/2008	Form Type: 395	Registered: 21/11/2008
Short Particulars:
£13,005.78 AND ANY INTEREST FROM TIME TO TIME STANDING TO THE CREDIT OF THE ACCOUNT

charge details:
Description:	TENANCY AGREEMENT
Person(s) Entitled:
BRECKLAND DISTRICT COUNCIL
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 24/08/2009	Form Type: 395	Registered: 09/09/2009
Short Particulars:
THE COMPANY’S INTEREST IN THE “DEPOSITED SUM” SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£13,005.78 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 14/09/2009	Form Type: 395	Registered: 01/10/2009
Short Particulars:
£13,005.78 AND OTHER ACCRUES FROM TIME TO TIME STANDING TO THE CREDIT OF THE ACCOUNT SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
TRILLIUM (PRIME) PROPERTY GP LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 06/11/2009	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 19/11/2009
Short Particulars:
THE INITIAL RENT DEPOSIT BEING £15,809.63 SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
TRILLIUM (PRIME) PROPERTY GP LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 08/01/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 13/01/2010
Short Particulars:
THE INITIAL RENT DEPOSIT OF £16,153.31 AND ALL SUMD INCLUDING INTEREST SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
DAYCARE TRUST
Amount Secured:
£21,250.00 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 07/01/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 21/01/2010
Short Particulars:
RENT DEPOSIT ON GROUND FLOOR AND BASEMENT CASTLE WORKS 21 ST GEORGES ROAD AND 1 OSWIN STREET LONDON

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
TRILLIUM (PRIME) PROPERTY GP LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 02/02/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 16/02/2010
Short Particulars:
THE DEPOSIT ACCOUNT AND ITS BALANCE FROM TIME TO TIME PURSUANT TO THE RENT DEPOSIT DEED

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£12,515.95 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 30/07/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 04/08/2010
Short Particulars:
£12,515.95 STANDING TO THE CREDIT OF THE ACCOUNT SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£4,965 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 30/07/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 13/08/2010
Short Particulars:
£4,965 SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	CHARGE OF DEPOSIT
Person(s) Entitled:
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK PLC
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER
Acquisition Date:
Created: 21/10/2010	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 04/11/2010
Short Particulars:
ALL AMOUNTS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE CREDITED TO ACCOUNT NUMBER 50123408 WITH THE BANK

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTIES LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£12,515.95 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 01/07/2011	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 07/07/2011
Short Particulars:
£12,515.95 SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£13,005.78 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 01/07/2011	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 15/07/2011
Short Particulars:
£13,005.78 SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
GLE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
Amount Secured:
£4,965.00 DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 01/07/2011	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 15/07/2011
Short Particulars:
£4,965.00 SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	RENT DEPOSIT DEED
Person(s) Entitled:
ABP (PENSION TRUSTEES) LIMITED
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE CHARGEE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 02/08/2011	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 13/08/2011
Short Particulars:
THE RENT DEPOSIT AND THE DEPOSIT BALANCE SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	DEBENTURE
Person(s) Entitled:
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC AS SECURITY AGENT
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE SECURED PARTIES OR ANY OF THEM ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 26/01/2012	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 02/02/2012
Short Particulars:
LAND AND BUILDINGS ON THE NORTH EAST SIDE OF MACAULAY STREET, GRIMSBY T/NO HS16963 FIXED AND FLOATING CHARGE OVER THE UNDERTAKING AND ALL PROPERTY AND ASSETS PRESENT AND FUTURE, INCLUDING GOODWILL, BOOK DEBTS, UNCALLED CAPITAL, BUILDINGS, FIXTURES, FIXED PLANT & MACHINERY

charge details:
Description:	SHARE MORTGAGE
Person(s) Entitled:
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC AS SECURITY AGENT
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY OR AN OBLIGOR TO A SECURED PARTY ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 27/01/2012	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 02/02/2012
Short Particulars:
THE MORTGAGOR HAS GRANTED AN EQUITABLE MORTGAGE OVER THE MORTGAGED PROPERTY. MORTGAGED PROPERTY MEANS ALL PRESENT AND FUTURE MORTGAGED SECURITIES. MORTGAGED SECURITIES MEANS ANY MARKETABLE SECURITIES IN WHICH THE MORTGAGOR HAS AN INTEREST IN THE SHARE ISSUER. SHARE MORTGAGE CONSISTS OF 100 SHARES FULLY PAID TO A$1 VALUE, SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	SHARE CHARGE
Person(s) Entitled:
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC AS SECURITY AGENT
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE SECURED PARTIES OR ANY OF THEM ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 27/01/2012	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 02/02/2012
Short Particulars:
BY WAY OF A FIRST FIXED CHARGE ALL OF ITS RIGHT TITLE AND INTEREST IN AND TO THE CHARGED PROPERTY. CHARGED PROPERTY MEANS THE CHARGED SHARES AND THE RELATED RIGHTS. CHARGED SHARES MEANS THE ISSUED ORDINARY SHARE OF £1.00 IN THE CAPITAL OF THE COMPANY. COMPANY MEANS A4E IRELAND LIMITED. RELATED RIGHTS MEANS DIVIDENDS, SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

charge details:
Description:	SHARE PLEDGE
Person(s) Entitled:
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC
Amount Secured:
ALL MONIES DUE OR TO BECOME DUE FROM THE COMPANY TO THE SECURED PARTIES ON ANY ACCOUNT WHATSOEVER UNDER THE TERMS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTRUMENT CREATING OR EVIDENCING THE CHARGE
Acquisition Date:
Created: 26/01/2012	Form Type: MG01	Registered: 31/01/2012
Short Particulars:
PLEDGES AND ASSIGNS THE EXISTING SHARES AND RELATED RIGHTS SEE IMAGE FOR FULL DETAILS

Recent
Filing History

Documents filed since 24/09/2010

DATE	FORM	DESCRIPTION
27/02/2012	TM01	APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR EMMA HARRISON
13/02/2012	MEM/ARTS	ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
13/02/2012	RES09	AUTHORITY- PURCHASE SHARES OTHER THAN FROM CAPITAL
13/02/2012	RES01	ALTER ARTICLES 09/02/2012
13/02/2012	RES11	DISAPPLICATION OF PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS
13/02/2012	RES10	AUTHORISED ALLOTMENT OF SHARES AND DEBENTURES
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 17
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 12
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 10
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 8
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 4
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 2
08/02/2012	MG02	DECLARATION OF SATISFACTION IN FULL OR IN PART OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE /FULL /CHARGE NO 1
02/02/2012	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 37
02/02/2012	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 38
02/02/2012	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 36
31/01/2012	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 39
17/01/2012	TM01	APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR ROY NEWEY
08/01/2012	AA	GROUP OF COMPANIES’ ACCOUNTS MADE UP TO 31/03/11
23/12/2011	AR01	25/11/11 FULL LIST
23/12/2011	LATEST SOC	23/12/11 STATEMENT OF CAPITAL;GBP 10530420
06/12/2011	TM01	APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR MARK STANLEY
13/08/2011	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 35
15/07/2011	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 34
15/07/2011	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 33
07/07/2011	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 32
14/04/2011	MEM/ARTS	ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
14/04/2011	RES01	ALTER ARTICLES 18/03/2011
14/04/2011	RES13	RE-DIR APPROVE 18/03/2011
13/04/2011	AP01	DIRECTOR APPOINTED MS JOANNE BLUNDELL
09/12/2010	AR01	25/11/10 FULL LIST
04/11/2010	MG01	PARTICULARS OF A MORTGAGE OR CHARGE / CHARGE NO: 31
05/10/2010	AP01	DIRECTOR APPOINTED MR ANDREW MARK DUTTON
05/10/2010	MEM/ARTS	MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATIONARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
05/10/2010	RES13	COMPANY BUSINESS 26/11/2009
05/10/2010	RES01	ALTER ARTICLES 26/11/2009
30/09/2010	TM01	APPOINTMENT TERMINATED, DIRECTOR ROBERT MARTIN
24/09/2010	AA	GROUP OF COMPANIES’ ACCOUNTS MADE UP TO 31/03/10
This Report excludes 88(2) Share Allotment documents

A4e documents to download

Choose what you want to look at:

• A4e Latest Company Accounts
• A4e Latest Annual Return (and Shares info)
• A4e Memorandum & Articles of Association

A4e threatens legal action *AGAIN*

Left Foot Forward has published an Internal A4e document on A4e Work Programme Performance, the one we published last week, and upon enquiry, was threatened with legal action!

A4e are now claiming that the A4e Work Programme Performance Data is:-

• From a confidential and protected, “test website“
   mya4e.com is their main website is hardly confidential. Wasn’t protected clearly. What do they mean by test website?
• Snapshot in time already out of date
  True, no one mentioned claims that it was live and current. up to January, not March – its disgusting poor performance.
• Allegation that it was “obtained” from a “password protected, secure site, in breach of confidentiality“
  There was no password, it wasn’t a secure website (SSL) and we have no legal obligation to observe confidentiality policy when we are not a party to such agreements.
• The legal threat:- “ We won’t hesitate to take the strongest legal action should you publish this data or make any of the inferences set out “
  Data is published lets see what happens!

Appears that A4e are up to their typical bullying attitudes. Regardless of A4e’s bullying and threats, the data has been published!

To mark this occasion, we are going to publish a lot of information on A4e this week. We also have a lot of content to publish this week.

Conservatives in denial about A4e Work Programme Figures

Laura Sandys MP (Conservative – but please continue reading!) has stepped forward to defend the Work Programme, continuing with the SWP nonsense. She claims that the media has been “dominated” by Work Programme criticisms ALL WEEK (funny that it was posted on 5th March 2012 – does she read the future or mean LAST week?) for its bullying, modern-day slave labour and benefits to big business.

She names Tesco, Argos, Boots and Debenhams and quotes the “50%” of people have “come off benefits” (with or without a job)… Oh, its on about Work Experience! Not the Work Programme… the former under previous legislation which New Deal was made under, with the latter under the newish Section 17A (workfare).

If she is suggesting that a 50% success rate for the Work Programme, she is having a laugh!  A4e achieved 8%. (Can we even use the word achieved?) A4e managed 8% – with 1.9% outcome. We will report the full break down of those stats later this week (its approx 55% complete) unless A4e manages to halt that with its bullying antics and empty legal threats.

Looks like Laura Sandys will not be elected at the next election. Coming forward in support for something she knows nothing about is seriously pathetic, although this clueless bat intends to confuse taxpayers, or more to the point non-jobseekers, in saying the Work Programme is a success… when its not.

The full article follows:-

Monday, 5 March, 2012

All week, the media has been dominated by criticisms of the Work Programme. Criticisms have ranged from “it’s bullying and exploitation”, or it’s “modern-day slave labour” to “it benefits big business”. And where are these cries coming from? The Socialist Workers Party – the same group which advocates the overthrow of capitalism through a Marxist Revolution!

How disappointing that these criticisms are firstly, intimidating providers into reconsidering their support for young people and secondly, undermining one of the best hopes that young people have to find work in today’s tough economic climate.

With companies such as Tesco, Boots, Debenhams and Argos involved, the scheme invites those on jobless benefits to volunteer for work experience placements for up to eight weeks. Instead of just staying at home and applying for jobs, young people are given an option – a voluntary option to gain some practical understanding of what it is like to be an employee and to boost their confidence. The very routine of working and experience of a workplace is a positive education in itself.

And there are real barometers of success. Since last January, 34,000 people aged 16 – 24 have undertaken work experience and of these, over 50% of participants have come off benefits within 13 weeks of signing up. With such positive outcomes, I have to wonder who people can criticise a scheme which ahs only the interests of young people at heart. Even Sir Stuart Rose, ex-Marks and Spencer Chief – who started out shelf-stacking and sweeping floors – said it was “baffling” that anyone would complain about young people being granted similar opportunities.

I hope that some of our country’s top high street firms will continue to show their commitment to the Work Programme and won’t be dissuaded by the disproportionately loud voices of the minority. These companies have a hugely important role to play in giving young people a chance and breaking that catch 22 which our younger Thanet residents suffer from. They are told they can’t get a job unless they have some work experience and yet struggle to be granted the opportunity! The Work Programme breaks this vicious cycle and offers a practical solution for young job-seekers today.

Conservatives in denial about A4e Work Programme Figures

A4e celebrates Work Programme contracts by trip to Paris

A4e celebrated winning the Work Programme contracts by sending 25 managers to Paris. Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal that there is an investigation under way in how A4e obtained its Work Programme contracts. We cannot say any more than that.

A former manager for A4e has claimed the business enjoyed a champagne culture and details of £2,000 night outs for 10 people.

Conferences in Spain and Monaco each consisting of 100 staff… A4e loved spending money, profits from providing a poor service with little results – all picked up by the taxpayer.

Emma Harrison even travelled to New York in April 2011 at a cost of over £20,000 which included a meal for £504. She flew Business Class with her husband (who paid for his costs) although she took her Personal Assistant by Economy Class!!!

That is quite a cold thing to do… OK you are the chairman you go business class… and send your other employees in economy… but not your PA!! Is her PA situated in a different building?

A4e workfare slave exposes expenses fraud

Karma is a bitch, right Emma Harrison CBE? An unemployed A4e client was given a 4 week work placement in A4e’s Finance Department (you can see where this is going, right?) and has exposed countless irregularities in regards to expenses.

Russell Kynoch noted missing receipts for travel and parking, wrong calculations, and expenses against company rules.

Out of a bundle of 20 receipts, he was advised only to pick 2 or 3 out to check. Much of the expenses from London were “wine and dine” bills. Concerns were also raised with the CEO Andrew Dutton.

Emma Harrison has refused to respond to an email listing the alleged claims at this time.

Ipswich Unemployed Action had previously raised concerns of the low tax bill and noted that we wouldn’t be surprised if it involved company expenses, however, we feel its highly unlikely that such irregular company expenses would make it past an audit. If we are wrong, HMRC will be joining in the investigations.

More A4e employees forging signatures! Poor administration?

The Guardian has revealed that, unknown to Ipswich Unemployed Action, A4e was forced to withdraw from part of a £900,000 project to place vulnerable people into work after an employee forged signatures on official forms. This is not A4e Slough or A4e Hull or Merseyside… (blimey its an ever growing list!) but up in Teesside!!

A4e was helping to place 630 youngsters with disabilities and mental health difficulties into jobs in Teesside in a project funded with European Union money.

This news will not help A4e’s situation. Neither will this comment from A4e…

“We would have treated this as a disciplinary matter,” “This was a case of poor administration, nothing more,”

Apparently forging signatures is a case of “poor administration“.This is worrying because A4e’s administrative processes is completely crap, would it be wrong to conclude that everyone at A4e forges signatures or at least that its systemic???

£617.47 dividend. Not bad for owning a share in A4e Ltd of 5p

A4e Ltd shareholders benefit from one of the best financial return on investment in the entire UK!

From their latest accounts…

Dividend	Date	Share value	Type	Return
£617.47	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary B (redeemable)	1234840%
£45.45	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary D (redeemable)*	(90800%)
£36.36	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary E (redeemable)	72620%
£35.80	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary D (redeemable)*	(71500%)
£4.44	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary (equity share)	8780%
£81.25	1st April 2010	5p (5 pence)	Ordinary D (redeemable) *double payments?	162400%

The “return” is only a simple calculation of difference between share value and dividend. Doesn’t take into consideration previous dividends, taxation and length of ownership. Should the % figures be correct (was done with an online tool, I personally have no idea how to work it out) the top dividend of £617.47 has a return percentage of over a million percent.

This would be much higher if we considered previous dividend payments. The bottom row of the table considers the double payments for that share class into one.

A4e Dividends

Why would a business pay out so much more in redeemable shares than equity shares?

Why does A4e even need shareholders for investment (non-ownership) purposes?

Does A4e pay out such dividends to avoid paying so much to key staff by Income Tax and NI?

How can A4e Emma “cuts are fantastic” Harrison CBE justify such dividends, some giving as much return exceeding a million percent, with its well established poor performance?

Considering fraud is systemic within A4e, is this annual dash for the cash money laundering illegal monies?

A4e documents to download

Choose what you want to look at:

• A4e Latest Company Accounts
• A4e Latest Annual Return (and Shares info)
• A4e Memorandum & Articles of Association

A4e Edinburgh and Community Task Force fraud

Major revelations in 2012 that A4e have defrauded the taxpayer under every contract awarded from the taxpayer. The latest is major systemic fraud, beyond forging signatures and the usual claiming job outcomes with deceit but spoof training sessions to deceive officials investigating the firm in 2010.

Despite all this, A4e have held on to every single contract that it currently is in receipt of. Calls of contract suspension has been set aside for stronger calls for permanent contract termination across the board and for board members to be prosecuted with custodial sentences. 

A4e Bradford: DIY kits to defraud the taxpayer

A4e staff in Bradford went to Staples to buy DIY stamp kits to forge  Employment Verification Templates – the evidence requirement to claim job outcomes – under management orders. The latest revelations about how A4e works.

What staff at A4e Bradford did was with the newly purchased stamp kit, arrange the letters into words of genuine company names who didn’t authorise or know about, to stamp  Employment Verification Templates as evidence that a jobseeker is working for the employer.

This practice is also common-place in other A4e offices including those far away as High Wycombe.

In addition employer signatures were faked – some by hand (including tracing signatures from the fire register) and others electronically.

In Manchester, former A4e employees confirmed they did the infamous windowing technique (stick a sheet up to the window as a light source with the form on top and trace around the signature) we have previously mentioned a couple of years back.

This was mandatory practice (forging employer signatures and evidence) to keep your job.

No wonder why A4e and Emma Harrison CBE wanted to sue the world!! Too many people now…

A4e Newcastle: staff undertook basic numeracy and literacy tests

A4e employees at A4e Newcastle undertook basic numeracy and literacy tests in hot uncomfortable rooms alongside jobseekers to bump up numbers.  

In addition, they likened the place to a “workhouse” of how 200 jobseekers were “herded into classrooms” for makeshift jobsearch and training sessions. (Damn, brings back flashbacks of Dencora House!!) Styled “utterly inhumane”, jobseekers were left to stand, sit on desks or sit on the floor.

Jobseekers weren’t allowed to use the toilet without permission due to fears they wont come back. A4e even employed security guards of ex-police, ex-military or ex-prison guards to ensure people couldn’t leave!!!

The practice of sticking people into a job lasting a day or two, and claiming a job outcome, was confirmed here also. But what do you expect when politicians and civil servants allowed this through a known loophole (jobs were expected to last 13 weeks – although this isn’t the case and is fraud – makes it hard to prove) to bump up numbers treated as finding work.

How about a group of 50,000 jobseekers cram into Thornbridge Hall? 

A4E: We need a Public Investigation Now.

This fortnight has been a rollercoaster.

From being almost completely ignored Workfare has become a major issue.

The ‘Welfare-to-Work’ industry is now under public scrutiny.

Internal Government investigations are not enough.

The attempt to pooh-pooh critics as ‘Trotksyists’ and ‘Anarchists’ shows how desperate the Cabinet is.

No amount of shilly-shallying by David Cameron will suffice.

That is why Ipswich Unemployed Action demands a major public inquiry into the whole sordid affair.

On the model of the Leveson inquiry it should investigate allegations, revealed by our top-researcher, Work Programme, and other sites, of the large-scale abuse of public funds by the company still (as Private Eye points out today) owned by Emma Harrison.

In these conditions, this is the least that we can expect.

A4e fraud: current Mandatory Work Activity contract in jeopardy

A4e could be in shit. deep shit. Not some contract from the past… but now they are being investigated for fraud on a live contract.

Don’t get your hopes up though. Mandatory Work Activity scheme is a DWP set-up bribes for benefit sanctions workfare scheme. Its sole intention is forcing people off benefits (either sign off or 3 month sanctions) more than enslaving people to work for nothing (I wont mention that every National Minimum Wage group except the top one will be frozen this October. Oh, too bad I just did!).  Be late again (or commit any “offence”) that 3 months becomes 6 months. Yes, you guessed it the likes of A4e keeps the “bribe” regardless if you complete 4 weeks, do one day or don’t start. That is not fraud.

New A4e Chairman is Chairman of firm gone into liquidation last month

Perhaps A4e is about to give up? On Friday 9th March 2012, A4e announced that  Sir Robin Urquhart Young will be appointed non-executive chairman of A4e.

It is only the same  Sir Robin Urquhart Young that is chairman of a firm that has recently gone into liquidation (voluntary been wounded up), perhaps he has entered that role for his newly gained experience in that arena?

Resolutions for Winding-up

EAST OF ENGLAND INTERNATIONAL LTD

(Company Number 03340656)

Salisbury House, Salisbury Road, Cambridge CB1 2LA

At a General Meeting of the above-named Company, duly convened, and held at BDO LLP, Clarendon House, Clarendon Road, Cambridge CB2 8FH, on 10 February 2011, the subjoined Special Resolutions were duly passed:

1. That the Company be wound up voluntarily and Christopher Kim Rayment (Office Holder Number 6775) of BDO LLP, 125 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 3SD, be and is hereby appointed Liquidator for the purposes of such winding-up.

2. That the Liquidator be and is hereby authorised to distribute all or part of the assets in specie to shareholders in such proportion as they mutually agree.

In the case of any queries, please contact Jonathan Chand on 0121 352 6201, or e-mail Jonathan.Chand@bdo.co.uk

Sir Robin Urquhart Young, Chairman

Skills Funding Agency supervises A4e audit

The Skills Funding Agency is to work alongside White & Case LLP, appointed fraud auditors by A4e, over doubts of a cover-up paid “independent” review. What A4e means is an audit conducted externally, but its hardly independent when two major factors come into play:

1) A4e are paying (White & Case is providing a service to A4e); and
2) A4e has control of the documents in the first instance (they can hold back or delay document handover).

It is interesting (despite the positive twist in all the press) how the Skills Funding Agency doesn’t trust A4e (Skills Funding Agency  getting involved isn’t merely to “help” – fraud is a serious crime – its not giving a helping hand to painting a room or a rescue operation) and although the A4e contracts from Skills Funding Agency is very small compared with the DWP contracts, the  Skills Funding Agency is not prepared in any circumstances to let A4e just get on with it alongside a professional firm who happens not to pay corporation tax.

Elsewhere, the DWP seems content in letting A4e get on with it while they tag along with their half-hearted attempt at digging at the surface to look for serious fraud… not going to happen.

Sheffield computer firm Techdept helps A4e internet censorship

Amateur (semi-professional) computer service company Techdept based in Sheffield has been busted by journalist Ian Silvera.

Back in 2009, someone was helping A4e and Emma Harrison CBE, cover up sites like Wikipedia from revealing the truth. It has been revealed that it was Techdept working for client A4e Ltd. A journalist traced the IP address… meaning they must have edited the wikipedia pages without registering… “school boy error”

The IP address used to change wikipedia pages was traced back to Techdept in Sheffield, confirmed by “technical director” Richard Grundy. Should we give them a lecture about IP addresses? They could have used a proxy or spent 1 minute registering a fake identity account on there to post from. No can do, I personally see this as a bad advert for this computer company who had come undone to complete stupidity in the heat of the moment.

The good news is when they hit the wall and lose their jobs, there is always A4e…. HAHA!

We do not know how when this stopped and whether PR firm PHA Media has since stepped in to censor the internet.

The Guardian seems to think they A4e and Emma Harrison needs a friend! 

David Blunkett and A4E.

David Blunkett MP (from the latest Register of Members’ Interests).

“Adviser on business development to A4e Ltd; global public service reform. (£25,001–£30,000 per financial year) This involves some travel.

Secure Trading Inc. (US), 108 West 13th Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801, USA. This involves some travel.

Advisory post for corporate social responsibility (volunteering and education) for News International, 1 Virginia Street, London E98 1HR.

6-month contract, £25,000 (Registered 22 March 2011)

Contract renewal, 6 month rolling contract. January 2012, £49,500. (Registered 10 January 2012)

Payments from RLF Partnership (51 Causton St, London SW1P 4AT) for seminars on UK and International Relations:

£1,500 received on 4 July 2011. Hours worked: 4 hrs (Registered 12 July 2011)

£1,500 received on 3 October 2011. Hours worked: 2 hrs. (Registered 13 October 2011)

28 November 2011, I received £2,000 from Sysmex Ltd, Sysmex UK Ltd, Sysmex House, Garamonde Drive, Wymbush, Milton Keynes, MK8 8DF for making a speech. Hours: 5 hrs. (Registered 20 December 2011)”

The little lad from the land of Ilkla Moor Baht is well-known for being a litigations git.

I have a treasured letter from him threatening me some time back.

But we are entitled to ask from the man who gets say, £1,500 for Four Hours work, what he has been doing for A4E.

What are his present relations with the company?

Mind you, a man who has an “Advisory post for corporate social responsibility” for the Murdoch Press is perhaps beyond all shame.

Emma Harrison: Tax Dodger and Tea-Leaf.

Emma Harrison: a Tea-Leaf who likes to Help herself.

Hat tip to Gissajob.

Channel Four Reports:

Exclusive: Former A4e boss Emma Harrison was one of those who took advantage of a lag between the announcement and the start of the 50p top tax rate, Channel 4 News learns.

There was controversy in January when it emerged she had received a £7m dividend from the company. But now we can reveal that the timing of this payment means that Harrison avoided nearly £800,000 pounds in income tax as well.

The more I hear about Emma Harrison the more I would keep the spoons and all the valuables in the cupboard if she visited my house.

Another A4e Statement

Yes, A4e have released another statement – they are normally quiet so I guess its made under desperation to keep its reputation.

A4e is a leading public service provider, serving thousands of people across three continents – Europe, Australasia and Asia – for more than 20 years. We work in partnership with governments, public sector organisations, private sector companies and voluntary and community groups to deliver a range of vital, front line public services, including employment and welfare, training and education, and money and legal advice.

Performance

A4e’s core business is helping people find work. A4e won its first national contracts when New Deal was created in 1997, and we have been a leading provider of employment support services to DWP and JCP ever since.

A4e has helped tens of thousands of people into long-term work and outperformed the market average in meeting performance targets on: New Deal for Disabled People; Pathways to Work; and Flexible New Deal in each of the geographical regions in which we operated with the exception of London.

We are currently supporting one person into work every seven minutes. Figures for performance under the Work Programme, which replaced Labour’s welfare to work programmes, will be released later in 2012 by DWP. Currently, our figures show that the Work Programme is operating in line with our expectations, and is successfully supporting thousands of people into work across the UK and will continue to do so.

The Public Accounts Committee recently raised questions about A4e’s performance under the old Pathways to Work scheme operated by the Labour government. They also cited incorrect figures, which related to another provider. The facts are:
• A4e secured jobs for 24.2% of those it supported on Pathways to Work, exceeding the industry average of 23%, and our performance rose to 28% in the last two years of the contract
• No provider met the bid targets

Providing value for money

The Work Programme instituted under the Coalition government is materially different from previous programmes under Labour, in that it operates as a Payment by Results contract – simply put, as a provider, we don’t get paid if we don’t succeed. This provides better value for money for the taxpayer.

For every £1 spent by the Government on our Work Programme services, we deliver back £1.95 in revenue to the taxpayer.

Setting A4e in context

A4e has more than 3,500 staff and operates out of 200 offices in the UK. Since December 2005, A4e has operated more than 500 contracts for over 80 funding or awarding bodies. Each of these individual contracts is governed by different processes and procedures, including funding allocations, training qualifications, ways for engaging with customers and performance measures. It is also the case that during the life of any given contract, those processes and procedures may change.

Current Allegations

Welfare to work programmes are part of an intensely regulated and audited industry. A4e is committed to honesty and transparency, so we have an internal audit team which regularly monitors our work and that of our subcontractors. On top of that, we are subject to rigorous external audits.

From December 2005 to date, nine cases relating to A4e have been referred to DWP to review claims submissions. Of these nine referrals, one, dating back to May 2008, resulted in the prosecution of an individual member of A4e staff, which was widely reported at the time. Another is the case now being handled by Thames Valley Police. In each of the remaining, closed cases, the DWP’s view was that these were not incidences of malpractice.

The total number of claims rejected by DWP in relation to these nine cases equate to less than 0.1% of all the claims A4e has made to DWP.

Between 2006 and 2009, there were 14 prosecutions for fraud among all welfare to work providers working with DWP. Out of these 14 cases, only the one mentioned above, in May 2008, concerned A4e.

Of course, any single incident of wrongdoing is one too many. It is important to bear in mind, however, that both the May 2008 incident and the more recent isolated incident in Slough, which was informally reported by A4e to DWP in November 2010, relate to historical, paper-based contracts. The current Work Programme eliminates any opportunity for similar issues to arise because it is computer-based and payment is on results.

During evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, A4e specifically urged DWP to be open in publishing the results of such incidents and was a strong advocate of addressing the weaknesses of a paper based system.

In a memorandum submitted by the DWP to the Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into the management and administration of contracted employment programmes in 2009, the DWP stated:
“In none of the cases investigated did the department conclude that a provider was engaged in a systematic, organised policy of seeking to obtain invalid payments through fraud.” (1).

As a responsible business, A4e takes any allegation of malpractice and maladministration very seriously. We have a robust and widely publicised customer complaints process, and we encourage customer feedback of any kind to input into how we approach service design and delivery.

Review of Controls and Procedures

As a responsible business we take any allegation of malpractice and maladministration very seriously.

• A4e has appointed international law firm, White & Case LLP, to lead an independent and thorough audit of A4e’s controls and procedures. This review has been welcomed by the DWP and individual MPs, including Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP.

In addition to this, there are three other reviews taking place:

• DWP’s Risk Assurance Division are conducting a formal investigation of an allegation of attempted fraud in relation to a Mandatory Work Activity contract with A4e
• DWP are launching an independent audit of all their commercial relationships with A4e
• SFA auditors will join A4e’s team to help conduct our file compliance check

A4e welcomes and will cooperate fully with the DWP’s planned investigations, and provided the following statement on 9 March:

“The Board has made consistently clear in all previous statements that we take any allegations of fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity extremely seriously. There is absolutely no place for this type of misconduct at A4e. We obviously acknowledge the concerns raised by DWP, and we welcome and will cooperate fully with their planned investigations.

“A4e has more than 3,500 staff and operates out of 200 offices in the UK. From December 2005 to date, nine cases relating to A4e have been referred to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to review claims submissions. Of these nine referrals, one, dating back to May 2008, resulted in the prosecution of an individual member of A4e staff, which was widely reported at the time. Another is the case now being handled by Thames Valley Police. In each of the remaining, closed cases, the DWP’s view was that these were not incidences of malpractice.

The Board has asked White & Case LLP to lead an independent and thorough review of A4e’s controls and procedures. That process will be carried out concurrently, and all findings will be provided to DWP.”
A4e also welcomes and will cooperate fully with Skills Funding Agency auditors who will join our own team as we conduct our file compliance check, to help complete this exercise and provide additional assurance to the Agency that contracts are being delivered in accordance with their requirements.

A4e successfully delivers a range of skills, education and training contracts, which are regularly audited both internally and by the SFA.

Governance

As already announced on 24 February, Emma Harrison has resigned as a Director and Chairman of A4e. As a result, she no longer participates in Board meetings. The newly constituted Board, under the new non-executive Chairman, Sir Robin Young, will take all appropriate decisions, including decisions relating to future dividend policy.

Sir Robin Young was appointed non-executive Chairman of A4e Limited on 9 March, 2012. Sir Robin has been a non-executive member of A4e’s Board since 2007. From 1998 to 2001 he was Permanent Secretary at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; and from 2001 until 2005 he was Permanent Secretary at the Department of Trade and Industry (now the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills).

Commenting on his appointment, Sir Robin said: “A4e’s role is to improve people’s lives. Our aim, achievements and commitment to help people have been overshadowed by recent allegations. The communities we serve, and the taxpayers who pay for so much of our services, need to be sure that we are competent, honest and are delivering value for money. The current investigations provide us with the opportunity to address the allegations we face head on. My task is to do whatever it takes to restore our reputation. Most importantly of all, A4e is about maintaining the very highest standards of service to our customers, and this is where must retain our focus. I believe that we have operated to the high standards expected of us, but if there is real evidence that we have fallen short, the Board and I will take all necessary action.”

Erroneous reports

Some media outlets wrongly alleged that there have been cases of fraud involving so-called ‘government vouchers’. The facts are:

• There are no such thing as ‘government vouchers’
• A4e, along with other welfare to work providers, chooses to use vouchers to support individuals with specific needs when they have secured a job.
• This is part of our flexible approach in ensuring those we work get the right support. We do so because it is the right thing to do, there is no obligation on us to do so. We do this to make sure those who need this help get it.
• A4e purchases these vouchers. They are purchased at our cost and in no way are they provided by the Government

Some media outlets have misunderstood the process by which a customer undertakes work experience and notifies the Job Centre Plus. The facts are:

• The Work Programme allows providers to give customers the chance to try a job before they commit to taking on the role – two of these opportunities are known as Work Trials and Work Placements.
• During this time, the customer does not sign off from their benefits. There is no financial gain for the provider during this period.
• On Work Placements, neither the provider nor the customer needs to notify Job Centre Plus – it is set up directly with the employer. In other instances, only the provider will be required to notify the JCP.

Some media outlets have incorrectly reported on an instance of poor administration in relation to a programme A4e delivered on behalf of Redcar and Cleveland Council. The facts are:

• This incident dates back to 2010, when A4e was a subcontractor for Redcar and Cleveland Council, delivering a NEET reduction programme called ELITE which was awarded in 2008. It relates to one former member of staff.
• As part of the ELITE programme A4e had an issue with the work of one individual, on one contract, that was queried and investigated both internally at A4e and in partnership with Redcar Council.
• Furthermore, Redcar Council carried out its own audit of A4e’s work on this contract and was satisfied that this was a one off incident and not a systematic issue.
• There was no evidence of any criminal activity. This was a case of poor administration, nothing more.
• We did agree, at the time of the incident, that this compromised A4e’s ability to deliver the full contract and therefore A4e continued with part of the contract only.
• We take any evidence of maladministration extremely seriously. The individual involved admitted that she was the only person involved in this activity and had undertaken this activity of her own volition.
• A4e has been given an assurance that this will not exclude the company from future work in the partnership, and we continue to work with Redcar Council at this time.

Some media outlets have incorrectly stated that A4e has won two contracts to deliver offender education. The facts are that A4e has been named as a preferred bidder, and the Skills Funding Agency has outlined the following key points:

• The Skills Funding Agency (the Agency) has conducted an open and competitive procurement process in accordance with EU procurement regulations, in collaboration with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), an Agency of the Ministry of Justice, to re-procure Offender Learning and Skills Services from 1 August 2012.

• This is us informing preferred bidders of the next stage of the procurement process following the 10 day stand still period. This does not constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Chief Executive to enter into a formal agreement, and the Chief Executive will not be liable for any costs incurred by organisations in advance of a formal agreement being entered into.

• The Agency, as part of their standard processes, continue to receive assurances from all providers to ensure that public funding is being used and protected appropriately both for current contracting arrangements or any future contracts.

• The Agency expects to finalise contractual agreements by early summer, before delivery starts in August 2012. During the next stage we will work with preferred bidders to ensure that the information provided during the procurement process remains valid and that their organisations are able to meet all the requirements of the service, prior to concluding the procurement. We expect this stage to conclude by early summer, before delivery starts in August 2012. Once contracts are signed, the Agency will apply its robust contract management processes that are agreed including quarterly performance reviews, working with the NOMS and lead governors. This enables continued assurance that public funding is being used and protected appropriately.

• This was a robust procurement and local decision making process with the involvement of lead governors, the National Offender Management Service an Agency of the Ministry of Justice. It responds to the Governments review of prisons and their strategy on ‘Making Prisons Work’.

A4e might be upset that I copied it all… too bad. I had a seriously long laugh at this statement though. The 3,500 figure came out again… but after FND I have been seeing figures of 2,500 staff… what is it? Not to mentioning the 1 every 7 minutes statement.

Of course its rather clever… the media cannot be one-sided… and will quote this bullshit to equal out the report/article.

Another A4e employee arrested for fraud

Continuing on the Another A4e theme… we can reveal a fifth person, former A4e employee, has now been arrested for fraud.

This will come as a big blow (although not a surprise)  for A4e who has been awarded two new multi-million pound contracts – although they are yet to be signed and have not yet commenced. It looks as if these contracts may be at risk.

Recently A4e released some more propaganda full of false statements and lies.

Emma Harrison CBE prepares for Jail

A4e’s founder and former chairperson Emma Harrison CBE along with top A4e execs prepares for a significant jail term after an internal audit report got leaked to the press. (anyone with a copy, send it to us we will publish it!)

Despite so many fraud investigations which exceed the number of fingers I have, A4e’s management decided to hide this report – which claims systematic fraud – from DWP. This is serious - A4e have deliberately withheld this information from Government bodies (DWP, NAO, police etc.) whilst Emma Harrison milked these illegal monies from the business through dividends, other businesses and salary known from here-on in as money laundering.

• 1 in 25 claims described as fraudulent (or irregularities)
• A further 1 in 8 claims (approx) were described as risky
• systematic fraud found with numerous cases across the country
• Only 70% of monies claimed by A4e, has entitlement to be claimed
• A4e management was aware of, failed to eliminate, and refused to deal with the problem that they knew was common place and somewhat encouraged by management, whilst suing everyone who spoke out, undertaking internet censorship and undertaking numerous false statements repetitiously to get people to believe them as fact

Of course this report was in 2009…  A4e would claim things have changed since, however, unlike “past fraud” swept under the carpet… A4e have kept this audit findings secret for up to 3 years to keep its contracts. The length of secrecy of this document is significant.

This is no longer about A4e just losing their contracts but key management officials being prosecuted.

Work Programme on BBC Radio 4.

Some charities say they are pulling out of the government’s Work Programme for the long-term jobless, claiming the payments received are inadequate.

The Single Homeless Project in London is the first to speak publicly about its decision to leave the £5bn scheme.

Here.

Poor Poor charities.

The radio programme was good as far as it went.

But I imagine that Martin on the Radio, or Gissajob as he is here,  would have more to say about what this government measure actually means.

I will cite a case of my own.

At SEETEC I was on one of these ‘courses’.

We were sat in a room and told to ‘job search’.

That is every day. Five days a week. With time off for a fag-break.

As we ordinary folk do we formed a little group  and used to natter every day.

One was an Evangelical Christian woman from Cornwall, one a beautiful mixed race woman with four kids from the Estate just next to mine, one a big Suffolk girl, one a mad Tory, who came in with a copy of the Spectator.

And then there was me.

The SEETEC ‘trainers’ used to come and shout at us because we were friends.

They would  say “Get out of your comfort zone”.

They had a bell and everyone was meant to clap when somebody got a job-interview.

As we complained about not actually getting any training they employed some Essex bird with a MA in psychology to ‘train’ us.

She gave us ‘courses’ where we got sweets and (once) lumps of carrot (that was the one on ‘healthy eating’).

Once she cited the Pareto principle.

She gave quite a lecture on how selecting the best was the way to go.

That really chuffed us.

As I have a degree in Sociology and Politics I merely pointed out that Pareto was an Italian fascist  and supporter of Mussolini.

But then us working class lot are thick and our views don’t count.

The Work Programme: Questions Unanswered.

Since the unpaid Work Experience and A4E scandals blew up the Government has done everything it can to avoid confronting the root problems behind them.

As other news dominates the media, no doubt to the joy of the Cabinet’s public relations department,  we need to talk again about these are.

• On this Blog Work Programme has exposed systematic flaws in the system the DWP has used to ‘reform’ welfare and bring the out of work into employment. Other Blogs have done so for some time now. Over the last few months the press and television have uncovered systematic abuse of the financial  rewards for placing people into jobs. Firms, above all A4E, have been shown up as riddled with dodgy practices.
• That the results of these schemes are so poor that no honest person would support continuing the system.
• People commenting here have shone light on the real nature of the ‘schemes’ they are forced to undertake. There is no ‘training’ – except endless CV writing and similar methods to make people ‘sell’ themselves.  Conditions are ripe for unprofessional behaviour and in some cases bullying.
• Unpaid work experience is open to exploitation – by large companies.
• Mandatory Work Activity is coerced labour, and like all forced work is of no benefit to anybody but the people profiting from free staff.
• The Community Work Programme will be a large-scale Workfare. It will mean tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people working for free. If retailers and supermarkets took advantage of Work Experience, local councils, Charties and private business will benefit from unpaid work.
• The Unemployment Business – private companies contracted to ‘reform’ Welfare – is full of people like Emma Harrison amassing large salaries and profits out of the unemployed.

It seems that the Cabinet and Ministers Chris Grayling and Ian Duncan Smith have done everything they can to avoid reality.

They are in denial about the faults of their Work Programme.

They continue to believe that there is plenty of work out there and that all the need to do is to give people a ‘nudge’ to go and get it.

A friend in Ipswich tells me that he accompanied somebody to a local ATOS interview.

The waiting room was full of people with serious physical disabilities many in deep distress.

These are people being ‘nudged’ into the Work Programme.

Unfortunately nobody seems to give a ‘nudge’ to create actual jobs.

We have to continue campaigning until the whole Work Programme collapses.

Homelessness and Unemployment in Ipswich.

Walking to Ipswich Central Library this morning I saw that homeless people had returned to camp in the porch opposite the County Council St Edmund’s House in Rope Walk.

In the town centre streets there are people begging. Every day you get somebody asking for money. Some sit there with a sign in their hands asking for a contribution.

The Government intends to make more people homeless by changing the rules on Housing Benefit. Many will be forced to move because their rents are too high, others will be kicked out because their flats or houses are too big (that is, they have an extra room).

Johnny Void (Here) suggests that the Cabinet are considering cutting all Housing Benefit for the under-25s (his source in the Telegraph – a Tory mouthpiece).

This was the ‘Big Society’ response to homelessness.

The Ipswich Winter Night Shelter, which has been running every night since 14 December, finished on Sunday 19 February. The shelter was held at seven churches across the town centre and supported by 300 volunteers from many Christian denominations, and from other faiths and none. A special service was held on 26 February to celebrate the work and to look to the future. I was unable to help with the shelter as my husband was so ill but it was a great honour to be there and to meet the many people who had helped.

The Rev’d Canon Paul Daltry, who chaired the team, said that it was wonderful to work with so many volunteers, including those of other faiths. “The Shelter has shown that we in Ipswich are waking up to acting like a community. We need to ask ‘What is God saying to the church today; what is he calling us to do next?’” The service also included a debate involving local politicians Ben Gummer our Member of Parliament, David Ellesmere, Leader of Ipswich Borough Council and County Cllr Colin Spence they debated the relationship between church contributions in this area and the work of the state agencies.

(From Here.)

Charity, may, over the Winter, have helped some people.

Though  an appeal to the Good Will of others is not the same as giving people the right to accommodation.

Now we see seriously poor people wandering the streets of our town.

They cannot jump through all the hoops of the Work Programme.

They have no benefits.

Some trail around with a tin of super-strength lager in their hands, or a bottle of white cider.

Who can blame them for trying to blot out their condition?

If this is happening in Ipswich – parts of which have more in common with inner-city London than leafy Suffolk but it is not that badly off - but the same must true on a larger scale elsewhere.

Welcome to the Big Society.

Charities, A4E and the Unemployment Business.

Leading philanthropists have added to pressure on ministers to rethink plans to limit tax relief on charitable donations, by saying it “will deprive charities of much-needed funds”. The BBC reports.

“Emma Harrison, owner of welfare-to-work company a4E , runs a charity, which she used to help a4E win government contracts” reports the latest Private Eye.

“The Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) claims to be ‘all about supporting the small charities”, but A4E used it as ‘bid candy’ while trying to win Work programme contracts from the Department of Work and pensions (DWP) to help find jobs for the unemployed. A4E also used the supposedly independent charity to recruit other charities as A4E subcontractors”.

They further state,

“FSI recently won an £85,000 contract from Richmond on Thames council in South-west London for training and ‘capacity building’ in the borough’s voluntary sector - work previously done by the local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS)”

Charities, whether A4E fronts on not, have got into the Unemployment Business.

Just as SEETEC began as a small Essex company offering computer courses, that massively expanded with the New Deal and the Flexible New Deal, so too have some charities seen an opportunity in the Work Programme.

Papworth Trust (in Ipswich) is subcontracted from Ingeus. It started as a group helping people with disabilities. Now it is a Work Programme Provider.

What these groups actually do is unclear.

Their ‘training’ is ‘black box’ up to them.

With the funding structure for the Work Programme geared towards rewarding people who get jobs they drop those they think unlikely to find employment.

But they still snaffle a hefty fee for doing…..nothing for them.

So from A4E’s FSI to elsewhere Charities are not the unambiguous ‘good thing’ some people think.

We would be interested to know what Tax Relief Emma Harrison gets for contributing to her charitable upkeep  through Foundation for Social Improvement