Compulsory Employment “Schemes” for Jobseeker’s Claiming Council Tax Support.
Is Workfare For Council Tax Support part of the new Austerity Agenda?
Council Tax support is falling apart.
This affects people on Job Seeker’s Allowance, and now, Universal Credit,.
Hard.
You can expect a great deal of thieving from Tory Councils.
Barnet led the way:
Everyone of working age has to pay a minimum contribution of 20% from 01 April 2015 (the contribution for the period 01 April 2013 to 31 March 2015 will remain at 8.5% as agreed in January 2013) of their Council Tax liability unless they are in a protected group. (War pensioners, war widow(er)s and people who receive Armed Forces compensation scheme payments will not have to pay the minimum contribution).
This 20% rule is pretty widespread now.
A hefty sum, around £287.8 a year (National average, band D, Band D property to £1,439).
In Labour run Ipswich, by contrast,
In Ipswich, all people of working age have to pay at least 8.5% of their Council Tax bill, regardless of their income. From 1st April 2018, this will reduce to 5%.
But now we learn Leeds Labour Council is running this compulsory scheme.
Personal work support programme
If you are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance and have been claiming Council Tax support for 26 weeks or more, you will be offered a place on the personal work support programme.
You will have to complete this programme to keep receiving Council Tax support unless you’re part of one of the exempt or protected groups (PDF 1.2MB).
You will be required to complete five review appointments with one of our employment advisors who are able to support all aspects of looking for work which includes:
- Help to update your CV
- Advice and support for applying for vacancies online
- Advice on how to find the type of work you are looking for
- The latest job vacancy information
- Free access to our computers
- Help with any health, money, benefit or housing concerns that you may have
To book an appointment with an advisor, please call 0113 222 4404.
You can find further information on the package of support available in our Council Tax Support for Jobseekers leaflet (PDF 223KB).
Ipswich Unemployed Action has been informed that there are other councils, some Tory, who have similar schemes.
Some, it is said, involve workfare.
In the opinion of a professional Welfare Adviser this is not legal
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Well every unemployed person who is renting will be claiming Council Tax support, so how will Local Authority schemes play with official DWP schemes? Will people have to do both? And can councils really force the non-working to work for them for nothing simply because they have decided to, plucking the idea from the air as it were? I knew that local authorities had the ability to make local decisions about council tax, who pays it and how much but does “localism” really empower councils to implement workfare schemes for those whom they deem fit?
Jim
February 23, 2018 at 4:08 pm
Interesting point Jim will people have to both, and be expected to turn up at both places at the same for the work and health programme and this scheme.
myfinalusername
February 24, 2018 at 9:49 am
“The work plan, which you made with the Jobcentre Plus, will be the main focus of the meetings with your employment advisor. They will talk through the actions in your plan and look at how we can support you, to ensure that you continue to meet your claimant commitment. They will never suggest any activities that duplicate or conflict with actions in your Jobcentre Plus work plan.”, So, Yes you will be required to do both, with the council one taking the JC ones work plan as a guide, if you want C/T . Has anyone requested sight of Leeds legal advice that said this was legal?
Levinas
September 29, 2018 at 1:12 am
https://www.dnb.co.uk/
if i put my local council in there why does it come up as a corporation as it is not on company’s house so why would i even need to pay council tax in the first place to a corporation that i have no contract with like the bbc.
and they want 400 bucks for any info. these councils seems well dodgy why dont they spend the money they got in shares of shore, can i buy shares in my local council then as it is a corporation and if that is the case how the hell can they hire courts to chase council tax debt?
superted
February 23, 2018 at 4:21 pm
Reblogged this on disabledsingleparent.
mili68
February 23, 2018 at 5:12 pm
[…] https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2018/02/23/compulsory-employment-schemes-for-jobseekers-clai… […]
“Compulsory employment ‘schemes’ for jobseekers claiming council tax support” Ipswich Unemployed Action | COMRADE BOYCIE: VIVA THE ANTI-tORY / BIG BROTHER REVOLUTION!
February 23, 2018 at 7:02 pm
Reblogged this on sdbast.
sdbast
February 23, 2018 at 7:15 pm
What legal requirement is this under?
professional Welfare Adviser this is not legal.
do not carry out activities and actions that you agreed in your personal work support plan you will lose
Council Tax Support, and you will receive a new Council Tax bill and have more to pay
They will have to take you to court through a summons and that will be interesting on benefits and affordability.Anyone with a disability can argue that the Equality act covers a disability regardless such as learning difficulties which suffer known stress problems.
Another do not sign.
ken
February 23, 2018 at 8:20 pm
For starters it is a scandal that unemployed people are singled out for this special compulsory re-education.
Andrew Coates
February 25, 2018 at 12:34 pm
Back in the day there was something called ‘Unemployed Schools’; the Labour Exchange would require the unemployed to attend these ‘schools’ on a full-time basis.
Old Timer
February 25, 2018 at 6:20 pm
Aye, remember oakum lesson time?
Andrew Coates
February 26, 2018 at 5:29 pm
Why is the Council doing this, ? we want to continue being paid for our work, this will prevent us from losing our paid employment.
They know many people won’t take the offer up.
Harassment from the DWP
Now harassment from the council.
whoknew
February 23, 2018 at 8:36 pm
“presumed consent”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/organ-donation-opt-out-consent-law-public-trust-ethics-trust-nhs-healthcare-a8225756.html
whoknew
February 23, 2018 at 8:51 pm
They whip your organs out when you are still ALIVE!
Ex-Theatre Nurse
February 24, 2018 at 8:34 am
Falsely claiming ownership, the cannibalism cattle story
If i approached any human and said, would you like to be treated like we treat our cattle for slaughter, there heads would jut back, eyes open followed by a comment “hell no, are you crazy”.
Well basically this consent to withdraw rule does exactly that.
We all only see the moments leading up to of slaughter, we never acknowledge the before, the breeding,the living on the land, the shelter in the harsh winter, the feed, the medicine.
For decades everyone has always been well aware they can be a donor if they choose to. Not once in my life have i ever heard a person say “i can, oh i didn’t know that”.
Let me put it this way, which is the safest way to insure no one is harvested that for some reason, didn’t get the memo or never got around to deciding or registering. Very importantly bare in mind data can be and is often lost,misplaced, destroyed in error, deliberately destroyed or unattainable.
A: Have records of people who consented or;
B: Have records of people who withdrew consent
Officially when this is passed into practice, anyone born,anyone alive nolonger owns solely their insides unless they apply for sole ownership. Government knows they cannot demand this like they do taxes, their existence as a party even a party in office (government) would be over there and then.
I cannot believe the public allowed something that has far reaching consequences (not just what happens in death) to go ahead, consequences like all the other topics i and others have mentioned that came to pass will come to pass here to.
doug
February 24, 2018 at 1:41 pm
“I can be an organ donor, really doug, oh i didn’t know that”.
Member of the Public (MoP)
February 24, 2018 at 5:14 pm
Organ Donors Suffer in Excruciating Agony – even worse than death by ‘lethal injection’. This is what you will be ‘consenting’ to.
Hospitals are harvesting organs from organ donors while they are still alive, according to a Wall Street Journal exposé that warns new regulations allow doctors to “inject a paralyzer” if the body will not stop moving, in order to “safely” remove the organs.
Oftentimes a hospital can make more money out of a dead body, because of organ harvesting, than they can make by billing a patient whose life they have saved. This is especially true in cases where the patient does not have insurance, and will struggle to pay a hefty medical bill.
The new regulations have proved controversial among medical staff, with many anaesthesiologists and nurses removing themselves from the donor register after witnessing “corpses” writhing and jerking during organ removal operations.
http://yournewswire.com/doctors-organs-donors-alive/
Grisly
February 24, 2018 at 8:54 am
Sounds f*cking terrifying!
Violet
February 24, 2018 at 12:36 pm
That’s America and yournewswire,com is a well known fake news site.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/dont-get-fooled-by-these-fake-news-sites/5/
Jim
February 24, 2018 at 3:53 pm
This is planet Mars and the yournewswire article is referencing an article in the Wall Street Journal (fake news site?). You have sign up/subscribe to read it though apart from
“What You Lose When You Sign That Donor CardGiving away your organs sounds noble, but have doctors blurred the line between life and death?
The article below quotes Robert Truog, professor of medical ethics, anesthesia and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, about the possible pain felt by an organ donor who has been declared brain dead. Mr. Teresi writes that Dr. Truog “compared the topic of pain.”
Anyway
WSJ
February 24, 2018 at 4:59 pm
Plenty more on this too from esteemed journals. Anyway, you really think they wait until you are about to be nailed into a coffin before they take your organs? Think about it!
WSJ
February 24, 2018 at 5:01 pm
Plenty more on this too from esteemed journals. Anyway, you really think they wait until you are about to be nailed into a coffin before they take your organs? Think about it!!
WSJ
February 24, 2018 at 5:02 pm
Plenty more on this too from esteemed journals. Anyway, you really think they wait until you are about to be nailed into a coffin before they take your organs? .. Think about it!!
WSJ
February 24, 2018 at 5:02 pm
CBS is bullshit media owned and run by O dodgers!
Foxglove
February 24, 2018 at 8:34 pm
Just get yourself put on the opt out register and you’re done! Nobody will reuse any bits from your body after death or brain death are concerned.
Frogmore Pritchard
February 25, 2018 at 9:41 am
Really? I opted out of the cervical screening programme 3 years so yet I still get hassled to have a test even though it’s illegal to harass opted out people. They’ll probably take your organs anyway. ..
katrehman
February 25, 2018 at 5:43 pm
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
seachranaidhe1
February 24, 2018 at 11:31 am
No wonder the bastards have made benefit recipients pay part of the council tax, so even more conditionality can be forced onto them no doubt with sanctions if they don’t comply!
Foxglove
February 24, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Child Benefit and Tax Credit payment dates over Easter 2018
Some people could receive their benefits up to four days early this Easter – here’s what you need to know.
http://www.welfareweekly.com/child-benefit-and-tax-credit-payment-dates-over-easter-2018/
whoknew
February 25, 2018 at 9:32 am
I remember when the Bedroom Tax was introduced some councils thinking about offering people affected a few hours paid work to offset it. As far as I know nobody did anything like this. I really don’t believe that local authorities have the power to run workfare schemes. Why? Because surely the worst local authorities, mostly Tory, would have already done that big time in an attempt to “ethnically cleanse” areas that they want to “gentrify” and drive out poorer people same as the Bedroom Tax? If councils could use – misuse – vulnerable people like that surely there would already be chain gangs of unemployed and poorly paid men and women filling in potholes in the road, picking up dog shit in public parks, and doing menial jobs for no wages in order to help cash strapped councils save millions of pounds?
If it could or was about happen it would already be happening all over the place.
Frogmore Pritchard
February 25, 2018 at 9:38 am
Tories lecturing anybody on poverty is a sick joke’
Lectures on poverty from the party of sanctions and the Bedroom Tax are a “sick joke”, says SNP MP.
The causes of poverty. – Universal Credit and the widespread use of benefit sanctions
“If Adam Tomkins wants to look at the root causes of poverty then he should look closer to home – to the vile, abusive use of sanctions that leaves welfare claimants destitute, or the botched Universal Credit roll-out that’s driving families to foodbanks.
http://www.welfareweekly.com/tories-lecturing-anybody-on-poverty-is-a-sick-joke/
whoknew
February 25, 2018 at 9:43 am
Disgusting piece of misandrist shit that Includes a chapter entitled “How to Destroy a Man At Work”.
http://www.filedropper.com/damnfull
http://www113.zippyshare.com/v/DjZkQGNv/file.html
Angela Confidential
February 25, 2018 at 10:11 pm
Apropos to to the way in which the jobcentre/providers work in how they ‘craft allegations’ ‘with no evidence’ i.e. raise ‘doubts’. Beware scheming bastards!
Kathy Clique
February 25, 2018 at 10:19 pm
The jobcentre/providers like to ‘craft allegations’ ‘with no evidence’ i.e. raise ‘doubts’. Beware scheming bastards!
Kathy Clique
February 25, 2018 at 10:20 pm
The jobcentre/providers like to ‘craft allegations’ ‘with no evidence’ i.e. raise ‘doubts’. Beware scheming bastards!!
Kathy Clique
February 25, 2018 at 10:20 pm
For anyone who would like to email more than their own MPs all MPs email addresses are here. If as many people as possible email as many MPs as possible fromThursday March 1st then our message has more chance of being heard.
https://dpac.uk.net/2018/02/list-of-mps-email-addresses/
Letter to send to MPs about Universal Credit
for anyone who can’t get to a protest please email your MP fromThursday March 1st onwards. A template letter is below. Even if you can get to a protest you may also want to email your MP.
Universal Credit is the punishing regime due to be more widely imposed on people with low incomes both those in and out of work.
UC has too many flaws to be simply paused and fixed – it must be stopped and scrapped.
Universal Credit is an economic and political disaster bringing further distress and impoverishment to those forced to endure it. To date at least £15.8 billion has been wasted on its implementation although only £1 billion is likely to be saved by 2020.
Seven million households will be affected, including over one million low paid part-time workers. For the first time ever people in work could face being sanctioned (having their benefits stopped) if they don’t prove to the job centre that they’re searching for better paid work or more hours. Pensioner couples will also be affected if one of them is under pension age.
…………….
https://dpac.uk.net/2018/02/letter-to-send-to-mps-about-universal-credit/
whoknew
February 26, 2018 at 9:15 am
WORK AND HEALTH PROGRAMME INVITATION LETTERS
Here are all the letters for JSA, UC and voluntary WHP participants, inviting/advising/mandating people to attend a WHP appointment.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/work_and_health_programme_provid_4#incoming-1118129
jj joop
February 26, 2018 at 12:48 pm
Work & Health seems to be just a cut down version of the Work Programme. How this is supposed to help get 1.5 million people on ESA into work is a mystery. Where I live they say that 85% of people put on Work & Health will have health conditions, mental health conditions and disabilities.
https://www.pluss.org.uk/news/pluss-launches-work-and-health-programme
So only 15% will be able-bodied people without problems; in the case of Pluss that’s only 5,250 people across southern England for the next 7 years. That’s a much less ambitious scheme than the old Work Programme.
Frogmore Pritchard
February 26, 2018 at 5:57 pm
(If you check out the link I think you will agree that this Pluss outfit sounds happy-clappy fucking horrible!)
Frogmore Pritchard
February 26, 2018 at 6:00 pm
It would be watered down, roviders will cherry pick the people on in who are easier to help (the 15% in the case of pluss) not sure about other providers like the one I am more likely to go after being re-referred but like the work programme I was deemed hard to help and was parked off to another sub contract for nearly two years until these pulled out.
myfinalusername
February 26, 2018 at 9:58 pm
if you read the provider guidance for the hwp there is a MWA they can use that means mandatory work activity.
that means workfare if they got the placements to dish out because most of the ppl there will have no chance at getting paid work and it will make office space to get more sheep in the door.
they also still get a bonus if you do find paid work via the prap system of 3k if you are in work for 6 months plus there fee from the esf go figure that one out.
if they gave me that money id just sign off for 12 months lol.
if they only got paid if they found ppl paid work there businesses model would go down the drain and would vanish over night.
superted
February 26, 2018 at 10:54 pm
The whole purpose of these infernal schemes do is give you hassle and put your stress levels up. They want to bully you off benefits.
Aggitae
February 27, 2018 at 1:01 am
Landlords and letting agents urged to drop “no DSS” after woman is awarded £2,000 compensation in equality case.
Private landlords who refuse to rent their properties to people on housing benefit may be breaking equality laws, after a court ruled against the practice on the grounds of sexual discrimination.
Rosie Keogh, a cleaner and former paralegal, was awarded £2,000 compensation after successfully arguing a letting agent discriminated against her because women are more likely than men to be claiming housing benefit.
http://www.welfareweekly.com/landlords-who-refuse-to-rent-to-housing-benefit-claimants-may-be-breaking-the-law/
whoknew
February 27, 2018 at 11:28 am
The streets of America every recent president has ignored.
Violet
February 27, 2018 at 2:08 pm
Row erupts over vigilante campaign to photograph people begging in street in bid ‘to prove they are fake homeless’.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/row-erupts-over-campaign-photograph-12095016
Violet
February 27, 2018 at 2:41 pm
What i find interesting about that is these charities they have approached would have to breach data protection laws to provide any concrete evidence that would stand up in a court of law.
So at best all this group got was hearsay, opinion regardless of whether or not these people are homeless.
Further more there is a ton and a half programs on homeless people who despite this groups claims, didn’t seem to have a problem getting the homeless on film. This would suggest the difference is actually asking people first meaning this would kill this groups whole attempt to demonize people on the flimsy evidence that dodgy people don’t like there photo taken. Anecdotal evidence also isn’t conclusive proof of a majority.
The truth about taking pictures is whether this group likes it or not, is people homeless or not just don’t like strangers taking their picture, its creepy and right up there with up skirt shots and stalking.
doug
February 28, 2018 at 11:32 am