As Universal Credit “on-line Journals” Crash, End the Surveillance Regime!
Private Eye this week outlines some of the results of ‘on-line by default’ Universal Credit.
People have problems enough with Universal Credit.
One major difficulty is the above ‘on-line Journal’.
It goes beyond just ‘getting in touch’.
Yesterday somebody showed me his: Nosey Parky Coachy has to be kept informed of your every move.
It reminded me of the Panopticon system
The basic setup of Bentham’s panopticon is this: there is a central tower surrounded by cells. In the central tower is the watchman. In the cells are prisoners – or workers, or children, depending on the use of the building. The tower shines bright light so that the watchman is able to see everyone in the cells. The people in the cells, however, aren’t able to see the watchman, and therefore have to assume that they are always under observation.
As this article goes on to say,
The looming interconnectivity between objects in our homes, cars and cities, generally referred to as the internet of things, will change digital surveillance substantially.
What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?
In the case of the UC ‘journal’ Coachey is watching you!
Our contributors have suggested that it is not clear if we all have to sign up to this surveillance.
Surely, some say, if we can prove we are looking for jobs do we need a roach peering over your shoulder every time you look on the Internet for work?
More responses welcome.
Last night’s Friends Without Benefits had this:
Darren and Donna, were sanctioned for failing to comply with the job search requirements and Darren turned to robbing drug dealers to bring in cash, a move which left him fearing for his life after receiving threats of retaliation.
Perhaps he should have shown these jobsearch efforts to Coachy.
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Its hard to see how the DWP can dictate the use of that journal,if someone blocks cookies’ in their browser thats their choice and why should the journal be any different from any other website.
ken
February 21, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Universal Credit is a system that runs on lies and half-truths, it always has done.
Dave G.
February 21, 2019 at 1:02 pm
Concentrate on the macro and the micro.
Blocking cookies is no different to the processing of any personal data meaning no consent is required to be sort for any listed under exemption. You dont have to be connected via cookie to a site when they all share data among each other. It all about connecting the dots and not a mere case of hiding ones IP.
Its easy peasy to recreate the footprint with websites sharing data even if one traverses via Tor unless of course you understand electronics and OS software programming. Its as yet a very untalked about loophole that allows web parties to collect and use data while neatly and legally circumnavigating the GDPR.
Government departments as you know work together, this provides another layer of protection for them against you as sure as hell by looking at their systems in entirety will show they have the means to collect,interpret and communicate the findings even if they are not doing it this very second.
I will simply say what i said regarding using the journal just the other day, people have to get creative.
Remember the expectation is 35 hours a week which is 7 hours over 5 days or 5 hours over 7. Theres 1440 minutes in a day meaning for 5 hours we are talking dispersing 300 meaning at min you must react for 1 minute every 4.8 in that time scale. No one said it had to be done on 1 PC and or 1 internet connection. No one can say how long it takes one to find a single job they can apply to.
Get creative.
Doug
February 21, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Blocking cookies is no different to the processing of any personal data meaning no consent is required to be sort for any listed under exemption.
If somone blocks cookies’ in their browser thats it they can surf the web but they cannot log into a website,add items to a basket for example.If the cookies are not placed on the pc it doesnt matter if consent cookies are required or not it simply does not progress to that point,the end user has refused point blank.
Perhaps Mozilla Firefox or Google and launch a browser thats Universal Credit Journal friendly that puts the DWP before anyone else on the planet.I would like to see any “instruments” or regulations’ that state otherwise.As Superted points out they cannot specify how work search information is supplied.
ken
February 21, 2019 at 3:06 pm
Ken
I dont think you understand as the cookies im talking about are either listed but un-selective or not on the list and be found in the small print as it were (not so small anymore as in specifics).
Do you know for instance when you switch on an OS, the native browser boots up, goes online without the slightest notice given on your desktop or tray/s. That the transmission speed is a millions times faster than you at stopping it.
Are you aware per page also acts as consent given even after you sort the consents if you don’t continually shut down the browser with every move.
That your OS developer/owner,websites, apps,etc,etc all share data with each other so you dont need to track directly anymore (ie you dont need RT to get the data you need).
Im afraid under UC what superted was told via FOI is nolonger a valid and correct statement as im sure you can read so understand quite clearly what can be stipulated, what a person agrees to day one of accepting UC (automatically every regulation under the welfare act).
The only thing claimants can do at this juncture and only purely because one signs on, can plea a case its as good as the same thing in when handed in person. As yet as far as im aware, no case has gone before a tribunal in this regard so i cannot suggest what outcome would be ruled on.
Douglas
February 22, 2019 at 1:39 pm
Cookies can only track you if they persist outside of the session in which they were created. So if you are worried about cookies tracking you simply set your browser to delete all of them when you close it! All browsers can be set to do this. You can also use extensions like Ghostery and Privacy Badger to look out for and exclude tracking cookies automatically.
Rose
February 21, 2019 at 4:42 pm
EU privacy laws mean that anybody in the UK can refuse to accept cookies from anyone, although not doing so can cause websites not to work properly. The DWP can only force you to accept UC cookies and log onto the UC journal using a Jobcentre computer; they cannot force you to do this using any other computer.
P. Shandy
February 21, 2019 at 4:48 pm
I am on the “full digital service” of Universal Credit. I hardly ever use the journal; only twice since last August. I do NOT use the journal to record my job search but have continued to keep a typewritten version, prepared on my PC using a word-processor, which I print out and show my work coach once a fortnight. My work coach has not tried to force me to use the journal to diarise my job search (and job related activities) and, as I have said, the only thing I normally use it for is to check details of appointments (in the “To do” section) and when I am next due to get paid (on the “Home” page), and to accept my claimant commitment as/when it gets updated/changed and revue the sanctions regime afterwards (in the “To do” section) in order to get paid.
When some third party, e.g., work coach, enters a message into my journal I get a text message to alert me and so normally, unless I get a text from the DWP, I only log in, maybe two or three times a month in order to do the things mentioned above. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky or have a sympathetic work coach but the journal itself has not troubled me or caused any trouble for me.
Important: If you agree to use the journal to record your job search and accept a claimant commitment that includes such an agreement you HAVE to record your job search in the journal or you can be sanctioned. When my work coach tried to “encourage” me to use my journal for such a purpose I refused and explained that I much preferred to keep a scrupulous paper record which enabled me to enter details online or offline.
After that I’ve experienced no problems.
Hand on heart that is the gospel honest truth.
Jim
February 21, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Devastating impact of universal credit
Last year, following the government’s utter failure to fix the problems caused by its shambolic implementation, Islington Council became one of the first in the country to call for universal credit to be completely scrapped.
As a councillor, I have seen the devastating impact this unfair policy is having on thousands of residents, with many forced to use foodbanks, unable to pay their rent and worried about their future.
http://islingtontribune.com/article/devastating-impact-of-universal-credit
ken
February 22, 2019 at 4:02 pm
Universal credit is perverse because it drives the guileless, neediest and most vulnerable into debt and rent arrears by design. The people who need help the most are the ones that the system fails. Universal credit IS a crooked and a wicked thing. If you have modest assets and are wiley, smart and savvy you can avoid all of the UC pifalls and beat the DWP at its own game. Well informed and crafty people can run rings around what is a set-in-stone rule-based and entirely inflexible system: only the vulnerable, unwary, innocent and trusting get screwed.
Jim
February 23, 2019 at 8:17 am
guileless
[gahyl-lis]
adjective
free from guile; sincere; honest; straightforward; frank
Too right Jim, being guileless won’t get you very far down the joke shop 😉
Georgina Washington
February 23, 2019 at 10:55 am
Work of the Day
guileless
[gahyl-lis]
adjective
free from guile; sincere; honest; straightforward; frank
Too right Jim, being guileless won’t get you very far down the joke shop 😉
Georgina Washington
February 23, 2019 at 10:55 am
Word of the Day
guileless
[gahyl-lis]
adjective
free from guile; sincere; honest; straightforward; frank
Too right Jim, being guileless won’t get you very far down the joke shop 😉
Georgina Washington
February 23, 2019 at 10:55 am
Mother gives up being lawyer and becomes a support worker for the elderly and talks about how shes looked upon these days : The Mirror.
There is nothing more condescending than a public servant, a contracted servant or a potential employer making an assumptions about a person all because they nolonger do a much respected, needed and well paid job.
This woman is quite fortunate, probably because of having kids quite tethered to compliancy, an admirable quality often sought by low payers assuming there face does not hit the floor in fear on the pretext they wont ever be able to keep you, cant play on your ignorance like they do the other staff in employ.
That is only those that assume on a previous vocation and does not begin to cover the shocking treatment the less skilled are delivered like they are an inconvenience on the species let alone society with reverence Hitler and Stalin would be proud of. The joke however and probably the biggest insult is like those two, the people making the assumptions dont even know you, dont care to and will cross the street rather than face having to because it matters more their preconceived notions outweigh the truth for the sake of an easier life.
Douglas
February 21, 2019 at 1:50 pm
Food banks turning to charity themselves over impact of Universal Credit
A charity has reported a “dramatic” increase in the number of food banks applying for cash donations – and blames the introduction of Universal Credit.
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/food-banks-turning-charity-themselves-15861519
ken
February 21, 2019 at 3:36 pm
I do sometimes wonder what would happen if food banks didn’t exist and what will one day happen when demand exceeds supply as more and more people get moved onto universal credit. Pretty scary really.
Rose
February 21, 2019 at 4:44 pm
How is someone supposed to be digital by default while relying on a foodbank?Its a very unfair complex system that now exists that many people simply just don’t understand.
ken
February 22, 2019 at 11:45 am
Reblogged this on sdbast.
sdbast
February 21, 2019 at 3:49 pm
Figures show soaring number of homeless hospital patients
NHS Digital figures show admissions in England rose from 1,539 in 2008/9 to 10,259 in 2017/18
Thousands of homeless people in England are arriving at hospital with Victorian-era illnesses such as tuberculosis, as well as serious respiratory conditions, liver disease and cancer.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/20/nhs-england-figures-show-soaring-homeless-patient-numbers
ken
February 22, 2019 at 11:48 am
And you thought Universal Credit was scary? Thank your lucky stars you weren’t in this guy’s shoes!
‘The hangman was too tired to hang me – three times’
On death row in Malawi, Byson Kaula was nearly executed three times – but on each occasion the hangman stopped work before hanging all the prisoners on his list. So he survived… until the country stopped executing people altogether.
Byson Kaula says jealous neighbours were responsible for him being found guilty of murder. It was 1992 and murder in those days carried a mandatory death sentence.
Brought up in a small village in southern Malawi, Byson had made enough money working in the gas industry in Johannesburg, South Africa, to return home and buy land. He employed five people and grew fruit, wheat, maize, and cassava.
“That is when my sad times began,” he says.
Neighbours attacked one of his employees, Byson says, leaving him badly injured. The man couldn’t walk without assistance, and while helping him get to the toilet – navigating steps that were slippery after heavy rain – Byson fell and dropped him. The man died later in hospital, and Byson – then in his 40s – was charged with murder.
In court, Byson’s neighbours testified against him.
His mother, Lucy, sitting at the back of the courtroom, couldn’t hear the sentence being read out and had to ask what was happening. When she was told he had been sentenced to death, “tears rolled from my eyes down my chest,” she says.
This was towards the end of the totalitarian government of Hastings Banda, which had controlled the country since 1964. Byson vividly remembers the horror of waiting for his turn at what he calls “the killing machine”.
“When I was told: ‘You can go now to the condemned section waiting for your time to be hanged’ – oh, I felt as if I was already dead.”
At that time, there was just one executioner – a South African who travelled between several countries in the region, carrying out hangings. When he arrived in Malawi, once every couple of months, the prisoners on death row knew that time, for some of them, had run out.
One day Byson remembers being told that his name was on the list of 21 people to be hanged within hours. A guard told him that executions would begin at 1300 and that he should “just start praying”.
They continued until 1500, when the executioner stopped work. But he had not reached the end of the list. Three people, including Byson, would have to wait until he returned.
“He was the only one operating that machine. And on that day, I understand he said: ‘No it’s too much, I’ll come again next month,'” Byson says.
The same thing happened twice more, Byson says. The list was drawn up, but the hangman didn’t finish it – and each time, by chance, Byson was among those left alive at the end of the day. On the third occasion, all the prisoners on the list were executed except him, he says.
In a way he was lucky, but the experience took its toll on him and he attempted suicide twice – only to survive this too.
After the establishment of multi-party democracy in Malawi in 1994, all executions came to a halt. The death sentence is still given out, even today, but no president has signed a death warrant for 25 years. Prisoners either languish on death row for years or have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
In time, Byson was moved from death row to the main part of Zomba Central Prison, and it looked as though he would spend the rest of his life there. He became heavily involved in the prison education programme, both studying and teaching. But he had no hope of ever being released.
Then, in 2007, roughly a quarter of a century after Byson was jailed, a historic case changed everything.
A drug user who admitted killing his stepson, but argued that he had been temporarily insane, went to court to challenge the mandatory death sentence for murder. He argued that this breached the right to a fair trial, and the right to protection from “inhuman and degrading treatment” – both guaranteed by Malawi’s constitution – and the court agreed. In some cases of murder the perpetrator was more culpable than others, it ruled, and there should therefore be different levels of punishment.
This meant that all mandatory death sentences had to be reviewed.
Of nearly 170 prisoners eligible for resentencing, 139 have so far been released. According to the legal charity Reprieve, many had mental health problems or were intellectually disabled. More than half of those entitled to a new hearing turned out to have no court record at all – it was unclear why they were even in prison.
When lawyers said that they wanted to take Byson back to court he initially resisted, as he had been so terrified by his first experience. But he gave in, and when the judge told him he was free to leave immediately, he was stunned.
“The prison warders said can you get out of the accused box. But I couldn’t stand up. I was just shivering, all my body was so weak… It was just as if I was dreaming. I could not believe what the judge had said.”
Byson wasn’t the only person whose life had been changed by his sentence.
His mother Lucy had visited every year during his incarceration. She would save her earnings from a year’s work farming cotton to make the journey to the prison in Zomba, bringing Byson as many provisions as she could carry.
On the day of Byson’s resentencing, she wasn’t there, but her younger son was. When he rang to tell her the news, she took a while to believe what he was saying. Then, she says, she “jumped around like a lamb – a young lamb… my heart was filled with joy”.
Byson was taken to a halfway house to help him learn new skills and make the transition back to normal life. Already in his 60s, he was the oldest person they’d ever had there.
He now goes back as a volunteer at weekends, to advise other ex-prisoners who are going through the same experience.
The land Byson used to farm is now overgrown. His wife died during the long years he was in prison and his six children have grown up and moved away.
He lives alone, but takes good care of his mother, now in her 80s.
“During my imprisonment, all I was worrying about was my mother… Being her first-born, I would do everything possible for her. Now that I’m back, I don’t let her go farming or do hard jobs. I have got other people to do the jobs for her. She doesn’t go to the field. I do it myself.”
His next project is to build her a new brick house.
Toto
February 22, 2019 at 10:34 am
Rent arrears more than double for East Ayrshire Council tenants on Universal Credit
A staggering £1.6 million in missed payments still owed to East Ayrshire Council
Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley MSP Willie Coffey has blasted the UK Government for introducing the harsh benefits system, describing it as a “complete and utter disaster”.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/rent-arrears-more-double-council-14025713
ken
February 22, 2019 at 11:33 am
How to change your Universal Credit payments as government recognises flaw
There is a way to make it easier for claimants on Universal Credit to pay their rent on time.
Tenants in Hull receiving Universal Credit could be given a much needed boost after the government spotted a flaw in the way people are receiving the benefit.
The way the six-in-one benefit is being doled out could be changed after it was recognised tenants were having difficult keeping up with weekly rent payments, according to the Liverpool Echo.
In February’s Universal Credit landlord engagement newsletter, published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the government admitted the current arrangement over how recipients are paid makes it difficult for tenants.
The newsletter said: “Universal Credit is paid on a monthly cycle. Where a tenant has a weekly rental liability, they will have to make either 4 or 5 rent payments in any one month.
“This means that claimants are ‘overpaid’ by UC in months where they have to make 4 rental payments and ‘underpaid’ where they make 5, but over time this broadly balances itself out.
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/how-change-universal-credit-payments-2572422
Andrew Coates
February 22, 2019 at 11:39 am
This is a subject that any changes to benefit’s won’t address.
Nearly one in three jobseekers in Mid Sussex are over 50
“Under Universal Credit, a broader span of claimants are required to look for work than under Jobseeker’s Allowance.
That doesnt mean thay are going to find any work,Their ignoring the likelyhood of finding any employment.The longer out of work the more barriers also.
https://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/business/nearly-one-in-three-jobseekers-in-mid-sussex-are-over-50-1-8821333
ken
February 22, 2019 at 11:39 am
Good post to a valid point Ken, the problem however is how one goes about proving something we all know happens just like the ugly person, the fat person, the race, the culture, no home, etc, etc not getting the job because of.
50 somethings have to strive for themselves, often only being able to snatch a little labour here and there unless of course they can implement their own business and have custom.
The older you get, the more back of the bus you get but remember age affords experience and wisdom so labour based on brains not physical is the market they must spend their time on as micro management works against them on the latter.
Douglas
February 22, 2019 at 1:46 pm
Man steals food to eat after Universal Credit payment halted
“I did not want to break the law but I just needed something to eat and the only thing I could do was steal.”
A former lorry driver and factory worker says he was left with no choice but to steal food to eat after being left with no money as he was being put onto Universal Credit.
He admitted theft from M&S on February 5 when he appeared at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court, but told Lincolnshire Live said that his crimes were acts of desparation.
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/man-steals-food-eat-after-2569242
Making communities’ pay.
ken
February 22, 2019 at 3:58 pm
For Info:
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/call-for-urgent-probe-into-police-passing-dwp-information-about-protesters/
Anne Edmondson
February 22, 2019 at 3:59 pm
That is really serious, and disgusting,
“There are growing concerns and calls for an urgent investigation into admissions by two police forces that they have shared information about protesters with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Both Lancashire and Greater Manchester police forces have now admitted passing on information to DWP about people taking part in protests.
The admissions originally came following claims reported by Disability News Service (DNS) that police forces had been targeting disabled people taking part in peaceful anti-fracking protests across England.
Lancashire police then admitted in December that it had shared both information and video footage of disabled anti-fracking protesters with DWP, in an apparent attempt to have their disability benefits removed.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) then told DNS that it had passed DWP information – but not video footage – relating to protesters taking part in the anti-fracking protests at Barton Moss, Salford.”
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/call-for-urgent-probe-into-police-passing-dwp-information-about-protesters/
Andrew Coates
February 22, 2019 at 6:25 pm
Violet are the wc still on your back?
Blobby
February 23, 2019 at 4:21 pm
No blobby they are not as I have had to sign the pimps paper work so they wouldn’t close my uc account down again.
Violet
February 23, 2019 at 5:41 pm
@Violet Bit of a long winded post here (and also my first as i’m just a lurker normally but i’m bloody fuming about this case so here goes…). I have read what has happened to you with great interest Violet and i have to say it is an absolute disgrace what has been done to you. Please tell me you are continuing with your mandatory reconsideration that you put in 2/3 weeks ago?. Have you heard anything back about that yet from the DWP?. If not, don’t rest on your laurels. Harass them daily into giving you updates on how long it is going to be before the decision maker gets back to you and also when you bug them daily, make sure you’re letting them know that it will be going to a tribunal if the decision maker also breaks the law like tweedle dum (your work coach) and tweedle dumber (the jobcentre manager) did by breaking the law in closing down your claim instead of referring it to a decision maker. It’s f**king blackmail what they’re doing and it’s boiling my piss quite frankly.
Also, i would contact all of the following: the DWP complaints department, your MP, Citizens advice bureau, your Jobcentre’s AREA MANAGER (not the brain dead turnip in charge at your actual jobby), your local newspaper (maybe even the Guardian as they have quite a few sympathetic journalists regarding benefit claimants) and i’d also kick up an absolute stink all over social media. You could even contact the DWP on twitter and let everyone know on that feed what they’re doing to you as you never know, some journalist that has to read the DWP’s official twitter page may take an interest and contact you (stranger things have happened). I’d try everything under the sun to defeat them on this because it’s vital that they get their arse handed to them on a plate. Blackmail from a government department cannot, and must not be tolerated. No way would i give in because they are breaking the law and they know it and think they will just get away with doing it to all other claimants if you don’t fight it. We need you to carry on and win this Violet.
Orson Cart
February 24, 2019 at 3:43 am
your local newspaper
Even the local paper and its important to contact the MP.This behavior makes other people feel bad.I dont think signing the paperwork will make any difference if Violet has printed off or has a copy of the Claiment Commitment and explans the situation at a later tribunal,they have heard it all before.If experience is gone by on these courses’ there will be even more opportunities to appeal.
Claiment Commitment
February 24, 2019 at 4:35 pm
“Your taking part in the Work & Heath Programme is voluntary. If during your time on the Work & Health Programme you stop engaging with your provider then the Work & Health Programme would then become mandatory from this point onwards. This means your payments could be reduced if you don’t continue with the Work & Health Programme.”
Benefit Bullshitter
February 24, 2019 at 8:13 pm
once you sign providers contracts then it is mandatory, but what they have done to violet is out right blackmail.
in fact as her cc says must sign all provider paperwork means the providers are braking there own funding rules and regs.
contracts must be signed of free will sfa esf rules, violet does not have this option!
superted
February 24, 2019 at 9:00 pm
It made me feel sick when I signed the pimps contact last week knowing I had been threatened & blackmailed into signing it, have to attend next week to do job search every Wednesday for 5 hours,well they can go to hell I will do 2 at the most.
Violet
February 25, 2019 at 7:57 am
Surely this is a clear breach of the GDPR? Also have you contacted your MEP? Just one phone call to his MEP and Daniel Blake had his benefit problems sorted out in a jiffy. This is what being a member of the EU is all about. God/Allah/Insert the Deity of your choice if we ever leave this venerable Institution.
Brussels Sprout
February 25, 2019 at 8:33 am
Surely this is a clear breach of the GDPR? Also have you contacted your MEP? Just one phone call to his MEP and Daniel Blake had his benefit problems sorted out in a jiffy. This is what being a member of the EU is all about. God/Allah/Insert the Deity of your choice hep us if we ever leave this venerable Institution.
Brussels Sprout
February 25, 2019 at 8:33 am
Surely this is a clear breach of the GDPR? Also have you contacted your MEP? Just one phone call to his MEP and Daniel Blake had his benefit problems sorted out in a jiffy. This is what being a member of the EU is all about. God/Allah/Insert the Deity of your choice hep us if we ever leave this venerable Institution!
Brussels Sprout
February 25, 2019 at 8:33 am
Surely this is a clear breach of the GDPR? Also have you contacted your MEP? Just one phone call to his MEP and Daniel Blake had his benefit problems sorted out in a jiffy. This is what being a member of the EU is all about. God/Allah/Insert the Deity of your choice help us if we ever leave this venerable Institution.
Brussels Sprout
February 25, 2019 at 8:35 am
It made me feel sick when I signed the pimps contact last week knowing I had been threatened & blackmailed into signing it, have to attend next week to do job search every Wednesday for 5 hours,well they can go to hell I will do 2 at the most.
Claimants that I’ve spoken to reported bullying and intimidation on these courses’.What was more sickening this company closed their operation in this area and moved to another town twenty miles away known to have better employment prospects.They simply abandoned everyone.
ken
February 25, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Have you heard anything back from your mandatory reconsideration request Violet?.
Orson Cart
February 25, 2019 at 4:39 pm
I inherited my grandmother’s Tesco Value fridge freezer when she passed in 91. She had it from the war when grandad took it as a war trophy from the Nazis. He carried it on his back all throughout the rest of the war and back to blighty.
Saved his life as well as German sniper hit the hinge of the door as opposed to his back. It actually ricocheted and hit another German who was advancing on my old grandpapa; ended up winning a medal!
Anyway I still have the old beko and plan on giving it to my grandkids when i shake my mortal coil.
Angela
February 25, 2019 at 12:22 am
Universal Credit leaves hundreds behind on council rent
“Arrears for council tenants claiming Universal Credit are significantly higher
The five-week wait for payment is one of the main reasons behind the problems. And tenants are often paid the wrong amount, according to the council.
In total, welfare reform is estimated to have cost the council £429,000 so far this year.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17456560.universal-credit-leaves-hundreds-behind-on-council-rent/
ken
February 25, 2019 at 3:00 pm
Not yet orson cart & don’t expect to either
Violet
February 25, 2019 at 5:49 pm
Get on the phone to them Violet. Please don’t let them get away with doing this to you.
Orson Cart
February 26, 2019 at 1:32 am
skip to 4mins pmsl
superted
February 25, 2019 at 1:06 am
Re-Education
Not even students are spared the ravages of Universal Credit. Students are even more worse off than part-time workers who lose 63p from their UC for every pound earned. Students unfortunate to claim Universal Credit lose a whole £1.00 for every pound of their grant.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17455961.students-sign-open-letter-to-call-for-review-into-universal-credit/
Axeman
February 25, 2019 at 9:01 am
And now they’re coming for the pensioners:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/thousands-elderly-scots-facing-7k-14048500
Axeman
February 25, 2019 at 9:19 am
The very idea that a pensioner over 65 will be forced to claim Universal Credit if their partner is of working age is insane.
The Pensions Minister said Pension Credit is not designed to support working age claimants! (Ah, but it’s been wickedly designed to rob pensioners whose partners are of working age)!
Imagine trying to negotiate the nightmare procedures to claim Universal Credit when you are over 65. Only the Tories could come up with that one!!
Axeman
February 25, 2019 at 9:30 am
Pensioners whose partners are of working age will now have to claim Universal Credit.
Pensions Minister said Universal Credit is not designed for working age people.
Imagine pensioners over 65 having to negotiate the nightmare procedures for claiming Universal Credit. Only the Tories could come up with that one!
Sanity
February 25, 2019 at 9:36 am
Oops, I’m repeating myself!
It must be the Universal madness setting in!!!
Sanity
February 25, 2019 at 9:54 am
Universal Credit could cause ‘civil unrest’ fears volunteer working with claimants
‘The way claimants are expected to apply for universal credit is unfair and discriminates against the most vulnerable people in society’
We’re not long into this process and it is causing very real problems for people.
This is only the first wave of impact, there will be more to come.
As time goes on,the impact will be felt greater.”
criticised the way the system is designed.
The whole thing hasn’t been thought through.
I couldn’t do it, people in full time work couldn’t do it.
“Some of the people that are going to be claiming this benefit have no way of applying and keeping up with emails and appointments.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/universal-credit-could-cause-civil-2582170
ken
February 26, 2019 at 9:50 am
DWP Universal Credit staff vote to strike after being treated with ‘contempt’
It means two days of strike action are now due to take place on March 11-12 involving 274 staff.
The union says the system is crippled by “severe under investment, staff shortages and criticism from claimants on how they are treated”.
It comes four years since 1,300 Universal Credit staff staged a 48-hour walkout in protest at the “oppressive” workplace culture.
They complained of staff shortages, poor training and at least £40m ‘squandered’ on IT that wasn’t used.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-dwp-universal-credit-staff-14051240
ken
February 25, 2019 at 6:02 pm
Continuing concern over Universal Credit
Universal Credit is one of the top concerns people come to speak to me about. It simply doesn’t work for claimants, many of whom are juggling work and childcare.
A recent Resolution Foundation report projected a further 6% rise in child poverty to a record-breaking 37% by 2023-24.
With a radical new economic programme under a Labour Government, those lower income families who have been hit by benefit changes and freezes, rising food prices and stagnant wages would see their living standards rise again.
https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/continuing-concern-over-universal-credit/
ken
February 25, 2019 at 6:25 pm
In recent polls Theresa May scored -25% despite all the many problems her government caused and is presiding over and Jeremy Corbyn scored an incredible -55%. (Corbyn is twice as unpopular as Theresa May among the general voting public despite everything the Tories have done and are doing.) In the Leader of the Labour party can’t score higher than a complete and utter failure like Theresa May as far as popularity goes Labour absolutely cannot possibly win a general election. If Labour could replace Corbyn with a better leader the party would be in with a bloody good chance of gaining power, but, of course, this will not happen; Jezza was elected by his party to be its leader fair and square. Outside of the Labour party the country doesn’t like or trust Jeremy Corbyn enough for Labour to be returned to office.
Ro
February 26, 2019 at 12:37 pm
Before the last General Election all the opinion pollsters predicted that Theresa May’s Tory Party were going to secure the biggest Commons majority since the early 80s. Instead the result was a hung parliament with May having to go cap-in-hand to the DUP bigots to prop up her Party.
Opinion polls are like arseholes – they’re mostly full of shit. If you are daft enough to believe the shysters who produce them then more fool you.
Disinterested Bystander
March 12, 2019 at 9:31 pm
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating!.
A6er
March 2, 2019 at 2:39 pm
Reblogged this on Introverted but Socially Concerned.
Introverted Evangelist
March 2, 2019 at 3:46 pm