Protest over Universal Credit cut.
There is no sign of any attempt to deal with the looking crisis that mass unemployment and a system, Universal Credit, is creating.
People on this site mention the difficulties the end of face-to-face contact with the Job Centre, and the problems those without the Net face: making claims in the first place, job search, threats of sanctions. There is also the issue, as Superted points out of “Universal Credit telephone interviews”, a rollicking ride for many. As Trev says, “No date or time specified, just “over the next few weeks I will be phoning you to book a telephone appointment”.
On one point Aleister writes,
The 35 hour jobsearch is unenforceable because it is left up to individuals to carry it out, as they see fit, and everybody therefore approaches it in different ways with different competences.
..
As long as you do something plausible by way of applications and write something jobsearch related down for the Jobcentre to see you should be fine.
This is good advice, but people who do apply for work on a regular and systematic basis, often still feel very anxious because this headlined 35 hour rule . That libraries and Jobcentre computers are not available at the moment will obviously make them worry a lot more.
You have the impression that already isolated people are in dire straits, that those who’ve been on the street are hovering around not knowing what the future will bring, that those forced to rely on food banks are pushed further to the margins, that debts and rent arrears are mounting.
The DWP is keen to remind people that it not just the unemployed who get Universal Credit.
This Saturday there was a Day of Action, web based, on the latest threat hovering over claimants.
Ministers told to publish impact assessment of removing £20-per-week universal credit increase
Independent.
Ministers are being urged to publish an internal government assessment probing the impact of removing the £20-per-week increase in universal credit payments on low-income families and poverty levels in Britain.
It comes as discussions between the Treasury, No 10 and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) continue over the future of the uplift, which was introduced at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic to give struggling families extra support.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is reported to be pushing against the extra payments, costing £6 billion annually, becoming permanent despite intense opposition from some Conservative MPs, opposition parties and anti-poverty campaigners.
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey told MPs on Wednesday that no decision had been reached on whether to extend the payments and it is expected Mr Sunak will announce any changes to the scheme at the Budget in March.
h
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
It’s pretty astonishing, if not typical, that the Tories are still quibbling over a £20 increase that should have been awarded as a permanent increase to unemployment Benefits over 6 years ago!
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/29/uk-benefits-inadequate-council-of-europe
trev
February 6, 2021 at 4:22 pm
From May 2020:
Almost 5,000,000 UK adults have to ration meals or have no access to healthy foods
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-05-21/almost-5m-adults-suffering-from-food-insecurity
From December 2020:
Covid: 110% increase in food bank use reveals plight of pandemic in run up to Christmas
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-12-22/covid-110-increase-in-food-bank-use-reveals-plight-of-pandemic-in-run-up-to-christmas
A decade of Tory policies + Covid 19 = Millions living in poverty. And the Nasty Party do not care.
trev
February 6, 2021 at 4:35 pm
Foodbank use in the UK
Click to access CBP-8585.pdf
trev
February 6, 2021 at 4:40 pm
Child poverty in the UK
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/child-poverty-in-the-uk-the-definitions-details-causes-and-consequences/
trev
February 6, 2021 at 4:43 pm
The problem is poverty, however we label it
Aditya Chakrabortty
the Guardian
“The prefixes ‘food’, ‘child’ or ‘fuel’ make life for 14 million poor Britons seem easily fixable. In truth, radical action is needed”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/21/poverty-food-child-fuel-britons-action
trev
February 6, 2021 at 4:46 pm
“After nearly a decade of cuts, Britain is facing a poverty crisis.
Poverty is now the most visible and widespread it has been in Britain since the Tories were last in power”
https://labour.org.uk/page/poverty-britain
trev
February 6, 2021 at 5:23 pm
Child poverty soars across Britain under the Tories
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/50778/Child+poverty+soars+across+Britain+under+the+Tories
trev
February 6, 2021 at 5:25 pm
Ten billionaires reap $400bn boost to wealth during pandemic
Rupert Neate
the Guardian
”
Covid-19 pushed many into poverty but brought huge benefits for some of the wealthiest, renewing calls for fairer taxes
Ten of the richest people in the world have boosted their already vast wealth by more than $400bn (£296bn) since the coronavirus pandemic began as their businesses were boosted by lockdowns and financial crises across the globe.
The extra wealth accumulated by the 10 men – approximately $450bn, using Forbes figures – over the past nine months is more than the £284bn the British government is estimated to have spent on tackling the pandemic and the economic damage it has wrought on its 66 million people.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/19/ten-billionaires-reap-400bn-boost-to-wealth-during-pandemic
trev
February 6, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Its funny you say that at a time a recent leaked email detailed our governments plan to get a one off tax payments alongside normal taxes from any businesses who have thrived as a byproduct of the virus.
Strangely Bezo recently announced his departure as chief executive of Amazon.
Its worth mentioning as so many people dont know but Bezo is about to fund space travel like Elon Musk already does. Its also note worthy at a time Zukerberg alongside Ebay/investors is getting quite serious about funding the possibility of teleportation while Bill Gates looks at sinking his wealth into satellites and space stations.
Now maybe its just me but anything to do with space is non essential and that this wealth of money, including the wealth of such persons would be best ploughed into the immediate problems here of earth.
Doug
February 7, 2021 at 10:02 am
Yes all this Billionaire interest in Space projects is rather strange. Maybe it’s the only thing left to excite or interest the ‘man who has everything’ ? Or perhaps they know something we don’t and are preparing to leave!
trev
February 7, 2021 at 12:35 pm
I wouldn’t put it past the Conservatives to cut the the £20, with Sunak making a big speech about his regrets, and the need for economies to be made. Even if this then results in a political firestorm.
They know the reality of the employment market post-pandemic. And you can bet that they see a £20 raise in benefits, as having a chilling effect on people’s willingness to take up low-paid, insecure work.
Jeff Smith
February 6, 2021 at 11:23 pm
But it’s also the knock-on effect it will have on society in general and upon the support agencies, the foodbanks, the CAB, local Council Welfare services, homeless outreach, etc. Rent arrears affect Landlords too, and the economy in general will suffer if a few million people have £80 per month less to spend. Give people more money and we’ll spend it, thereby boosting the economy.
trev
February 7, 2021 at 4:44 pm
More than three in 10 people who began claiming universal credit after the start of the pandemic last year have acquired new debts, or seen their existing debts grow, according to a new report by the independent Resolution Foundation thinktank.
The study – which will add to pressure on the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, not to cut levels of support in his budget next month – finds that of almost 6 million people who are currently claiming it, about three in five made a new claim in 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/07/benefit-claimants-face-mounting-debt-burden-says-thinktank
Andrew Coates
February 7, 2021 at 8:37 am
45% and 34% report a drop of income equivalent to a quarter to a fifth my foot.
Cars, houses and expensive household goods they dont own outright, using credit cards like its going out of fashion, plunging savings. Who is this 45/34% who are hardly suffering ?
There is a strong reason to believe times ahead are going to be hard to put us all on the same financial footing prior to covid,
The issue surrounding asymptomatic public may further cause delays in various ways, especially if the number turns out greater than 1 in every 3.
Doug
February 7, 2021 at 10:33 am
Sunak doesn’t care. 70% of people aren’t getting furlough support. He refuses to help people that need to self isolate. Sick pay is a joke. He’s a covid denier and a crank
G. Whistler
February 7, 2021 at 1:12 pm
He’s also the richest man in the Commons and his wife is richer than the Queen!
trev
February 7, 2021 at 4:45 pm
Exports to the EU have plummeted by 68% since Brexit
https://news.sky.com/story/exports-to-the-eu-have-plummeted-by-68-since-brexit-12211169
Remember this
Britons buying from EU websites hit with £100 customs bills
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/21/britons-buying-from-eu-websites-face-more-than-100-import-duties
Dont need to say what should already be on your minds.
Doug
February 7, 2021 at 10:11 am
It was said there would be both winners and losers.
xclausx
February 7, 2021 at 4:53 pm
It’s kind of tragic that a lot of people who were 100% for Brexit, e.g., fishermen and farmers, are now seeing their businesses and industries on the brink of ruin and their livelihoods decimated after six weeks outside the EU bloc. Personally I always thought that cutting yourself off from you biggest market was a pretty stupid thing to want to do but there you go and now they are paying the price. As the rest of us are destined to do, hopefully on a smaller scale, for the foreseeable future and possibly forever.
Aleister
February 8, 2021 at 7:00 am
I don’t think it’ll be forever, Britain will probably rejoin the EU in another couple of generations when the old xenophobes and Nationalists have died off.
trev
February 8, 2021 at 8:44 am
I wrote to my MP, John penrose, about the disparity suffered by legacy claimants. What I got back was of course bollocks. It was from one of the DWP sub ministers, because the WP secretary doesn’t care. All he said was that they’d spent a lot of money during the pandemic and that we should be grateful just to keep in line with inflation. No surprise it was a non answer
G. Whistler
February 7, 2021 at 1:08 pm
Yes, it’s outrageous the way in which 2 Million people claiming legacy benefits have just been ignored. As if they don’t even exist. Even if they do give the £20 to Universal Credit claimants, will it then be given to the legacy claimants as well ? Or are they just going to carry on ignoring them ?
Jeff Smith
February 7, 2021 at 3:46 pm
Yet again the Tories are playing politics with peoples lives. The biggest threat to people is not the Covid 19 but the DWP’s policies. Work Cures Covid 19. Are the British public in debt holding the Tories for ransom with Tory dictatorship. So Tories what is more important people’s lives, Covid 19 or their policies are political gain trying to save the economy. Perhaps the MP’s can take a pay cut to pay for the £20 a week deduction rather than MP’s ripping people off with paying thier lawyers for more DWP Court Cases.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 7, 2021 at 1:49 pm
why do i get a pdf download every time i click on this thread?
superted
February 7, 2021 at 3:52 pm
superted@ I get the page normal but at the bottom of the page it says do I want to open a PDF & automatically is on my download page of downloading the PDF. I don’t know, it is something new.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 7, 2021 at 5:55 pm
yeah get the same thing coats must have screwed up lol
superted
February 7, 2021 at 6:50 pm
Next it will be the NHS workers taking a pay cut to save the economy. Perhaps the economy only matters to the Tory Party whilst everyone else is already doomed with debt by the DWP. Flogging a dead dictatorship with bribes & lies to save the Tories joining the DWP in court for Human Rights Abuses. Save the Tory Party not the economy, you can’t have it both ways & win a political war with the importance of MP’s that have no meaning in real life apart from debt & homelessness. Since the Energy Bills are going up, the Council Tax going up to pay for Tory fuck ups like Grenfell Tower & the Windrush scandal the DWP are the new Slave Masters in a failed dictatorship of failures. Normal people do the good work & the Tories take the credit.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 7, 2021 at 5:52 pm
I’m not sure that the Tories really do care about the economy, if they did they would make sure everyone has lots of money to spend on buying things. The way things are going millions of people are heading for foodbanks with no disposable income with which to fuel the economy. Unconditional Basic Income would save the economy. Universal Credit and Benefit Sanctions will sink the economy. Poverty level ‘legacy Benefits’ don’t keep the shops in business.
trev
February 7, 2021 at 6:02 pm
And that is the biggest Tory lie that they care about the economy that DWP Sanctions will save the economy.
Poverty is the biggest problem that the Tories won’t have anything to do with, yet they are the ones who created mass poverty. The Covid 19 did not cause mass poverty like the Tories say Covid 19 is the promblem not the Tory killers.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 7, 2021 at 7:18 pm
Exactly. We’ve had 12 months of Covid but a decade of Tory policies. There are many people now who for the first time are finding out firsthand what a shambolic mess the Social Security system is in.
trev
February 7, 2021 at 7:24 pm
These people that voted for the Tories are now so ashamed voting Tory that they go into hiding & say they did not vote Tory. Hypocrites that moan about what they voted for.
How comes the Welfare Reform Flag Ship is more important than the Covid 19 problem to the Tories !!! Tells you where the Tories are in Human Rights.
So the Welfare State is going to fuck up the economy, so let’s fuck people over on DWP problems to save the economy. That excuse has been worn out Tories like your voters.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 7, 2021 at 7:42 pm
Except of course it hasn’t been “decimated by years of communist rule”, just a decade of Tory rule! (the SNP are irrelevant).
trev
February 11, 2021 at 2:47 am
UK Government accused of ‘misunderstanding’ causes of poverty and food insecurity
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/uk-government-accused-misunderstanding-causes-23459123
trev
February 7, 2021 at 9:19 pm
job search 2020.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152151563@N06/50920657267/in/dateposted-public/
superted
February 8, 2021 at 12:42 am
Nice one! And I would expect them to sit there and read every single bit of it, but they won’t, they’ll just give it a cursory glance then ask why you’re not getting any interviews. It pisses me right off.
trev
February 8, 2021 at 8:47 am
The computers rejecting your job application
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55932977
trev
February 8, 2021 at 10:03 am
Most firms use CV-reading software. And it’s only going to get worse. I was advised by the Jobcentre to copy verbatim what the employer is looking for and paste it into the Key Skills and Experience sections of my CV.
jj joop
February 8, 2021 at 11:20 am
There are also jobs that require you to complete an online test consisting of some seemingly arbitrary and contradictory questions based on various hypothetical scenarios. Supermarkets often use these sorts of tests, some of which are multiple choice answers that have to be selected in order of preference; i.e. the best answer ranging through to the worst answer. I fail them every single time, e.g. If a Manager has told you to stack goods on a shelf but a customer drops some eggs do you break off and clean it up, or notify a colleague and continue with what you were doing, or do you call for the Manager, etc.etc. How the fuck should I know? I’m not being paid to think and make decisions, that’s the bloody Manager’s job! I was always taught to follow your last order, that’s what my father told me from being in the army, so I would do what the Manager had last instructed me to do, = Fail.
trev
February 8, 2021 at 11:43 am
I haven’t bothered to print any of mine off. Why? I haven’t had one request for evidence from my coach.
jj joop
February 8, 2021 at 11:15 am
there are no time limits for sanction doubts i dont print them off to show to a work coach but at a tribunal if they try it on.
cant prove 2 weeks of job search over the last 6 months then they can and will raise a ase doubt.
if there is no conditionality then there is no point of the jcp offices in the first place and they like there performance bonuses every year based on this.
superted
February 8, 2021 at 11:03 pm
DWP Press Release 3rd Feb 2021
Official Statistics – Development of a new measure of poverty: statistical notice
Updated 3 February 2021
With re-prioritisation of workloads during Coronavirus (COVID-19), this project was paused. We will provide an update on this work in due course.
Introduction
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes Households Below Average Income (HBAI) National Statistics annually.
These statistics estimate the number and percentage of people living in low income households in the UK. It meets DWP’s statutory obligation to publish a measure of relative and absolute low income, and low income and material deprivation for children under section 4 of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Social Metrics Commission
In September 2018, the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) published the ‘A New Measure of Poverty in the UK’ report in which they proposed a new method for measuring poverty.
The SMC is an independent commission that was formed with the aim of developing a new approach to poverty measurement that both better reflects the nature and experiences of poverty that different families in the UK have and that can be used to build a consensus around poverty measurement and action in the UK.
The SMC report concluded that their new metric accounts for the negative impact on people’s weekly income of inescapable costs such as childcare and the impact that disability has on people’s needs; and includes the positive impacts of being able to access liquid assets such as savings, to alleviate immediate poverty. The commission’s metric also included groups of people previously omitted from poverty statistics, like those living on the streets and those just above the low income threshold but in overcrowded housing.
This SMC metric was also positioned within a wider framework, with the aim of seeing a more detailed picture of exactly who is poor, and the range of factors that can detrimentally impact on their lives, their experience of poverty and their future chances of remaining in, or entering poverty.
New experimental statistics
DWP has completed an initial evaluation of the SMC work and have concluded that this new approach could form the basis of a new measure of poverty that would improve the information and evidence on poverty provided by government to the public.
Given this, DWP will publish experimental statistics in the second half of 2020 that will take the current SMC measure as a starting point and assess whether and how this can be developed and improved further to increase the value of these statistics to the public. This assessment will include the wider measurement framework covering the depth, persistence and lived experience of poverty.
The experimental statistics will be produced and released following guidelines by the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics that sets out a framework to ensure that the statistics are of:
public value
high quality
released in an open and transparent manner that is pre-announced and promotes trust
The statistics will be developed by the department with input from a wide range of users, including other government departments and external stakeholders, and the SMC themselves.
These experimental statistics will be published in the second half of 2020, after and in addition to DWP HBAI statistics. We remain committed to publishing HBAI in line with our statutory duties.
Feedback
At this stage the department is keen to receive feedback from users on what they would like to see included in the new report and what their priorities would be. This feedback can be considered as we develop the new publication.
Email your feedback to: team.povertystats@dwp.gov.uk.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 8, 2021 at 11:46 am
“””With re-prioritisation of workloads during Coronavirus (COVID-19), this project was paused. We will provide an update on this work in due course.”””
So with the great poverty statistics are now on hold because of Covid 19, which the DWP are causing more poverty which will not be in their figures.
DWP poverty figures have been fiddled.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 8, 2021 at 11:49 am
Benefit changes in April.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/universal-credit-rising-april-6-23462438
xclausx
February 8, 2021 at 2:22 pm
300,000 denied uc due to having to much savings.
Many Tory voters who voted the scumbags back in to hammer the poor now find themselves trying to claim the pittance they thought was to much to pay to the vulnerable.
Cloverleaf
February 8, 2021 at 2:22 pm
Mix and match jabs!
Cloverleaf
February 8, 2021 at 3:47 pm
Looks like I’ve been given the wrong one, along with millions of others, as the Oxford vaccine is ineffective against the South African variant. And if that variant spreads we’ll be in lockdown for a long time to come. At this rate it could be another year before we’re back in the Jobcentre.
trev
February 8, 2021 at 4:10 pm
Jolly good I never want to set foot in that **** hole again.
Cloverleaf
February 8, 2021 at 4:30 pm
Me neither. Every cloud has its silver lining.
trev
February 8, 2021 at 4:55 pm
Apparently it the Oxford vaccine does work in the sense that it renders Covid-19 mild enough to avoid hospital and/or dying. If you get it you get it like a flu – fever, cough, fatigue, perspiration, sometimes loss of taste – but can recover at home after ten days without needing medical intervention. A hell of a lot better than being without such limited protection. For me it’s the “not dying” bit that matters most.
Tim
February 8, 2021 at 7:36 pm
Better to have the jab than not, but it’s personal choice, if you’d rather risk it and not have the vaccination that’s up to you, but it’s a risky strategy! The anti-vaxers seem desperate to persuade others not to get vaccinated instead of practising what they preach, i.e. Freedom of choice.
trev
February 11, 2021 at 2:19 pm
That four eyed tosspot must have shares in the vax industry, what’s up… folks not snuffing it quick enough!
Tigerlily
February 8, 2021 at 4:25 pm
superted
February 8, 2021 at 11:41 pm
what happens when superted signs on in 2022 😉
superted
February 8, 2021 at 11:58 pm
Government policies wilfully impoverish the most vulnerable
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/opinion/article/government-policies-wilfully-impoverish-the-most-vulnerable
trev
February 9, 2021 at 12:07 pm
0800 640 4999 just called me I wasn’t expecting a call so didn’t answer, when I googled the number most people are saying it’s a dwp scam number.
Jobcentre usually call me on a private number.
Big bird
February 9, 2021 at 1:10 pm
World
Politics
US
Climate
Science & Tech
Business
Ents & Arts
Travel
Offbeat
Analysis
Opinion
Videos
Weather
Chancellor Rishi Sunak under pressure to increase legacy benefits for two million people
Tory MPs are among those calling for Rishi Sunak to extend the Universal Credit uplift and apply it to legacy benefits as well.
https://news.sky.com/story/chancellor-rishi-sunak-under-pressure-to-increase-legacy-benefits-for-two-million-people-12206986
trev
February 9, 2021 at 3:27 pm
@trev- I see he is also under pressure to extend the furlough scheme, with 600,000 firms and a potential 9 million jobs at risk. It ends on 30th April. Talk about mass unemployment !
What do you bet he extends the furlough, but cuts the £20 uplift ?
Jeff Smith
February 9, 2021 at 4:55 pm
Choices, choices. We’ll have to wait and see but I think it’s fairly certain that those of us on so-called ‘legacy Benefits’ will have to sing for our supper!
trev
February 9, 2021 at 6:02 pm
DWP Universal Credit could be cut in October under plan to ‘delay change for 6 months’
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/dwp-universal-credit-could-cut-23470815
superted
February 9, 2021 at 6:28 pm
Financial jiggery-pokery, as the non-committal Government wiggle and wriggle, worm, and juggle delaying the inevitable of a permanent increase to Universal Credit. Bugger-all for JSA/ESA though. Legacy Claimants aka ‘the undeserving poor’ can curl up and die, the Tories don’t give a fuck.
trev
February 9, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Andrew Coates
February 9, 2021 at 6:49 pm
Andrew Coates
February 9, 2021 at 6:49 pm
If anyone from the DWP is reading this I would accept a one-off lump sum payment of £1000 for the last year’s worth of ‘uplift’ outstanding on my JSA claim, followed by a further £40 per fortnight added on to my regular JSA payment for the foreseeable future. Thank you.
trev
February 9, 2021 at 7:25 pm
And if you owed them any money Trev, they would chase you for every penny. Every legacy claimant should get the £1000, a full apology, and a signed photo of Therese Coffey.
Jeff Smith
February 9, 2021 at 11:15 pm
And if you’d earned a grand and not declared it they’d throw the book at you, up in Court charged with Fraud. But the Tory DWP fraudsters can get away with their lies and cheating people out of money for no good reason.
trev
February 9, 2021 at 11:58 pm
I’m on jsa anyone know why a universal credit number would be phoning me or do they use the same general number
Big bird
February 9, 2021 at 6:51 pm
I think they use various different numbers from different area departments and/or Jobcentres but they do use 0800 numbers. I Googled it and some are saying it’s the DWP and others say it’s a scam. So I don’t know. I wouldn’t think the DWP/Jobcentre would ring after 5.00pm though.
https://who-called.co.uk/Number/08006404999
trev
February 9, 2021 at 7:19 pm
The “Great Zero Carbon” Conspiracy!
https://www.globalresearch.ca/great-zero-carbon-criminal-conspiracy/5736707
Tigerlily
February 9, 2021 at 7:41 pm
What do Covid-deniers, anti-lockdown, anti-vax, and climate change deniers all have in common? They’re all Right Wing Nuts!
trev
February 9, 2021 at 7:49 pm
its been pissing it down and freezing for months global warming needs to hurry to fuck up lol
superted
February 9, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Bloomin snowing here again and absolutely freezing, and I don’t have central heating, drain pipe out back is leaking and stonework looks like it hasn’t been repointed for decades, massive damp patch spreading across my bedroom wall, no heating in bedroom. Winter in a rented slum property is shite, and that’s not “scaremongering” if Quince is reading this.
trev
February 9, 2021 at 8:46 pm
Grenfell Tower: Downing Street confirms around 600 high-rise flats have similar cladding
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/grenfell-tower-downing-street-confirms-128808
have you tried complaining to the council that ur house is so damp you cant even set fire to it 😉
you can sleep outside in the snow with one of these.
https://www.climbers-shop.com/essentials/first-aid-and-survival/trekmates-orange-bivi-bag__10908086?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=5064453
superted
February 9, 2021 at 11:38 pm
York Jobcentre sending unemployed Graduates on Work Experience in schools, presumably unpaid:
“We’ve got a lot of graduates at the moment at the job centre,” she said. “We haven’t had any graduates for years.
“We’ve got a big cohort of graduates at the moment who lack work experience, so a lot of them are going into the schools as teaching assistants, mentoring at after school clubs, art technicians, PE teaching assistants, gardeners, admin – you know there’s a lot of different areas.”
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/a-lost-generation-fears-more-19802583
trev
February 10, 2021 at 10:37 am
Ha, ha. Waste not want not. Children going back to school, maybe, next month so why not recruit unpaid teacher’s assistants (normally a paid job) from the ranks of recent graduates. There’s Tory economics in action.
Tim
February 10, 2021 at 1:48 pm
Yep, why pay anyone a wage when you can get people to work for their State Benefits? Except for the fact that wage earners can contribute to the economy by spending their earnings. People who aren’t getting paid a wage (or are on low pay) don’t spend enough to stimulate the economy. Tories don’t seem to get that.
trev
February 10, 2021 at 2:08 pm
‘Boris Johnson’s response to unemployment crisis is criminally inadequate’
“Joblessness is a price that Tory Governments traditionally accept is worth paying by other people, twisting the knife by goading those in work to resent the workless relying on benefits to survive.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnsons-response-unemployment-crisis-23459395
trev
February 10, 2021 at 10:55 am
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/uk-government-accused-playing-parliamentary-skullduggery-block-genocide-amendment
Cloverleaf
February 10, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Is IDS on the right side for a change?
trev
February 10, 2021 at 1:04 pm
I have been doing DWP Disability Benefit fraud for the past 30 years. It must at least £1 million that i have got from the DWP because it is so easy. With the help of the WCA that has proved how easy fraud can be done. If the DWP does not act on the information given they are breaking their own rules & law. I hope to hear from the DWP Benefit Fraud office very soon.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 10, 2021 at 1:03 pm
Hurry up DWP your breaking the law & your own rules.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 10, 2021 at 1:04 pm
You can’t say that in a dictatorship to prove it’s a dictatorship because the dictatorship says its a democracy.
By saying that makes a democracy of a dictatorship that is not fit for purpose.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
February 10, 2021 at 1:09 pm
had a letter saying they have been trying to ring me, well thats a lie because they have no phine number for me for the last 11 years lol.
got to ring buy the 16th but says nothing else so rang them and have a phone interview at 4pm and ill ring them.
asked about signing on face to face and not going to happen for months yet but did not really know themselves.
superted
February 10, 2021 at 1:36 pm
well that was a fkn waste of time all it was is to renew my cc which is still the same and have it posted out to me because i said i am not ever giving you a email address.
i just have to ring them every 2 weeks for job search review which is also pointless but when you get given a cc in the jcp you have to sign it pmsl.
and i have to ring the person i spoke to this morning that i asked to do this then and said no and the person i spoke to does not work Mondays so will be back with them anyway.
total clusterfuck same as usual 😉
superted
February 10, 2021 at 4:29 pm
So does the fortnightly jobsearch review consist of you providing details of every job you’ve applied for?
What a waste of time. Totally pointless, like the Jobcentre itself, its very existence is pointless. Surely the day will come eventually when someone in the government wakes up and says “why are we spending Billions of £s keeping these shit holes open?”
trev
February 10, 2021 at 5:04 pm
no they just ask if your looking for work more of a harassment call than anything else so a 3min call if that.
superted
February 10, 2021 at 5:12 pm
Absolute pointless waste of time.
trev
February 10, 2021 at 5:21 pm
@superted
My work coach rings me every two weeks. She is actually very pleasant and friendly. She asks me how I am and asks how my job search is going. I tell her about the job sites I have looked at. We don’t go into specifics. I have never been asked for proof of my job search, which like you I am able to provide. An appointment is made for two weeks hence. The end. The whole thing lasts about three minutes, which isn’t surprising considering how many people they are now having to call.
jj joop
February 10, 2021 at 8:33 pm
but what happens if i ring them and they dont answer the phone see how i spun that one round and make them be sat at the desk waiting for me to ring them on time! 😉
i got skills i do 😉
superted
February 10, 2021 at 9:17 pm
Every time this page get loaded or refreshed, e.g., when clicking a page link or after after making a post, I keep getting a pdf about food banks offered for download. Ergo: There’s something wrong with this page’s HTML and/or Javascript.
Just saying.
Tim
February 10, 2021 at 1:52 pm
superted
February 10, 2021 at 5:45 pm
Alex Bellend the voice of treason
trev
February 10, 2021 at 6:34 pm
yet i also said it was going to last until the end of the year and September will be when the emergency powers will be ended.
or will it! 😉
superted
February 10, 2021 at 6:57 pm
Time will tell. I think it will depend on the spread/control of the variant mutations, and the effectiveness of the vaccine. And we’ll all to be vaccinated again before every Winter. Those who refuse the vaccine will all eventually die out.
trev
February 10, 2021 at 7:18 pm
£60,000 per year for two days a week and no previous experience required….more Tory Cronyism /Chumocracy:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/10/former-tory-mp-in-row-over-appointment-as-head-of-office-for-students
trev
February 10, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Andrew Coates
February 10, 2021 at 8:25 pm
They are not even bothering to try and hide it. Say what you like about Putin, he does at least go through the motions of pretending everything is above board.
Jeff Smith
February 10, 2021 at 10:37 pm
From Covid to Cuba: the growing list of Tory cronyism rows
Appointment of Conservative peer to lead Office for Students is latest in a series of controversies
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/10/from-covid-to-cuba-growing-list-of-tory-cronyism-rows
Plenty of money and cushy jobs for their mates but nothing for JSA claimants apart from an 35p increase and the continued threat of Sanctions. Filthy, evil, lying, cheating, Tory scumbags.
trev
February 10, 2021 at 11:09 pm
where do you think they borrow all this money from, they dont they just print more or add a digit to computer in a banks computer system.
where they borrow this money from is us and the more they take the worse it will get for every one for years to come but they dont give a shit because as soon as they loose there emergency powers most of them will be off like rats on a sinking ship and no accountability for destroying the millions of jobs this is going to cost and it has not even started yet.
the dwp is not going to change a sanction to them goes towards there Christmas performance bonus fund.
the dwp are more than happy to sanction you to death and make you homeless at the first opportunity if they think you are a easy target and just wont bother to do anything about it its cash in the bank to them.
superted
February 10, 2021 at 11:38 pm
Shocking photo of 200 queuing for soup kitchen in snow lays bare problem of homelessness
Soup kitchen volunteer Graeme Weir compared Glasgow to an Eastern European country ‘decimated by years of communist rule’ after sharing a picture of more than 200 homeless people waiting for food in the snow
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/this-end-say-volunteers-200-23479380
xclausx
February 11, 2021 at 2:12 am
This is an absolute disgrace, but symbolic of Tory austerity. And really, how much outrage does it generate ?
Jeff Smith
February 11, 2021 at 4:00 pm
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/uk-covid-police-state-travelers-must-quarantine-hotel-have-3-tests-face-10-years-jail
The UK 🇬🇧 is now a concentration camp!!
Cloverleaf
February 11, 2021 at 12:56 pm
Staying in a Holiday Inn for ten days is pretty bad but hardly Auschwitz or Dachau. Nor, as far as I know, did concentration camp victims have to pay over £1,000 themselves to pay for their board and lodgings!
Tim
February 11, 2021 at 1:24 pm
No but they had to pay with their lives.
Cloverleaf
February 11, 2021 at 2:08 pm
Quarantine is about saving lives. I think they should shut the borders to all travellers. I agree however that 10 years is too steep, though it’s doubtful anyone would actually receive or serve such a sentence.
trev
February 11, 2021 at 2:13 pm
Those idiots in the government should have had a proper Test & Quarantine system in place when the pandemic started. Every other country did.
Jeff Smith
February 11, 2021 at 4:03 pm
More double speak from the Tory dictators.
Cloverleaf
February 11, 2021 at 4:05 pm
I got called by the WC today, she said she is engaging with her clients again and will be phoning every 2 weeks for a quick chat. She checked my claiment commitment and said she’ll post it to me.
She asked if I’ve been applying for jobs and got the feeling they are gonna be looking to sanction people if you haven’t.
Big bird
February 11, 2021 at 5:12 pm