Archive for the ‘Campaigns for Unemployed’ Category
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.
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Job entry targeted support (Jets): New Government ‘scheme’ for the unemployed.
Somebody was well proud of that ‘Jets’ name!
Thérèse Coffey was on BBC News this morning, most of the time she spent sucking up to Johnson and his handling of the pandemic.
She managed to spend about a minute on the new scheme, though when I caught the words, ‘Reed’ and ‘Shaw Trust’ a large rodent scuttled round the room.
The BBC site says this,
Job Entry Targeted Support is aimed at helping those out of work because of Covid-19 for three months.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said it would give people “the helping hand they need”.
But Labour said the scheme “offers very little new support” and it was “too little too late”.
More details in the Guardian
New jobs coaches will help people back to work, says Rishi Sunak
Thousands of work coaches will be hired under a new government employment programme to help those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, amid fresh warnings of an unemployment crisis as the furlough scheme ends.
The £238m job entry targeted support (Jets) scheme will help jobseekers who have been out of work for at least three months. It will be available to people receiving the “all work related requirements” universal credit payment, or the new style jobseeker’s allowance.
The Department for Work and Pensions says Jets will “ramp up support” to help people back to employment, with specialist advice on how to move into growing sectors, as well as CV and interview coaching. It is recruiting an additional 13,500 coaches to help deliver the programme.
The Currant Bun spills the beans (blimey that’s a bit of an image…!)
It specifically targets Universal Credit (UC) All Work related Requirements (AWRR) and New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants who have been unemployed for at least 13 weeks.
Through JETS, the Department for Work and Pensions will give scheme-members access to tailored, flexible support to help them quickly get back into employment.
The new programme will also see a number of providers offer a range of help, including specialist advice on how people can move into growing sectors, as well as CV and interview coaching.
The programme will give job hunters a return-to-work action plan, which will be agreed with their personal Work Coach, and complemented by peer support and opportunities to build their skills.
Veterans of these “schemes” may have other views.
Court Rules Against “No DSS” Discrimination.
Many of us know people affected by this discrimination, and others who are terrified at losing their jobs because their landlords say they will not keep on tenants who are receive Housing Benefit (It’s being replaced by Universal Credit.)
A judge has ruled that blanket bans on renting properties to people on housing benefit are unlawful and discriminatory.
The “momentous” court ruling found a single mother-of-two had experienced indirect discrimination when a letting agent refused to rent to her.
She ended up homeless with her two children, when her case was taken on by housing charity Shelter.
The judge ruled “No DSS” rental bans are against equality laws.
Previously cases backed by Shelter – and first reported by BBC News – have established that “No DSS” landlords and agents are guilty of indirect discrimination, but the cases were settled before any court heard them in full.
In February 2018, single mother Rosie Keogh won compensation for sex discrimination from a lettings agency that refused to consider her as a tenant because she was on state benefit, but the case was settled out of court.
The ruling was welcomed by the housing charity Shelter as a “nail in the coffin” of the No DSS rule – an archaic reference to the former Department for Social Security – used by some landlords to describe the vetting of a class of tenants they regard as unsuitable.
Rose Arnall, the Shelter solicitor who fought the case, said: “It finally clarifies that discriminating against people in need of housing benefits is not just morally wrong, it is against the law.”
But….
Although the ruling, made in a virtual hearing on 1 July, does not set a legal precedent, Shelter said it sent a warning to landlords and letting agents that they should end the practice. Five similar cases brought by the charity in recent years were settled out of court in Shelter’s favour.
This is a welcome decision. But but apart from not creating a new law, or right to housing, it will not end accommodation problems for people on Benefit, the fact that benefits do not always cover rents, or housing problems in general.
Such as this:
Foodbanks and homelessness charities fear ‘huge storm’ of demand this autumn
FOODBANKS and charities working with the homeless are fearful of a “huge storm” of demand this autumn, as the effect of redundancies are felt and hunger mounts.
Already, volunteers are looking ahead with “fear and trepidation at what is coming down the road at us”, one foodbank manager reported.
Charities fear that, as government support tails off in the autumn, the demands on charities will increase to unsustainable levels, and that a new wave of homelessness will be unleashed. Those most at risk of destitution are those already vulnerable, including migrants who are have no access to government support.
(Just as a note, I am about to reach retirement – this will mean this Blog will not continue in its present form).
Outrage as Homeless to be thrown back into the streets.
This story has been developing all morning.
There is plenty more in the pipeline as evictions are set to start again in June.
More information from contributors, and is more than likely that we know people affected by the above, welcome.
But what we need is to stop this now!
Ipswich Unemployed Action Back.
We are, we hope, back..
More to follow.
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
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