Posts Tagged ‘Amber Rudd’
Inside The Welfare State documentary on Universal Credit sparks anger.
I watched the programme and the above is one of the strong messages I got from it.
That, and the geezer (who could be somebody I know, though his previous drug habit looked as if it had been worse than most) sat in front of a computer for 8 days a Day doing ‘Job search’ – he finally ended up cleaning light railway trains for a pittance.
The Food Bank looked a horror, like the cheap end of B & M, and the handout was miserly.
Then there was the woman caught in the difficulties the Tweet above talks about.
And the homeless Irish bloke…
This is well true:
These are some of the reports and reviews.
Universal Credit system slammed by ‘heartbroken’ BBC benefits documentary viewers
Mirror.
Viewers have branded a new BBC documentary about the struggles of relying on Universal Credit as “heartbreaking” while slamming the “broken” system which allowed it to come about.
One launched a tirade at the perceived lack of empathy shown by some staff at a Job Centre, after it was suggested claimants need to budget better.
Three-part BBC Two series Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State launched on Tuesday evening, with episode one focusing on Peckham Jobcentre in London, visited by more than 1,000 people each day, including former NHS worker Rachel and homeless man Declan.
Job Centre employee Karen, meanwhile, finds herself faced with similar difficulties to her clients, and has to take a second job to support herself.
…
Taking to Twitter during the initial broadcast at 9pm last night, viewers were shocked at the difficulty of accessing benefits and distressing backgrounds of the claimants featured, as well as the way they are treated.
Evening Standard.
A new BBC documentary series explores the benefits system
The true story of this benefits revolution is on the shop floor where the job centre staff must accommodate the demands of the claimants, many of whom are ill-equipped to understand the beautiful simplicity of the benefits revolution.
Rachel, a single mother who left her NHS job after 27 years to care for her parents, struggles with anxiety. Job centre worker Karen does a second job in a pound store after absorbing the anger of claimants all day. And there’s grumpy, articulate Phil, with track marks on his arm and a lost dream of becoming a photojournalist, weighing up the value of a job cleaning trains for the minimum wage.
Amber Rudd Bows Out.
The former DWP Minister Amber Rudd is bowing out.
The BBC reports,
Former Home Secretary(NO mention of her DWP role!!!) Amber Rudd has announced she will not be standing at the general election in December.
The Hastings and Rye MP said she was “not finished with politics” but would not be defending her seat.
Ms Rudd, who had a majority of 346 at the last election, resigned from the cabinet and surrendered the Tory whip over Brexit in September.
She was not among those Tories who had the party whip restored by the prime minister on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Evening Standard earlier, Ms Rudd said: “I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the prime minister and I want him to succeed.
“I’m happy to leave the House of Commons as a Conservative MP.” Government Chief Whip Mark Spencer she would not be having the Tory whip restored.
Asked about her actions during the party row over Brexit, Ms Rudd said: “I felt I made the right steps at those critical points and I am pleased that the prime minister has now restored the whip to some of those colleagues.”
She did not rule out a return to Westminster in the future, but said there were “many other things I want to do”.
Ms Rudd is the latest high-ranking Conservative to announce they will not be standing at the general election.
This is when our paths, fleetingly, crossed,
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
On 16 November 2018, Rudd returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the resignation of Esther McVey over opposition to Theresa May’s Draft Withdrawal Agreement and the Brexit negotiations. As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Rudd had to take on Sarah Newton‘s responsibilities as Minister for Disabled People following her resignation.
Amber will be remembered on this Blog by our contributors as somebody who implemented, if briefly, the cruel and hated Universal Credit scheme, dreamt up by arch-villain Iain Duncan Smith and administered at present – for how long? – by “electronic shock Dog Collar” Thérèse Coffey.
The new Minister is said to spend weekends in a hairshirt praying at the Atomic Weapons Research centre on Havergate Island, Orford Ness.
How cruel her Amber’s friends have been!
Boris Johnson takes revenge on Amber Rudd by SNUBBING her plea to be let back into Tory fold amid fury at her Brexit disloyalty – but she claims he BEGGED her to stand again in Xmas election.
- Former Cabinet minister Amber Rudd has announced she is quitting Commons
- The Hastings & Rye MP will not be standing in the looming snap general election
- Ms Rudd expected to be brought back into the Conservative fold this afternoon
- But Tory chief whip Mark Spencer has dismissed her request in a brutal letter
- Ms Rudd retorted that refusal was ‘funny’ as PM begged her to stand at election
In a moving tribute a contributor writes,
” Her honey-coloured hair fell in heavy waves below her shoulders and as she stared up at him her eyes, clear, speckled amber, seemed to tilt at the corners; her brows were black and swept up in arcs, and she had thick black lashes. There was about her a kind of warm luxuriance, something immediately suggestive to the men of pleasurable fulfillment- something for which she was not responsible but of which she was acutely conscious.”
― Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber
Her legacy shall not be forgotten:
DWP: Just one scammer prosecuted so far for snaring people in Universal Credit fraud
EXCLUSIVE: 28 cases are being prepared directly against benefit claimants, but only one third-party scammer has been convicted so far
Just one scammer has been successfully prosecuted so far for ensnaring Universal Credit claimants in an “industrial-scale fraud”.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) chiefs confirm there has been “one successful third-party prosecution” since the con emerged earlier this year.
A second case against a suspected third-party scammer is due in court next month.It comes despite the DWP assigning an army of 145 staff to comb through 85,000 suspected cases of advance payment fraud totalling £1.8m so far.
The BBC revealed in July how fraudsters had conned struggling families into applying for Universal Credit in order to get cash from the DWP.
Claimants split the money with con artists, only to find out it was an “advance payment” loan – which has to be paid back to the DWP in full over 12 months.
Forever Amber: Amber Rudd Resigns, Thérèse Coffey, (Suffolk Coastal MP) Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions.
If you had better sense you’d have learned by now that nothing thrives so well as wickedness”
Forever Amber
This Blog has long been supportive of Amber Rudd.
Posts such, “God Bless you Ma’am”, “You’ve Done a Grand Job!” “Thanks to you Coachie helped me get started as a fully-qualified Mud Urchin on the River Orwell” will be there, for all time, on the Net, to show how highly we looked up to her.
Is this the way to express our feelings?
Amber – we feel her pain – shows dignity.
“Therese Coffey Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal.”
Biography
Thérèse Coffey was appointed Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions on 8 September 2019.
Thérèse was previously Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between 25 July 2019 and 8 September 2019.
She was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 17 July 2016 to 25 July 2019. She was elected the Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal in May 2010.
Education
Thérèse graduated from University College London (UCL) with a PhD in chemistry.
Political Career
Thérèse Coffey served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from May 2015 until July 2016.
Thérèse served on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee until she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Fallon, Minister for Business and Energy.
Thérèse has campaigned on stopping the A14 toll, improving NHS experience for patients and better broadband.
Wikipedia says,
Coffey’s decision to author a paper for the Free Enterprise Group recommending pensioners should be forced to pay National Insurance provoked a backlash among older constituents, who claimed that in an already tough economic environment, it was wrong to tax pensioners further. However, she said that she had “no regrets writing about National Insurance” and that it was “a policy proposal – it is by no means, at this stage, anymore than that.”[23]
Coffey also faced criticism from Suffolk residents over her support for the Government’s proposal to sell off forestry and woodland in public ownership, in 2011. Protestors argued that “previous experience shows us that when private landowners come in they close car parks and make access as difficult as possible.”[24] Although Coffey voted for the bill,[25] the proposal was afterward dropped by the government.[26]
In October 2016, she was criticised by the then Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron for accepting hospitality worth £890 from Ladbrokes after supporting the gambling industry in parliament as part of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Coffey denied that she had been “influenced in her considerations on matters of related policy by any hospitality received”.
More:
Career outside politics
Thérèse worked for the international company Mars. When Thérèse qualified as a chartered management accountant, she became Finance Director for a UK subsidiary of Mars. She has also worked at the BBC.
Personal life
Thérèse enjoys watching football, gardening and music, especially Muse. She is a CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) member.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). They have direct responsibility for departmental expenditure and departmental management.
DWP is responsible for the administration of the State Pension and working age benefits system, providing support to:
- people of working age
- employers
- pensioners
- families and children
- disabled people
Spending Plans – End the Benefits Freeze!
Amongst all the spending plans by the Johnson Junta there is no mention of ending the Benefit Freeze.
Now it is true that Benefits are a matter of the Budget, not the spending review.
It’s a Care Bears Government that we have now – Cor Bless You Squire, You’re a Scholar and a Gentleman Mr Cummings.
Look at this natty nattering by our very own Boss.
You’d have thought they could have used the occasion to pop a promise of a few bob for the down-on-their-luck.
More than a third of people affected by the Conservative government’s freeze on benefits have less than £100 a month to live on after they have paid rent and bills for food, council tax and gas and electricity, according to the Citizens Advice service.
Universal credit claimants were especially badly affected, with more than half reporting that they had gone without essentials such as food and toiletries. Nearly the same proportion said they had lost sleep over their dire finances, the charity reported.
Disabled people and those with children were most likely to have gone without essentials, with nearly half of both groups reporting that this had happened to them at least once in the past 12 months.
Citizens Advice said it was ‘totally unacceptable that our benefits system is not providing the financial safety net that people need’
The extent of the financial difficulties for benefits claimants is having a serious effect on wellbeing with over a quarter of people saying their worries have made them feel lonely or isolated, said Citizens Advice, which surveyed more than 2,750 working adults in the UK.
Nearly 30 per cent said it had affected their mental health while more than half of people on Universal Credit said they had lost sleep over financial problems.
End the Benefits Freeze!
Government Urged to Publish Secret DWP Analysis of Impact of Brexit on Poverty, Wages and People on Low Incomes.
DWP Keeps Report on Brexit Impact Secret.
Already poverty is a major problem in the UK.
But we hear from the latest from Welfare Weekly that they are keeping the impact of Brexit on this under wraps.
DWP Urged To Publish ‘Secret’ Brexit Impact Analysis
The SNP has called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to publish secret analysis that reveals the impact of different Brexit outcomes on poverty levels, wages and low-income households in Scotland and the UK.
Neil Gray MP warned that vulnerable people were already suffering under a decade of Tory austerity and that the DWP’s refusal to publish the figures was a “damning indictment” of a Tory government intent on inflicting a damaging policy no matter the cost.
The call for the full publication of the findings comes after the Poverty Alliance used a Freedom of Information request to ask whether or not the DWP had carried out any assessments to look at the impact of different Brexit scenarios on levels of poverty and inequality in the UK, as well as analysis on the impact on low-income households, on wages, employment and costs of living.
The DWP replied to confirm that it does hold some of the analysis but that it would not publish any of the findings as it was not in the public interest to do so.
Economic analysis has already shown that crashing out of the EU without a deal will be devastating for Scotland – costing up to 100,000 jobs and hitting people’s pockets to the tune of £2,300 a year per person.
This is the origin of the story:
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance: “The UK Government’s failure to disclose the analysis they’ve undertaken on Brexit’s impact on poverty is alarming. We’re a society that believes in justice and compassion, and it is clearly in the public interest to know whether Brexit – especially a no-deal Brexit – will inflict harm upon people already struggling to get by.
Gordon Brown in Liverpool to warn that city’s most vulnerable will suffer under no deal Brexit
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned life will get harder for Liverpool’s poverty-stricken families under a no deal Brexit.
Speaking in Anfield today, Mr Brown said that leaving the EU without a deal would see the cost of food increase and put pressure on local communities like those in north Liverpool that are already struggling.
The outspoken critic of leaving the EU, said that the consequences of a no deal Brexit on the UK’s food supply are already being felt with suppliers having to raise prices.
He also warned that the reliance on food coming in from the EU via Calais and Dover would see the UK’s food supply seriously disrupted in the event of no deal.
He said: “With a no deal Brexit you have two problems. One the cost of food and second the supply of food.”
“One third of our food comes from continental Europe, particularly fruit and vegetables come in from Dover and Calais.
“If we lose that supply of food, or if it’s interrupted, then prices go up again.”
August the 29th.
The Poverty Alliance have today joined forces with over 85 organisations in expressing our grave concerns about the impacts a no-deal Brexit will have on civil society. Together with organisations from across the UK, we have called on the Prime Minister to urgently engage with our concerns about leaving the EU without a deal on the 31st October.
Signatories of the letter have serious concerns about how a no-deal exit will be a direct threat to communities across the country, including the possible regression of rights and standards, the uncertainty of the future, and a lack of adequate engagement and support from the UK Government.
The Poverty Alliance has particular concerns about how a no-deal Brexit could impact people living on low incomes, with the likelihood that the economic impact of such a scenario could lead to significant impacts on employment and the cost of living.
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, said:
“We’re a society that believes in protecting each other from harm. Yet a no-deal Brexit would represent a failure to protect people living on low incomes.
Communities across the country are already experiencing low pay, the effects of social security cuts, and high living costs. A no-deal Brexit threatens to tighten the grip of poverty further. We simply cannot allow that to happen.”
Not that Forever Amber cares tuppance:
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
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