DonutHingeParty wrote:I've just seen the welfare update for BANES, which is one of the lucky areas to trial universal credit. It's all about driving people to gov.uk, a single entry portal accessible to 60% of it's users (those with Web access) That's like saying you'll only be eligible if you have a penis. Interestingly, I hadn't clocked but registering as self employed apparently means you can get jsa without having to apply for other jobs, so the upswing in self employed people might have something to do with that.
If you look at the guidance for UC, you will find that anyone who claims any UC (JSA, ESA WRAG, Income Support for lone parents etc., housing/council tax benefits, and tax credits) will all be treated the same way - unless they earn more than the financial equivalent of 35 hours at NMW, which is about £220 for over 25s.
If you have a nice little P/T job of 10 hours at £12/hour, you will earning too much to get a personal UC allowance, but you may still qualify for premiums for housing/children/whatever. The point is that it's a FINANCIAL limit, so such a person could still claim the extras but not have any jobsearch conditionality.
The exceptions to this are some carers and people in Support Group ESA.
Everyone else who is not earning to the financial cut-off will have to jobsearch - and that includes the self-employed. The hours you put in are irrelevant.
So - if you are a self-employed brickie, and get £15/hour, you might have one week when you have 5 days work, and another when you have none. You will not get a UC JSA payment for week one, and you will only get it for week two if you prove that you have jobsearched for 35 hours. When you have a week of just one 10 hour day, you will have to show that you have jobsearched for 25 hours to get the payment.
All your income etc. will have to be input to DWP benefits systems and HMRC in real time every month, and at the same time you will be expected to provide proof of jobsearch on UJM for scrutiny by DWP before the payment is released.
If you are not registered with UJM, you will have to provide other proof - this could mean attendance at JCP or a WP provider (whether you have work that day or not) and this will be mandatory. The self-employed are not exempt.
The whole point of the WRA was to remove the Secretary of State's responsibility to provide statutory benefits which were a basic entitlement.
UC is not a statutory entitlement - it is conditional on evidence of jobsearching and that evidence can be called into question by employers, WP providers, and JC advisers at any point, whether you register with UJM or not.
Unless you are in a specific excluded group - and they are few - the jobsearch is the condition and you may not refuse work (whatever it is), volunteer anywhere that is not part of the WP, or fail to comply with your Claimant Commitment.
The Claimant Commitment can be as unreasonable as the JC adviser wants to make it.
These "reforms" ensure that failure to comply will result in sanction. "3 strikes" now applies, so people who have low-paid part-time jobs will have to engage with the WP, or whatever is demanded, or face sanction - as the conditionality is based on a financial cut-off, this will affect everyone who gets working tax credits and HB /CTB help now, whether they are self-employed or working in Asda.
Eventually, there will be no tax credits, and everyone who needs support will be on UC.
It's extremely complicated - and it was sold as a simplification when it is nothing of the kind.
I'll probably delay until they say in writing that it is mandatory. Don't really feel that i'm missing much on their site.
I've used it regularly over the years and only ever got one temp job through it.
Oh, and another recently- 5 days work, 6 hour shifts with no break, which is illegal i'm told, but of course they weren't interested, meaning they're happy to advertise law breaking employers.
The sanctions thing is bizarre. They even say that while sanctioned you still have to sign on fortnightly and provide all the usual proof of jobsearching!
But if you don't the only further sanction they have that they can apply is to extend the period of sanction. Crazy system.
There's a guy who posts as PaxGrass on cif who has useful links and info about the subject.
Today he flagged up yesterdays Channel 4 programme which exposed the leakiness and dishonesty of UC
"vulnerable to fraudsters in 2011. At the time the Department of Work and Pensions told us each advert would now be "checked for legal compliance" before going live"
I've asked at the Jobcentre and they admitted to me that they don't check their advertised jobs, which is obvious to anyone who uses their services, but its a good example of how those in power just lie whenever it suits them and aren't really accountable for it.
Ohsocynical wrote:My grandson who is 22 has special needs, was born with mild spina bifida, and Dyspraxia and only has one kidney but you wouldn't know it to look at him. He has such a rubbish memory though, that he can't hold down a job...Forgets what he's told to do although he'll work until he drops...He's just finished four weeks at a local pub working from 5pm-12pm and they didn't pay him. He reported back to the guy that helps him look for work and just got a shrug and was told they couldn't do much about it...I think they just fob him off and yesterday he told us they've put him [back?] on jobseekers allowance. He's been on so many courses and done so many voluntary jobs we've lost count.
A couple of years ago he was sent to work for a week as a volunteer at a holiday hostel for the disabled in Sussex while his mum and dad and siblings went on holiday because he didn't want to go with them...It seemed an ideal solution, and as they were dealing with disabled kids he'd be in safe hands...He had to pay his own fares so his other grandmother took him there. His dad was going to pick him up at the end of the week...
Halfway through the week at about ninethirty he rang us up and said they'd thrown him out because he'd refused to do something...He has no sense of direction at all and had no money, it was pitch black and he was locked out...He didn't know what to do. Hubby told him not to move an inch, drove two hours to get there, and hammered on the door of the house because he wanted to kill whoever was in charge, but the guy wouldn't come out.
We phoned the police and told them Jamie is vulnerable and we couldn't get to him for a couple of hours, just in case he did wander off and get lost, but I don't think anything much was done.
Hi,
I worked for someone recently who didn't pay me fully. Unfortunately they are 300miles away and ignoring emails, so i was advised to try ACAS, who I spoke to.
Their advice was to post a letter, keep a copy and to report back to them in 2 weeks if not resolved.
Sometimes in these situations a letter and a threat of legal action does the trick, sometimes not.
Taking Notes wrote:Another danger seems to be rearing it's ugly head with the UJM. Details are on The Void site, where Johnny has taken a snap of a company that runs a soft porn TV studio advertising for "models", the details are sketchy but we don't need to use much imagination to know what this means. Are our youngsters now going to be mandated for refusing sex work, how does IDS square this with his Catholicism? I keep thinking I can't get any sicker when something else turns up. I think there is going to be a Nation suffering from PTSD if this carries on for much longer.
Taking Notes wrote:Another danger seems to be rearing it's ugly head with the UJM. Details are on The Void site, where Johnny has taken a snap of a company that runs a soft porn TV studio advertising for "models", the details are sketchy but we don't need to use much imagination to know what this means. Are our youngsters now going to be mandated for refusing sex work, how does IDS square this with his Catholicism? I keep thinking I can't get any sicker when something else turns up. I think there is going to be a Nation suffering from PTSD if this carries on for much longer.
This assumes the purpose is to get people into work but that's not the case - Smith is fully aware that there isn't enough work to go round. His motivation is simply to cut the benefit bill. Having observed his body language and facial expressions when he speaks it is clear he relishes this role. Typycal of a non-achiever who has only progressed by hanging on to the coat tails of others, most nptably his wife and in-laws.
Taking Notes wrote:Another danger seems to be rearing it's ugly head with the UJM. Details are on The Void site, where Johnny has taken a snap of a company that runs a soft porn TV studio advertising for "models", the details are sketchy but we don't need to use much imagination to know what this means. Are our youngsters now going to be mandated for refusing sex work, how does IDS square this with his Catholicism? I keep thinking I can't get any sicker when something else turns up. I think there is going to be a Nation suffering from PTSD if this carries on for much longer.
This assumes the purpose is to get people into work but that's not the case - Smith is fully aware that there isn't enough work to go round. His motivation is simply to cut the benefit bill. Having observed his body language and facial expressions when he speaks it is clear he relishes this role. Typycal of a non-achiever who has only progressed by hanging on to the coat tails of others, most nptably his wife and in-laws.
Yes, I agree the whole system has been set up to sanction jobseekers off benefits, my concern is those youngsters that will do anything than have that happen to them. Is there anything within the law that can prevent such an occurance. the latest news is another post offering a chance to "traffic" from Afghanistan, I take this as another joke but really is it beyond these peoples remit to make this site secure from elements that cannot take advantage of desperate people?
