HindleA wrote:rebeccariots2 wrote:
How much more of this will people be able to take?
And this from BTL:
Carolan99
12 November 2014 4:49pm
When I was unemployed I had a particularly nasty jobcentre advisor who I swear took great pleasure in sanctioning people. Maybe she got a bonus? When it happened to me I just cried. I had just swapped my home and moved 30 miles away, my son was half way through his last year of primary school and was devastated. I did it just to find work and I was told I hadn't done enough, despite fulfilling my jobseekers agreement, trying to deal with a mouse problem in my home, my son getting bullied at his new school, being totally skint and not to mention the guilt I felt over turning my son's life upside down. I hadnt' done enough.
After all that upheaval I couldn't even get an interview in poundland, I have now forced myself to be self-employed. Still skint, but unemployment figures down a bit.
If I met Ian Duncan Smith tomorrow I would give him a kick in the nuts. Nasty Bast*rd
We happen to both have no conditionality to seek work.Received a letter from.the DWP today stating I might have to attend a work focused interview,which has never been mentioned previously.I'm presuming it's just a case of a generic letter which has changed ,but revealing of the default position ,regardless of circumstance.
All claimants who have caring responsibilities and are recipients of Carers Allowance and/or Income Support are now subject to jobcentre interviews aimed at "preparation for a return to the workplace". It's going on quietly, under the radar so far - but I and others have been posting this for some time.
IS and CA are among the social security payments which are part of Universal Credit. All UC claims will have jobsearch conditionality.
The guidance that has been published so far indicates that CA claimants will be assessed to see if their responsibilities are actually full time, and if they could consider some work or training; and IS claimants (most commonly lone parents) will be doing this when their youngest child is just one year old, and at present they have to do this when that child is three years old.
It's my view that this is all part of the "softening up process" to get claimants into the mindset that whatever their circumstances or responsibilities, they will be expected to do something to "earn" their social security payments.
If Universal Credit ever comes in properly, or even if it doesn't, and/or if the Tories get in next time, we can expect the conditions for claiming any state support at all to become even more draconian than they are now.
Bit by bit, the support that people need is being taken away - or subjected to such ridiculous rules and sanctions that a lot of people will have such a battle to prove their entitlement that they'll simply give up.
I have had - like the chap in the article linked to - trouble with my payments. I am owed a lot from last year, and a few missing payments this year. My claim has been administered clerically for some time, so whenever I phone up for information the operator cannot access my claim on the system and I have to wait for the call back that never comes. Claimants do not have access to the phone numbers for the Benefit Delivery Centres, and the jobcentres will not deal with Support Group ESA claimants.
I have caused a few staff members problems in the past, what with one thing or another - but I don't think in my case this is vindictive; there are quite a few experts/bloggers who think that because so much resource is being put into UC and the new systems/benefits that the old ones are not being maintained properly. There are a lot of people having the same problem with "clerical" claims.
I was accused of violent behaviour in Hereford Jobcentre 2 years ago. I wasn't actually there at the time.
I had become exasperated on the phone (at home) trying to sort out an appeal or something; I swore, apologised, and the operator was very understanding. It later transpired that her supervisor was listening in and decided to raise this as a violent incident.
Because I have a HR postcode, this dipstick wrote to Hereford Jobcentre who were, apparently, my "local office" (er, no, it's Brecon) and they assumed I'd perpetrated the offence in their offices. I got a very nasty threatening letter, with an admonition that should I indulge in violent behaviour again I would face prosecution and possible imprisonment.
Obviously, I complained. The response was that just because "it" hadn't happened where they said it had didn't mean it hadn't happened at all. They said they had the "evidence" on tape. When I pointed out that my conversation had been listened to without my knowledge, and that as they had the tape the least they could do is send me a copy, it couldn't be found.
In other words, they had no evidence that I'd said or done anything at all - they apologised eventually, but I had to go to the regional management to extract that apology. I still have no idea if my claim is flagged up as "violent".
DWP is a department completely out of control. Some of the staff are OK but very unhappy; a lot of them have become monsters.
IDS and his henchmen have created an atmosphere of suspicion, frustration, and sheer bloody terror for some. If I didn't have Show to look after me, I have no idea where I'd be or how I'd cope.