Sunday 1 April 2012

And so it goes on

TUESDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2011

The demolition of welfare
The demolition of welfare

You will all know by now that I am actively against the reforms/cuts to the sick/disabled and I shall go on reporting on and fighting against these as long as it takes but today I heard of another 'reform' that is going to affect my family and makes no sense to me at all.

My son in law K worked for many many years in the same job until he had a breakdown a few years ago, he still suffers with depression and anxiety but has started to pull himself out of the black hole with the love and support of his family.
My daughter and he have a young son and L (daughter) works nights in a private hospital.
Originally K was on sickness benefit but that was then changed to JSA as the DWP believed he was capable of doing 'some work'

K was lucky enough to find work with a shoe repairer/key cutter in our local shopping centre but as this business was a 'one man band' as it were he was only able to secure limited hours each week and so works part time.

He was no longer entitled to JSA but still has to sign on fortnightly to get his NI stamp paid and because as a family they were able to get tax credits.

Well thanks to this government picking on entirely the wrong people, not thinking these schemes through before implementing them and doing all they can to make ANY benefit claimants appear as lazy feckless scroungers he has now been told he must be available from March to 'work in the community'

This could involve cleaning the streets, cleaning graffiti off walls etc, could be anywhere at any time on very short notice.
And their reasoning? He is not in full time work!
If he refuses then the little help the family gets will be stopped.
Length of time this will go on for? Until he gets a full time job!

Please someone explain this to me, he has to give up his part time job to make himself available to go out and work in the community, he still won't be entitled to JSA himself as the families financial situation won't have changed.
He can not carry on with the part time job he enjoys because he has to be available to go out in the community.
I am sure that if DWP force K to do this they will undo all the progress that has been made and his anxiety will again reach such levels that he will be unable to work at all.
Common sense is not prevailing in this government, they are once again picking on the WRONG people purely because they can and this is what bullies do!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Posted by Penny at Tuesday, November 08, 2011

This blog was first published last November as you can see, and what we feared would happen has indeed happened. K was told he had to attend 'workfare' where he would have to spend full days in a classroom with other unemployed people filling in job applications and writing CVs.
Let me remind you that K has a job, he gets no benefits as L works part time, he only gets his NI stamp paid for him, but his job is only part time and that just isn't good enough for this government, he either has to give up his part time job and attend 'workfare' or he has to sign off altogether.
K doesn't handle stress well, he has slowly recovered from a breakdown and pulled himself back to where he is now, he has been applying for at least 7 jobs a week as he would like to be bringing more in for his family but he is lucky to even get a reply let alone an interview and so he continues working part time in his present job where he is happy and comfortable whilst applying for full time work.
His job centre advisor agreed this didn't make any sense but apparently she had no choice which meant he had no choice, she advised him to sign off altogether, he would lose his NI stamp but could continue doing his part time job.
Unfortunately this means the family also lose a substantial amount of working tax credits and my daughter is now also looking for a second job to try to survive, she already works nights!
So when you see the unemployment figures falling please bear in mind that it DOESN'T mean more people are finding work, it means more people are being denied the assistance they are entitled to because this government have changed the rules and are using dirty underhand tactics to force people off of benefits.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

4 comments:

Bill Kruse said...

They aren't forcing people off benefits, they're forcing people onto Workfare. The scam works like this; government creates workfare scheme, programme providers say they'll find bodies work for government money. Government official, minister, secretary of state, whomever, all know this is a scam as there's no work to be had and are all in on it. It provides a cover for the government to give taxpayer money to the programme provider a cut of which, in return, they give back to the government individual who put the work their way in the form of perhaps a consultancy, a non-executive directorship, whatever. Now if K gets himself a job without any help from them, that's no good as the programme provider can't claim credit and keep the scam going. So it makes sense to stop people doing any work they've found themselves and put them onto workfare. Got it now?

Unknown said...

Idiotic certainly, no sense definitely but happening and the sooner people are made aware of this the better.
I myself am disabled and have watched with disbelief as this government have targeted the vulnerable again and again, none of it makes any sense and this certainly doesn't.
If you need help and advice yourself then I would suggest you look at Spartacus.com as they are excellent.

Nikki :0)xx said...

What they are doing is idiotic and wrong! They are playing with people's livelihoods, families and sanity, how can they expect people like K to get a full time job when there are millions out there with no medical conditions that cannot find work! It's judgemental and should not be allowed to continue!

Anonymous said...

Hardly any wonder that 68% of the public consider that politicians are corrupt and 32% have their heads up their arses.
It is a disgrace that they are attempting to destroy this family continue bringing to the public attention. Oh and any chance of you deleting the idiotic comments left by trolls?