As
'The American Spectator' points out!
A homeless centre says it is being overwhelmed with people needing food because their benefits have been temporarily stopped.
The Storehouse in Coleman Street is feeding more than 200 people a day and instead of just providing one or two bags to those in need it has become a sole source of food for many.
Well, who could have predicted that? You hand out free food, and you get people flocking to you. It’s a mystery!
The increase is being blamed on Government benefit reforms which have seen people “sanctioned” for not trying hard enough to get a job. People are asked to fill in forms and provide evidence of job hunts and if they fall short of the criteria, benefits are stopped for several weeks.
A sensible precaution, surely? What could be wrong with expecting people to justify their need for these benefits?
John Williams who helps run the Storehouse said many who can’t cope with the forms are being left destitute.
Can’t cope with the forms? But… wouldn't they have had to ‘cope with forms’ in order to get the benefits in the first place, as a commenter points out?
Well, who could have predicted that? You hand out free food, and you get people flocking to you. It’s a mystery!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't take too much working out does it? It's all about "free food" rather than problems with benefit application forms.
I propose the following solution; Anyone attending to collect their "free food" will be required to show evidence of a Sky subscription and a mobile phone bill - this will provide an instant method of means testing that applicant's entitlement to "free food" Possession of the appropriate documents gets you through the front door, a further check on said documents gets you straight back out again sans "free food"
I understood only those referred by a GP or social services received free food
ReplyDeleteWhich is true.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for form-filling....either done for you (preferred because the things are long and complex (JSA is 42 pages, ESA is over 50 pages)) (jobseekers allowance and employment support allowance) or they can be done online, although if you can only get a basic broadband the site tends to time-out. Back to stage one. It takes about an hour to fill it in, and a wrong answer means another form SINCE each answer has to be within the "box" and corrections are not possible. Even the staff make mistakes. Loads are rejected, and it's back to stage one.
JSA is currently £71/Wk. ESA is around the same amount.
JSA can only be claimed for a maximum of 6 months. ESA is subject to an assessment by the infamous ATOS, where complex medical problems are "assessed" by occupational health "professionals" (many of who were unemployed prior to that job) or by retired doctors.
Oh, and 15 points means you continue on ESA (70 quid/Wk).....mind you, we have known people with terminal cancer get less than 15 points !
I always find it helps to know what you are talking about.
Oh, and after the next election (which David will win....watch the news around election time)....you will find the same strictures being applied to the state pension. Which costs SIX TIMES the rest of the benefit cost.
Couldn't John Williams who helps run the Storehouse help with the forms instead of just handing out free food?
ReplyDeleteXX Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhich is true.
And as for form-filling....either done for you (preferred because the things are long and complex (JSA is 42 pages, ESA is over 50 pages)) XX
WOOHOOOO! Damn ME!!! And heres me thinking reading von Clauewitz "Of War" (Vom Kriege)in two weeks, in BOTH German and English was hard!!!!
FIFTY pages!!! WOOOOWWWW!
Obviously your reading needs to improve, since you spelled "Clausewitz" wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who can imagine a romantic conception of warfare is obviously wrong in the head. I fill the forms in, since (quite frankly) they are complex....you not only have to fill them in, they also require going back a few pages to understand the questions further-on along the form !
Believe it or not (and I expect you not to, you're that type of guy I can see) many very well educated people cannot understand the format and questions.
You also need either a good knowledge of your past employment/education status, or the paperwork to refer to.
You get one shot, get it wrong and it is back to square one (no corrections allowed on the form) (and no writing outside the boxes....none...Not. One. Single. Fullstop.)
Oh, and you have to be there on time, even though you will be required to wait (sometimes for a few hours).
The toilet is out-of-bounds, if you need to use it you will be accompanied by a security person.
If the session overruns 1600z, it will end and you need to return another day.
If you are claiming ESA, you need to agree dissemination of your details to other "partner agencies" (many are private companies contracted to the DWP) and your detail will happily be passed to all and sundry (as long as they are to do with the government, in any respect). No agreement ?
Claim stop.
All your detail will be available to your local taxation department as well.
Of course, all your information is confidential. Unless there are children involved, in which case the safeguarding requirements mean they can be passed to any agency involved.
I'd pulp the 50 pages, add horse meat and make a rather tasty casserole for the pantry-less darlings.
ReplyDeleteOr why not reintroduce fox hunting? Let them eat what they catch. Mmmm okay, some parts of the countryside might look like a scene from 28 Days Later but what the hell, times are tough.
Quite. Pheasant tastes rather like an earthy chicken, although if "hung" for a few days its taste improves. Loads of pheasant around here, the place is riddled with "estates" for the Great and Gormless to try to kill something.
ReplyDeleteFields full of spuds and sprouts, and soon carrots and onions.
As some one who has been seeking work for over a year now can I just point out that these sanctions aren't just for non form filling. JCP now has a new universal job site that all must use. It will show JCP all your jobseking efforts, or it would if it actually worked (any one remember the NHS fiasco). They also have claiments attending a work programme, a private firm (think A4E). JCP have a canny wheeze going at the moment. They arrange your sign on date to coincide with your work programme. When you phone to point this out they say you MUST attend your sign on appointment, then they sanction you for not attending the work programme. Meanwhile as a claiment you are left to battle with the Universal Job Site alone as neither JCP or your work programme co-ordinator can understand it. Now this is all well and good as a punishment for the lazy and feckless, but for those of us actually seeking work it has turned into an utter nightmare.
ReplyDeleteThe problem being that the "lazy and feckless" can play that system like a fiddle.
ReplyDeleteWant to phone any gov agency/dept ?
Well, you can sit and wait on a local-call-rate line, for hours, OR you can walk into the JCP and use one of THEIR "customer service" phones. Not only is it free, but they answer them....unlike your 4p/min home call.
Oh, and if you have not got inet at home, that will be penalised as well. Basic broadband (less than 4Mb/sec) (30% of the country) ?
That won't do, their system will disconnect you.
Don't raise your voice within the hallowed halls of JCP, you'll be ejected (private security) and you'll be dumped for 14 days.
As pointed out above, the conflict between systems is exploited. So if you have to go to a "course" to devise a CV at 10.00z, and have to sign on at 10.00z, that conflict will result in a penalty. 7 days. And their CV is rubbish as well, mine was written for me by a company specialising in same. The JCP version (no, no choice, theirs is what you have to have) is industrial garbage. I sympathise with the JCP staff, when they get made redundant they are never going to get a job, they have no skillset at all.
XX Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteObviously your reading needs to improve, since you spelled "Clausewitz" wrong.
Anyone who can imagine a romantic conception of warfare is obviously wrong in the head.XX
Point one, no. my TYPING may be a little askew after an 18 hour night shift....
Point two; How would you ever know wanker? Were you ever IN one?
I was. TWICE, so UP yours.
And I hope they make claiming your dole SAO bloody herd, that it would be easier for you to cut your own throat than claim MY tax payers money.
Oh...before I forget.
ReplyDeleteTo use the systems you have to have a "government gateway" access.....which is a nightmare. To call it buggy is an insult to a bug. If you do not access it frequently it deletes you. You can then only get back onto it by writing !
Good luck with that by the way.
Quite frankly I cannot see why, in the 21st century, a government dept can be so inept technologically.
"And I hope they make claiming your dole SAO bloody herd, that it would be easier for you to cut your own throat than claim MY tax payers money"
ReplyDeleteI don't claim benefit, as such. Just state pension. I write as a slight insider of the system. Funnily enough, if you have a sense of humour (or just sense) you may appreciate the irony in a jobcentre being staffed by part-timers and agency workers. Even the staffers are on short term contracts (so not redundant as they have to pay them the term remaining). They quite literally know less than many of the claimants. For your interest, or delectation, I removed myself from school to work, and did so for just over 40 years. In all that time I have claimed "dole" for two periods. One of 8 months and another of 2 weeks.
Anyone who glorifies warfare is either demented, insane or a politician. Anyone who enjoys warfare or killing people is not human. Take your pick.
Anyone who glorifies warfare is either demented, insane or a politician.
ReplyDeleteWar is almost always horrific but it can often be glorious too. Occasionally, it may even be honourable and just.
Those that fail to see the truth of war become the monster that measure their successes merely in blood and suffering.
"I propose the following solution; Anyone attending to collect their "free food" will be required to show evidence of a Sky subscription and a mobile phone bill - this will provide an instant method of means testing that applicant's entitlement to "free food"..."
ReplyDeleteI like that idea!
"I understood only those referred by a GP or social services received free food"
That's been said top be the case at other 'food banks' - I can't say if it's mentioned for this one.
"Oh, and after the next election (which David will win....watch the news around election time)....you will find the same strictures being applied to the state pension. "
Well, we'll see, won't we?
"Couldn't John Williams who helps run the Storehouse help with the forms instead of just handing out free food?"
ReplyDeleteA good point! Perhaps he doesn't understand the system any better?
"FIFTY pages!!! WOOOOWWWW!"
It's as if some people think there should be no checks at all, isn't it?
"...you not only have to fill them in, they also require going back a few pages to understand the questions further-on along the form !"
And...is that a serious hardship? Do you think no-one should have to justify their entitlement to benefit?
"...or it would if it actually worked (any one remember the NHS fiasco)."
ReplyDelete*sigh* Government IT....
"War is almost always horrific but it can often be glorious too. Occasionally, it may even be honourable and just."
But it's always profitable. For some.
To the person that wrote I hope they make claiming so hard you cut your own throat, you are aware that both JCP employees and those work programme employees are also paid from your hard earned tax. And I can bet you that each and every one of them earns a darn sight more that 360 quid a month. There is nothing like a bigotted idiot for thinking it's better for the tax payer to pay an army of people millions of pounds if it will save the same tax payer a couple of hundred thousand. It's almost as clever as forcing single mums to work for minimum wage and then charging the tax payer 20 pounds an hour for her child care costs.You should be a politician as it appears you have the same kind of mindset as those that create these ludicrous rules. You don't seem to care how much of your hard earned tax the government spends, as long as they spend it on the right kind of person.
ReplyDeleteXX you are aware that both JCP employees and those work programme employees are also paid from your hard earned tax.XX
ReplyDeleteNo they are not.