Benefit sanctions

[sureiknow]

I normally steer clear of religion or political issues.

After working for 40 years I am now disabled and had to give up my job and even my car, which was my wee pride and joy.

I had an operation in March and spent two months in Hospital.

You only realise how tough it is to be disabled when you are, well, disabled.

When I left Hospital I was in a wheelchair for three months. Luckily I'm back on my feet and can get out and about with the help of a stick.

I am grateful for the money I receive as I need taxis to take me more or less everywhere.

Ever try shopping in a wheelchair?

Not much fun. Have to ask people, could you pass me that down please?

Anyway, that's enough of my hard luck story lol.

I have seen people in the spinal injury centre being fed by spoon and in great form.

It made me look at myself and think in many ways I am lucky

Life is good.

[mjw]

Mo

I normally steer clear of religion or political issues.

After working for 40 years I am now disabled and had to give up my job and even my car, which was my wee pride and joy.

I had an operation in March and spent two months in Hospital.

You only realise how tough it is to be disabled when you are, well, disabled.

When I left Hospital I was in a wheelchair for three months. Luckily I'm back on my feet and can get out and about with the help of a stick.

I am grateful for the money I receive as I need taxis to take me more or less everywhere.

Ever try shopping in a wheelchair?

Not much fun. Have to ask people, could you pass me that down please?

Anyway, that's enough of my hard luck story lol.

I have seen people in the spinal injury centre being fed by spoon and in great form.

It made me look at myself and think in many ways I am lucky

Life is good.

Get a computer and you could be the next Stephen hawkings.

(©oaksoft)

[Sergeant Wilson]

I normally steer clear of religion or political issues.

After working for 40 years I am now disabled and had to give up my job and even my car, which was my wee pride and joy.

I had an operation in March and spent two months in Hospital.

You only realise how tough it is to be disabled when you are, well, disabled.

When I left Hospital I was in a wheelchair for three months. Luckily I'm back on my feet and can get out and about with the help of a stick.

I am grateful for the money I receive as I need taxis to take me more or less everywhere.

Ever try shopping in a wheelchair?

Not much fun. Have to ask people, could you pass me that down please?

Anyway, that's enough of my hard luck story lol.

I have seen people in the spinal injury centre being fed by spoon and in great form.

It made me look at myself and think in many ways I am lucky

Life is good.

The stick will be handy. Oaksoft can hit you with it, if you rest on your laurels.

[mjw]

lol

?

[Benjamin_Nevis]

lol what a bunch of hypocrites.

happy to slaughter an able bodied person for suggesting disabled people can be integrated into s normal working environment but wont criticise the head of a disabled charity for saying exactly the same thing.

hypocrites.

Ffs this pish has gone on long enough.

Stop embarrassing yourself you fucking spanner.

[welshbairn]

interesting that in your link dan scorer the head of a disabled charity agrees with me about what welfare should be for.

nobody going to flame him then or is the groupthink too strong?

I assume you mean this:

“taking away the Christmas grace period for sanctions risks pushing people with a learning disability into financial and emotional crisis at a time when the normal networks of support are not easily accessible”

“The Government should be creating a benefits system that gives people financial support to lead independent lives and move towards and into work. As it stands they risk having the opposite effect.”

How does this support your case that benefit sanctions help people towards independent lives?

[BFTD]

interesting that in your link dan scorer the head of a disabled charity agrees with me about what welfare should be for.

nobody going to flame him then or is the groupthink too strong?

Three o'clock on Christmas morning

Your restraint is admirable, P&B. Oaksoft - hopefully 2016 will be a better year for you and you won't spend your holidays seething over whether or not somebody else might not be working hard enough.

[Fide]

Wouldn't it be tremendous if Oaksoft's new year's resolution was to be less of an obstinate, slow thinking, quick tempered thundercunt?

[Benjamin_Nevis]

A recent case brought this thread to mind. Universal Credit went full service in our area a few weeks back. Needless to say it's been a f**k shambles of epic proportions. I had to represent one of my clients at a local Jobcentre and barely any of the staff have either been trained in it, or have a fucking clue what they're doing. Claims aren't being processed properly, there are issues with ID verification interviews, and I recently spent about 5 days trying to explain to several absolute welts at the DWP why my terminally ill client shouldn't have to undergo work-focussed interviews, before eventually getting a resolution. 

Foodbank referrals are through the roof, the Scottish Welfare fund are absolutely inundated. It seems quite incredible that in a supposedly advanced country, we've reduced thousands of people to pretty much beg for tins of spaghetti and short term grants. 

 

[mizfit]

A recent case brought this thread to mind. Universal Credit went full service in our area a few weeks back. Needless to say it's been a f**k shambles of epic proportions. I had to represent one of my clients at a local Jobcentre and barely any of the staff have either been trained in it, or have a fucking clue what they're doing. Claims aren't being processed properly, there are issues with ID verification interviews, and I recently spent about 5 days trying to explain to several absolute welts at the DWP why my terminally ill client shouldn't have to undergo work-focussed interviews, before eventually getting a resolution. 
Foodbank referrals are through the roof, the Scottish Welfare fund are absolutely inundated. It seems quite incredible that in a supposedly advanced country, we've reduced thousands of people to pretty much beg for tins of spaghetti and short term grants. 
 

Yes, but the Forth Road Bridge is a shambles.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

3 minutes ago, mizfit said:

Yes, but the Forth Road Bridge is a shambles.

 

 

Let's not forget that only 62% of mothers are using the box part of the baby box kit. Shocking, imo.

[welshbairn]

12 minutes ago, jupe1407 said:

A recent case brought this thread to mind. Universal Credit went full service in our area a few weeks back. Needless to say it's been a f**k shambles of epic proportions. I had to represent one of my clients at a local Jobcentre and barely any of the staff have either been trained in it, or have a fucking clue what they're doing. Claims aren't being processed properly, there are issues with ID verification interviews, and I recently spent about 5 days trying to explain to several absolute welts at the DWP why my terminally ill client shouldn't have to undergo work-focussed interviews, before eventually getting a resolution. 

Foodbank referrals are through the roof, the Scottish Welfare fund are absolutely inundated. It seems quite incredible that in a supposedly advanced country, we've reduced thousands of people to pretty much beg for tins of spaghetti and short term grants. 

 

We got Universal Credit in Inverness a few years ago and I had a couple of thankfully brief periods dealing with it. The job seeking diary had to cover 35 hours a week, so they had to instruct you how to lie, like walking to Nairn to drop off your CV at a kebab shop or whatever. The thing I refused to do was signing on to the Jobsearch thing which means they can record what you're doing all week. They threatened to sanction me but I said I was amazed that the Government would force me to divulge my personal details to fake companies offering fake jobs to harvest ID's. Each time they went away and checked upstairs and we kept going with the fictional diary nonsense.

[mizfit]

The diary, Jesus I hated that when I was out of work.

I was offered a job but told I couldn’t start for another 3 weeks so had to sign back on.

I sat in the car park scribbling random jobs so I wouldn’t get sanctioned.

[Miguel Sanchez]

I still have my diary from my 9 months on the dole. Big writing. Writing the same thing in it week after week. In fairness my job centre people were actually human and helpful so that was good.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Just now, welshbairn said:

We got Universal Credit in Inverness a few years ago and I had a couple of thankfully brief periods dealing with it. The job seeking diary had to cover 35 hours a week, so they had to instruct you how to lie, like walking to Nairn to drop off your CV at a kebab shop or whatever. The thing I refused to do was signing on to the Jobsearch thing which means they can record what you're doing all week. They threatened to sanction me but I said I was amazed that the Government would force me to divulge my personal details to fake companies offering fake jobs to harvest ID's. Each time they went away and checked upstairs and we kept going with the fictional diary nonsense.

They don't even seem to know how to kick off a claim properly here 

My chat at the job centre went like:

DWP: "Are you a corporate appointee?"

Me: "No. Your boss OK'ed me coming in on the claimant's behalf to verify details"

DWP: "Why can't the claimant come in?"

Me: "The claimant is terminally ill"

DWP: "OK, on this occasion I'll take the documents, but the claimant will still need a home visit from a work coach to check  ID is correct and sign a claimant commitment"

Me: "Sorry, what? Exactly what type of work are you expecting someone with terminal cancer to look for?"

DWP: "I wouldn't worry, it'll be a formality. the claimant will also be contacted in three months time as a 'keeping in touch' procedure to see if there has been any change in circumstances"

Left it at that as we were getting nowhere fast, and put in a complaint to the guys manager who'd OKed the appointment in the first place, who eventually agreed to just send the claim for processing. The worst aspect of this is that it was for a Contributions-based benefit which we were initially told would be nothing to do with UC. 

It's a total clusterfuck. 

 

[mizfit]

I still have my diary from my 9 months on the dole. Big writing. Writing the same thing in it week after week. In fairness my job centre people were actually human and helpful so that was good.

The first person I spoke to spent the entire hour mocking me, was more interested in telling me to go look for a job then help me.

The last person was even worse.

[welshbairn]

10 minutes ago, mizfit said:

 

 

The first person I spoke to spent the entire hour mocking me, was more interested in telling me to go look for a job then help me.

The last person was even worse.

 

 

Since Universal Credit came in they seem trained to assume you're a lying scrounging b*****d. No help to get training or work, just any excuse to sanction you.

[BFTD]

Reading through these most recent posts, it certainly seems as though all is going to plan with the government's welfare changes.

Jobcentres were unremitting pits of despair when I joined the workforce. There was a noticeable shift when Labour got in, with staff suddenly treating claimants more like customers than day-release criminals, and the switch to the open-plan office arrangements from the old plexiglass dividers and bolted-down furniture. Suddenly there were more opportunities for things like skills development. Nobody wanted to be there, obviously, and those jobsearch diaries have always been a pain in the hole, but it felt more like the service was there to help you get back into work, as opposed to an exercise in managing the dangerous underclass.

Thankfully haven't had anything to do with a jobcentre for about a decade now, but I know folk who do, and it definitely sounds like the attitude has changed again. It's a reflection of the mindset of the people in charge who are, lest we forget, beyond the pale even for this hero of the reformation movement:

[Glenconner]

Doubt Jobcentres will be around in twenty years from now. The idea of a static buildings to deal with the UK unemployed maybe in the 10 million bracket will be absurd. AI will be running the show.

[BFTD]

9 hours ago, Glenconner said:

Doubt Jobcentres will be around in twenty years from now. The idea of a static buildings to deal with the UK unemployed maybe in the 10 million bracket will be absurd. AI will be running the show.

If the universal basic income actually gets a fair whack, there'll only be a need for a service to help people use modern job-searching options. You'd assume that all the weans would leave school with tech skills, but you'd assume that about reading and writing too.

Good luck to Al on his future job, though, whoever he is.