The unemployed are punished with hunger - unemployment the worst crime

[max]

[/b]

 

All the chess pieces are being put in place before the proverbial hits the fan. It's no coincidence...

 

Not forgetting all the old cast iron lampposts being replaced with flimsy plastic ones.

[truman]

No she won't. There won't be struggle, armed or otherwise. Have a cup of tea and a sit down before you do yourself a mischief.

 

I'm calm..I also don't think there'll be any struggle...and I'm having a cuppa now

[tinfoilhat]

I'm calm..I also don't think there'll be any struggle...and I'm having a cuppa now

 

Hopefully anna will as well!

[monkey69]

Unless your unemployed and have faced these punitive sanctions and have had to go begging to friends and family for food, then you are in no position to understand.

Its not just the withdraw of money, its the suspension of housing benefit, council tax, and if you have not enough money in the bank to cover bills. its the further consequences of falling further into debt.

No wonder many people feel suicidal. you just cannot see anyway out. I know your are all going to say get a job. but if you have been trying ( and I mean really trying) for years.

then what are the chances of getting one in the next week or so?.

For people like me with extra health problems, the jobcentre just dont take them into consideration.

Its all about targets. get them off the benefit , no matter how.

The hardship fund is also a joke. in effect its a loan against future benefit. and it can take weeks to process. all £37 pound of it.

So unless you have gone through the sanction system, you have no idea how soul destroying it is, and inhuman.

[tinfoilhat]

Unless your unemployed and have faced these punitive sanctions and have had to go begging to friends and family for food, then you are in no position to understand.

Its not just the withdraw of money, its the suspension of housing benefit, council tax, and if you have not enough money in the bank to cover bills. its the further consequences of falling further into debt.

No wonder many people feel suicidal. you just cannot see anyway out. I know your are all going to say get a job. but if you have been trying ( and I mean really trying) for years.

then what are the chances of getting one in the next week or so?.

For people like me with extra health problems, the jobcentre just dont take them into consideration.

Its all about targets. get them off the benefit , no matter how.

The hardship fund is also a joke. in effect its a loan against future benefit. and it can take weeks to process. all £37 pound of it.

So unless you have gone through the sanction system, you have no idea how soul destroying it is, and inhuman.

 

I think the whole system of sanctions has been handled badly and in some cases, fraudulently. The benefits system is awful. We have some families who know how to work the system on reletivly big money and enjoying a standard of living comparable to working people and those that are really struggling.

[mickey finn]

Would not the thread title, Unemployed people get showered with money and gifts EACH WEEK, be more fitting?

 

Only if you were a bit thick.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:35 ----------

 

Is it so hard for someone to attend a pre booked meeting on time ?

 

Is it so hard for someone to try and get work by looking for job vacancies ? Afterall they have plenty of time on their hands to look for work .

 

Strangely, I don't for one second think you work.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:37 ----------

 

why are unemployed/fat people always busy and big drama queen.

 

Can we hire one of those £75 an hour interpreters to tell us what that actually means.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:38 ----------

 

After watching some of the "unemployed" shows on TV, it seems to me that many of the unemployed are doing very well thank you.

 

Angel1

 

Many, I think not.

[eyemere]

Depends if you want to hoodwink people into thinking that the unemployed lead the life of Riley!

 

You mean they don't?

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 20:54 ----------

 

Or perhaps, "Unemployed people get back some of the money they've paid in NI contributions over the years to cover any periods of unemployment" ?

 

You mean there are some that have worked?

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 20:56 ----------

 

Only if you were a bit thick.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:35 ----------

 

 

Strangely, I don't for one second think you work.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:37 ----------

 

 

Can we hire one of those £75 an hour interpreters to tell us what that actually means.

 

---------- Post added 26-01-2015 at 19:38 ----------

 

 

Many, I think not.

 

Many?

No.

 

All?

Probably.

[monkey69]

There are hundreds of sanctions that should not be issused, these are a few of the consequences.... copied from the papers....

My brother David was found dead in his flat on 20th July 2013, he died alone, penniless and starving he was just 59. The coroner’s report stated there was no food in his stomach. His money had been stopped a month before he died for failing to attend an appointment and by 8 July he had just £3.44 in his bank (you need at least £5 to draw money out). His electric key had run out and could not chill his insulin and there was no food in the flat.

 

There used to be a time if you missed your jobcentre meeting and had a long-term illness like diabetes or were vulnerable there would be concern and outreach by jobcentre staff. Now they cut off your benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were aware of David’s diabetes, yet as a result of their sanctions he could not chill his insulin or eat and as a result died of “fatal diabetic ketoacidosis”.

 

Even if he had been aware of claiming hardship his severe condition meant he would not have lived long enough to receive the money. As the Oakley Report states, the most vulnerable claimants struggle to understand which means that the people potentially most in need of the hardship system were the least likely to be able to access it.

 

Sanctions must be fair, timely and proportionate and not create excessive hardship. David was a vulnerable adult who struggled with correspondence (the jobseekers allowance sanction letters were found unopened in his flat). He should have been helped by the agencies that were there for the wellbeing of people like him, but they totally failed him.

 

Bernice June Gaze

[truman]

There are hundreds of sanctions that should not be issused, these are a few of the consequences.... copied from the papers....

My brother David was found dead in his flat on 20th July 2013, he died alone, penniless and starving he was just 59. The coroner’s report stated there was no food in his stomach. His money had been stopped a month before he died for failing to attend an appointment and by 8 July he had just £3.44 in his bank (you need at least £5 to draw money out). His electric key had run out and could not chill his insulin and there was no food in the flat.

 

There used to be a time if you missed your jobcentre meeting and had a long-term illness like diabetes or were vulnerable there would be concern and outreach by jobcentre staff. Now they cut off your benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were aware of David’s diabetes, yet as a result of their sanctions he could not chill his insulin or eat and as a result died of “fatal diabetic ketoacidosis”.

 

Even if he had been aware of claiming hardship his severe condition meant he would not have lived long enough to receive the money. As the Oakley Report states, the most vulnerable claimants struggle to understand which means that the people potentially most in need of the hardship system were the least likely to be able to access it.

 

Sanctions must be fair, timely and proportionate and not create excessive hardship. David was a vulnerable adult who struggled with correspondence (the jobseekers allowance sanction letters were found unopened in his flat). He should have been helped by the agencies that were there for the wellbeing of people like him, but they totally failed him.

 

Bernice June Gaze

 

I'll probably get flamed for this but where was this guy's family when he needed help?

[Mister M]

I'll probably get flamed for this but where was this guy's family when he needed help?

 

I think I know the case that is being referred to....It was the ex soldier who starved to death. Form what I gather he was a proud and independent man, possibly to proud to fight the DWP for piddling amounts of money, and probably too proud to ask his family for help.

I do think as a general principle there should be a good safety net there without people relying on charity, as going to a charity can be demeaning.

 

---------- Post added 27-01-2015 at 17:36 ----------

 

I think the whole system of sanctions has been handled badly and in some cases, fraudulently. The benefits system is awful. We have some families who know how to work the system on reletivly big money and enjoying a standard of living comparable to working people and those that are really struggling.

 

I agree with this. It's the genuine people who are punished. There have been many truly awful cases of people starving to death and being driven to crime and suicide because of the Work Capability Assessment and official neglect. But as you say that small minority of people who know how to play the system and are often presented on out TV screens as archetypes of the unemployed get away with it.

 

I can think of no other area of policy where so many deaths are treated with such official indifference. No investigations, so official reports, no 'lessons learned'. It's almost as if the unemployed and the disabled are second class citizens.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Mister M