Ashton Under lyne, baby, eugenics, government, Housing, hunger, Jobcentre, poverty, sanctions, Uncategorized

Being made homeless the next day the universal credit victims and why do they keep stopping my money? Amongst other happenings at the Jobcentre. 

As it had been a quiet few weeks at the Jobcentre we weren’t expecting it to be busy, but it just goes to show that you can never predict an afternoon outside the Jobcentre. Yesterday was quite distressing universal credit problems for working people are beginning to take their toil on the most vulnerable. 

One thing that I’ve noticed whilst standing outside the Jobcentre is the amount of people going into the building wearing a uniform. Yes when you are working and on universal credit if you work part time hours or hours that fall below the 39 hour working week total then you have to sign on and prove to them that you are looking for more work. You are classed as under employed . It doesn’t matter if you have children, it doesn’t matter if you work night shifts you have to be there. Of course if you have a family to care for then it’s going to be doubly impossible to complete this task. Your on a treadmill and you can’t get off. Home, work, home, job search the list goes on. 

Yesterday I was talking to a young man. He had come out of a very bad situation and was living in temporary accommodation. He was very lucky to find this accommodation, but he was made to move to the other side of manchester. He had no choice, but the local authority under their rules which are more or less the same up and down the country had classed him as making himself ‘intentionally homeless’. So therefore has to accept any offer which he’s offered. Usually they don’t offer anything. This is of course untrue, but it saves money and time to put people under this category and to deny any responsibility for them. He had found some work and is on universal credit. Great he thought, a step up the ladder. He was very wrong. As a result of this and being placed on universal credit he has now lost his place in the hostel because it takes too long for universal credit to sort his rent out. And he has to top his rent up.He’s never been on the streets and he was scared. We signposted him to a local organisation that might help him if they have any room. As a single young man he isn’t priority on anyone’s list. I was heartbroken for him. The rule is if you are in temporary accommodation you can’t work, the rents are too high and you could never make a wage large enough to cover it. But the Jobcentre knew better, so effectively they have made him homeless and no one wants to help him. This isn’t unusual but it just highlights how wrong the system is. 

Another young man approached me. He had made a claim for universal credit and had received a letter saying that he was entitled to a payment. He had fulfilled all the requirements and thought that after having no money at all since March he would be getting a payment. He went to the bank to check if his money was there and it wasn’t. When he got home there was another letter to say that he wasn’t receiving a payment but there was no explanation. He was mortified. Remember he had no money since March. We helped him and also signposted him to a local foodbank and homeless organisation. He said he will loose his home now as a result of this. Why? Because you cannot claim housing benefit on a zero income basis whilst claiming or awaiting the results or a claim for universal credit. 

Imagine how many people are being made homeless this way. We encountered two in as many hours and I imagine the figures to be shocking. I really don’t understand why this government get away with this everyday. They really do hold peoples life’s in their hands and with a click of a button they can destroy it. The failure to release the figures for those that have died as a result of these benefit reforms says it all. Personally I think that they have destroyed these numbers, afraid that the European court of human rights would take that to task for it. Maybe I’m wrong but I’m very suspicious. Mainly because of their track history of lies and deception. 

“The only thing that the working class can aspire to is to be poor. This government have it stitched up and it’s only going to get worse” 

Please come and join us on our demo every Thursday between 1-3 outside Ashton under Lyne Jobcentre. We welcome everyone who comes in peace. 

Please donate to this blog if you can, I live on a very very limited income and we need to keep it going. My PayPal add is seercharlotte@gmail.com  Thank you 

 

25 thoughts on “Being made homeless the next day the universal credit victims and why do they keep stopping my money? Amongst other happenings at the Jobcentre. ”

  1. One of the things Osborne said in the Budget was:
    “Universal Credit work allowances will be similarly reduced – and will no longer be awarded to non-disabled claimants without children.”
    ….. so what happens to the Jobseekers without children when they get/are forced to take work which doesn’t pay enough to cover housing etc.??? The media don’t seem to have noticed this, but NO Work Allowance means NO Universal Credit /Tax Credit…am speechless…

    Like

    Reply

  5. Nice blog and I’m sharing it.

    In the interests of accuracy though i’d like to make a point about the figures for people who have died within 6 weeks of being found fit for the back to work program. This figure should reveal how many people were obviously not fit for work who are being assessed as such, and thus shed statistical light on the hardship this is causing. This is different from finding out who has actually died as a result of DWP policy including policy on the back to work program.

    While it is common sense that people will have died as a result, that number will be statistically insignificant. let me emphasis that I am not saying the deaths are insignificant, one death is too many, but statistically they would have to be very high indeed to register in any conclusive statistical way. the most that could be expected is a bump in numbers well within the margin of error. there are alot of people dying out there, and even many of those who die as a result of the stress and hardship put on them by the DWP would have died anyway from their illness and showed up in the stats very nearly the same…it takes alot to bump up death rates given the overall number of deaths.

    On the other hand people miss-assessed as capable of attending back to work when they are clearly not will, I am certain, be statistically significant. It is more specific, people being assessed as ready to start getting work when they are clearly not. Only those deaths unexpected deaths, accidents or undiagnosed illnesses should be occurring in this category, because they have been assessed as fit for the Work Group. If they die of their illness then they clearly were not assessed properly regardless of the more difficult to show that they died as a result of the policy.

    ii do not think that even the defence that peoples condition, say cancer can change and deteriorate quickly (though this is a route to investigate the deaths DWP is causing…) can be held up as valid: People looking at death should not be being hounded into work, they should have the choice to do so if they want to, but it is a bit late for them to be investing their value as a human being, according to IDS’s warped ethos, according to their ability to find work to please the DWP. Any rational person should be able to see that they well have other priorities!

    As far as causing death goes, investigations into actual deaths some of which have been done and the results also hidden I believe, are more likely to lead to an investigation.

    i hope this is clear enough because the DWP is using this confusion to their advantage playing one against the other and fudging the one which will be effective against them.

    Remember; they don’t have to get at the truth, they only have to create confusion about the truth.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yes they are and when I say all deaths I am also talking about the suicides and the people who have starved to death not just people on esa or awaiting sickness money. We have heard of many suicides in my town. They were triggered by sanctions. So we need to see the bigger picture. People who aren’t disabled are also loosing their life’s. It’s all so wrong and this government needs to be held accountable for ALL the deaths, wether sickness related and non sickness related. Of course this won’t happen because they won’t release the figures.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Hang on @Door; the FoI request made by Mike Sivier (the original requester who runs the blog Vox Political) asked for figures of those people who were in receipt of ESA (which was paid for 12 months) who were deemed fit for work, but died within 6 weeks of that decision. Remember now, these are people who are expected to get better, they should not be dying! In 2012 the contract between DWP & Atos was 112.4 billion; UK citizens have a right to know that their money is being spent wisely, but more to the point, that people are not dying because of flawed and draconian state policies – NO ONE in their right mind would want that. Like the author of this blog, I too believe that the figures are so horrendously high they don’t want to reveal them because they know there will be public outrage.

        Like

  6. Pingback: Being made homeless the next day the universal credit victims and why do they keep stopping my money? Amongst other happenings at the Jobcentre.  | Jaffer's blog

  8. Reblogged this on Christopher John Ball and commented:
    This heart breaking account reveals the truth behind the many lies of Iain Duncan Smith and his odious Universal Credit. It is harming people, it is making people homeless and it punishes everybody on it. Universal Credit is the new Poor Law, the new workhouse. This is what the United Kingdom has become. A country where, if you are poor, no matter how hard you try it is never enough in the eyes of Iain Duncan Smith. This man lies as easily as he draws breath or his expenses. A man who professes to be a Christian yet breaks the ‘thou shalt not bear false witness’ AND ‘Thou Shalt not kill’ The Conservative Party replaced Iain Duncan Smith as their leader in a vote of no confidence YET we are expected to have confidence in him with OUR Social Security. Iain Duncan Smith blames the poor for being poor. If the facts don’t back up his beliefs, he ignores the facts. He is intent on placing the safety net so close to the ground that it renders it useless, even fatal.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The new Poor Law, but NOT the new workhouse – that would involve providing accommodation, and the likes of Iain Dunked-in Shit would bridle at such an expense being borne by “hard-working families” or the government purse. They’re more than content that, rather than the workhouse, people are left to rot “on the street” once the iniquities of ESA/JSA/UC/the Bedroom Tax/the Benefits Cap have taken their toll.
      As long as we’re foolish/naive enough to keep endorsing the pseudo-democratic political system that returns these neoliberal leeches, they’ll keep tightening the screws and stacking up the directorships. Sometimes I pray for a latter-day successful Guy Fawkes, but then I realise that such an event would lead to the leeches being spun as martyrs.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  15. Pingback: Being made homeless the next day the universal credit victims and why do they keep stopping my money? Amongst other happenings at the Jobcentre.  | Creators not Consumers

  18. the real figures i suspect must be in the six figure category. i know this is conjecture, but lets say that this happens to one person per hour, 8 hours a day every working day of the week for 4 years up and down the country, and lets be really kind on the figures and suppose there is only twenty jobcentres up and down the country. 1 x 8hrs= 8 x 250 working days in the year=2000 x 4 years= 8000 people at your jobcenter alone x a modest 20 jobcentres= 160,000 homeless people. it scares me trying to contemplate the genocidal figures of this governments actions

    Like

    Reply

      1. This is the start of something even worse than the suffering already inflicted – ideological cuts that seem to be designed to spread destruction to millions more.
        Another question – why, as the plans for cuts to the low paid were agreed in 2013 did Labour do nothing? Tories must be laughing their heads off. Perhaps no one realised Tax Credits are abolished under Universal Credit but people should have been warned…..
        Have put some of the available facts about extending conditionality & sanctions to low paid workers & levels of the cuts here:
        http://www.makingworkerspay.wordpress.com
        Thanks for your excellent blog – have reblogged it.

        Like

      2. Thank you for your great comment. I’ve asked the same questions myself . Why didn’t labour oppose this? Probably because those in charge aren’t labour as we know it. They certainly are all in it together.
        Those that were shouting scrounger will be viewed in the same way that the poorest have been viewed. Course the Tories are laughing they are well on the way to destroying the working class of this country

        Like

Leave a comment