I’d like to say I was surprised upon hearing about a new sanction trap for Universal Credit (UC)) claimants but I’m not, afterall it’s not exactly the first time they’ve done this to unsuspecting claimants.
This time it’s been disguised as supposed help to move claimants into work.
The new scheme which has surprisingly been condemned by members of the DWP staff union PCS despite jobcentre workers are being offered a £250 ‘incentive’ to implement it.
The newly named Additional Jobcentre Support scheme requires UC claimants being forced by the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) to attend their allocated Jobcentre 10 times over a two week period.
Claimants that are unable to attend or failing to participate in one session will highly likely to lead to a sanction.
Undeterred however by the cruelty of this new scheme the DWP are being ‘trialed’ at 60 jobcentres across England and Scotland.
As already proven by myself and many other like-minded campaigners these so called trials are usually the start of a national roll out regardless if they’re successful or not.
To add incentive to roll out this terrible scheme the DWP are offering a £250 bonus in the form of a voucher “to recognise and reward jobcentre teams who furthest exceed their aspirational targets.”
These vouchers will be given to each member of staff in the best performing jobcentres.
No explanation has so far been given as to what the alleged “aspirational targets” consist of and if this involves taking people off benefitif claimants have failed to comply for whatever reason. Nor has the DWP commented if it involves sanctioning claimants or forcing claimants into unsuitable and insecure work.
The PCS union, which represents DWP staff commented saying that they have no doubt that the main purpose of the scheme is to make life harder for claimants, saying:
“Our members will see through this pilot for what it is – a government hellbent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits and which will increase the risk of poverty for those customers who fall foul of this pilot. Asking more customers to travel more often into jobcentres does nothing to help our staff or their workloads and does nothing to help the customers find the work that they need.”
However as I have already stated this isn’t the first time that the DWP have issued financial targets to incentivise cruelty.
Previous examples of this are ‘Sandras Stars’ which consisted of a Jobcentre manager giving DWP employees a star on a leaderboard for every employee that ‘offloaded’ sanctioned a claimant.
https://wp.me/p1Awq-2cd Sandra’s Stars
And who could also forget this example back in 2015. Of course they denied that this happened but the truth was all too obvious.
If there’s one thing that the government likes doing the most is implementing cruelty to the poorest and most vulnerable the very people.
The government and their henchpeople the DWP target social security claimants the most because they’re less likely to fightback and demand they’re treated fairly.
Most are worn down with the constant compliance requests that they’re hounded with.
They know that people claiming any form of social security are already paying the highest price for the cost of living and energy bills prices.
Many are primarily focused upon trying to get by from day to day and are less likely to know their legal rights and how to appeal DWP decisions.
Let’s hope that the PCS DWP staff members rebel against the mandate given to them from the government and their managers. If they do they deserve our support.
Please read, share, tweet and email this blog post. It’s vital that we raise awareness on this subject and many of the others that I have published previously.
Also a huge thanks for the support that you my subscribers and readers have shown me in the last week. I really can’t thank you enough, I couldn’t do this without you and I appreciate it.
The poor side of life 
Reblogged this on Paul Glendenning.
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I visited my local Jobcentre yesterday Friday 03/05/23, and I arrived 20 mins early to be confronted with a manager who said as I wasn’t 10 mins early, so had to go outside and wait for another 10 mins, then I could return and sit In the Jobcentre for my appointment.
I think the manager deserves a Jobsworth award which I expressed when I was told she was deeply offended by me calling her such.
All I can say Is what a shit department the DWP are.
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I always prefer to wait outside until exactly 10 mins. or less, as I don’t want to spend a second longer in that place than what I have to. I hate the place with a passion and often try to visualizer the building crumbling, overgrown with weeds, and being demolished, just try to picture it in your mind.
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It’s unbelievable (yet typical as you say) that they would introduce such measures at a time when the whole country is going through a very tough time and many are experiencing hardship with the spiralling cost of living crisis (Emergency!) and the knock on after effects of the Covid Pandemic, Brexit, and the Ukraine war, we’re all struggling to pay bills, and buy food, struggling to survive, and so they, vthe DWP and the Tory Government, now decide to push thousands more people into destitution and drive them to the already oversubscribed foodbanks. It’s sheer madness, pure vindictiveness and nothing short of Class War, which Starmer would stand up and say if he had a backbone and any morals. Rachel Reeves probably thinks these measures are a great idea. What we so desperately need right now is a generous functional Social Security system that provides adequately for those in need, not more punitive claimant bashing.
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Extremely well said Trev! Hope you’re ok
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I’m scraping by thnx Charlotte. Was living on food parcels Dec/Jan into Feb then got a Discretionary Hardship payment off the LWP, managed to pay January’s electric bill to landlady but she’s coming tomorrow to read meter and tell me how much I owe for February. January was £315, for a single person in a one bedroom flat with no central heating?! I’ve just applied for the £400 energy discount online as the Gov website went live this week:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-energy-bill-support-if-not-automatic
But I’ve been told by my MP’s office, and it says on the website, that you can’t get the payment if your landlord has a domestic tariff on their supply meter, only if they have the correct commercial tariff, which they should have if operating as a business, but mine has a domestic account so I probably won’t be able to get the money as they’ve already paid the discount to the landlord by knocking it off their bill. What a complicated mess, typical Tory balls up. So just this afternoon I have registered with a Housing Association and put my name on the list for a flat in one of their over-55s housing schemes, which are well managed and fair rent with water, heating inclusive in the service charge. I might have to wait a few years though, who knows.
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Are you being overcharged? I am in a one bedroom flat with gas CH and my usage in January was approx £100. Gas and electricity. And why isn’t she deducting the £60 pm? If you get your flat, leave promptly and deduct as much of the £400 as you can!
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Everyone says it sounds way too much but the landlady is working it out by taking readings at the beginning and end of the month from the old coin meter in my flat, which is no longer used for payment but displays how, many kw/h have been used, she then multiplies that figure by 34p, the amount it’s currently capped at by the government, then adds 5% for VAT, so when presented with that how can I argue? She says she is letting me off with my share of the standing charge as a concession. But yes, she should be deducting the £65 a month discount too for each flat, unless perhaps its because the initial figures he is dividing up already includes the discount? I don’t know, I’ve been going over this a dozen times with advice people, MP’s office, etc. and I can’t understand or make any sense of it. All I know is that it’s taking all my limited income to pay it, leaving me with nothing to live on. And I’m still cold.
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Can you read the meter yourself, to compare. 34p sounds about right, but you can’t possibly have used 300 quid in a month. Old Dial meters are notoriously unreliable. It needs checking and a smart meter would at least be reliable
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I’m presuming Trev’s energy bill is so high is because it’s electric only? and heating a home with electric heaters is notoriously expenseive, likewise electric showers. They may save water but definitely use a lot of electricity!
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He says he doesn’t have heating
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Yeah it’s all electric, the only heating is a convector fan heater in the living room but no central heating and no heating in the rest of the flat. I don’t use it much because of the cost. There used to be a gas fire but when the gas safety checks showed a leak somewhere under the floor they decided to remove the gas fire and cap off the gas, that was about 5 years ago in a December just before Christmas, then they left me with no heating at all until bringing me the electric fan heater in February, about 6 weeks or more without heating.
This month’s electricity bill, for February just gone, is £170 for 477 kw/h, a bit better than £315 for January!
I’ve turned off the water boiler as I don’t need to have instant hot water all the time, that should save money. I don’t know if the old dial coin meter is accurate, but I’ve got an electrician coming Monday to do safety checks so I’ll ask their opinion.
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Good idea. Get him to get it changed if possible. Those old files meters are a bugger to read!
Gill
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