It has recently been revealed that the DWP (Department Of Work And Pension) has profited by almost £5 million in the last four years directly from fining unpaid carers £50 each when they’ve been found to have been overpaid.
This is as well as being in receipt of £400,000 in penalties which were paid by carers to avoid facing prosecution.
So it comes as no surprise that Carers that considered appealing against overpayments are then threatened with even higher bills if they do so.
Not a surprise to anyone that’s had any dealings with the DWP
In over half the overpayment cases the failure of the DWP to act when warned by an HRMC system that these carers were over the earnings limit. Basically the DWP made the choice to ignore the warning and let the overpayments increase to enable them to benefit financially.
However promises made by the DWP to MPs to rectify this five years ago were as usual an empty promise. They failed to do nothing except continue to enable carers to become in debt and threatened with fines if they appeal their cases.
There’s no limit to the level of underhanded tactics and deceit that the DWP will lower themselves to whilst trying to benefit financially from the suffering of others.
Carers should be respected and instead of fining them they should be given larger payments for the hard work that they do and not be targeted by the DWP especially given the fact that they save the government thousands of pounds, possibly millions each year.
We need to support or advocate for carers’ rights and raise awareness of the need for this.
According to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shoplifting offences in England and Wales in 2023 have risen to the highest level since records began in 2003.
According to the data there has been more than 430,000 recorded cases last year which had increased by 37% in the year ending 2023 when compared to 2022. This makes it the highest levels recorded since records started being kept in 2003.
James Cleverly responded by saying that although the police record it as a ‘sub threshold crime’ and it has a so called ‘corrosive effect’ on peoples confidence in the police. Its not surprising that he appeared to have zero sympathy for those effectively forced to shoplift due to various circumstances.
Julian Heyes, criminal defence lawyer and partner at Berris Law LLP went on to say ” The release of the recent shoplifting figures simply demonstrate that the years of austerity and cuts in policing have meant that the investigation of these so called minor offences have long since been neglected and ignored”
“The police cannot be blamed for this as they, much like the rest of the criminal justice system are on their knees. The cost to the high street is immeasurable and causing shops and businesses to close or restrict access to customers, not to mention the horrendous risks that members of staff have to take when challenging shoplifters”
The truth is that shop lifting is rising for various reasons including and not excluding others: The increasing cost of living, high energy bills, low wages, less than adequate social security payments, increases in mortgage repayments, social security payments being too low and badly paid employment.
Whilst many people with addictions shoplift to fund their habits there’s very little support given to them to conquer their addictions thus the circle of offending continues.
Let’s be clear, very few people actually want to shoplift its a situation they find themselves in through desperation and is usually the last option that they can take after exhausting other avenues, they’re desperate and see this as a last resort.
We all appreciate and acknowledge that there are foodbanks that help people but not everyone can access them or can wait until the next time they’re open. People are driven by hunger and distress and we live in desperate times which is entirely the governments creation.
The UK has a government hell bent on lining their own pockets and their business and personal friends with money that has been taken from the public purse. There’s been a sharp decline in the physical and mental wellbeing of the working class and mortality levels are rising. The constant stripping of funding to local councils has also paid a huge part in this and town centres aren’t being cared for like they should be because theres no longer the financial means to do so. This has a direct impact upon the high street.
The solution to this is quite simple and to be honest basic economics. For a society to succeed and thrive there has to be financial investment into the public, the more money they have to spend undoubtably benefits their general health it also helps to transform the areas that they live.
It’s easy to blame a shoplifter for shoplifting, and I don’t condone violence towards retail staff. The blame lies totally at the governments feet. Society as we knew it has been broken by the current government, the amount of desperate and hungry people are at their highest in modern times, desperate people are forced to take measures that they would previously have never dreamt of doing.
Hurl your anger at the government and not Joe Public.
Every now and then I get so angry when the government reveals new plans for disabled people I have to delay writing this blog. Today is one of those days.
I’ve been writing this blog for over 10 years now and since then it’s been an endless onslaught of changes to the social security system that willfully marganalises and causes an immense amount of suffering to those already struggling and in need.
No one chooses to be disabled and neither does anyone choose to become ill, it’s an awful situation to be in however the government clearly believes that they do.
The difference between the haves and have nots is becoming much bigger as each day progresses. For example if a Tory government minister or indeed a prime minister becomes ill they can afford to pay privately for the best care to recover or manage their situation. An everyday regular person cannot afford to do so.
Some people never fully recover from an illness because they can’t afford to access the care that they need and they manage the best that they can.
Imagine being such a vile, awful person that constantly attacks those in need whilst smiling at the same time… Well Rishi Sunak did just that in an interview on Radio 5 this morning April 19th 2024.
Sunaks clearly is not happy with doctors and consultants rightfully declaring that people are unfit to work. They do this having extremely good medical knowledge. They want the best for their patients.
Sunak plans to stop this and has declared that if his ideas come into fruition GPs will no longer be in charge of issuing sick notes. So basically a person with zero medical training will do so, most likely a DWP sadist that has no qualms doing this.
In the interview Sunak declared that claim Britain has a ‘sick note culture’ and people are being ‘unnecessarily’ written off work.
Sunak announced that there would be a review of the fit note system to reduce the number of people being declared not fit for work and that doctors shouldn’t be ‘over medicalising everyday challenges and worries of life’.
Reading this you’d have thought that he has had some medical training to come to this decision but he hasn’t. He probably sat in a meeting with colleagues discussing how they can continue to hurl more punishment to already marginalized people afterall they regard disabled and ill people as ‘useless eaters’
He most likely sees this as a vote winner and back in the day it probably would have been, but people have clearly had enough of this now. There’s only so many times you can kick a person whilst they’re down without some retaliation.
And people will definitely rebel against these evil plans. I can bet there’s more in disgust at these plans than think they’re a good idea.
The ‘scrounger against scrounger’ way to manipulate the public isn’t working as well as it was before. Many of those that had this view now find themselves at the recieving end of it now
A Lot more people can see right through it and thank god they can.
What Sunak needs to do is to acknowledge that nobody chooses to be disabled and ill, it can literally happen to anyone at any time. He won’t and he never will.
His kind hates working class people especially those that are disabled.
One thing that I do know is that if you think these plans are dreadful they’ll become a whole lot worse if they win the next general election. Let’s vote them out.
And so the DWP cruelty continues and we shouldn’t be surprised.
Unpaid carers have been told by the DWP (Department Of Work And Pensions) to repay thousands of pounds of benefits after unknowingly earning too much money years ago.
Not only is this cruel it was entirely preventable if the DWP had done their jobs correctly. But forcing unpaid to pay back thousands is unbelievable especially when they save the government millions every year.
The DWP system shows when carers have gone over the earnings limit but they failed to inform claimants instead allowing their claims to continue for months or even years before recovering the full amount owed.
This has also been highlighted in a series of articles by Patrick Butler in The Guardian which shows exposing the cruelty in how they treat unpaid carers
Along with this the folks over at Benefits And Work have raised the reasons why the DWP should never get the police powers they desperately want.
This also proves why the DWP should never be given police powers.
This has resulted in the DWP given free reign to threaten carers with jail terms. They have also used laws that were designed to strip drug dealers of their property to take money from carers.
The DEP have unlawfully ignored judges legal directions in order to increase the amount they can take back from carers.
The DWP have been shown to misleed MPs for years by promising that new technology meant large overpayments would no longer happen.
Alongside this they are refusing to publish a report on the effects of overpayment recovery on carers which was completed years ago.
Take for example the heart breaking case of Vivienne Groom who cared for her elderly mother who had dementia and suffered from a stroke is a disturbing example of how the DWP treat carers.
Vivienne was given incorrect advice from a social worker that she didn’t need to declare her part-time minimum wage at the Co-Op job to the DWP whilst still receiving carers allowance.
When her hours increased she did inform the DWP, who said they would get back to her.
Unsurprisingly they never did reply to her.
Years later she was threatened with prosecution and began repaying the overpayment at £30 a month.
This is a large amount of money for her to replay each month but she did so.
Her mother sadly died and left her a £16,000 inheritance. The DWP went on to prosecute Vivienne using the Proceeds of Crime Act.
This was created to take expensive cars and large houses from drug dealers, not people who have cared for loved ones
They also threatened her with up to seven years in prison in order to steal her inheritance.
Vivienne decided to take legal action and was refused legal aid because she had £16,000 in capital even though she couldn’t access it because the DWP had her account frozen the day the money went into her bank account.
The case ended with the DWP legal team ignoring judges directions on three separate occasions to make calculations that may have reduced the amount Vivienne owed and, instead, getting the whole of her inheritance.
It’s extremely disturbing that the possibility that a vengeful organisation as is the DWP could be given the power to search claimants homes, seize their possessions and prosecute them or impose fines upon them must be challenged whenever it is raised.
As proven time after time the DWP will ignore a judges ruling and will appeal any decisions made in a court of law.
It’s wrong, beyond cruel . The government should be thanking unpaid carers for the work that they do because ultimately they save the government millions of pounds each year.
It’s our job to challenge this whenever possible and share articles to raise awareness because believe it or not there are people that aren’t aware that this does and will continue to happen.
A huge thank you to Patrick Butler for his hard work in producing these interviews
It’s no surprise that the DWP (Department Of Work And Pensions) is continuing to punish universal credit (UC) claimants with their harsh sanction regime afterall it’s their favorite and easiest method of punishment that they use.
The latest official figures show that sanctions rate had remained to above 7% from August through to November of 2023 which are the most recent months of which figures are available.
However in in March 2020, just before the pandemic began, UC sanctions rates were at just 2.5% having fallen steadily since January 2017.
The DWP have unsurprisingly given no explanation for this almost threefold increase in sanctions.
I mean how on earth could this happen?
Sanctions are imposed for various reasons but the most common are for failing to attend or take part in mandatory interviews, indeed 95% are given for this reason.
What we do know from past experience is that sanctions are given for wrongful reasons.
These reasons vary but are often and not excluding others claimant not receiving notification of having to attend a meeting, being ill and notifying the DWP that they were not able to attend or already working at the time given and their employer won’t allow them to leave for their DWP appointment.
We know that sanctions can and should be appealed however many aren’t aware that they can do so and have the energy to fight it.
Sanctions are particularly cruel because not only does the claimant get sanctioned it also affects any dependants that live with them.
Combine this with the cruel benefit caps and this with the three child limit which directly impacts a child’s health and well being.
Are incentives being given for Job Coaches to refer people for sanctions?
I can’t say for sure but we do know that they’ve been using these methods for years now and it’d be very out of character to stop doing this.
I do know that sanctioning people like this is cruel, inhumane and needs to be stopped now before more people fall victim to the DWPs cruel regime of punishment and blame.
Jobcentres have given claimants referrals food banks for many years and on the whole it’s worked quite well. It’s helped possibly millions of people throughout the years.
This referral comes in the form of a referral slip which contains some personal details about the claimants for example if they have children and any other essential details.
Some food banks will only accept people if they’ve been referred by outside organisations such as the DWP, social services and so on.
For no apparent reason the DWP aren’t happy with handing out food bank referrals stating that it’s and have decided that it’s now an “inappropriate use of personal claimant data” and referrals need to be stopped.
Thousands of claimants rely upon these referrals and often request them when they’ve had their benefits sanctioned or are waiting weeks for their first benefit payment, they’ve literally kept people alive as they are unable to buy food.
The DWP have decided that claimants now have to approach another agency, such as their doctor, housing association, social worker to obtain a food bank referral.
This then automatically puts another barrier to receiving much needed food from a food bank.
I dont for one minute believe the DWP’s data protection argument is valid, after all they don’t have a problem with sharing claimants details to other organisations and agencies that work alongside them. Nor do they respect a claimants privacy when they’re looking up a claimants details and activities on social media etc.
That’s apparently ok.
Contrary to the DWPS depiction of claimants they are intelligent enough to read the contents of the slip and realise that they will be handing over their personal details. to food banks, it’s ridiculous to think otherwise.
However the real reason that the DWP don’t want food banks to be able to publish their statistics showing that massive amounts of claimants are being forced to access food banks
This is as a direct result of the benefits system completely failing claimants and pushing them further into poverty.
Unbelievable aren’t they willing to put a claimants basic human rights at risk in order to save themselves and hide essential details.
Their benefits systems were created to make people suffer afterall how dare they ask for help.
At last the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) has revealed the details of their appalling new system that assess claimants that are in the severe disability group.
As we know every person’s circumstances are different depending upon their diagnosis and entry to this group may be based on and is not exclusively
Having medically precise definitions that are not connected with the benefits system :
Having information that only a claimant or carer will know however a specialist will still have to provide details:
Having availability of specialist services and access to said services where the claimant lives
And unbelievably no clear criteria given at all.
There is also great concern that their distinct lack of clarity on the overlap between the Severe Disability Group and the light-touch review system for PIP will cause claimants to be wrongly assessed and treated.
We can only imagine how disastrous this will be for severely disabled people which gives me great concern for their well-being.
God help us they certainly have no regard for the lives and well-being of extremely vulnerable people.
Many claimants and disability charities are sharing their concerns that the creation of their planned separate group of severely disabled claimants will be directed purely at reducing future payments for those that they allege are not as severely disabled.
And there lies the real reason for the creation of this new group. It’s all about the money and how to take away as much as they can take away from vulnerable people to line their own greedy pockets.
How can you tell if the DWP lying? When they deny something but then also allow it at the same time….Here we have an example of their hypocrisy and they never fail to disappoint do they.
The team over at Benefits and Work submitted a freedom of information request asking the DWP if they are paying bonuses for detecting benefit fraud and if staff have to reach targets for criminal prosecutions. Rather predictably they denied both in a statement given in response to the FOI;
“The DWP does not operate any bonus or incentive schemes aimed specifically at staff who are involved in detecting and investigating benefit fraud and overpayment cases. There are also no targets for Investigators to achieve a prescribed number of criminal outcomes.”
Adding:
“I can confirm that DWP operates an in-year reward and recognition scheme for all DWP teams and Individuals to be recognised for displaying exemplary behaviours or making a significant contribution to team performance. This applies to all colleagues across DWP.”
Their response does appear to rule out that there is a formal bonus system for detecting fraud or recovering money. But it does not rule out the possibility that teams or individuals can receive rewards for recovering large amounts of money for the DWP or prosecuting large numbers of claimants.
We await further details of this.
However we are wise to their lying ways, knowing that if they can get away with doing something by simply changing the wording they will.
It is not acceptable in any way shape or form to issue bonuses or rewards for targets such as these. They create a system when a bonus or reward becomes more important than the wellbeing of already vulnerable claimants. They lead to false accusations, sanctions based upon lies knowing at the same time that many are unable to challenge their decision because they’re not strong enough to do so.
As we know the DWP are pushing a bill which will give them access to approximately nine million claimants bank accounts through parliament.
They are already pushing for additional powers of arrest, search and seizure additional to having access to bank accounts and it’s a scary thought.
If they are successful with their aims the DWP will therefore have its own anti-fraud police force. With this they could also be able to impose huge fines without going to court.
This is extremely worrying considering if they are successful they won’t have any real accountability by anyone but themselves and we know what that means.
By default the accountability given to their actions will be very low if any at all. Yes they make claimants follow their rules when they often don’t follow them themselves.
Whilst this legislation hasn’t been given to the DWP yet it’s vital to be aware that this could happen and to prepare for it if it happens.
Keeping good records of everything that you do and have done. Double check everything and keep everything safe.
Please note this hasn’t happened yet so don’t worry and I will be sharing more about this and what you can do as and when more information comes out.such immense powers does appear,
Please don’t panic this hasn’t happened yet and it might not go through parliament yet and I’ll keep you updated.
New claimants with mobilising issues will be the largest group hit by the proposed changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) planned for 2025, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted.
Those that have severe mental health conditions will also be hit hard.
The OBR has estimated that by 2028-29 there will be;
Approximately 371,000 additional claimants placed in limited capability for work (LCW) group and not the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) group. This is happening because of changes being made to the mobilising descriptors.
Approximately 230,000 additional claimants will be placed in LCW group rather the LCWRA group because of the upcoming changes to the substantial risk regulations.
Approximately 29,000 claimants will be placed in the intensive work search group rather than the LCW group because of the future changes that are being made to the ‘getting about’ points score.
It was confirmed as evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee in parliament last month that the DWP is still intending to introduce the changes to the WCA in 2025 and that they will only affect new claims.
It is also estimated that by 2029, over 600,000 people will miss out on the additional payments that they would have if they were still in the LCWRA group.
As a result of these changes it has been reported that almost a quarter of a million claimants many of the those with mental health conditions, will knowingly have their health and wellbeing put at risk.
It has also been estimated that only one or two percent of these claimants will actually be able to find work because most of these claimants either aren’t well enough. Also many workplaces cannot make the required alterations to their workplace to make it disabled friendly.
These changes have been implemented to save them money, to give more tax cuts to those that are already getting a good deal.
To take away a person’s vital payments and to make them look for work that they won’t be able to do is unbelievably cruel.
How many of these already extremely vulnerable people will be sanctioned or forced to do tasks that they aren’t capable of.
It’s unacceptable to treat people like this and all of us should be angry about this I know that I am.
There’s no price that can be put on a person’s life but this cruel and calculated government will continue to throw as much hatred as they can before the next general election.
They don’t care and no one should expect them to either.
The poor side of life 