Tag: atos

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Shoplifting Offences In England and Wales At Highest Level In 20 years

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.

Photo by Marlene Leppu00e4nen on Pexels.com
Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, high street retail, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland budget 2024, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, loose women, love island, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, republic Ireland Budget, Republic Ireland budget 2023, republic Ireland Budget 2024, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, wilkos, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

DWP DENIES BONUSES TO FRAUD STAFF WHILST STILL ALLOWING REWARDS OR BONUSES FOR DETECTING FRAUD

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.

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Happy New Year.HMRC To Investigate Accounts Of People Selling On Vinted And Ebay

I approached the new year with great trepidation thinking about what horrors the government could inflict on us. I didn’t have to wait long.

It has been officially announced that HMRC are going to look into the accounts of people that sell their old clothing and belongings on Vinted and EBay.

HMRC are also going to investigate Air B&B hosts and people that work for Uber, Deliveroo and suchlike.

The majority of people that sell on platforms such as Vinted and EBay are just ordinary folk struggling to pay bills etc and are doing this as a last resort.

Whilst I accept that there are some that make a fair bit of money doing this and they should pay tax on what they earn the majority don’t.

For example they might be selling things to pay for a funeral of a loved one, to buy the basics such as food and energy and just to get by.

As the cost of living crisis continues to worsen the amount of people forced to sell their much loved things and aren’t doing this with joy.

Let’s look at it another way, it’s easier for the government to financially attack poorer people because it’s easier for them to squeeze money from them. They like to kick a working class person whilst they are down and not give them any help I mean how dare they.

This will undoubtedly scare people from selling their unwanted clothing etc on these sites not because they want to avoid paying tax but because of the massive invasion of privacy granted to HMRC.

I’m not a paranoid person, far from it but I’m extremely worried about the amount of powers given to HMRC and the DWP. At the touch of a button they can learn everything about us and this does make me very concerned.

At the same time they don’t investigate their tax evading millionaire and billionaire friends though, they don’t intend to either.

This comes at a great cost to the country as a whole and our economy isn’t going to improve until this is tackled.

Money makes money something they still fail to recognize.

So why are they doing this?

It’s classic Tory handbook stuff, distracting the public from their wrongs by attacking the poorest in society. They do it time and time again it’s what they do best.

We need to stop this rot from the top and the constant attacking of working class people. Investigations of the governments involvement with their tax avoiding multi million pound business pals.

Can you imagine how much better off the UK would be if they actually paid their taxes.

One thing for sure, Tory corruption won’t stop any time soon but we need to take away their governmental power and start rebuilding the mess that they’re going to leave behind.

I truly hope that this year treats you better than the previous one, you deserve better, we all do

Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Green Party, high street retail, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland budget 2024, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, republic Ireland Budget, Republic Ireland budget 2023, republic Ireland Budget 2024, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, wilkos, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

Sanctioned At Christmas

It seems from years of experience in such matters that the DWP like nothing more than handing out sanctions during the festive period.

If that isn’t bad enough their reasoning for sanctioning people is mostly totally unreasonable, giving claimants targets that they can’t reach.

In my eyes sanctioning a person is the cruelest thing to do to a claimant. No regard is given as to the health and wellbeing of them either, once the decision is made by their DWP work coach and sent off for approval it’s down to the claimant to appeal the sanction.

Appealing a decision to sanction isn’t easy, it’s difficult and directly impacts their mental and physical health and a direct correlation between the two can be found. Please see my previous blog posts.

Here are some examples of the reasons why claimants have been sanctioned. It’s gaslighting at its worst but hey the DWP has targets to reach.

I’ve helped many people with sanction decisions. You might think that these are made up but they aren’t they’re the real deal.

Sanctioned because claimants father had just died.

Sanctioned because a claimants father had just passed away half an hour before the signing on appointment.

They phoned their advisor up and were told that they had to attend their appointment. The claimant was waiting for the doctor to certify the death.

Sanctioned because their baby died.

A claimant sanctioned because they couldn’t attend their appointment due to their baby dying. They asked their work coach if they could rearrange their appointment but was refused. Instead they were told to bring the death certificate in to prove it.

Sanctioned because a work coach made a mistake.

Sanctioned because a work coach made a mistake in their records for an upcoming appointment. Luckily the claimant had kept the proof on their appointment which was given on an appointment card showing the time and date that they were given to attend

The case of the missing letters

Here’s a very common reason for sanctioning people.

Sanctioned for not attending an appointment that they had supposedly been sent a letter for.

The letter was never sent.

The onus is on them to prove that the claimant recieved it. They couldn’t because they didn’t.
Watch out for this one folks

Sanctioned for attending a job interview.

Sanctioned for attending a a job interview at the same time as a signing on appointment.

They requested that their appointment be changed so they could attend their interview but their advisor refused.

Important to know that they’d also sanctioned for not attending their interview.

It’s a catch22 a no win situation except for the DWP

Any reputable organisation would not threaten to sanction or indeed sanction people for the above reasons. They’d actually care about the people that they help.

The DWP do neither, they don’t even care for their staff and it’s scandalous that they’re allowed to get away with this.

As I’ve previously posted sanctioned rates are rapidly increasing.

It’s important to remember that sanction decisions can be appealed and you must do this.

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Like you I’m struggling to manage everything, I was hoping to be able to turn my heating on for a few hours on Christmas day for my daughter but that’s impossible now. Nor will I be able to provide a decent Christmas dinner.

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Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Green Party, high street retail, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland budget 2024, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, republic Ireland Budget, Republic Ireland budget 2023, republic Ireland Budget 2024, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, wilkos, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

DWP Work Coach Shortage Unable To Cope With Increasing Unemployment. Safestyle Goes Into Administration.



The PCS union that represents DWP workers have recently warned that there’s a “staffing chaos” at the DWP, with work coach roles being particularly affected. Meanwhile the government apparently seeks to hire thousands of new staff despite having just made hundreds of workers redundant.

As a result of this unmitigated staffing chaos, additional “support measures” are supposedly being put in place in Jobcentres to manage the workload of work coaches.


The support measures include reducing the frequency of work coach contact with some claimants from fortnightly to monthly and shortening some meetings from 50 minutes to 30 minutes.

This will be welcomed by claimants that might have to travel quite a distance to their nearest Jobcentre.

However here’s the kickback which effectively wipes out any supposed help offered. The Chancellor has announced an end to civil service expansion, with an immediate cap on the civil service headcount, with a view to reducing it to pre-pandemic levels.

Go figure, it’s a disaster something that the government is very familiar with. They’ve proven time and time again that they’re incapable of managing anything with efficiently.

With the DWP failing to manage its current workload with no let up in the foreseeable future, the very idea that tens of thousands of additional claimants can be removed from the LCWRA group and given effective support to help them into work is rubbish, a bare faced lie that they will be reminded of in the future.

Basically it’s very clear to see  that the sole purpose of making the WCA much harsher is to save money and not to help claimants.

Think about it, they don’t care about claimants especially disabled ones that are already in an extremely vulnerable position.

Let’s take for example, approximately 680 staff have recently been made redundant by the window and door manufacturer and seller Safestyle.

The business has gone into administration with no warning to its employees and the GMB union  expects up to 600 job losses.


However on Monday, administrators Interpath Advisory said the number of redundancies was about 680.

Sadly only 70 of the roughly 750 staff have been retained.


Appallingly saff were unexpectedly texted to “down tools” on Friday evening and received news of the appointment of administrators on Monday in the car park of the company’s headquarters in Bradford, GMB said.

They’ve been made redundant with immediate effect and told they won’t get another penny from the company.”

GMB organiser Bob McNeill added: “Bosses didn’t even have the decency to let them into the building out of the pouring rain”

This will result in at least another 680 people being made unemployed due to no fault of their own. As pointed out above they aren’t going to receive any more payment from the company.

This is another 680 people that will put increased pressure on an already failing system that can’t cope with the demand.

It’s clear to see that despite the government’s denial, the UK is going through a recession which combined with the cost of living and energy cost crisis is very concerning for everyone that owns a business, big or small.

Every day more companies and small local businesses are forced to shut their doors which will also put even more pressure on the DWP system.

It’s a disaster, heartbreaking for everyone affected but the government is doing what they do best, causing chaos and even more suffering for the poorest and most vulnerable.

They need to go as soon as possible. I fear that they aim to cause as much chaos and confusion as they can before being forced to leave number 10.

The damage they’ve done to this country is irreparable, it’s hard to come back from this if not impossible.

https://gofund.me/abea8764

Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Green Party, high street retail, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, Manchester, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, Republic Ireland budget 2023, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, wilkos, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

Proposed Stricter Work Capability Plans Set To Cause Distress And Harm To Disabled People

Rather unsurprisingly the government has recently announced their proposed plans to reform work capability assessments. Using the guise of their new so called “mission to “support people into work”.

Why will these changes cause distress and harm?

Putting even more pressure upon already vulnerable disabled people causes an anxiety like no other. Imagine having the fear that you could be sanctioned for being physically or mentally unable to comply to job search requirements constantly hanging over you.

It’s already hard enough trying to cope with day to day life when disabled and putting more pressure upon them will, I fear push many into illness or worse.

Disability charities and campaigners have been calling for reforms to work capability assessments for a long time now. These assessments cause huge distress for disabled people as a whole and those with mental health conditions.

The DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) announced earlier this year that they planned to scrap said health assessments by 2028. Instead they’ve pushed forward these changes with gusto.

According to prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “Work transforms lives – providing not just greater financial security, but also providing purpose that has the power to benefit individuals, their families and their communities.

He went on to say “That’s why we’re doing everything we can to help more people thrive in work – by reflecting the complexity of people’s health needs, helping them take advantage of modern working environments, and connecting them to the best support available.

He also forgot to mention the truth that work does not transform lives for disabled people, it’s not a cure for disabilities and these plans will make life as a whole worse because of the added pressure that will be put upon them to comply.

Despite what Sunak claims minimum wage and zero hour employment do not give people financial security. They barely earn enough money for able bodied people to live on let alone disabled people who need more financial support to survive from day to day.

Sunak talks about ‘modern work environments’ whatever they may be as if they’re the answer to everything but in reality it’s very different.

I doubt he knows what these ‘modern work environments’ are after all he’s never had a real minimum wage job himself. He hasn’t got a clue.

I suspect that once in operation the DWP will ram up the pressure for job search requirements for disabled people to a level unseen before.

What support will the government supply for disabled people?

From experience not much if any at all. The government and DWP like to spin proposals like these round using fancy words and language which is meaningless and nothing but word salad.

To be honest I don’t know anyone that has a minimum wage or zero hour contract that can positively say that their work has provided them more financial security.

Thousands of people that are forced to claim Universal Credit (UC) are dependent upon food banks and the kindness of family and friends to survive.

The UK now has more children living in poverty than we have seen in modern times. We also have more disabled people having to go without meals or care that they desperately need.

NHS hospitals and services are being run to the ground, we have schools at risk of collapsing because the government failed to fix the concrete problem years ago and they expect us to believe that they care about disabled people.

Truth is as I’ve said many times before they don’t care. All the government cares about is saving money and not spending any on disabled people.

The government also likes to throw around ‘benefit fraud’ especially when related to disabled people. It’s extremely hard to qualify for disability benefits in the first place and even more so trying to ‘fool’ the system.

They need to concentrate on their tax dodging pals instead.

Not all disabilities are visible and everyone with a disability should be treated with kindness and support both emotionally and financially.

I know that this will never happen but I can dream can’t I.

Anela Anwar, chief executive of the anti-poverty charity Z2K told the Big Issue “Disabled people are already disproportionately likely to be in poverty, and these proposals will only make this worse. The Health and Disability White Paper recognised that the work capability assessment is not fit for purpose – yet DWP is now consulting on plans to make it even stricter.

“This will inevitably lead to seriously ill and disabled people losing vital income, and being forced to look for work they can’t do or be sanctioned. Government must think again and provide financial stability and support to seriously ill and disabled people on low incomes, not yet more cuts and threats.”

The consultation’s proposals include reflecting “improved employer support in recent years for flexible and home working” – meaning a person with a disability is more likely to be approved as ‘fit to work’ during a work capability assessment.

These proposed changes are due to come into force in 2025. Soon after the government will proceed with their plans to scrap the work capability assessments. People will instead be assessed for a new health element of universal credit during personal independence payment (PIP) assessments.

Thanks to the Big Issue and DPAC and DNS for previously reporting upon this.

If you don’t follow them I highly recommend it.

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Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Damien Green, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, Republic Ireland budget 2023, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

PIP Telephone Chaos Set To Continue Until End Of Summer

It appears that a lot of people have been contacting their MPs to raise their concerns about not being able to get their calls to the PIP enquiry line.

As a result of taking action like this an increasing number of questions from MPs to ministers about problems with the line.

Bravo everyone!

One of the questions recently asked was from Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, this then resulted in Tom Pursglove, minister for disabled people who actually actually admit that the waiting times for PIP and ESA enquiry lines have been too long.

Who’d have thought this… We’ve known this for a long time but ministers and MPs had previously been ignored.

This in my opinion is a result of the action that you’ve taken, well done everyone.



However Pursglove claimed that ESA call waiting times have begun to improve. He went on to say that the delays and chaos is set to continue until the end of the summer.

Keep in mind that the proposed 600 new staff to be employed by the DWP could well have no medical training at all which if not will cause distress and harm.

If this is the case we will have to continue to campaign for fair treatment and understanding for all disabled and ill people.

The blatant discrimination which is constantly metered towards disabled and ill people is in my eyes horrific. No one should be treated like this let alone vulnerable disabled people.

It’s vitally important to continue to contact your local MPs it can make a huge difference.

It’s vitally important that we continue campaigning against this though, it raises awareness and can in some cases result in change.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Huge thanks go to the team over at Benefits and Work for their hard work for original reporting of this.

Thanks goes to everyone that reads and shares my articles it raises much needed awareness.

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Ashton Under lyne, baby, benefit repayments,, benefit sanctions, Black Isle Media, Boris Johnson, Brighthouse, child poverty, confidence, conservative government, Cookery, coronavirus, cost of living, covid 19, Decision maker, dignity pre paid funerals,, disability, DLA, domestic violence, domestic violence,, DPAC, DWP blog,, dwp debt, Elderly, energy poverty,, ESA, eugenics, Family, feminism, Food, Food bank, food poverty, Free, frugal, fuel poverty, funeral plans,, G4S, government, Green Party, Homeless Manchester, Homeless women, homelessness, homelessness,, Housing, hunger, Hygiene Poverty,, International Women's Day, Ireland,, Jeremy Corbyn, Jobcentre, Ken Loach, liz truss, loose women, Manchester, Mandatory reconsideration, Money saving tips, New Charter Housing, NHS, NHS dentist, Northern resisters, Payday loan, PIP, PIP claim, poverty, pre paid funeral plans,, pre paid funerals,, prepaid energy, prepaid energy metres, prime minister, public transport, Republic Ireland budget 2023, Republic of Ireland,, rishi sunak,, safe hands,, sanctions, Steven Crabb, suicide, targets, Tax credits, television, Television Licence, Television Licence fines, Teresa May, The Big Issue, The Labour Party, The Poor Side Of Life, Theresa May, trade union movement, Uncategorized, Universal credit, womens rights, Workfare, Workprogramme, young people

Telegraph Leads Hate Campaign Against Disabled People

Rather unsurprisingly a new media hate campaign against disabled people has begun and it’s one of the worst that I’ve seen for a while.

It comes as no coincidence that this started alongside government plans  to abolish the WCA (Work Capability Assessment).

These plans will allow unqualified jobcentre work coaches to decide whether claimants are capable of work.

The government’s answer to this sadly is text book for them, demonizing vulnerable disabled people portraying them as the enemy and the usual scrounger rhetoric.

The Telegraph however was the first to start this campaign of hatred stating in an article

“Millions are claiming benefits without ever having to look for work, helping to push the tax burden to hit its highest point since the Second World War . . . It raises the question, just how much of our hard-won salaries are spent on the benefits of those who do not work? With the calculator below, Telegraph Money can now reveal how much of your salary goes towards bankrolling the welfare state.”

However this hasn’t gone unnoticed though with many commentators on Twitter comparing the language of this campaign with a  poster issued in 1938 supporting Nazi eugenics.

This read  “This person who suffers a hereditary disease has a lifelong cost of 60.000 Reichsmarks to the National Community. Comrade, that is your money too.”

Next to join the hate campaign was The Spectator magazine writing  “When will the Tories face up to Britain’s benefits scandal?” They were quick to spout their venom against disabled people claiming that whilst UC (Universal Credit) is an improvement “the problem now is people, often citing mental health issues, claiming sickness and disability benefit.”

It went on to say:  “The UK system seems to have been thrown into crisis by such claims and has no idea how to properly process a mental health claim. So we end up with 5,000 claims a day – a day! – for sickness benefit . . . The waste of lives is one thing, but then there’s the waste of money.”

This strongly implies that all disabled people with depression are making it up and they should be working.


Last to the hate campaign was Jeremy Vine asking in a tweet viewed by thousands asking;

“Is it time to crack down on jobless benefits?

“Nearly four million people in the UK are being supported by the state without ever having to look for a job.

“That’s because they’ve been deemed too sick to work.

“Is it wrong for taxpayers to fund them indefinitely?”

However Vines team wasn’t prepared for the outrage that it caused on Twitter which resulted in them deleting their tweet but their scheduled programme still going ahead.

None of this is a coincidence it’s the typical Tory tactic to demonize vulnerable people before they commence with their plans, this time being to abolish the WCA.

They know that this won’t be popular and they will be of considerable resistance to their nefarious plans.

They counteract this by feeding lies to the public which will continue the scrounger rhetoric which we have seen many times previously.

Disabled people already face enough judgement from the public. People with mental health issues should never be judged in this manner.

Pitching disabled people as being scroungers is not only awful it’s also dangerous. Making a claim for a disability is far from easy, it causes great distress and judgement from others.

No one should be judged for their disability, people can’t just ‘get over it’ and being forced to find work will be extremely distressing to say the least

Let’s make it clear, no one chooses to be disabled like Vine and The Telegraph suggests and we need to campaign hard against the government’s proposed plans.

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DWP Cut off Nearly One Million Callers To Future Pension Centre Hotline

t wasn’t that long ago when I published a blog about the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) deliberately cutting off calls.

You can find it here https://thepoorsideof.life/2023/05/11/dwp-deliberately-disconnects-calls-to-pip-and-dla-helplines/

It appears that the DWP have extended their total disregard and lack of care to their Future Pension Center helpline.


DWP minister Laura Trott disclosed in a written answer to parliament that between the 27 January and 26 March 2023, 1,007,868 calls were made to the Future Pension Centre helpline.

Of these, 47,345 were answered.

18,006 calls were abandoned.

It also revealed that a massive 942,517 calls were cut-off by the DWP before the callers got through to an operative.

That means a shameful 94% of all calls were deliberately disconnected.

This once again proves that the DWP and the government are totally ‘incompetent’ and are totally failing those that are desperately in need.

Personally I think that it’s deliberate and not down to incompetence after all they save money because people give up trying to contact them. They like to save money especially off the backs of vulnerable people.

Their systems aren’t fit for purpose and this proves this to be the case.

Will the government invest in their call systems and make them fit for purpose?

Don’t hold your breath. It’s beneficial for them not to do so. Meanwhile vulnerable people will continue to get distressed whilst trying to contact the DWP and many will give up altogether.

This isn’t acceptable but don’t expect the government to care enough to do anything about it.

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Many thanks to Benefits And Work for their original reporting of this.

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DWP Deliberately Disconnects Calls To PIP And DLA Helplines


DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) minister Tom Pursglove admitted that claimants are waiting over half an hour on average for PIP and DLA helpline calls to be answered.

He also claimed that he is going to recruit extra staff to cope with the volume of calls on the helplines but gave absolutely no indication of how many are being employed and for how long they’ll be employed.

Nor has he confirmed if the extra staff he plans to employ are qualified to do so.



At the time of writing the average wait for a PIP enquiry to be answered is 37 minutes and for DLA enquiries it is 33.5 minutes.



However it is imperative that Tom Pursglove reveals the amount of callers that don’t get an answer at all because their calls are disconnected.



Earlier this year the DWP revealed that in March almost 90% of half a million callers to the Future Pensions Centre were faced with being call-blocked because they couldn’t cope with the rising call demand.

Implementing Call-blocking results in calls not being allowed to go on the call waiting queue because the queue is too long and they get cut off.

This is also happening to callers contacting the PIP helpline as reported to Benefits And Work by claimants trying to contact the said helpline.

We cannot ignore the fact that the claimants trying to contact these helplines are all vulnerable and are in great need of getting their enquiries answered.

The question also needs to be answered as to how many of these vulnerable people have given up trying to contact the departments. This could in some circumstances result in their payments being stopped leaving them more vulnerable than they already were. .

There’s no excuse for the DWP’s lax attitude towards the whole situation.

It’s clear that they don’t care about how this can impact upon the claimants lives and it is totally unacceptable.

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Thanks to Benefits And Work for disclosing this information.

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