This is a beautifully-written, moving and heartbreakingly bleak post. Please read it for a better understanding of the daily reality faced by increasing numbers of our most vulnerable citizens, including the disabled.
It must be so easy to despair, but I hope the lady who wrote this post – who could be my neighbour for all I know – will take some kind of strength from knowing the we’re not all fooled by the government’s despicable tactics and propaganda.
With every day, with every new thing I find out, it becomes ever clearer that if we want to salvage our humanity as a society, we *must* get rid of this pathetic excuse for a government – and show solidarity with its victims in any way we can.
And now we have to thank – not – Milliband for becoming a Tory. Where do we go from here?
We need to change opinion so that Labour don’t feel they have to compromise to win over enough people for an election win and can be a proper Labour party.
Surely, they need to have confidence. No sign of that, btw. Will NO one remind the electorate that in the last year of Brown’s administration the UK grew at some 2.8%? And that Osbornomics has led to no almost growth whatsoever since implemented in late 2010?
This is worth seeing, it is two hours long but straight from the Bankers mouths, Link: http://ineteconomics.org/future-central-banking-inet-hong-kong
Again, this only reinforces my belief that the coalition is hell bent on the survival of the fittest, by using eugenics to get rid of the elderly, disabled, young, homeless, and the poor! Mark my words!
Read this and despair: Unless we rise and take up our spiritual arms and create change and by the very nature of our concious mindfullness a real world of total equality and truthfullness.
“If I apply for JSA, I am then subject to a different kind of system. What is certain is that, as a prospective employee, I have little or nothing to recommend me to an employer: ex-offender (therefore ‘criminal’), aged 58 (“too old”), long-term unemployed (therefore less likely to get employment) at a time when jobs simply don’t exist and to cap it all, a woman living in the most deprived region of England.”
Many Jobseekers have been through the New Deal process several times without ever securing employment; some people just cannot secure work for a multitude of reasons such as, mental health, low educational ability, alcoholics, drug users, homelessness, criminal record etc.
When jobs are scarce these people cannot compete with other candidates who pose little financial risk or burden to employers i.e. absenteeism and training. The only way the most severely disadvantaged people can secure work in this increasingly modern technological world is, via friends and family or supported employment.
I am not sure what the so called Jobcentre Plus ‘hit squads’ are going to achieve. You can sanction people repeatedly, but that is not going to help them to find work; it will just make the person less employable and motivated. The best Adviser in the world is highly unlikely to find these people employment and the process of trying will be very expensive. However, there is never going to be sufficient funding to help people with the greatest need.
The Tory ‘boot camps’ were very successful and the participants were pleased with the support they received, but they ended because they were too expensive. Another argument might be, is it too costly for the tax payer not to provide this level of support. The cost of maintaining one prisoner amounts to circa £1k per week and there is the added cost of the ongoing collateral damage to the community and as well as the victims.
I was talking with a nurse yesterday who left the profession for a year due to the culture changes within the NHS – she could not cope and claimed ESA. She found the process very humbling and learned to survive on £71 per week, but would not choose to live her life on benefits indefinitely. She asked me how people could afford holidays, run cars and pay for Sky, broadband etc. on welfare benefits. I advised once any savings were depleted some people are fortunate and obtain regular support from family and friends who pay for holidays, broadband, Sky TV etc. The rest have to turn to some form of criminal activity to pay for these luxuries. Some people who have had their benefits stopped or reduced below the bare existence level an turn to crime too just to survive – this has been proven.
People who feel they have no hope and are treated unfairly or like lepers can sometimes take desperate measures! The sooner we all make the administration wake up to the facts the better.
Interesting! DWP claim a positive outcome for a Jobseeker signing off to claiming another Welfare benefit!
What saving is that to the tax payer? I suspect many people who are frightened of the current regime or have been caught in it, have decided to take this route!
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/monitoring_health_of_jobseekers#incoming-396693
Please also read the cry for help linked from here:
http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/benefit/6148-a-desperate-cry-for-help#17087
Nothing left to do but die
http://enoughisenoughdwp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/nothing-left-to-do-but-die.html
As well as this person’s tweets here:
https://twitter.com/DWPBlood/status/343008190050484226
From: @DWPBlood
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This person is in London – perhaps any Londoner reading this could offer some help? Thanks.
It is a beautifully written piece – in some ways uplifting it’s so good, despite the desperate content. All is surely not lost if such insight can be articulated.
Lack of real political choice is a huge problem – it used to be the case that governments across a genuine political spectrum corrected each other’s worst errors and because they knew that would happen, were inhibited from divergence from the real consensus issues like the welfare state, the NHS and good state education.
Mr Milliband has a unique chance to break away from the ranks of the toffs in suits that run the whole show and align himself with ordinary people – he might even find they are a healthy majority! What is needed from him is bravery. Is it really expecting too much to want a government that is competent, sensible and humane?
As far as the precariat is concerned I hope they can find the strength to give out the most powerful message the disadvantaged can give: that they’re not going away.
Some days, I’m really glad I started this blog. This kind of discourse makes all the extraneous crap worth bearing.
I am delighted you started this blog. I am sure there are many who feel the same.
An interesting read, written by a barrister:
http://z2k.org/author/alanm/
There is an army of people beavering away right across the country trying to help the most disadvantaged. I wonder how more powerful a collective voice would be?
That is interesting! Thank you very much for your support – and I’m encouraged to see more and more co-operation and cross-fertilisation among the ‘beavers’. I don’t have any expertise in how to create a collective but I’d certainly like to find out!
I have been part of a successful class action legal group, but I I have never created a Collective group before. I found this on the net:
http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/channeling_change_making_collective_impact_work
I know certain voluntary groups do provide evidence to government via Select committees regarding the impact of government policy and legislation. However, I feel that a Collective group would have more power and influence to achieve change.
I am just putting my toe in the water at present and have never been politically active. My current motivation is borne from the fact I left a job I loved due to the way staff and customers were being treated and your revelations have opened my eyes even further to what actually happens in the real dirty world of politics.
I am not sure at this time if this has always been the case and I have been completely naive or, the current regime is so abhorrent that I can no longer stand by and watch the people I know and care about being hurt as well as those I have yet to meet.
I’m no idealist about politics, but there has definitely been a worsening under this government – certainly compared to the last one, at least in the area of social justice. I suspect the same was said of the preceding Tory governments compared to their predecessors – leopards, spots etc.
And I’d certainly be happy to talk with you about options for collective action!
I saw the guys on BGT sing this and thought it summed up your efforts! This is the Il Divo version…
Thank you – they were my wife’s favourite! lol