Let’s focus on the real cheats……

Millionaire Iain Duncan Smith thinks he can live on £53…. And a petition, which has been signed by thousands, calling on IDS to do just that… live on £53. Not just for a week but for months and see whether he still claims it was easy to do.

And of course yesterday, an apt day, the attacks on the benefits system started. Yet still the constant screaming headlines about benefits claimants on the scrounge. It’s always about getting tough on ‘em as well, especially with Esther McVey as parliamentary under secretary for Work and Pensions and she’s got a lot to say… about those so-called bogus claimants. While this article is rather coy about stating which official DWP stats.

Only 232,000 – one in eight of those tested so far – have been deemed by doctors to be too unwell to do any sort of work.

Another 837,000 who did take the test were found to be fit to work immediately, and a further 367,300 were judged able to do some level of work.

The figures showed that 878,300 people – around a third of the 2.6million who were claiming incapacity benefit – have chosen to drop their claims rather than face a medical. A Department for Work and Pensions document said 1.44million Incapacity Benefit reassessments have so far been carried out by doctors.

The Fail gets all frothy and apoplectic yet omits from this piece is that the medical assessment is essentially harder, narrowed the definition of “limited capability for work” and if this right-wing rag wants to throw around the word “bogus” they should in relation to the way these assessments are carried out by Atos. And neither the report mentions the successful appeals… funny that! These articles don’t give the full story, they distort the facts, mislead the reader, and are known to tell lies. Also, people may have dropped their claims not due to the fact they are lying about their medical condition but due to feeling victimised and distressed by the whole process. Shouldn’t the Fail be wondering where these people are going once they drop out of the benefits system? Somehow… I doubt it.

The reality of these myths and distortions create demonisation of the unemployed. People are believing this rubbish as seen with the research published by the TUC.  But what is appalling is the number of people who ring up, anonymously, these free benefit “grass up your neighbour you dislike” fraud helpline. Majority (96%) are apparently malicious or timewasting. What does this show? It shows the government is colluding and condoning this behaviour by encouraging people to make false allegations (and they can… anonymously). Not only anti-social but it rots away at the social fabric of society. It causes misery for the person under investigation and further victimisation. The problem is for the Left, is that the “benefit scroungers” narrative has been very successful. Language that stokes the fire of hate… and constant drip-drip of “benefit fraudsters” peddled on a daily basis is seen as true. It’s not challenged, it is accepted.. While Labour sits in silence and on their hands.

While the right-wing uses “benefit fraud” as a distraction, wielding the ideological axe to smash the working class as well as indulging in good old divide and rule… whatever about true fraudsters…

At the end of 2011 Tax Justice Network published a report on tax theft:

The total lost to tax evasion globally as $3.1 trillion. The figure for the UK in the report is £69.9 billion in the UK.

Now that’s something to get really angry about…..

Nobody voted for the ‘bedroom tax’….

So… Scotland’s Housing and Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess has argued that the ConDems should abandon the bedroom tax. She says:

It is completely unacceptable that vulnerable people in Scotland should bear the brunt of this ill-considered and damaging tax. Our clear position is that this punitive and unfair policy should be scrapped.  However the UK Government seems determined to press ahead, and the current constitutional arrangements mean there is nothing we can do to stop them.

And the increasing justification that the policy is all about reducing overcrowding simply does not stand up to scrutiny. For a start it is disproportionate, with a much smaller number of people living in overcrowded homes than will be hit by the tax. And second, it assumes that geography is no issue and people can simply swap houses.

Very true. But you have to remind yourself that the instigator of this oppressive policy is an unelected minister to the ConDems, Lord Freud. Freud has never stood for an election and was never voted for. He’s never had to sit in a constituency surgery being confronted by ordinary people. He’s not a democratically elected politician yet an important policy was pushed through parliament. Nothing about the bedroom tax in Tory 2010 manifesto. Nothing in the Coalition Agreement. The bedroom tax was not put forward to the electorate, the ConDems were therefore not democratically mandated to implement this regressive policy. Freud said the major problem with social housing was under occupancy. What is this based on? Where is the research?

Nobody voted for the bedroom tax!

The ideology of the bedroom tax is an attack on social housing. ConDems want us to see having a home of your own as being a luxury that should be denied to ordinary people. If someone else has a home of their own let alone one with a spare bedroom as a result of the policy of having social housing you are meant to bitterly resent it. The demand that should be made of the economy of course is that there should be enough housing for all. Housing should mean having a home of your own i.e. a dwelling that is for the exclusive use of one household.

And according to Joseph Rowntree Foundation Chief Executive Julia Unwin warns that with the bedroom tax, attacks on council tax benefit, benefit cap, food prices rising, benefit sanctions regime and the list of attacks is endless will lead to:

…a decade of destitution. I believe we will witness people in the sort of poverty we did not expect to see on these shores.

See the following articles/research:

The Links Between Housing and Poverty

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

£35million worth of cuts in Bristol…

George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, got his cuts budgets through yesterday. So that’s £35 million cuts. Translated it will mean cuts in services and cuts in jobs. The Greens were funny as one of them made this rousing speech about alternative to cuts such as scrapping Trident, tax evasion and avoidance and so on…. She got some cheers and clapping from the public gallery but she ended the speech with, “But I am still going to vote for this budget”… But the Labour councillors, after heated debates…apparently, decided to abstain. What use is that? You aren’t registering dissent. So either you support the cuts or you vote again. Mealy-mouthed arguments for abstentions is meaningless. So why couldn’t Labour have taken the initiative, shame the Greens and voted against….??!!

But no…

“Labour took the decision not to attempt to block the mayor’s budget – what we cannot do is endorse and support the cuts this Conservative/Lib Dem government is forcing upon our city,” said Ms Holland.

How ridiculous! Labour doesn’t want to block the budget but equally doesn’t want to endorse the cuts… What fresh hell is this? Rather than pushing this pathetic argument Labour should have just voted against.

There is demoralisation no doubt, an inevitably that cuts will happen. Local government workers will be facing the impact of these vicious cuts along attacks on public services. The knock-on effects will be immense. A quarter of all children in Bristol live in poverty. The Bedroom Tax will have an impact on over 4500 Bristol families and over 1000 in Bristol North West. Bristol cuts cabinet may argue that they are trying to protect the vulnerable but how long can that last? They may think they are juggling the cuts but in reality the most powerless will be hit. More cuts are expects over the next 3 years.

With the attacks on jobs and services, the unions should be balloting members on strike action, working with other trade unions across Bristol uniting against the cuts along with anti-cuts activists. Labour could/should put forward an alternative to cuts but instead played an appalling role in abstaining, like that’s going to win any respect.

But then the national Labour leadership is more about prestige and power (winning in 2015) by doing not much.

Furthermore, arguments that if “we don’t make the cuts then Pickles will do it for us”… Then why not? Why not test the political and legal water? Equally organising with workers and activists building up an alliance, fight-back and alternative would make more sense and give leadership. Rather than just sitting back and abstaining. There will be more and more and more cuts and councils need to take this head on.

As it moved towards its no-cuts budget, a Labour council genuinely representing the interests of the labour movement would mobilise council workers, council tenants, and local communities for a fight. Obviously councillors can have little credibility when calling on workers and tenants to fight unless they make a stand themselves.

The council and the local labour movement should work together towards a concerted act of local working-class defiance – councillors refusing to budget within central government limits, council workers striking, council tenants rent-striking, residents withholding council tax – with the demand that central government restores the money for local services.

The future is bleak, the only forward is to organise grass-roots resistance especially with the attacks on the benefits systems, which will further blight lives. A strategy of no cuts has to be implemented. Austerity doesn’t work. It’s unsustainable. Labour councillors have to bite the bullet, defy and stand up against the cuts, but this has to be part of a national strategy. It’s alright for Labour to wait in the wings for 2015 and hope that the electorate will be so immiserated by these vicious cuts and vote for them. But what will be left, a burnt empty shell of an economy?

The only way forward is an organised resistance.

NB: Note to Bristolians…

Bristol Mayor George Ferguson will hold his first public question time event at City Hall on Monday March 4th at 6pm.

The event will be held in the Conference Hall and admittance will be on a ‘first come, first served’ basis with doors open from 5.30pm.

The Mayor will respond to questions from the floor, taking as many as possible between 6-7pm so we ask members of the public to keep questions brief and to the point.

Following the formal question time, members of the public are invited to remain between 7-8pm for an informal opportunity where the Mayor will mingle and speak with as many people as possible.

 George says: “I am hoping for a good turn-out for this first public question time event on 4th March and am sure I’ll be kept on my toes. I want to use these sessions to hear people’s concerns and ideas for how we can make this great city even better, what works and what needs improving. This forum is not for politicians or political pressure groups who have other opportunities to engage but for genuine individual citizens.”

As a “genuine individual citizen” I am opposed to cuts. And any other “genuine individual citizens” who are anti-cuts should turn up.

 

More callous and cruel proposals from the ConDems….

Ed Miliband getting his pants in a twist over immigration in a week where Cameron hilariously takes the moral high ground over tax evasion regards to offensive joker Jimmy Carr this being rather selective as he misses out on Tory friend, master of bland mediocrity…Gary Barlow et al. Does Mister Ed capitalise on this…No, he prefers to lash out at immigration (I mean, where to start…in exposing Miliband’s racist nonsense). Indeed as John McDonnell rightly argues:

I’m the grandchild of an Irishman. We came we built the roads, we built the houses, we staffed the public services. If you look at every profession and every walk of life now at the top there are second or third generation migrants who have contributed so much. People appreciate that, so this is a false argument.

Let me suggest what Ed Miliband should do: reintroduce trade union rights, establish a living wage not a minimum wage, start building council housing again, and start training people to take high-skilled jobs. It’s as simple as that.

Only Mister Ed can screw this up. Blindingly and staggeringly obvious, methinks to take this on. And now Cameron wants to scrap Housing Benefit for under 25s. Will Miliband have the nous, will and backbone to condemn this or will he just find any old distraction to dazzle us?

The government wants to cut as much as £10bn from the welfare budget by 2016, and is looking at setting regional benefit levels and cutting benefits from striking workers. Cameron and the Treasury set the £10bn target for new welfare cuts in last year’s autumn statement and the PM will go into detail in a speech on Monday.

Furthermore

Instead, he will propose that 380,000 people under 25 are stripped of housing benefit and forced to join the growing number of young adults who still live with their parents. He will make exemptions for those that have been victims of domestic violence. The savings – which will mean an average loss per person of around £90 per week – are likely to be in the order of £1.8bn.

Just more evidence how cruel, vindictive and callous the ConDems are. I left home at 16/17 and after lots of bureaucracy I eventually got Housing Benefit, certainly would have been homeless (though was on a few occasions due to unscruplis landlords!). If I had stayed with my family I would have cracked up completely and ended up on a section.

Young people will be forced to live with their parents, no choice, no provision, no nothing. Cameron states he will make exemptions for those that have been victims of DV (see that to believe it), what about abuse, neglect, homophobia, racism, misogyny, transphobia, violence, and bullying which happens in the family. Do Cameron et al really have this misty eyed and red tinted spectacle view of the happy family, where everything is hunky dory in Tory fantasy land?, They know that there are young people who face oppressive behaviour, misery and despair. But even if you have a good and supportive family you may just want to get out, have the option to get out and become independent. Though Cameron et al thinks not, you should stay with your parents as you will be scrounging from the state. End of. But as ever with the ConDems it’s ideological.

What of the impact of these proposals if followed through? Further youth homelessness, no doubt. Statistics released in June 2011:

New statistics released today show that the number of homeless young people in England has risen by 15 per cent – the largest year-on-year increase since comparable records began.

Centrepoint is extremely concerned by the rise, which comes at a time of squeezed living standards, high youth unemployment and pressure on family finances following the recession.

The number of homeless households headed by 16-24 year olds accepted as homeless by local authorities rose to 4,060 in January to March 2011, up from 3,540 in the same period last year.

However, the statistics only take into account statutory homelessness, which refers to those households that local authorities have accepted as being in ‘priority need’. This means the actual increase could be far greater. Recent research estimated that 78,000-80,000 young people experience homelessness every year.

Conclusion

This [early intervention and preventative action] is essential if we want to avoid a return to the levels of youth homelessness seen in the late 1980s.

But the announcement today by Cameron will only exacerbate matters and create massive youth homelessness. Unemployment, pay freezes, cuts, homelessness and debt will rise. But hey, the tax havens and super rich will be benefiting just nicely from all the misery and despair. And anyway, throw in some “divide and rule” and blame the most powerless and voilà…scapegoat the blameless.

See this research briefing: Young, hidden and homeless which goes into the realities of youth homelessness.

From pillar to post…

Listening to Vivaldi waiting for my call to be picked up by a human at the benefits centre while watching the seconds tick away…. Automated voice tells me that “all the advisers are talking to customers and if I prefer I can phone back later”… Is that ever a good time to phone the benefit office (possibly dead on 8am)? Eventually a voice responds. I tell them that I have received a letter this morning informing me that I qualify for contribution based Job Seekers Allowance and was wondering when I would be paid. After the usual security questions I was told that when I signed on last week it hadn’t been properly inputted on their system therefore I needed to contact the Jobcentre. Did I was told….. quicker response in answering the phone but sheer confusion.

Indeed they inputted the last signing on date on my record but when I asked about a “fast track payment” I was told, “We don’t deal with that as we are only a smallJobcentre”. Told to ring the the benefits centre. More Vivaldi. More waiting. Eventually got through and the date of my last signing on had been dutifully inputted. I told the adviser that Jobcentre didn’t deal with fast track payments. I could hear a sharp intake of breath, then a sigh and a suppressed laugh, “It is their responsibility”! They made a note on my record and told me to …… yes, you can guess, to ring the Jobcentre. Spending over an hour on the phone losing the will live…. I duly rang the number and spoke to someone who took my details and yes……

“It’s the benefit centre responsibility for payment”..

Me: “I am confused myself as I gone around in circles and being told so much misinformation”

Them: “Sorry about that but it is their responsibility”

Me: “Well, who deals with the fast track payment”?

Them: “Payment department”

Me: “OK, will I be paid then”

Them: “I will pass the information onto the department. Give me a phone number where they can contact you in the next 3 hours”

My head hurt as it felt like being bounced backwards and forwards, from pillar to post and none the wiser! About an hour later I got a phone from the payment department.

“Yes, you will be paid in the next couple of hours. Unfortunately, Jobcentre was bloody late in inputting your last signing on date. Sorry about that”…

Indeed they paid me. But what a palaver. What bureaucracy. Nobody taking responsibility in paying me. The advisers were polite and helpful but nobody could specifically tell who the hell was meant to be dealing with this.

The repugnant, repellant and repulsive face of the Tory Party….

Tories got trounced on Thursday during the local elections. Drubbed, conquered, thrashed and trashed along with their LibDem yellow Tory friends (unfortunately the Bullingdon buffoon won a second term in London). Ian Duncan Smith, when confronted about loss of Remploy jobs, sneered:

Is it a kindness to stick people in some factory where they are not doing any work at all? Just making cups of coffee?

How does IDS know that’s what workers are doing? The Tory mask slipped and we are confronted with the same old vicious and nasty dross.

Furthermore

You don’t produce very much at all.

And

Asked why the disabled were being robbed of a choice between a segregated or mainstream workplace, Mr Duncan Smith snapped: “How far do you want to go with the idea that you can choose to do exactly what you want?

Why can’t people choose what they want?! Indeed the Tories want to force people to do any old job, no choice just coercion and compulsion.

IDS is a sneery contemptible taunting little Tory twit. The sooner this hideous alliance disintegrates  altogether the better!

“Your ESA is due to end”…..

I was expecting the letter which I received this morning. Even though I had psyched myself up for it it was still depressing. My contribution-based ESA (Employment Support Allowance) is due to finish at the end of April. The letter is a standard template explaining the reason and how you can continue being credited with NI contributions. I may still be able to receive means-tested ESA (I doubt it very much) or JSA. Under the new Welfare Reform Act ESA stops after one year, as apparently, we should have got jobs by then. The Lords put forward an amendment from 12 months to 24 months as it’s difficult under this current economic climate to find a job in a year. But no…. ConDems voted down the amendment.

Therefore my meagre amount, an absolute pittance of a benefit will stop as I should have got a job. Again, to reiterate, it the most obvious point is where are the freaking jobs? Too few jobs with lots of people scrambling after them. Jobs disappearing everyday with this recession, more unemployment…

Something like 1 million will be affected by the changes to the benefits system. These attacks will doubtlessly lead to more poverty, misery and distress. None of these changes have any economic benefit in tackling the crisis. It’s punishing the poor, ideological attack on the working class (and let’s not forget it was bloody Labour who started this “culture of dependency” nonsense.. along with blaming the individual not the economic situation we find ourselves in).

I wonder what my own professional future holds. For the past year I have been teaching myself short-hand, audio typing, brushing up on my German, and speed typing. Along with taking photos of cute heron chicks. But still no sniff of a job (plenty of interviews… so near and yet soooh far). There isn’t any useful informative training on offer by the Jobcentre nor one of its contracted providers. Instead it’s one big gravy train where the CEOs and shareholders leech off the big bucks provided to run these piss-poor programmes. They see pound signs in their eyes and lip smacking profits while unemployed people and disabled are threatened with sanctions and penalised if they don’t do as they are told i.e. attend piss-poor training courses (where different times are given to you by the different participating providers!) and go after any old shitty job. Cameron et al bang on about “something for nothing” culture… well, can you honestly say these private contractors engage in something for value? Something stimulating? Informative? Worthwhile? No.. it’s money for old rope. There’s no real support without stings attached such as apprenticeships which actually educate young people in learning a trade (earn while you learn), skills centres that give people options in training, free courses and education. Real choices, re-training, education and support. Not bullying, coercing and demonising people. Now I have woken up… and jolted into reality where this government and the previous one was all about punishment and attacking the tenets of the welfare state.

Yes, millions are people are in this predicament, and many will be hitting the wall because of these pernicious and spiteful attacks on the poor. God knows what society is being created and how much blood will be on the hands of the Bullingdon crowd.

Catching up

As I have been away it is now time to catch up with what’s happening in the world. This week was the Budget for the rich by the rich (excellent post by Andrew Fisher):

The ‘Granny tax’
I use the twitter-defined name as a shorthand, but Osborne has done is to freeze age-related allowances – the amount of income over-65s can earn tax-free – for existing pensioners, and scrap the relief for those retiring after April 2013.

This will cost millions of mid-income pensioners about £250-300 per year. It is a stealth tax on pensioners, and come May will probably prove as electorally misguided as Gordon Brown’s 75p increase in the basic state pension over a decade ago.

The extra dishonesty factor about this is two-fold: 1) it was the only major item in the Budget not trailed in advance; and 2) Osborne announced it in his statement by saying “we will simplify the tax system for pensioners by doing away with the complexity of the additional age-related allowances”.

Furthermore

There are other things in the Budget too that will become clearer in time:

• Osborne promised “growth-friendly planning and employment laws” – which is short-hand for ‘the environment and workers’ rights be damned’
• The pension age will rise beyond 68: “I can confirm today that there will be an automatic review of the state pension age to ensure it keeps pace with increases in longevity”. The problem with this is that increasing longevity is highly unequal, i.e. the richer are increasing their life expectancy at a quicker rate than the poorest. This is doubly bad news since poorer people also cannot afford to retire early, so their retirement gets squeezed, while the rich live for longer in retirement.

Simplified: the poor are paying for the rich.

Sundays in the Square

The Bloomsbury Pro-Choice Alliance has been set up to raise awareness of the attempts by 40 Days for Life and other groups (SPUC, Abort67) to restrict a woman’s right to choose. 40 Days for Life are holding ‘prayer vigils’ outside of the BPAS clinic on Bedford Square (WC1E) every day over Lent, ending on April 1st. We will be there every Sunday afternoon to counter this – a full programme of events can be found here.

Sunday 25th March: WHAT ABOUT TEH MENZ?

Sunday 1st April: Musical spectacular finale.

An excellent post by Simon here as well

Apparently 40 Days for Life are holding an evening vigil with Bishop Alan Hopes on Friday 30th March, there will be a pro-choice counter-demo from 7pm onwards.

Chris Grayling tapping into talent on Monday 26th 

 

Chris Grayling will be speaking at a conference called “Tapping into talent: putting employers at the heart of the Work Programme”

The Work Programme is the largest single welfare to work scheme the UK has ever seen. Specialist providers from the public, private and voluntary sectors are being paid for the results they achieve.  They now have more freedom than ever before in how they design and deliver their services.

There will be a protest. Meet 9am at Centrepoint, Tottenham Court Road, London. Or come along at 10.30am to pay a visit to local workfare providers!

 

Harriet struggles while Mister Ed triangulates….

Osborne is continuing class war on the public sector.

The rich will have their pain eased somewhat with the ditching of the 50 pence tax. Though even with NL they didn’t squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked….. Unfortunately!!

With all this happening just what is our illustrious leader of the opposition Mister Ed saying? While don’t ask Harriet Harman, that’s for certain. You see, Mister Ed has this brilliant idea, possibly dawned on him during an Eureka moment sitting in a private box rubbing shoulders with the rich watching the footie, like you do. It’s not anything new… it’s compulsion. You may get paid some pathetic and meagre amount, it’s still compulsion and coercion.

The policy – under which anyone aged between 18-24 and unemployed for a year should be required to do a minimum of 25 hours a week of paid work on a six-month government scheme, or lose their right to benefits – is the toughest welfare measure Miliband has backed since becoming the Labour leader.

Here’s Harriet Harman’s spin on the policy:

However, she struggled when asked the exact cost of the job scheme, saying: “I haven’t got quite the … I know that we have worked out that figure, I’ll have to get back to you on that, but it would finance all those who have been unemployed for more than 12 months.

“I haven’t got that actual figure to hand, but I can absolutely assure you that Ed Balls has, our shadow chancellor, and so has Ed Miliband – so that’s not an issue.”

Well, that’s alright then, the two Eds have the numbers but Harman, dear old Harriet, didn’t have the gumption to ring Ed B or Ed M. and ask either for the costings. Joined up government? Disjointed headless chickens more like.

But let’s go back (yes, let’s) to Mister Ed’s brilliant plan. What happens when there are no jobs in certain areas of the country for young people? Currently this recession is impacting on young people with high levels of unemployment. How the hell is compulsion and coercion gonna instill motivation and incentivisation? It aint. The scheme, one sideward step from workfare, is not about giving people real prospects, support and decent pay it’s about punishment. Mister Ed forever beholden with triangulation continues the lies about “culture of dependency” and desperate measures means more lies in pulling in swing voters. Who cares whether the hideous rubbish being peddled was created by right-wing ideologues with their own nasty axes to grind (Charles Murray et al).

Unfortunately, the leader of the opposition can’t get his head out of the triangulation zone as it is quite a right-wing populist wheeze, vote winner and good fun blaming the unemployed and disabled for the state we are in. Who cares whether the lies peddled has increased negativity, violence, hate crimes and abuse? You know, if the ConDems said they wanted to bludgeon the poor, instead of outrage and disgust, I am sure Mister Ed would let his salivating excitable attack-dog, Liam Byrne, off the leash who would respond by saying that not only would they bludgeon the poor but would make sure there’s jagged sharp edged glass stuck on the end of the bats to cause more pain and damage …. “Yeah, top that ConDems”!

We have no opposition! No challenge of the neoliberal consensus…..just triangulation. Why break a habit of a lifetime.

A bad day for welfare reform….

I’m delighted this Bill, that will fundamentally change people’s lives, has received Royal Assent – this is an historic moment for the coalition government and for my department.

This Bill reforms virtually every part of our welfare system and I look forward to implementing the changes our country badly needs.

The universal credit will mean that work will pay for the first time, helping to lift people out of worklessness and the endless cycle of benefits. Whilst those people who need our help and support will know they will get it without question.’

(Iain Duncan Smith)

Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, the Welfare Reform Bill received Royal Assent. An extremely bleak and depressing day for welfare reform as that Bill is a bumper attack on the unemployed and disabled people. I suspect worse is to come as the ConDems aint finished with us ….yet!

The consequences of these attacks:

Changes to taxes and benefits due to come in during 2012–13 will cost households an average of £160 in 2012–13, rising to £370 a year thereafter. Households with children and those in the lower part of the income distribution will feel the biggest impacts as a proportion of income.