Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill

----Preface/link statement starts----
The Department for Work & Pensions and the main political parties say that sanctioning benefit claimants who refuse to 'toe the line' is only fair to decent hardworking taxpayers. KUWG's friend Revd Paul Nicolson was so incensed with such statements that he set up Taxpayers Against Poverty. Here he warns of the imminent dangers of an out-of-control political class rewriting the law.
----Preface statement ends----

----The guest blog piece starts----
Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill 

This Bill is to be rushed through all its stages in the House of Commons on Tuesday. It will undo the Poundland decision. The retroactive legislation, published on Thursday evening will effectively strike down a decision by three senior judges and deny benefit claimants,  who were illegally punished,  an average payout of between £530 and £570 each. I recieved this from Elizabeth Reed this morning. 

http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/is-labour-planning-to-betray-its-core-supporters-by-siding-with-iain-duncan-smith/

In response to lobbying by the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust  during the passage of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform said on the 25th January 2012. ; 

"We spoke about the Wednesbury principles at our seminar, and I can reassure noble Lords that the decision-making process is and will continue to be consistent with these fundamental principles of public law. The department strives to ensure that no decision is influenced by irrelevant factors and that decision-makers act in a rational and fair manner, taking into account all relevant matters before exercising a discretion. For example, the primary legislation expressly sets out that a conditionality sanction applies only if there is no good reason for the failure. In determining whether there is such good reason, decision-makers will have to consider all relevant matters raised by the claimant within a particular time period, including information about a claimant's health condition and financial circumstances.

It is worth noting that when it comes to failures to meet work-related requirements, we get the vast majority of the decisions right. In 2010-11, just 0.2 per cent of JSA sanction and disentitlement decisions were overturned 

25 Jan 2012 : Column 1062

at a First-tier Tribunal. Of course, the aim must be to get every decision right. We must ensure that our training and guidance equips advisers and decisions-makers with the tools to understand the circumstances and needs of vulnerable claimants, such as homeless claimants and those with mental health conditions. We must also ensure that the notifications and explanations of decisions to impose sanctions or penalties are clear, straightforward and easy to understand. I accept that there is room for improvement here, and we will make that improvement."We spoke about the Wednesbury principles at our seminar, and I can reassure noble Lords that the decision-making process is and will continue to be consistent with these fundamental principles of public law. For example, the primary legislation expressly sets out that a conditionality sanction applies only if there is no good reason for the failure. In determining whether there is such good reason, decision-makers will have to consider all relevant matters raised by the claimant within a particular time period, including information about a claimant's health condition and financial circumstances.”

The Wednesbury  Principles were established by the High Court in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 KB 223. They require all officials to take into account all relevant evidence, ignore irrelevant evidence, to be rational and to follow the laid down procedures. Clearly they did not do that in the Poundland case. They were endorsed by Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform during the passage of the Welfare Reform Act 2012,

There will be more large legal mistakes made when while the Universal Credit is introduced - are we to expect another retrocative Bill every time the Jobcentres get it wrong. 


Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
93 Campbell Road, 
Tottenham, 
London N17 0BF
0208 3765455
07961 177889
also at www.z2k.org 
also at www.prohousingalliance.com
www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk
www.facebook.com/pages/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty/299911526728884


----guest blog piece ends----

What councils don't tell you about the enforcement of council tax

----Preface/link statement begins----
Councillors passing on central government-imposed cuts apparently lack the principles of workfare throughput who get sanctioned for not following orders that they object to. And while councillors can no longer be sanctioned for opposing central government-imposed cuts in public spending, they say that if they did not pass on those cuts, council officers would do so in less benign ways. Anti-poverty campaigner and KUWG friend Revd Paul Nicolson argues otherwise.
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----Guest blog piece begins----

What councils don't tell you about the enforcement of council tax. 

Millions of people who do not pay the council tax now will be charged 8.5% to 20% from the 1st April. Millions will not be able to afford it; councils knew that when they made those irrational decisions. 

Councils will not tell you;

1. That they have the discretion to write off the tax for vulnerable and impoverished people  under clause 10 (1) 13A (1) of the Local Government Finance Act 2012. It is necessary for the council tax benefit claimant to write a letter to the council setting out their financial circumstances, all debts, and all relevant information such  as health/disability. Payment of the bedroom tax, rent due to the overall benefit tax and the rent due to the housing benefit tax would be relevant.

2. That the bottom line is the income left after rent and council tax needed for food,  fuel, clothes, transport and other necessities; that has to be a reasonable amount if councils (and jobcentres) abide by the Wednesbury Principles as required by law and endorsed by coalition ministers. 

2. That page 9 of the National Standards for Enforcement Agents, published by the Ministry of Justice in 2012,  sets out a procedure for bailiffs to return vulnerable cases from the door step to all creditors, including councils for council tax and courts for fines,  when there are vulnerable, or a change of, circumstance.

3. That Ministers from the DWP, the DCLG and the MOJ all stated during the passage of the Acts of Parliament, which are creating such misery, how concerned they were for vulnerable people; see their statements as recorded in Hansard in the attached file. Councils and Jobcentres should be reminded that is the coalitions policy; even though crocodile's tears come to mind.

The details are on the TAP website. 

http://www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/what-councils-dont-tell-you-about-the-enforcement-of-council-tax/

Rev Paul Nicolson

Taxpayers Against Poverty

93 Campbell Road, 

Tottenham, 

London N17 0BF

0208 3765455

07961 177889

also at www.z2k.org 

also at www.prohousingalliance.com

www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk

www.facebook.com/pages/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty/299911526728884

----guest blog piece ends----

BUDGET DAY PROTEST KILBURN JOBCENTRE

 

KUWG DIARY DATES

Speak out on Welfare Reforms

A brief history of us

A brief presentation of the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

5.11.12

The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) is mentored by the Brent Trades Union Council. It was formed on the 28 July 2009 at the initiative of Sertuc, the South East Region of the Trade Union Congress in London. In that sense, the KUWG is an integral part of the British working class.

The KUWG recognises that the struggle of the employed and the unemployed is one and the same, but it also affirms that smear stories and marginalisation add to the isolation experienced by the unwaged. Thus in facilitating the coming together of benefit claimants at weekly meetings, we serve as a springboard for vulnerable claimants to confidently challenge the DWP’s draconian rules at the JobCentre, and mercenary Atos Healthcare and Work Programme companies, achieving victories and alleviating the suffering of the unwaged.

The KUWG accepts the solidarity of any helpful political organisation, but as the KUWG itself, it is not sharing its platform with any political group.

The KUWG operates mostly in the Brent and Camden areas, but individuals from beyond are welcome. Retired persons ready to give their time are welcome and can be very useful.

KUWG Web page: http://Kilburnunemployed.blogspot.com.

Contact: kilburnunemployed@gmail.com.

Facebook: Kilburn Unemployed Workers

The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) meets every Thursday 3-5pm at the Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, London NW6 2JH.

The KUWG works consistently to help resolve the problems of persons unfairly treated by the DWP and JobCentres, as well as by their devolved private companies like Atos, Maximus, Ingeus, A4E, Serco, Working Links, etc. The purpose of the KUWG is to defend our denied human dignity. Together, we build our mutual confidence to demand our rights. We denounce the demonization of the unemployed as if the availability of jobs depended on our individual disposition to work. We reject with indignation the DWP ‘Community Action Programme’ (CAP) that could force more than one million long-term Job Seekers (3 years) to work unpaid for six months if this particular Work Programme scheme is extended across the country. The 9 billion spent on the Olympics demonstrate that those in power can only find money, which they do, by keeping millions of human beings in poverty and dependency - like the women for instance - who organise, produce and reproduce the human race and civilisation without pay. This opens the door to every kind of abuse against the poor, the immigrant, the sick, the disabled and those forced to be dependent.  Society is about more than making profits for the rich. The national taxation fund belongs to society, not to the rich. When we say we want JSA at £110 and the scrapping of the Work Programme, we are not asking for the rich to give us anything. We are telling them that they don’t have the right to say no.

We demand that those on ESA ‘support’ should not be forced into the ESA ‘Work Related’ category because these persons need to work at getting well instead of looking for work.

Whenever possible and necessary, the KUWG accompany our friends to DWP or Atos interviews and meetings. The KUWG condemns the mean and cruel Welfare Reform Bill that was largely being implemented before it became law. This Bill lends to the State the devious right to abandon its duty of social care, as well as to overrule the expert advice of the medical profession in all matters relating to welfare. We condemn the Labour leaderships, past and present, for having connived with this barbarism - fearing us, and consistently negating our power to help them defeat this capitalist onslaught.

When the PCS union went on strike, the PCS, KUWG, BrentFightback, Women’s groups and Left political organisations formed a solidarity picket-line in front of the Kilburn JobCentrePlus, Cambridge Avenue, London NW6. The KUWG, Brent Fightback and the Brent Trades Council are involved in campaigns to stop people being evicted through the cuts in Housing Benefits. This added punishment drives individuals to homelessness, unacceptable suffering and even suicide. The above organisations are also preparing for a public meeting and demonstration/rally on 15 Sept 2012 (noon from Harlesden Jubilee Clock, march to Central Middlesex) against the ‘fusion’ of hospitals and the creeping privatisation of schools.

KUWG is part of the South Kilburn “Counting the Human Cost of Cuts”. That group campaigns in support of the Criklewood Bus driver and Unite Member Anthony Counihan - his wife Isabel and their 5 children, against their eviction from the Borough of Brent by Brent Council - and in support of persons like Nygell Firminger, ex-KUWG member who is believed to have committed suicide after losing his benefits, his casual job and his flat, amongst other problems. Like the familyonthestreet@gmail.com, the KUWG says: “Housing for all!”

The KUWG works in a democratic manner so that everybody has a voice, and the experiences of everyone can be used constructively. Under the banner of the unemployed, it is our intention to work in solidarity with those fighting against the welfare and housing cuts. We believe that the conditions exist for the creation of a London-wide, national and international organisation of the unemployed. Please help distribute our leaflets, attend our regular weekly meetings and help us organise our collective power to build life, our lives, ourselves.

The KUWG is part of the London Coalition against Poverty (LCAP) that links together similar groups in London. Some of our members have taken part in, and contributed to the St Paul’s Occupy London Stock Exchange camp. We intervened also in the Brent Peoples Assembly organised by BrentFightback. We hope to make links with all possible organisations of the Unemployed Youth, locally, in London and beyond.

The KUWG holds regular Workshops and public meetings with particular speakers. On Nov 8^th 2012, we had a One Million Climate Change Jobs speaker. On Nov 15, Pilgrim Tucker from Unite. Nov 22, Speak Out Against Psychiatry and Nov 29, Previous Unemployed Movements.

KUWG asks sympathetic organisations and benefactors to link up with us and to make donations. The KUWG thank the Brent TUC and the Trade Unions that have helped us so far.

Alan Wheatley, Secretary

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group – 10.11.12

We urge Trade Unions and Community Funding groups to help us fight the battles that will complement their own in their workplaces and communities.

Cheques welcome, made to ‘KUWG’ and sent to: The KUWG Officers, 85 Webheath, Netherwood Street, London NW6 2JS. Tel: 020 7485 3868 - Mob: 07579 965 704

PRESS STATEMENT BY MR CLARENCE JACKMAN OF THE KWUG TO THE PRESS ON 8.6.2012.

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group:

Inform and Survive

7.6.2012

--- STATEMENT STARTS ---

“As the Con-Dem Cabinet of multi-millionaires continues to conspire on privatising and asset-stripping our public services with lobbyists from global corporations as 'advisers', the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) helps people in Brent and Camden and beyond know what they can do about it,” Clarence Jackman, a KUWG spokesperson said today.

Meeting every Thursday from 3pm till 5pm at Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH, the KUWG liaises with Disability in Camden's (DISC) benefits advice team over casework brought to KUWG by meeting attenders who become aware of the group meetings via weekly leafleting outside Kilburn Jobcentre. As an offshoot of that contact, Luchvinder from DISC will be talking to the Group on Thursday, 14 June about forthcoming legislated changes to the benefits system and what to do about them. And on 21 June the group will be welcoming Richard Braniff, TUC envoy starting a group of young unemployed in NW10 on how we can help prevent the youth of today becoming part of a reserve army of slave labour. Speakers generally speak for about ten minutes at the start of the meeting, and then answer questions for about a further ten minutes.

KUWG will also be represented at a meeting of the London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) on 23 June, and is aiming to take part in forthcoming trade union demonstrations and activities, as well as co-operating with Brent Trades Council and Brent Fight Back.

“What is happening to our public services is a legalised abuse of vulnerable people, while the 2012 Diamond Jubilee, London Olympics and Paralympics constitute an expensive distraction. But, as self-help 'survivors'' groups established in the 1980s, a 'survivor' is someone who is no longer prepared to be or become a 'victim'. We help local people become better informed and survive as stakeholders and trustees of public services for the public good,” Mr Jackman concluded for the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group.

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