Threats of sanctions hold us to ransom

"Fourteen percent of people completing ESA sanctions in 2016 were sanctioned for more than 6 months." That is one of the things that can be gleaned from latest official figures from the Department for Work & Pensions, I have read via e-mail citing an expert source who has looked at the figures.(1)

Threats of sanctions hold us to ransom

Do not the DWP have anything better to do?

Benefit sanctions: Britain's secret penal system (2)

Benefits claimants are subjected to an 'amateurish, secret penal system which is more severe than the mainstream judicial system', writes Dr David Webster of the University of Glasgow.

By: 

Dr David Webster

Date: 

Monday, 26 January, 2015

Link note

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions
2. https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/benefit-sanctions-britains-secret-penal-system 

Laughing at bigotry can be therapeutic!

Benefit claimants face a lot of challenges based on bigotry, and so it can be highly therapeutic in terms of laughter, stress release output, when bigoted perceptions can be found to be misleading.

Along these lines, I have just had a very refreshing outuburst of laughter in response to a Yahoo! News-promoted story.

See what I was laughing at at https://uk.yahoo.com/news/anti-immigrant-group-ridiculed-mistakes-empty-bus-seats-women-wearing-burkas-095344639.html

Dude Swheatie of Kwug