There is an urgent need for real evidence-gathering re DWP practices, not dehumanising experimentation

Kate Belgrave's blog post Video: Learning and literacy difficulties and need to drop a sick note to the jobcentre? Too bad. You're banned. Get out (1) emphasises for me the need for real evidence-gathering regarding what the State is doing rather than swallowing the bullshit of think tanks such as Reform.uk. (2)

Meanwhile, there is a DWP consultation on regarding 'Universal Credit experimental statistics', (3) deadline 24 October, and a Dr David Webster analysis for Child Poverty Action Group, regarding the DWP 17 August 2017 sanctions statistics publication.(4)

An unconditional Universal Basic Income would boost workers' bargaining power.(5) 

 

The Department for Work & Pensions' benefit sanctions penalise the people lacking 'independent means' for non-compliance with contract terms that are unreasonable.(6) Meanwhile the DWP's 'Advance Payments' that are really repayable loans while claimants are kept waiting months for payments grind poor people into the dirt of an unfair society's making.(7) 

 

Together, the measures that go into the creation of Universal Credit and right wing welfare reforms in general grind people' noses into the dirt of slavery. At Kilburn Jobcentre, people not capable of work are maltreated institutionally by staff in ways that increase vulnerable people's likelihood of being hit by punitive sanctions for non-compliance with a 'Claimant Commitment'. At Kilburn and other jobcentres facing closure however, at least there is more 'access' for real 'evidence-gathering' than there would be in the entirely online world of the 'digital jobcentres' that Reform.uk and Accenture as principal contractor for Universal Credit implementation propose. 

 

Visible to supporters such as Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, jobcentre 'service users' are at least able to interface with prospective supporters. Where would they be with 'digital jobcentres'? (8)

Ironic, therefore that the same UK Government has ratified a treaty toward outlawing modern slavery!(9)

 

The text image from Freedom United to back its peitition against modern slavery

Conclusion

 Evidence of the kind Kate Belgrave presents at http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/video-learning-and-literacy-difficulties-and-need-to-drop-a-sick-note-to-the-jobcentre-too-bad-youre-banned-get-out/ should help to make those responsible squirm with shame at their public exposure. Much as those responsible pride themselves on their statistics, the ways that they induce those statistics are obtained degrade and dehumanise not just the people who are the subjects of the sanctions statistics, but also for those institutionalised into excluding the wellbeing of 'service users'.

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Link references

1. http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/video-learning-and-literacy-difficulties-and-need-to-drop-a-sick-note-to-the-jobcentre-too-bad-youre-banned-get-out/
2. http://www.reform.uk/ 
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/universal-credit-experimental-statistics-future-developments 
4. http://www.cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/17-08%20Sanctions%20Stats%20Briefing%20-%20D.Webster.docx
5. http://basicincome.org/basic-income/ 
6. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/benefit-sanctions 
7. http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/universal-credit-advance-payments-fix-nothing-theyre-just-loans-and-another-debt-for-people-who-have-no-money/
8. http://www.reform.uk/publication/the-future-of-public-services-digital-jobcentres/
9.  

MoJ consultation on panel composition in tribunals deadline 24 Nov 2016

As noted previously in our KUWG Diary for last week, today is the deadline for a Ministry of Justice consultation on the future of tribunals.

CONSULTATION DEADLINE: Thu 24 Nov Transforming Our Justice System: Panel Composition in Tribunals by Ministry of (in)Justice, who plan to digitalise benefit appeals so claimants won’t be seen in person by the judge or expert panel members (i.e. doctors present at tribunals). This will lessen our chances to win appeals. Nip it in the bud! https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/12/online-benefits-appeals-tribunals-disabled?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Consultation itself: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/panel-composition-in-tribunals/

Here follows how Dude Swheatie completed the online consultation.

7. Do you agree that the SPT [Senior President of Tribunals] should be able to determine panel composition based on the changing needs of people using the tribunal system?

Answer: No

Reasons stated

I won my ESA (Support) status through tribunal as part of a very long process that included decades of attempted career building after five years' seamless but unfulfilling salaried employment in which I received disablist bullying on a regular basis. Therefore my standpoint regarding what is appropriate and who should decide what is appropriate differs considerably from think tank Reform UK and its associates who are pushing for 'transformations' to both the welfare state and justice system in the UK that render economically vulnerable people all the more vulnerable.

Tribunal panels for disability benefit entitlements generally favour the claimant/apellant over the Department for Work & Pensions, and this factor embarasses both Government and privatisation-of-welfare-state corporations that are playing with others' lives. Tribunal results so far have countered the policy-based evidence-gathering of the privatisers of the welfare state. (Since this consultation was launched and very shortly before it's deadline, a further DWP 'welfare reform' consultation has been launched.)

My tribunal panel consisted of a judge and doctor and an advocate spoke for me while I was shaking with nerves. My disability charity-based advocate had been far more perceptive than the mental health charity-based Vocational Support Advisor (VSA) who had led me through the intial ESA50 form filling that had concluded with 0 eligibility points. At our first meeting identified my much slower than average speech delivery and though patterns and got me to rewrite my ESA50 with a focus on those than the secondary physical symptoms experienced when under stress.

Tribunal advocate's analysis was later expounded and substantiated by Camden Learning Disability Services (CLDS)-based tests, and insights of more than one mind had helped bring me to apply for ESA and get CLDS analysis. Those meetings had included

• late 2008 jobcentre 'progress review' meeting with jobcentre worker and VSA. Jobcentre worker had intervened in crisis brought on by missing first 2005 signing-on appointment while I was awaiting result of pre-Christmas job interview
• consultation with GP, her receptionist and my VSA. GP's receptionist vouched for council learning disability services' support that had helped her severely learning disabled son overcome 0 eligibility points rating from unproperly qualified disability assessors.

8. In order to assist the SPT to make sure that appropriate expertise is provided following the proposed reform, which factors do you think should be considered to determine whether multiple specialists are needed to hear individual cases?

Please state your reasons and specify the jurisdictions and/or types of case to which these factors refer.

I concur with the charity Zacchaeus 2000 (Z2K) when they write in response to this question: 

"... the appropriate expertise in all disability cases is the current tribunal composition. We recommend that the Ministry of Justice mandate the SPT to continue to include a healthcare professional and disability expert on panels for disability benefit appeals."

Crucially,  organisations such as Z2K and Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group are left to help economically people 'pick up the pieces' after injustices have been done to them. Such organisations have theoretical sensitivity and human understanding that is severely lacking in those that regard the current inputs to tribunal panel composition as unnecessary costs to the public purse and counter to the privatisation of the welfare state that favours the American model of private health insurance. Perhaps drugs with the scale of failures exposed by current workings of disability benefit test regimes would have been barred from sale by now? "Those who give the order [do the initial dodgy assessments] seldom see the mess it makes."

I also note that all 'key decision makers' should realise that 'welfare reform' agendas have so far been conducted to the exclusion of reference to disabled people who were actively jobseeking long before the drive to eliminate the Incapacity Benefit safety net.

(My answers to the section about Impact and Equalities Impact Assessments are not included here.)

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Ministry of Justice consultation deadline cock-up

It appears that the original dates given out at

http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/moj-consultation-agenda-and-questions-further-denial-of-justice.html

have now been superseded because of an administrative cock-up that was not my responsibility.

Hopefully, the info given out at

https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/

will be more helpful.

Cut Council Tax for low income residents — deadline 21 Oct 2016!

Guest blog post from Camden's Highgate Ward Green Party Cllr Siân Berry

Cut Council Tax for low income residents

Camden Council also considering cutting council tax back to zero for the borough's poorest people.

Since 2013, the council has removed the previous 100% exemption for people receiving benefits - including disabled people and families with low incomes. It now charges everyone at least 8.5% of the full rate, something it's very hard to pay when you have no way of making the extra money required.

I've argued for several years that this isn't fair, and the council has agreed to consult on the option of going back to 100% relief. This consultation is even more simple to complete. Just choose 'option 2' in the online survey here:

• Council Tax consultation - deadline: end of 21 October
  https://consultations.wearecamden.org/corporate-services/proposed-changes-to-council-tax-reduction-scheme-2

KUWG Diary 21 Oct to 13 Nov 2016

DEADLINE: Fri 21 Oct Proposed Changes To Council Tax Reduction Scheme by Camden Council. Ensure your views are included in the consultation which may result in scrapping Council Tax for JSA (& other?) claimants. https://consultations.wearecamden.org/corporate-services/proposed-changes-to-council-tax-reduction-scheme-2/consult_view 

 

Sat 22 Oct, 11.30am Axe The Housing Act – National Summit by Defend Council Housing. At Hamilton House, Mabledon Place London WC1H 9BD (tube: King’s Cross St Pancras) http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/resources/AtHASummit22Oct.pdf

 

Tue 25 & Wed 26 Oct, 7.30-9pm Land of the Three Towers by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. The play depicts the struggles of Focus E15 where women occupied 4 perfectly liveable council homes which been empty for 8 years. Free or donation. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

Wed 26 Oct, 1pm-5pm Disability Action Theatre and the Economy by Disability Action in Islington. Would you like to
Have your say about the economy and how it impacts you and other disabled people?
Participate in a creative workshop to generate ideas and strategies for what the future should look like?
Watch a participatory theatre performance created by disabled people to generate discussion and action towards economic justice?
We believe that everybody should be able to have their say about the UK's economy
Location: Voluntary Action Islington, 200A Pentonville Road,LondonN1 9JP View Map
Further details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disability-action-theatre-and-the-economy-registration-28746820514
 
Wed 26 Oct, 2.30-4.30pm Art As Action Workshop by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. A workshop on storytelling & creating protest songs as done in Land of the Three Towers. Come celebrate your home, tell your struggle, and together we'll make a protest song about it. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

 

Wed 26 Oct, 5-6.30pm How We Resist Workshop by Radical Housing Network, Eviction Resistance Network. Estate under threat demolition?  Got an eviction notice? You are not alone & you CAN fight it. Learn tools you can use to build campaigns to stop buy offs, demolitions & stop evictions. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

 

DEADLINE: Thu 27 Oct Consultation: Transforming Our Justice System by Ministry of (in)Justice, who plan to digitalise benefit appeals so claimants won’t be seen in person by the judge or expert panel members (i.e. doctors present at tribunals). This will lessen our chances to win appeals. Nip it in the bud! https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/12/online-benefits-appeals-tribunals-disabled?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Consultation itself: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/

 

Thu 27 Oct, 11.30am-12.30pm KUWG Leafleting at Kilburn Jobcentre, 3 Cambridge Ave, NW6 5AH map link:http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=525454&y=183527&z=0&sv=NW6+5AH&st=2&pc=NW6+5AH&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

Transport for London Journeyplanner interactive link: https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

 

Thu 27 & Fri 28 Oct, 7.30-9pm Land of the Three Towers by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. The play depicts the struggles of Focus E15 where women occupied 4 perfectly liveable council homes which been empty for 8 years. Free or donation. At Rotunda, Cressingham Gardens, Tulse Hill, SW2 2QN https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-cressingham-gardens-tickets-28000930537?aff=erelpanelorg

 

Fri 28 Oct, 2-7.45pm No One Turned Away: Housing Is A Human Right Crisis are calling on MPs to change the law so that no one is turned away when they approach their local authority for help & homelessness is a priority for single people. Streetskitchen.co.uk will be taking their kitchen to Parliament that day & campaign for #NoMoreDeathsOnOurStreets At Parliament Square, Westminster SW1A (tube: Westminster) https://www.facebook.com/events/708569762615517/ 

Sat 29 Oct, 10am-7pm London Anarchist Bookfair at Park View School, West Green Road N15 3QR (tube: Turnpike Lane or Seven Sisters)http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk/

 

Sat 29 Oct, 12-4pm UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession 2016 by United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC). Since 1999, the UFFC holds its annual remembrance procession from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street to remember loved ones who died in custody. A disproportionate number of them were Black & Minority Ethnic people dying in police custody. https://www.facebook.com/events/1334523326576403/#

 

Fri 11 Nov, 10am-5.30pm Housing Advice Conference 2016 by z2k – Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. Update on law & practice for housing advisers in statutory & voluntary sectors. The key annual event for Housing Options & Housing Advice staff in local authorities, Citizens Advice Bureaux, Law Centres or independent advice centres. Fee: £40 cons. Book first, only 80 places. http://z2k.org/2016/10/housing-advice-conference-2016/

 

Sat 12 & Sun 13 Nov, all day? Socialism 2016 by Socialist Party. Weekend ticket: £16 unwaged. At The Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0A (tube: Russell Square) http://www.socialismweekend.socialistparty.org.uk/

Deadline 21.10.2016 for Ministry of Justice 'consultation' on scrapping of disability benefit tribunals

Sorry for earlier typo on this deadline. The actual deadline is Thursday 27 October.

Deadline 27.10.2016 for Ministry of Justice 'consultation' on scrapping of disability benefit tribunals

Q: When is a 'public consultation' not a public consultation?

A: When the consulting organisation does not notify those most affected by the proposed changes that the 'consultation' is happening — while parasitic companies that profit from the proposed changes have paid up departments to respond to and drive government policy.

Benefits and Work Publishing report: 

Virtual abolition of PIP, DLA and ESA appeal tribunals as we know them (1)
The government is poised to bring an end to the shaming success rates at benefits appeals, but they will do so by nobbling the appeals system rather than by improving decision making.
In the future many more appeals will be “on the papers” where success rates are drastically lower, hearings that do take place will be on the phone or via Skype type links and most appeals will be decided by a solicitor (often retired) sitting alone, without a medical wing member or a disability wing member....
ConsultationThe whole plan is open to consultation until 27 October 2016. However, judging by other recent consultations, the outcome – regardless of the evidence submitted – is a foregone conclusion.
You can read more about the plans and give your views on the Justice website. (2)

Officious authority demands that claimants notify them of any changes to the claimants' circumstances. So why don’t the Government write benefit claimants directly to notify us of such proposed changes?

I am reminded of the time that I was at a ‘Manpower Services Commission’-run ‘Employment Rehabilitation Centre’ in 1978. We were told that the ‘vocational assessment’ reports made about us there were “too confidential” for us to ever have home access to them outside the presence of a ‘Disablement Resettlement Officer’ or their Assistant. Further, the medical reports made on us there were deemed, “Too confidential for you to ever have access to,” for fear that our knowledge of what was in could be detrimental to our health.

By contrast, I believe that sick and disabled people knowing of this ‘consultation’ and getting support in responding to it can result in better outcomes for us than our being kept entirely in the dark about it.

The deadline is 27 October, further info at Ministry of Justice website and give them your views here.(3)

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Link addresses

1. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3553-virtual-abolition-of-pip-dla-and-esa-appeal-tribunals-as-we-know-them
2. https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals
3. https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/consultation

Revd Paul Nicolson: Restoring 100 percent maximum Council Tax benefit is best

In LB Haringey, Taxpayers Against Poverty founder Revd Paul Nicolson has launched a personal campaign of civil disobedience over his Local Authority's insistence on levying Council Tax on those "too poor to be taxed.
"http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/it-is-beyond-the-comprehension-of-national-and-local-law-makers-that-73.10- 

Thus he has been dubbed 'The refusenik reverend'.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jun/08/vicar-dibley-paul-nicolson-council-tax-refusing-benefit-cuts-jail-prison

He has written me regarding Camden's current Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation:

I suggest as many people as possible respond to the consultation to support Camden's preferred Option 2 restoring the 100% council tax benefit by clicking the following in paragraph 2 of the consultation  - "Increase the maximum Council Tax reduction to 100% - Maximum CTRS support increases to 100% with no changes to eligibility"  - ....

When Camden reports on the consultation they will report the numbers supporting each option,

All good wishes, 

Paul

Alan Wheatley

A poem against applying Council Tax payments on already substandard benefit incomes

The below is a reworking of a 1982 poem that was a reaction against inclusion of dole incomes in 1982 as 'taxable income'. It has been updated to relate to the application of Council Tax to benefit incomes, which is a much more life-threatening issue.

In 1982 the inclusion of Unemployment Benefit plus Housing Benefit incomes was to apply to a person's total income for a year would only render them liable to pay income tax once the increased income on getting a job or other source of income brought their total income above their tax threshold. Now, application of Council Tax to benefit incomes renders 'basic' or in reality substandard incomes a mockery according to the 'Wednesbury Principles of reasonableness'':

"Officials’ decisions must take into account all relevant facts, ignore irrelevant facts and be rational."(1)

I, as a poor person, am rewriting it in honour of Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty's stance against the levying of Council Tax on DWP benefit claimants, and his application of the Wednesbury Principles of reasonableness' to his case in support of vulnerable people, while there are 'key decision makers' who say that he has no right to speak up for poor people in this because he is not a person of substandard means himself.(2) (3)

THEY ROB THEMSELVES.

Some laws are made behind our backs
Such as subjecting dole money to Council Tax!

Do cushioned councillors in our Town Hall
Have any love for me at all?

Here am I — long unemployed,
'Twixt them and me an awful void: —

On their work they seem to thrive
While the poor are struggling to survive!

What must it take for them to see
They rob themselves of humanity?

Still though they make it ever harder
I must pray for them with greater ardour!

Poem by Alan: the Poet Therapeutic © 1982, 2016 by Alan Raymond Wheatley

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug, aka Alan Wheatley and Alan: The Poet Therapeutic

NB: Both Taxpayers Against Poverty and the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group are made up of people of various religious faiths and none.

Link addresses

1. http://z2k.org/tag/wednesbury-principles/
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/what-councils-dont-tell-you-about-the-enforcement-of-council-tax
3. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/rev-paul-v-haringey-adjourned

Benefits and Work Publishing News Update, 13 July 2016

13 July update — omnibus edition(1)

Independent PIP reviewer wants to hear from you (2)

Claimants forced onto work programme were among 49 peer review deaths (3)

Sale of NHS records scrapped – for now (4)

Misuse of jobcentre funds to cut claimant numbers (5)

Consultation on abolition of attendance allowance begins (6)

Benefits prepaid cards move a step closer (7)

New WCA handbook published (8)

Link addresses

1. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3536-13-july-update
2. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3537-independent-pip-reviewer-wants-to-hear-from-you
3. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3535-claimants-forced-onto-work-programme-were-among-49-peer-review-deaths
4. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3534-sale-of-nhs-records-scrapped-for-now
5. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3533-misuse-of-jobcentre-funds-to-cut-claimant-numbers
6. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3532-consultation-on-abolition-of-attendance-allowance-begins
7. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3531-benefits-prepaid-cards-move-a-step-closer
8. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3530-new-wca-handbook-published