Jobcentre called to order

Message supplied by Elephant Pam of Kwug

[Names may have been changed for confidentiality purposes.]

Hello Fellow KUWorms,

I received a phone call today from Indira, a lady we met at N.Ken weeks ago. She was updating me on her situation as I helped her fill an ESA form. Indira initially went to N.Ken to pick up this form but was refused one by the Security guard "I can't give you one you must get it online or phone for one. We don't give them here." A very distressed Indira heard the racket KUWG were making outside (CJ and Big Bertha again!) so she came out and told us. KateB and I went in asked for this form. The afore mentioned security guard asked who it was for, got a form, walked over to Indira and handed it to her. He seemed to have forgotten his own rule!

Indira and I filled it days later but we needed a fresh one without my errors and adjustments. So yesterday Indira went to pick one up. She met this same security guard. This time he had remembered his rule of NOT giving forms. Indira told him she knew they DID have forms and he COULD give them to people. He got angry. He told her he would NOT give her a form and she must leave the jobcentre or he would...yes you've guessed it...call the police! Indira began shouting that it was their duty to help the public by giving these forms and she would NOT leave. He shouted back if she did not go he would call the police. She shouted back "Call them so I can tell them I asked for a form and you won't give it even though you should!" He stood glaring. Indira persisted "Why aren't you ringing them? Shall I do it for you? I want the police here!" and to paraphrase the Elephant Man she shouted "I AM NOT A CRIMINAL!" (can't help thinking of Elephant M. as have massive stupid bump on forehead!).

 The manager Elizabeth came out asking what was happening? When told by Indira, Elizabeth asked the security guard (Dave) why he wouldn't hand over the form? Then she went to a cupboard, opened it, took a form and gave it to Indira who peered inside the cupboard and said "Look at all the forms here, these should be given to people, there are all kinds of them, why does he refuse?" Manager Elizabeth said he (Dave Security Man) is wrong to refuse. The manager gave Dave SM a good dressing down and then she tried to reassure Indira. Indira told the manager that some North Ken staff are not doing their duty which is wrong and people are being treated as though they have committed crimes when they need help, advice and guidance. The manager looked ashamed and said that the security should not behave that way and if Indira needed any help she should ask for the manager Elizabeth.

Before Indira left she decided to console Dave SM by asking him if it was his birthday a few weeks back as there were a bunch of people shouting outside with a loudspeaker. 

Elephant Pam x

North KenSanctions Jcp exposed

KUWG bullhorn report 'lifts the lid' on taxpayer-funded human rights abuses in West Central London

"Hello, hello, hello. What's happening here?"

Pam reports on a KUWG bullhorn report captured on video

Here is a clip filmed by Swheatie of Kuwg. He has captured Robin haranguing the staff of North Ken JCP.

KUWG chose to leaflet North Kensington Jobcentre on the 8th October 2014 as it has a terrible reputation for sanctioning claimants. KUWG has seen, during the course of leafleting, many claimants bringing their children along to sign on, I don't mean the actual children signing on. That would be ridiculous. As ridiculous as children having to be present at their parents signing days.

Here is Robin ignoring the staff's attempts to keep us far away from the building. He stood close up to the doors giving them a piece of his mind. He compares North Ken to slavers. Forcing people to work without pay. He mentions North Ken being on the Carnival route and reminds them of all the African-Caribbean people who fought to be free from slavery. Just as we all should be.

Pam

Swheatie adds: The biggest 'noise problem' in the immediate vicinity of that place — postcode W10 5BL — is that people's silent screams for help have gone unnoticed for far too long. It was very windy that day though!

PS: Thanks to Farhan for his help in uploading KUWG's first official 'in-house' video clip! Swheatie

Related posts

• Kate Belgrave on Bullying at jobcentres
• A blog post anticipating a staff industrial action that did not happen at North KenSanctions Jcp: KUWG join PCS picket North KenSanctions Slave Centre on Wednesday 15 Oct, 3pm to 4pm
• KUWG leaflet North Ken Jcp, Wednesday 8 October for Boycott Workfare Week of Action

Sickening system — what is it fit for?

Swheatie responds to the Carer Watch blog posting about Opposition Day Debate

Sanctions and fear of sanctions leave people traumatised

Hi, CW

'Welfare reform' is a sickening industry

I note that one of the 'related posts' you cite is from me from over two years ago, and linked to a letter I had published in Camden New Journal — 'Tongue-tied but no longer isolated'.

The Opposition Day Debate was not the only thing happening yesterday in terms of the 'welfare reform' agenda.  There was a demonstration against the axing of Access to Work for disabled people as the money 'saved' by closure of Remploy factories seems to have got us nowhere.

Meanwhile, no longer isolated, I was celebrating my birthday with friends from Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group outside North Kensington Jobcentre Plus — or, as we have dubbed it, 'North KenSanctions Slave Centre' in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. That is somewhat in the 'beyond' bit of our operating area definition of 'Brent & Camden & Beyond!' (Our heartland of Kilburn is split between the boroughs of Brent & Camden.) And we were there with our blogger friend and Honorary Member Kate Belgrave (all the way from SE London), reflecting on the huge gulf between the Metro freebie newspaper's 29 October banner headline "Migrants 'ready to die for your British benefits' — Mayor of Calais warns MPs of growing crisis" and what we actually hear from jobcentre customers — especially at the North KenSanctions Centre! (I wish there was a gagging law against purveyors of such nonsense, while the owner of the newspaper group of which the Metro and Daily Mail are a part lives outside the UK.)

The sad fact in response to those words attributed to the Mayor of Calais — apart from the facts of people fleeing wars in their native lands — is that sanctions and fear of sanctions is making people traumatised and too ill to work or do pointless jobsearch, and more and more people are being driven into daily signing on with fluctuating signing times that make for no real quality time in jobsearch and a very punitive system, especially at the NKS Slave Centre. How much of that can anyone humanly take?

At that sanctions centre more than any other so far, we encounter people who have been sanctioned. (Usually elsewhere it's people who have been threatened with sanction if they do not comply with what the jobcentre 'adviser' has told them they must do, which is often far more than the claimant is really legally obliged to do.)

And in this day and age, one of the greatest impediments to benefit justice is a desire to do waged work in a world that is not geared for your inclusion. What sort of chance has a person in such a situation got for claiming ESA?

As per our official motto: "Never attend anywhere official alone!" exercising my liberty in support of social and economic justice gave a new context to my attending a jobcentre on my birthday as the progress I have made in life from the time that I was going nowhere as a disabled person who really wanted to do something meaningful in my life but not able to in a world that has laws against disability discrimination but no real enforcement of those laws.

KUWG leaflet North Ken Jcp, Wednesday 8 October for Boycott Workfare Week of Action

North Kensington Jcp, Quayside House Kensal Road, W10 5BL: 12pm-1pm & 3pm-4pm