Kwuggies and friends at Caxton House as protectors of jobcentres, Monday 6 November 2017

KUWG and supporting friends: Gerry Downing with placards made at the last minute for us, Peter Murry of the Green Party Trade Union Group armed with a GP banner, Rebecca (a Nurse) and many more besides, converged on Caxton House, Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) headquarters, on Monday 6 November from 3-4pm, a chilly afternoon on which we warmed ourselves by giving David Gauke a roasting. 

KUWG and friends with banners and placards outside DWP Caxton House HQ

The four security guards stationed outside the front doors of ‘Cack’ House at first looked uneasy, then bemused, then hesitantly amused...and then supportive! One of them looked to be the most experienced, he actually yelled, "They're rubbish!" in support of one Kuwg’s rant about DWP policy. 

The above mentioned Kuwg, had ranted until he turned their top security man! Another Kuwg asked this guard if he would go upstairs and fetch Gauke. He told us Gauke was out. Undeterred, she asked if there was a deputy! Uncertain if there was, he said he would get someone to come out to us. Apparently someone did come out but your roving report-backer had popped into a shop! We read aloud our statement Save our Jobcentres.

Rebecca — a nurse — spoke on the bullhorn quite few times, she told of the time a claimant had been sanctioned, such was his distress that he slit his wrists, she and her colleagues could not get through his despair to explain that he had 4 days to tell DWP why he shouldn't be sanctioned, in order get the decision overturned.

Nik — a Kuwg contributor — also on the bullhorn, very loud and very scathing, read a list of foul DWP regulations and asked if they thought these things right?

If you think things couldn't get any worse (for Gauke & DWP...KUWG & Co thought it was fab!) a Kuwg member starts singing the song with lyrics "I was cold, I was hungry, were you there, were you there?" she then answered the song in her speaking voice "Yes DWP! You were there, weren't you? You cut people's benefits and starved them! You were there alright!" and so on, a line of song, followed by her riposte.

Then there was Gerry Downing- the man who organised the placards during our placard drought. He wasn't short of words either. He led us on the slogans "Gauke for the walk!" and the uplifting, "Sack Gauke!"

Are DWP entitled to enslave us?

Are DWP entitled to enslave us?

Is Universal Credit a 'flagship' or a 'slaveship'?

Is Universal Credit a 'flagship' or a 'slaveship'

Some placards about Claimant Commitment, Universal Jobmatch and Universal Credit

Some of these placard designs below previously appeared without the KUWG two handed salute logo that has since become a feature of Kwug placards.

Claimant Commitment will make a fag out of you

Punitive Jobmatch is state terrorism

Universal Jobmatch? For jobs on Pluto?

Universal Credit will sink you in rent arrears

"Universal Credit can require people to wait up to 12 weeks for their first payment – and eviction processes in England can start after just 8 weeks."(1)

Link address

1. https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/07/15/sharing-knowledge-in-the-face-of-further-attacks/

Benefits Adviser: sanctions

Swheatie thanks Tracey Dunn for this referral that is likely to become more useful as time unfolds and the current scandal of Department for Work and Pensions overspend on the Universal Credit IT system overspend gives way to more smear stories about benefit fraud. 'Bentefit fraud' smear stories make jobcentre staff on short-term contracts more insensitive to the benefit war crimes they are ordered to commit and the general public more inclined to leave the Government to it.

The referred article advises what benefit claimants can and should do to protect themselves against being taken on a ride to destitution, and also emphasises that Universal Credit implementation with its 'Claimant Commitment' may eventually apply to ESA claimants and people ripped off by penny-pinching, state-subsidised employers and their shareholders. (Housing Benefit subsidises greedy shareholders and offshore landlords alike, and Universal Credit legislation is designed to criminalise those who suffer under rip-off merchants rather than the real rip-off merchants themselves.) It emphasises that you should appeal against sanctions, but also be aware what you are committing yourself to in a 'Claimant Commitment' or a 'Jobseekers Agreement'.

Swheatie adds that along the lines of 'prevention is better than cure', perhaps one of the worst things a claimant can do to start with is follow the jobcentre worker's instructions: "Just fill in your name, etc on this blank form and sign it and I'll fill in the details later." Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group says in response to this sort of entrapment ploy: "Never sign what you ain't read yet!"

'Benefits Adviser' blogger Carol Laidlaw on sanctions.

Some new KUWG placard design responses to 'Universal Jobmatch' and 'Claimant Commitment' rubbish

Punitive jobmatch is state terrorism

Punitive jobmatch will make a fag out of you

Universal Jobmatch? For jobs on Pluto?

'Claimant Commitment' will make a fag out of you

Punitive jobmatch is not the same as working