DWP: (n) UK-state-run modern slavery gangmaster

DWP: (noun) UK-state-run modern slavery gangmaster

Modern slavery — that the UK Government signed up to oppose in 2014 (1) — frequently uses unjust debt as a mechanism toward further enslavement.

Yet the kinds of debt that the UK's Department for Work & Pensions [sic] (DWP) imposes on economically vulnerable people are enslaving in themselves, deducted from income at source through implementation of 'Universal Credit' as the 'Conservative government's flagship' 'welfare reform'. See Kate Belgrave's latest blog post for substantiation of this argument.(2)

I would argue that introduction of a non-conditional Universal Basic Income (3) without 'deduction of debt at source' mechanisms would be far more effective at opposing debt-related modern slavery that is instituted in the so-called 'Universal Credit'.

Reference links

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modern-slavery-strategy
http://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/universal-credit-and-debt-debt-debt-universal-credit-is-really-hard-i-miss-one-bill-to-pay-another-more-foodbank-interviews/
http://basicincome.org/basic-income/

Placard and blog posting above by Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Universal Credit waiting times plumb new depths of government depravity in stripping poor people of bargaining powerSt

Starvation of bargaining power is integral to modern slavery

IWFI (Initial Work Focused Interview) is not free Wi-Fi!

IWFI is not free Wi-Fi!

Initial Work Focused Interview in Universal Credit is apparently where the Claimant Commitment — aka 'eligibility conditions — is drawn up as individualised enslavement charter.(1)

Reference link

1. https://benefitsandwork.co.uk/employment-and-support-allowance/esa-glossary/1483-work-focused-interview

Debt is a whip in modern slavery

Debt is a whip in modern slavery

The whole point of the minimum six-weeks waiting period in the Universal Credit claiming process is to diminish claimant bargaining power. The fact that the first 7 days' money related to the claim is written off in the sense that the claimant is denied it compounds this fact, as does the fact that 'Short-term-benefit advance' (S.T.B.A.) is a repayable loand deducted at source.

Universal Credit's long waits and short-term-benefits-advance [S.T.B.A.] stab-in-the-back debt slavery

S.T.B.A.: stab-in-the-back debt slavery

Sat 8 Nov last day of 'Breaking the Chains' art exhibition and play

• 'Breaking the Chains', an Art Exhibition & Play Highlighting Modern Day Slavery — Thursday 16 October to Thursday 6 November 2014. Open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 2pm-5pm. One of the exhibitors is KUWG member Helen Mandley, now a Middlesex Uni Fine Art & Design BA (Hons) 1st year undergraduate..
• Radio interview with artist, curator and charity workers ref Modern Day Slavery and people trafficking — Broadcast 23/10/2014

Modern Day Slavery — happening now!

By Swheatie of the KUWG

TICKETS ON SALE NOW VIA EVENTBRITE!
The 'Breaking the Chains' art exhibition and play highlighting modern slavery closes on Thursday 6 November, and so the last chances to see the exhibition are this Saturday 1 November, Tuesday 4 November and Thursday 6 November 2014, all between 2pm and 5pm. 'Breaking the Chains' helps to raise awareness of modern slavery of the border crossing sort that does not include workfare and the practices of Jobcentre Plus.

Modern slavery in the form of human trafficking is happening now, as Radio Pete's interviews with 'Breaking the Chains' presenters pointed out on 23 October. It has been argued elsewhere, "No form of present day slavery is comparable to the Atlantic Slave Trade which lasted for four hundred years with the lost of approximately 12 million lives," but not by me.

I believe that the Atlantic Slave Trade referred to as not comarable with modern slavery was once legal and people who saw the injustice of it took action to raise people's awareness and change the laws of the lands. Even in those days, some slave states were better and worse than others. Then and now comparisons that sidestep taking action in the here and now are a distraction. Action is required in the here and now to abolish modern day slavery in all its forms and slavery covers a broad spectrum rather than being an absolute.

We cannot bring back the dead but in helping to stop modern day slavery we are using what liberty we have constructively.

Opposing modern slavery anywhere and everywhere

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is not only against the transformation of the UK employment market into a graduated modern slavery market. It is shocking to know that the UK Government is making the terms and conditions of claiming unemployment-related benefits in the UK so uncomfortable at the outset that the claimant will leap at such a useless exit ploy as the  New Enterprise Allowance. That 'exit strategy' leaves naïve 'participants' prone to fines from HM Revenue and Customs when they fail to do something that their goverment funded training did not provide them with: training in negotiating their first tax return.

Yes, what is happening to EU nationals in the UK benefits system is nasty, but imagine what it is like for people who have been placed in the UK by way of destabilisation of their home by way of a war that has been bankrolled by UK taxpayers. Those identified by the UK 'Home Office' as 'illegal migrants' are more likely to be targeted as criminals than as victims of crime.

When people are enslaved as migrant workers, they are dispersed with even less access to their human rights than the current UK Government is allowed to allow new and established benefit claimants etc. Our Helen2 has forwarded the below from Walk Free.org for wider transmission.

Hi,

UN officials have just reported that as many as 1,500 people fleeing religious persecution in Iraq have been captured and may be at risk of modern slavery.

Khandhar Kaliph’s daughter is one of them. “She said she is going to be sold as a slave […] for $10. What can a father say to that? How can I help? We all feel so useless.” Khandhar has been despairing over the safety of his child ever since.

In early August, tens of thousands of people belonging to a religious minority group rejected by the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) fled their homes in terror as militants took over their town. Hundreds of these women have reportedly now been kidnapped and are being held inside a police station in northern Iraq. Without immediate action, they and thousands more like them could be at risk of modern slavery.

One thing you can do right now is help secure justice for Khandhar’s daughter and others like her. Click to call on the International Criminal Court to immediately investigate and try those suspected of enslaving Iraqis.

Thanks,