Self-help support vs ravages of 'welfare reform'. Never attend anywhere official alone!
This blog currently focuses on national policy matters that impact upon KUWG members.
Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group as a group focuses primarily on combating benefits injustices locally through advocacy in individuals' benefit claims, and demonstrations that emphasise that there is hope when we come together. We are more angry than frightened.
Friday, 20 December 2013
Women Against Rape oppose the Benefit Cap — how about you?
Launch of petition to Scrap the
Benefit Cap
which traps women and children in
violent relationships.
In support of legal challenge to be heard
in early 2014
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WAR outside the High Court in Oct 2013
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Women Against Rape (WAR) and others are launching a petition asking
the public to support women and children impoverished by the Benefit Cap
after escaping violent relationships. A legal challenge on behalf of
affected families will be heard in the Court of Appeal in early 2014.
Solicitor Rebekah Carrier
describes the Cap as ‘catastrophic,
cruel and arbitrary’.
Please sign online
here
For more information about the petition
contact WAR
Tel: 020 7482 2496 war@womenagainstrape.net About the legal challenge: Rebekah Carrier, Hopkin Murray Beskine.
Tel: 020 7272 1234
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· One
third of women have suffered domestic violence. Every week two women
are killed by partners or ex-partners, in England and Wales.
· The
Benefit Cap limits a family’s total benefit to £500 per week, including
rent and Child Benefit. Extortionate rents, including for some refuges
and hostels, leave mothers and children with little or no income to live
on.
· A
test case is being fought in court on behalf of families impoverished by
the Benefit Cap after escaping violence. So far, there is no exemption
from the Cap for victims of violence.
· Many
victims of violence are unable to get a job immediately or to move to a
cheaper area – they need to stay close to friends and relatives for
support, and time to recover and to reassure distressed children.
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Women Against Rape was among
the groups demonstrating at the High Court in October. We heard in
court what the mothers and children have gone through, including living
for years in rundown housing.
They are represented by
Rebekah Carrier of
Hopkin Murray
Beskine, who describes the Cap as catastrophic, cruel and arbitrary:
"Two of the families have fled domestic violence in circumstances where
they were financially reliant upon their abusive partners, and they now
face a stark choice between descending further into poverty and risking
losing their homes, or returning to their abusers in order to escape the
imposition of the cap."
Lisa Longstaff
of Women Against Rape says:
“We
call on the government to put the safety of women and children first by
lifting the Benefit Cap so no one is trapped in a violent a relationship
where they risk injury, trauma and even death.”
The petition is endorsed by the Black Women’s Rape Action Project, Legal
Action for Women, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, WinVisible (women with
visible and invisible disabilities) and Women Against Rape. |
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Christmas Seasonal Money Saving Tips!
Thanks to Carolyn for flagging this up.Christmas on Benefits -
Christmas
can make a hole in your pocket seem enormous. With one in five young
people in the UK unemployed, BBC Radio 1 DJ Phil Taggart - once
unemployed and living on benefits himself - presents an essential guide
to Christmas for the young and broke. Phil travels to Bristol to meet a
group of young jobseekers in the position he used to be in, and sets
them the mission of organising a cracker of a Christmas party on a
benefits budget.
- Broadcast on BBC Three, 1:00AM Fri, 20 Dec 2013
- Available until 1:59AM Fri, 27 Dec 2013
- First broadcast BBC Three, 9:00PM Thu, 19 Dec 2013
- Categories
- Duration 60 minutes
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Dear all,
I have posted the following event on the TAP Facebook page (TAP = Taxpayers Against Poverty)
COUNCIL TAX ENFORCEMENT, BAILIFFS, CANNOT PAY ???
On the 6th Janurary 2014 from 7 pm to 9 pm,
| North London Community House, 22 Moorefields Road,Tottenham N17 6PY |
Come
to this meeting at 7 pm on the 6th January if you are receiving nasty
letters from the council, threats from the bailiffs and you are
struggling to pay for food, gas, electricity, rent and the council tax.
Rev Paul Nicolson is on the receiving end of council tax enforcement himself and will be giving free advice about how to cope.
People who can pay their council tax who are willing to stand in solidarity with people who cannot pay will be very welcome too
North London Community House is next to Bruce Grove Station.
With very best wishes for a happy Christmas and a worrying 2014.
Taxpayers Against Poverty
93 Campbell Road,
Tottenham,
London N17 0BF
0208 3765455
07961 177889
also at www.z2k.org
also at www.prohousingalliance.com
Kilburn
Unemployed Workers Group
next
and last 2013 meeting 19/12/13
We
are having Pilgrim Tucker Unite Community Organiser as guest speaker
(SHE
WILL SPEAK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS 3.30-4PM)
ALL
WELCOME if a claimant, or trades unionist, community activist or just
interested in organizing to stop cuts to people who can ill afford
it.
EVEN
MICHELLE OBAMA LOOKS DISGUSTED AT SUCH BRAZEN SMUGNESS
(1st
2014 KUWG meeting will be 9/1/14)
If
you are having any problems with any of your benefits and require our
support, then we want to hear from you! WE ARE in the same boat. Come
along to our free weekly meetings. Free Tea, coffee and nibbles
provided. FIGHT
BACK!!
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Thursdays
3pm – 5.30pm Small Hall, Kingsgate Community Centre, 107
Kingsgate Rd, NW6 2JH -Disabled access available-
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Or
call: 07709 932 267 All cheques and donations for ‘KUWG’ to:
85
Webheath, Netherwood Street, London NW6 2JS.
Friday, 13 December 2013
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Hammer-Smith's Universal Cock-Up
Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group's contribution to Boycott Workfare Week
Time: 11am-12 noon Wednesday 4 DecemberPlace: Hemmersmith Jobcentre, 1 Glen House, 22 Glenthorne Road W6 0PP
Kilburn Unemployed Workers group are calling a demonstration in support of the Boycott Workfare Week of Action outside the Hammersmith Jobcentre, in protest of the introduction of Universal Credit. Hammersmith is the sole London Jobcentre using Universal Credit, a project that has already wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money. Yet Iain Duncan Smith and Co carry on – despite Universal Cock-up's aim to disenfranchise many claimants due to a monthly payment to a sole individual within a “household” and trapping workers receiving Working Tax Credits or Housing benefit top-ups in the DWP's harsh sanctions regime.
11am-12 noon Wednesday 4 December
1 Glen House, 22 Glenthorne Road W6 0PP
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