Tameside Council security tell Tameside Councillors to move on!

A SMALL group of protesters who meet each week to give out free food parcels and benefit advice to the unemployed and homeless, outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, were told to move on yesterday by the local police and Tameside Council security personnel, after they arrived outside the new Tameside One building, in Market Place, Ashton.  The building now accommodates Ashton library, Tameside Council's Customer Services, Citizens Advice, Cash Box Credit Union and Jobcentre Plus.

Among those who were told to move on by burly Tameside security staff, were two Tameside Councillors and Cabinet members - Oliver Ryan, Executive Member (Children Services) and Leanne Feeley, Executive Member (Lifelong Learning).  A former Tameside Mayor, Michael Ballagher, was also among the group as was Nigel Morgan, Chief Executive Officer, Tameside Citizens Advice Bureau.

Charlotte Hughes, a single parent from Ashton-under-Lyne, who leads the group 'Tameside Against The Cuts', later wrote on her blog:

'We arrived as normal at 10am outside the new Jobcentre.  It was pouring down with rain which didn’t help things either.

'The minute that we arrived the police arrived, they must have been waiting for us. At first they were quite happy for us to stand outside the Jobcentre in the plaza area because it had been deemed a public place, however a member of the local authority decided differently.  We were told that we had to stand in the area near the steps downstairs...  Of course that the Jobcentre don’t want us there so they’ve probably had words with someone, you know how these things go.  Despite this’ll we will be back outside the Jobcentre next week.

'We help people, hand food parcels out and support people…  All things that the DWP should do.  Whilst we were there local councillors who were standing with us weren’t impressed with us being moved.  Believe me we will be back.'

Ms Hughes also believes that some disabled people may have difficulty accessing the Jobcentre because of the stairs both in and outside the building and the small lift that some people might be unable to use because of its restricted space.  She was also critical of the lack of signs in the building indicating where to locate services and the lack of privacy in the library.  Apparently, one member of the public complained to her that DWP staff were seen "milling round the library and looking at what people were doing."

Although Labour have been in power in Tameside for the last forty years, the borough has one of the worst records for food poverty in the North West.  It looks like Tameside Council might live to regret having invited Jobcentre Plus into their new administrative centre. 

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Universal Credit - the bureaucratic nightmare!

A mind at the end of its tether - claiming Univeral Credit

By Steve (Starlord) Fisher



Iain Duncan Smith promised that Universal Credit would 'make work pay' and make the transition into and out of paid work seamless. This has not been my experience here or elsewhere. The whole system is not fit for purpose - it is a bureaucratic nightmare! Weber's 'iron cage' of bureaucracy! The unemployed now needs the skills of a Philadelphia lawyer in order to negotiate the system.

As a self-employed consultant, I've been helping a client (who turned to me in desperation), to move from paid work back onto Universal Credit. He'd been working as a manual worker for six months and his contract came to an end. However, it has proved a bit of farce despite our doing everything correctly.

The same day his employment ended we contacted the DWP and I was happily surprised that his claim was still open. This made matters easier, or so we thought. It was my understanding that a UC claim is kept open for 6 months to facilitate movement in and out of paid work and unemployment. Any longer, and UC is automatically closed necessitating the making of a fresh claim. Apparently it can be longer, anything from 6 months up to a maximum of 8 months. It all depends on exactly when work begins and ends and where it falls within a UC monthly commencement or start-up period and end period. We thought this 'good fortune' would make it easier to make a claim. That, after all, is one of the avowed claims of UC, to make the transition in and out of paid work fluid and seamless. So we thought that was that, but the reality it couldn't have been further from the truth.

He signed-on for a couple of weeks and received a letter telling him that his UC claim had ended! We phoned the UC help-line only to be told, eventually, that they had indeed cancelled his claim, in error. His claim had 10 days before expiry, and so I speculated the most likely scenario was that his claim had been terminated, automatically, because the paperwork from Ashton Jobcentre did not reach the relevant department in time, ie within 10 days. The help-line agreed this was the most likely scenario. We were told they may be able to 'rebuild his claim'. They said he could make a complaint. As it turned-out there was nothing they could do and he would now have to make a fresh claim. But any such claim commences only from the moment it is made. What about the last few weeks then? That's why it is imperative that one make a fresh claim as soon as possible because it won't be backdated.

When he signed-on he was told he was due a payment, but what did this mean now it had been cancelled? He received an award payment of zero. I already knew he would not receive a payment until mid-January despite what he thought because the first 7 days don't count and it is paid 1 month in arrears making for a 5 week wait at best. But does this fresh claim include the last few weeks of a claim that never was, even while signing-on at Ashton Jobcentre?

We resigned ourselves to making a fresh UC claim and would have to wait and see how this farce worked-out.

So, on Tuesday 21st December 2016 we tried without success to make an online UC application. That's how it's done these days. I'd already heard about the online completion time limit. We had 20-40 minutes to complete it. Exceed this and everything's lost. One must start again playing the UC version of 'snakes and ladders'. There is no option to save and return later as with other online systems.

The online form is a poor-mans version of a HMRC Tax Return. Very poorly designed, with poor 'error-handling'. It's almost as if it's been designed to fail, to put people off making an application in the first place, and even when one does try it often fails for other reasons. The software is very fragile. But how typical was our experience?

We had no trouble finishing within the time limit. However, we ran into a different but related problem. We were well prepared and had almost finished. We were just entering banking details when the bloody system crashed, telling us to try again later or continue with the current application. However, there is no way to continue. One is forced to abandon the current attempt and start again, but even that's not easy. We tried again only to be told a claim was already in process, that we would have wait 20 minutes for the current application to expire or continue with it, but as said this was not possible. So we had to twiddle our thumbs for 20 minutes and begin again just like poor old Michael Finnegan. This time we were moving at speed knowing exactly what to do only to find it failed within minutes returning us to the beginning yet again. Yet another 20 minutes of thumb twiddling. I tried again but we were getting nowhere fast. I suggested we try again tomorrow when we could phone the UC help-line if this happened again.

So on Wednesday 22nd December 2016 we tried again. Immediately we started we were told a claim was already in process and we would have to wait 20 minutes before we could continue, but I'd not done anything yet. I telephoned the DWP UC help-line and was told they'd been having problems yesterday. That explained that. Now the excuse, was that they were updating the system starting this afternoon at 16:00, with only minutes to go! The DWP officer thought we may have difficulty and it would be best to leave it to another day. However, I thought lets give it one more try and finally, success! I told my client to include all of these difficulties as part of his efforts to find work. However, one cannot save a copy. One does not get a receipt number or get an email confirmation. My client is told that he can expect a phonecall within 2 days to make an appointment at the Jobcentre. Of course, he's already done all of this!

My client has now been told that he's got a Jobcentre appointment for his UC claim and can expect his first payment at the beginning of February 2017, having started his claim on 30 November 2015, over two months ago. He is now in rent arrears and has been given his first a food-bank voucher  from his landlord. He now faces a gloomy Christmas, with no money, and wonders what was the point of taking temporary paid work, when all it does screws up your benefit claim and leaves you facing hardhip.  God help us, if this is what the government calls simplyfying things.

Workfare taskmaster punched by angry Jobseeker in Ashton!

AS an old garrison town, Ashton-under-Lyne, has always had something of a reputation for being boisterous and rowdy. In Victorian times, the town had a reputation for being one of the most drunkenest towns in the North West. 

It therefore comes as no surprise to many of us, that we heard today during one of our regular weekly Ashton Jobcentre protest, that a downtrodden and miserable Jobseeker, had turned very nasty while on a placement with a so-called local training provider in Ashton-under-Lyne. We are reliably informed that this morning, a member of staff working for 'Avanta' in Ashton, was violently assaulted by a disgruntled inmate. 

We have been unable to establish why this incident occurred or whether the police were called. However, the CPS Jobcentre union, have reported that violent incidents directed against their own members have risen exponentially as benefit sanctions have increased and claimants have been put under greater pressure to meet targets.

One expects that violent incidents of this kind are likely to continue.

Putting Tameside TUC in its Place!

Manchester TUC: They Know Their Swedish Meatballs!

LAST June, in a posting on this Blog, Blanco Posnet  wrote:
‘… a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.'

Then on the 6^th, August, Blanco Posnet  posted something entitled ‘Are Ashton Jobcentre acting like NAZI's?’, which included the following:
‘… only last week a meeting took place in Ashton between P.C.S. union representatives and two invited activists who have been campaigning against the governments iniquitous sanctions regime outside Ashton Jobcentre, for the past 12 months.  The meeting was initiated by Annette Wright (pictured above) a union official of the P.C.S union and President of Manchester Trades Council, and Evan Pritchard, a lay branch official from the Greater Manchester Unite Community Union.’
After a meeting today of the Greater Manchester County Association, the union officer, Annette Wright, was asked by a Northern Voices’ journalist as to what was the constitutional status of the meeting referred to above which was held at Ikea, famous for its Swedish meatballs, in Ashton-under-Lyne.  She said that it was convened as a joint meeting of the PCS, and the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch.
Blanco Posnet had also written, last August: 
‘… it seems that much of the time [at this meeting] was taken up in admonishing Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign…. [and that] Ms. Hughes, a “hardworking” single-mother with four children, who runs a blog – ‘The Poor Side of Life’, a weekly diary of events outside Ashton Jobcentre – was asked to remove items from her blog concerning Ashton Jobcentre and the P.C.S. union.’  When this was raised today by the Tameside delegate in his report at the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, Ms. Wright became flushed in the face and her colleague from Manchester TUC, John Clegg,(bottom right of picture), was heard to utter a four-letter word, and both began hectoring the Tameside delegate.  Even the Northern Voices' Blog was mentioned in their excitable ejaculations. 
Oh dear! 
Both Mr Clegg, and Ms. Wright insisted that the matter had been resolved, and said that it was not a matter for the Trade Councils of Greater Manchester.  Ms. Wright claimed that Charlotte Hughes had not complained of her treatment, and that everything was amicable.  The duo then went on to lambaste Tameside TUC, which has helped to finance the campaign against unfair benefit sanctions in Tameside.  
After the meeting was over,  Ms. Wright was asked when she was going to put in an appearance on the picket outside the Ashton Jobcentre. 
To which, reply came there none!

Protesters call on Jobcentre' workers to join campaigns against benefit sanctions!

Protesters who are campaigning against the Government's unfair sanctioning regime outside a Jobcentre in Ashton-under-Lyne, are calling on Jobcentre workers to join their protest and to support their own union's opposition to the 'draconian' sanctioning regime within Jobcentre's.

Last week,  a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.

At their last conference, P.C.S delegates voted for a motion that called on P.C.S members to:

a) Support initiatives that seek to undermine and expose the draconian sanction regime that exists in Jobcentres.

b) Encourage campaign activity with local groups around the issue of sanctions.

c) Actively support staff who are targeted with disciplinary action for using their discretion when considering sanction referrals.

d) Raise the profile of the issues around the government's war on the poor.

As we recently reported, the scale and persistence of poverty in Britain, has led to many people in work, becoming increasingly reliant on in-work state benefits as welfare is being used to top-up poverty pay. Some 40% of staff who work in Jobcentres, qualify for the state benefit 'Universal Credit'.

One of the reasons for low pay, is the inability of many British workers to demand a bigger share of national wealth because their trade unions are shackled by some of the most stringent anti-union laws in the western world. These laws, or legal hurdles, are intended to make it difficult for unions to take official industrial action to obtain better terms and conditions of employment. One consequence of this, is the 'flexible labour market' - zero hours contracts, low pay, temporary jobs and more agency work.

Apart from low-pay, Britain is also plagued by low productivity and a skills shortage. UK productivity is 14-15 percentage points lower than France and 17 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7,  in 2013. The British economy under the Tories is being built on low wages and low productivity and is heavily reliant on its financial sector.

As we head towards another referendum as to whether the UK will continue to be a member of the EEC, we should perhaps recall a speech that was made at Upminster by the Tory grandee, Sir Keith Joseph, in June 1974. In that speech, given seventeen months after the UK joined the EU in January 1973, he said:

"Compare our position today with that of our neighbours in Germany, Sweden, Holland, France. They are no more talented than we are. Yet, compared with them, we have the longest working hours, the lowest pay, and the lowest production per head. We have the highest taxes and the lowest investment. We have the least prosperity, the most poor and the lowest pensions."

It seems, that even after forty years, some things in Britain never change. We still have low pay, low productivity, long working hours compared to many other EU countries, less holidays and poorer state pensions. The only thing that as changed, is the excuses that are given by politicians for Britain's economic decline. Back in June 1974, Sir Keith, didn't blame Britain's membership of the EU or immigration for Britain's economic failure. He told his audience, that it was all the fault of the Labour Party and socialism.

Activists target council for 'Nanny State' initiative for 'Troubled Families.' Blame the Government not single-mothers, say protesters!

Yesterday around 30 activists from across Greater Manchester, joined a protest outside Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall, organised by 'Tameside Against the  Cuts'. They were there to protest against the 'Troubled Families Phase 2' initiative which is being introduced by Tameside Council in  Greater Manchester, as a joint enterprise between the Council, Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre and New  Charter Housing Trust.

Under the scheme - 'Troubled Families Wave 2, Joint Investment Agreement', Tameside Council is being paid  a £1000 attachment fee by the government for each troubled family on its books and is aiming to work with a minimum of 1,750 so-called 'Troubled Families'.  A further £800 'results fee' is also paid by the government, to an agency appointed by the council. This scheme follows on from Phase 1, which helped 'Troubled Families' with such things as truancy, anti-social behaviour, crime, domestic violence and drug and alcohol dependency.

Although the initiative appears to be legal but looks bent, a leaflet distributed by the protesters, described it as a "dodgy deal between the Government and the Greater Manchester Councils." In particular, they say that single-mothers are being targeted and designated as 'troubled families' because of problems that are not of their making, but which have resulted from Government  economic policies and welfare reforms, which have reduced income for benefit claimants both in and out of work. They also say that the scheme is a misuse of vital financial resources and seeks to cover up Government failed economic  policies  by blaming people for being unemployed.

As we reported recently, a single-mother and jobseeker,  was designated a 'troubled family' and referred to the scheme by Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, when it was claimed she was not doing enough to find work. Under the scheme, each 'troubled family' is designated a key worker and a busybody social worker to police their everyday activities and to give them a nudge back into work. One of the criteria for 'early intervention' by Tameside Social Services, is where the family is considered to be at risk of 'financial exclusion' or where the children are at risk of 'worklessness'.

Protesters also say that New Charter Housing Trust, which is closely linked to the council, have been assigned the role as organizer even though the contract was not put out to tender. The council say that a waiver was "granted under PSO C3.2 to enable a direct award of the investment agreement with New Charter Housing Trust." In March 2000, Tameside Council transferred 14,600 homes to New Charter. Many of the senior managers of New Charter were former council employees and a number of Labour councillor's on Tameside Council, have taken up paid positions within the company. New Charter Housing also own the Reporter and Chronicle Newspaper and Tameside Radio. New Charter also sponsor three academy schools in Tameside. Following a recent criticial report by Ofsted into Tameside schools, Education boss, Cllr. Ged Cooney, - a former Chairman of New Charter Housing Trust - blamed the borough's academies for dragging down educational performance rates in Tameside.

Whether social services intervention will result in 'Troubled Parents' having their children taken off them because of 'worklessness', is not addressed but social workers do have statutory powers to place children in care.

"Pregnant, sanctioned and hungry": Ashton Jobcentre slated for abominable behaviour!

The weekly protests outside  Ashton Jobcentre have now been taking place for over seven months.
They began last August, when  19-year-old Eleanor Coulthard, from Ashton-under-Lyne, was sanctioned for a third time, after telling an employer that she was 23-weeks pregnant. Previously, she had been sanctioned when the jobcentre said that she was not doing enought to find work. Although Eleanor had only been claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for 3 months, she was sanctioned for a third time after the Jobcentre told her that she shouldn't have mentioned her pregnancy during an interview for an unpaid work placement, with  B&Q at the Snipe Retail Park in Ashton-under-Lyne.

The government deny that they have national targets for sanctions. Government employment minister, zero-hours champion, Esther McVey, recently told a parliamentary select committee: "there are no sanction targets, there is no harassment." Yet the PCS union says that  Jobcentre workers, based on staff surveys, are put under pressure to make sanction referrals and are rewarded for sanctioning claimants. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, of the PCS union told the Work and Pensions Select Committee that:

"Assaults on staff have increased dramatically since the regime was tightened up and what we now see is civil servants, many of whom are fantastically low paid - 40% would be entitled to universal credit, becoming a target because people think they are to blame."

In the recent Channel 4 'Dispatches' programme - 'Britain's Benefit Crackdown' broadcast last Monday, two former Jobcentre workers from Leicester told how they had been disciplined for not meeting sanction targets. Alan Davis, a DWP personal adviser told the programme - "The pressure was enormous, I just felt what they were asking me to do, was totally wrong - they were asking me to 'hammer people' who in their own way were doing their best to get a job..."

Among those who appeared on the programme was plucky Eleanor Coulthard, now the proud mother of baby Malachi, who attended his first Jobcentre protest two weeks ago. She told 'Dispatches' that because of the stress that she was put under by Ashton Jobcentre she developed Bell's Palsy, a facial paralysis associated with stress and gave birth five weeks prematurely. Eleanor added:

"I don't think pregnant women should be sanctioned because its not just you it's affecting. There's an unborn child that's growing inside you, that needs food, and nourishment from you. And if you're not getting it, the baby is not getting it."

One of those who was 'hammered' by the Jobcentre and was referred to in the 'Dispatches' programme, was ex-solider, David Clapson, from Stevenage, Herts. A type one diabetic, David died skint and starving, five days after Jobcentre officials axed his benefits: he had £3.44 in his bank account. An autopsy found that he had no food in his stomach and had died of ketoacidosis, caused by a lack of insulin. Having no food or electricity, David had been unable to store insulin in his fridge safely. His sister, Gill Thompson, told the programme that leaving a type one diabetic with no money was tantamount to passing a death sentence on them.

Last Thursday, a jobseeker at Ashton Jobcentre, told us that he had been sanctioned for 3 months, because he arrived 2 minutes late for an interview. When he later complained about his benefit advisor being 15 minutes late for an appointment, he was told shut up or he would be sanctioned again.

Although the weekly Ashton Jobcentre protests have attracted support from a number of groups, including the Green Party,  Labour party  members in Tameside have been conspicuously absent. Indeed, one Tameside Labour councillor, and gravy train rider, who is known to own at least two Spanish villas, has referred to Eleanor's mother, Charlotte Hughes, the Green Party parliamentary candidate for the Ashton constituency, as the 'bag lady'. He recently tweeted that she should get a job instead of protesting outside Ashton Jobcentre.

Ashton jobseeker sanctioned for three-months for making a spelling mistake!

In his magnificent book " Religion and the rise of Capitalism", R.H. Tawney, stated: "Most tyrannies have contented themselves with tormenting the poor." You could say that this just about sums up the prevailing ideology that dominates policy within this wretched Tory led coalition government which is hell-bent on turning us into doormats for billionaires. The UK might be the sixth richest country on earth but last year, over 1 million sought help from the charity run foodbanks.

One of the things that is driving people to turn to foodbanks, is the staggering rise in the number of people on benefits who are being sanctioned. We also seeing an increase in the rate of suicides that are linked to benefit cuts and sactions which are often both unfair or possibly illegal. The emphasis is  now  on what the Jobcentre calls "off-flow" which measures the number of people coming off benefits and not necessarily the number who go into jobs. Campaigning groups like Tameside Against the Cuts, are now being set up across the country in opposition to the social injustice that is being meted out to unemployed people in receipt of state benefits. Last week (Thursday) one member of the group spoke to  a jobseeker who was sanctioned by the Ashton Jobcentre for three-months for making a spelling mistake. It is to be hoped that this person was told to appeal and to apply for a hardship payment. The following account by Charlotte is copied from her blog, the Poor Side of Life:

"You couldn’t make it up… Well actually it’s become the norm to be sanctioned for making a spelling mistake. A gentleman who spoke to us on our Thursday demo told us that he was put on a three month sanction at Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre for making a spelling mistake. He wasn’t given a chance to correct it, or a chance to explain it. He was told very bluntly “we are sanctioning you for spelling this word incorrectly on a form. This will prevent you from getting work so therefore is a sanctionable offence”. This man received a three month sanction for this so called offence. No one bothered to ask him if he was dyslexic or had any other issues which may have prevented him from spelling the word correct. Neither is it a crime to spell a word incorrectly. Indeed we are all human and are prone to making mistakes. This is shocking but had become the norm at this Jobcentre and jobcentres up and down the country. It reminded me of why Jobcentres were created in the first place. They were created to help you find work. They also used to help you fill in forms and make telephone calls if this was required. They were very productive places in those days, you stood a chance of finding work and not being sanctioned. I prefer to call Jobcentres sanction centres now as their main aim is to get people off benefits in any way possible. If bullying, sanctioning, coercing claimants to commit suicide and taking away a persons every means of survival is needed to do this then they will do this…. They have targets to reach, and reach them they will by whatever means possible. "

Bedroom tax campaigner lambasts Tameside local press for bias!

 

The above photo shows an action in the campaign against the Jobseeker's Allowance outside Burnley Jobcentre in the 1990s:  in the foreground on the left is Steve (Starlord) Fisher. 

 

WE are publishing below a letter that was sent last week to both the Tameside Advertiser and the Tameside Reporter and Chronicle newspapers, from local environmental activist, Steve (Starlord) Fisher (pictured above).  The issue of a free press in Tameside is something that we have previously reported on in Northern Voices. In September 2012, in an exclusive, we revealed that the Tameside Reporter had been bought by New Charter Housing Ltd, a housing company that also owns Tameside Radio and has close links to the Labour council in Tameside. In 2008, we also reported in Northern Voices magazine, claims made by  Private Eye magazine (1220) that  Tameside Council was meeting with local newspaper editors to 'suppress sensationalist reporting'.  We have no misgivings about publishing Mr Fisher's epistle in full because we share many of his concerns about press censorship.  This concern was also noted by one of our readers who predicted at the time of the takeover that we would see, the 'banning of dissenting voices' and lashings of corporate agenda.  Should anyone therefore be surprised that local newspaper sales are plummeting. 

'Many readers of your "redoubtable" newspaper are no doubt reading under the illusion that it reports fairly and faithfully on current affairs in Tameside.  Well I can assure you that's not the case at all.  They can't honestly say they didn't know, that they can't report on everything, that it's neutral in its reportage.  Far from it, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue.  How do I know this you might ask?  Well I'll tell you.

 

'I and many of my friends in 'Tameside Against the Cuts' have been protesting unstintingly every Thursday afternoon for the last 6 months outside Ashton Jobcentre against 'work-for-dole' and illegal & unlawful Benefit Sanctions and many other social injustices.

 

'The local press have been told many times by phone and email.  We've invited them but they're just not interested & to date no article has been published about our important voluntary "Community Contribution".  That is the level of biased reportage in Tameside.

 

'Our "Community Contribution" counts for nothing, jarring no doubt with New Charter's social engineering agenda. They do not approve of our activities.  We do not even meet with their new conditionality criteria for getting a New Charter tenancy.  They simply don't recognise our way of "giving something back", failing to recognise the positive work that we do in the community.  But who put them in charge? No one! They just own and control the bulk of Tameside Social Housing, the Tameside Reporter, and Tameside Radio in their empire building 'Quest' for power and influence.

 

'Astonishingly, I recently read 3 articles about a new related campaign launched outside Hyde Town Hall by Emma Mohareb-Leyla in January:  I've been told she was also published in the Manchester Evening News.  It's great that she's been able to highlight some of the issues we've been campaigning about for the last 2 years!  So why have we been ignored?  We are treated like lepers!  Why has it taken somebody else to get this published? How does one get an audience with the press-barons of Tameside?

 

'On the 25th September 2013 one of my 3 letters about the Bedroom Tax was published in the Reporter. Every reference to New Charter was excised! New Charter then had the gall to publish their riposte the following week! Where's the editorial independence when a social landlord like New Charter have a vested interest in the Bedroom Tax?

 

'My last published letter was about KFC in Hyde, but that too was severely edited culling most of the really interesting stuff. My next 4 letters in a row went unpublished. It's really hard to get a letter published in the local press let alone articles reporting what's actually happening in Tameside.

 

'For the last 2 years Tameside Against the Cuts have protested all over Ashton: on Ashton Town Hall steps and Market ground & outside Ashton Magistrates court against TMBC's unfair Council Tax and their use of Marstons bailiffs; outside New Charter Housing & Ashton Pioneer Homes against the Bedroom Tax (tenants have been evicted); & outside parasitic Work Programme Provider organisations paid thousands of pounds by the Government to force the unemployed to work for their dole and undermine wages!  They are treated worse than many convicted criminals.  To date we've targeted only StandGuide, but i2i, Work Solutions, and Avanta, are also in our sights lest they think they've been forgotten!  We are well aware of a number of slave-labour stores in Tameside and would like to target them too!

 

'We've very effectively concentrated our efforts on Ashton Jobcentre where many of the poor and the vulnerable can be found.  These innocents have been unfairly targeted by the Tories ideological agenda and made to pay for the gambling excesses & extravagances of the greedy and materialistic rich and powerful.

 

'Ashton Jobcentre was chosen by this poxy proxy Government to pilot their draconian Universal Credit which gambles with the lives of the poor, making them destitute & homeless, driven to foodbanks and even to suicide.  Worse still this avowedly Tameside Labour Council are collaborators. These turncoats capitulated and rolled-over to have their belly's tickled. They feebly argue that they had to be in it in order to 'shape it'! Yet after 2 years they refuse to say how they've 'shaped-it' with apparently nothing to show for their treacherous behaviour.

 

'The name Universal Credit tells you all you need to know. For one it ain't universal! Secondly 'credit' is a proxy for debt.  We live in a consumer 'credit' society, for which read "debt" society, in which we subsist, bound in servitude to the rich. The vast majority are indebted to and enslaved by the rich.

 

'What is needed is far more revolutionary, the introduction of a Universal Unconditional Guaranteed Basic Income Scheme for ALL to ensure a basic or minimum level of existence for all as a right whether in work or not which is in harmony with the principle of Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs'. That would indeed be truly universal unlike Universal Credit which is not!  This Government have the vision of a bat out of hell knowing only the price of everything but the value of nothing.

 

'A Basic Income would really empower the poor who could then truly choose when and where to work, and to do 'Good Work'. Those who want to have more than the bare necessities of life can work for them to satisfy their desires, but no longer can they force people to labour for them.

 

'This is the politics of fairness, not the politics of envy. I have no desire to be rich, nor do I desire to be poor.  I desire the freedom to serve as I see fit to fulfill my soul purpose on earth.  Those infected with the disease of greed can still work and be rich if they so wish. They could also seek psychotherapeutic help.  They could perhaps even take-up Buddhism.' 

Jobcentre staff complain of being intimidated by religious cleric!

 Although most English folk regard Christmas as the season of goodwill, there wasn't much goodwill on display at Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, when a wreath was laid outside the Jobcentre the week before Christmas.

The wreath was laid in memory of those people whose deaths have been linked to the government's austerity policies and benefit sanctions. To mark the event, the Rev. David Grey (pictured with police officer), a former friar from Gorton monastery spoke and called on Jobcentre staff to show humanity and compassion towards the unemployed.

After speaking, Rev Grey, entered the Jobcentre to offer staff  free counselling. We understand that this was abruptly refused. Shortly after, the police arrived and Rev. Grey was told that a complaint had been made by the Jobcentre staff who had claimed that they had felt intimidated and harassed by the Rev Grey, who was dressed in a monks' habit.

The protests outside the Jobcentre having been taking place since last August after a 19-year-old girl had her benefit stopped after telling an employer she was 23-weeks pregnant. Last month, the Morning Star newspaper, reported that G4S staff working at the Jobcentre had threatened protestors with violence. According to the report, a G4S guard was heard to say: "I'm going out there to punch them."

Page Views on Northern Voices' Blog

THIS month the post 'Protester's target Ashton Jobscentre for sanctioning claimants'  overtook 'SEXUAL ABUSE: Cyril Smith's Family v's Private Eye...' (Date: 19th, Sept. 2010).    The latter had dominated our page-viewings since 2012.  The post on the 'Protester's target Ashton Jobcentre...' was posted on the 28th, Aug. 2014.  Other postings about the campaign at the job centre in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester have also attracted significant interest in recent weeks.  It may represent the nervous concern of some folk about the repressive nature of sanctions and the benefit system at the present time.  There is a strange interest another very old post on the NV Blog 'WOOLAS SUSPENDED BY LABOUR PARTY! (Date: 6TH, Nov. 2010) .   


Posts

Entry	Pageviews
Protesters target Ashton Jobcentre for sanctioning... 28 Aug 2014, 2 comments	2416
SEXUAL ABUSE: Cyril Smith's Family vs Private Eye... 19 Sep 2010	2225
WOOLAS SUSPENDED BY LABOUR PARTY! 6 Nov 2010, 1 comment	967
Julie Hesmondhalgh in Blindside at Manchester Roya... 24 Dec 2013	794
Tory twit wants national service for young people!... 2 Sep 2013	701
Jim Savile & Cyril Smith: Dead Men Tell No Lies! 10 Oct 2012, 1 comment	579
The Coalition: Return of Maggie Thatcher? by Laure... 24 Sep 2010	452

G4S guard told Jobcentre activist - 'I'm going to go out there and punch them' !

Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre is rapidly acquiring a reputation for thuggery. In recent weeks, NV has reported on how one 19-year-old Jobseeker had her benefit stopped because she told an employer she was 23-weeks pregnant. Another Jobseeker, was told by Ashton Jobcentre, that he would have his benefit stopped if he continued to support a protest outside the Jobcentre against unfair and illegal sanctions and the abuse of power. This week an article appeared in the Morning Star, alleging that a G4S security guard working at Ashton Jobcentre, had threatened to use violence towards protesters. We are publishing the article in full.

"PROTESTERS threatened with violence by G4S security staff at a local jobcentre have vowed to continue their fight against benefit cuts and sanctions today.

Tameside Anti-Cuts will return to their weekly peaceful demonstration at Ashton-Under-Lyne Jobcentre Plus, claiming they are "not afraid."

Last week's action ended on a sour note, when a member of the public exited the centre reporting a G4S security guard had just shouted: "I'm going to go out there and punch them."

Charlotte Hughes, who helps organise the unemployed in the town, said the behaviour of the jobcentre's outsourced security "beggars belief." "I've saved three people from committing suicide this month," she told the Star, adding that jobseekers feel increasingly intimidated and alone. Ms Hughes argued that the demonstrations are peaceful and that Tameside Anti-Cuts provides help, support and advice to the unemployed.

Demonstrations started in August after her 23-week pregnant daughter was sanctioned. "She attended a workfare interview and was told by the jobcentre staff that she shouldn't have told B&Q that she was pregnant," explained Ms Hughes.

Ashton-Under-Lyne was chosen by the government as the launch centre of its universal credit flagship scheme in April 2013. Ms Hughes said that is why the jobcentre's staff are particularly strict applying what she called an "inhuman sanctioning system." Today's protest is nonetheless expected to carry on as normal.
"We are going to make the jobcentre aware that they can't threaten us," insisted Ms Hughes.

When approached by the Star, staff at the Ashton-Under-Lyne jobcentre refused to comment.

G4S also remained silent on the incident."

Protesting jobseeker threatened with benefit sanction in Ashton-under-Lyne!

A 32-year-old jobseeker from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, has been told by staff at Ashton Jobcentre, that his benefit will be stopped if he continues to support a regular Thursday protest taking place outside the Jobcentre against unfair and illegal sanctions and the abuse of power by staff. He was also told by his advisor that she objected to him wearing a badge against sanctions and asked him, if he understood what he was getting himself involved with.

The English like to brag a lot about Freedom, but it seems that if your unemployed in Tory Britain today, your freedom to protest, certainly outside your own Jobcentre, is seriously being curtailed and makes you a prime target for unfair and illegal benefit sanctions. But this kind of draconian action and control, is not just confined to jobseekers.

In Britain today, students who have protested against such things as the high cost of tuition fees, have been threatened with expulsion from educational institutions. Bolshie workers who insist on safe working practices or.who take employers to an employment tribunal, are labelled 'troublemakers' and sacked and put on employers' blacklists. In the NHS, health workers who have identified deficiences in the standards of patient care, have been sacked and blacklisted from getting further work within the NHS. Most of this would have been unthinkable forty years ago before the advent of Thatcherism and political regimes that objectively favour private capital.

However, the lump-heads who work for the DWP at Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, may very well have handed the protestors on a plate, the ammunition they need by their bullying of a young jobseeker. Initially, the protest was sparked in August this year, when the Jobcentre was found to have sanctioned a 19-year-old jobseeker for having the temerity to tell a local retailer, B&Q, during an interview for unpaid work, that she was 23-weeks pregnant. Now protesters outside Ashton Jobcentre, are telling the public that jobseeker's are being threatened with sanctions for exercising their legimate right to peacefully protest. There is also talk of a complaint being made to the police about the actions of Jobcentre staff who are causing  jobseeker's, harassment, distress and alarm, on a daily basis, which is a statutory offence in England and Wales.

The ancient Greeks recognised only too well that eternal vigilance was the price of freedom. The nineteenth-century historian, Lord Acton, was well aware that "power corrupts and and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But for me, it is the romantic poet Shelley, who puts it most succinctly in his poem Queen Mab, where he wrote: 

Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame
A mechanized automaton.