The state’s revenge
We were in quite a cheerful mood last night. The “indy cyclist” Mark Coburn had just achieved the goal on his latest fundraiser for various Yes groups, which meant that any extra money raised between now and the end of the project next Friday would go to the Maryhill Food Bank run by Julie Webster, which we featured last weekend.
And then we read a story from yesterday’s Scottish Sun.
Julie, 38, was in desperate straits when her sickness benefit was stopped after she was signed off work with stress. She now survives on £140 a week in tax credits after her handout was cancelled over an alleged bust-up at a claim centre.
But she was signed off with stress in September 2013 and her marriage collapsed under the strain. Her estranged hubby carried on helping with mortgage payments — until disaster struck and he was laid off three weeks before Christmas last year.
Julie claimed a ‘frail’ man was harassed by counter staff who drafted in security guards before cops were called. She led him outside and put him in a taxi — but when she went back in, she claims she was told her appointment was cancelled ‘for sticking her nose in’.
When she asked for the decision in writing police were called to escort tearful Julie out. She has been struggling on tax credits since May.”
We’ve added the emphasis there. But we hope we’re not alone in being concerned at the idea that Job Centre staff are now being told to sanction people for trying to help others, and particularly when that person is running a foodbank and making political comments in public about the system that has made foodbanks necessary.
The Sun doesn’t seem to have asked the DWP for a comment, so we don’t know if they deny that the sanction was applied because Julie Webster “stuck her nose in” in defence of a frail old man. But we’re pretty sure that if she wasn’t inclined to stick her nose in, the people of Maryhill would be even worse off than they already are.
You can contribute to Mark Coburn’s appeal here – every penny donated now goes to the foodbank – or contact the foodbank direct here.
Not too sure if I like the term ‘handout’ used by the Sun there. It has connotations of state charity when we know the State has been anything but ‘charitable’ in this case.
“every penny donated now goes to the foodbank”
Dig deep Wings, please. Dig deep.
How fucking sick is that?
Sorry for swearing Stu but I’ve reached the point now I just want to kill anyone from Westminster or WM government agency.
Julie was only doing what the DWP should have been doing… helping an individual down on his luck. THEY did NOTHING she did what she could and SHE is punished?
What sort of mad and sick world are we living in?
Name and shame these bastards!
ARGH!!!
Bloody Sundays. Why does our state government hate Her Majesties subjects so?
I’m lucky. I have a job and don’t need to go through the kind of crap that these people are subjected to.
Last year I was drawn into a dispute with the Stasi, sorry, staff in an Airdrie benefit office when my ill daughter was thrown out in the street in horrendous weather. Having just had medical treatment that meant she wasn’t to be left alone, she had accompanied her brother to his signing on appointment, only to be thrown out by a nasty piece of work hiding behind a security badge.
Complaints go nowhere, the establishment at all levels backs each other up.
A few weeks later it was reported in the local news that a woman who had collapsed in the jobcentre in Airdrie had, instead of being offered assistance, been thrown out the door.
Question the Stasi, and security throw you out.
Question the security, the police will come for you.
The system is rotten to the core, and the staff that hide behind policy and security really are the lowest of the low.
And while you are at it, if you haven’t already signed this petition, please do, it will only cost a few seconds of your time.
link to change.org
Thanks for highlighting this Rev, and getting the message out there, @MaryhillBank need all the help we can provide.
The task is huge, but articles like this help enormously, not least in fuelling the anger we should all feel in the face of people being treated in this fashion. Thank you.
Donedid with GREAT pleasure a2. 😉
Can I just point out though that not all staff at the “DWP” are heartless ba****** there are a good number of right thinking people in there doing what they can in a difficult environment.
A lot of training within DWP is geared towards employees applying sanctions first and asking questions later. It encourages strict disciplinary measures if there is any argument or confrontation, in essence a bullying culture designed to humiliate and scare people off benefits, if not back into work.
I know there are lots of examples of frontline staff who hate this but it almost impossible to live with yourself unless you absorb at least some of the values.
Truth is, the attitude is deliberate and comes from the top. Julie Webster will have been identified as a troublemaker and treated accordingly. An independent Scotland will have to look to more thoughtful, progressive and supportive systems if we want to reverse social ostracisation and contempt for poverty.
I try to avoid swearing so I will have to leave it at that!
Its some legacy, 70+years of Labour right to rule the Scottish region with generations living like this. Majority of Scotland may vote no but the majority do want Scotland running Scotland’s economy, with absolutely no chance of Westminster ever letting that happen. Sure they’re now lying about “giving” Holyrood devo tax and spend but it is all just a pack of lies.
This is just disgusting. Appalling. People being sanctioned and walking to food banks. Like the 1930’s.
5 people in the UK own more than 20% of the population. The wealth the wealthiest has risen 15% in the last year. The wealthy tax evade while others get sick through lack of food.
What is the Maryhill Food Bank’s address?
GCC spends public monies policing Orange Marches every month and charges Food Banks rent. It is despicable.
Job centre staff can’t actually sanction people themselves they have to refer it to a decision maker who then decides whether or not to apply the sanction. I’d be willing to bet the version of events and the reason for referral will be rather different to what actually took place.
Not so long ago I had a client who was advised verbally she was being sanctioned for trying to obtain a CSCS card which she needed to apply for an industrial cleaning job, as ‘women don’t work on building sites’. Of course once we got the papers the stated reason for the sanction was that she was not doing enough to find work.
Unfortunately it’s all to easy for vindictive people employed in job centres to make stuff up. The slightly better news is that many of these decisions are overturned either by mandatory reconsideration or appeal. That still leaves the claimant struggling whilst it’s been looked at, hence the explosion in food banks but in the longer term it can often be worth doing.
It’s also worth complaining about any unacceptable behaviour you witness in jobcentres via your MP as complaints from MPs tend to be taken more seriously.
Could you list all the foodbanks across Scotland so that those who have a little more can contribute what they have in excess to foodbanks locally?
‘Handout’ negative connotations of ‘Hate doctrine’……..
Shocking story.
Treating people as human beings does not cost anything.
And the NaeSayers tell us we are all BetterTogether in their rotten Union.
Hell mend them! (As my father used to say)
Unfortuantely Murray, treating people like sh!t costs even less…
@ Betsy says:
13 July, 2014 at 2:37 pm
Job centre staff can’t actually sanction people themselves
Quick google Betsy, Job centre staff can and will put a halt on any benefit claim payment with final status decision must be made somewhere in England but no limit on decision time scale, or decision takes as long as it takes, find employment/go to nearest foodbank if you run out of food,
It’s all designed to keep the less able under the thumb, but if even a strong woman like Julie Webster was reduced to tears what chance has anyone else.
I am raging. I have already had to write to my MP this week about his party(LibDem) and how they are holding the Tories to account…ie NOT and can feel another email is required. I hope to god we get away from these f88ckers….
@Rosa Alba Macdonald,
You can search for local foodbanks on The Trussell Trust website link to trusselltrust.org
However this will only give you foodbanks associated with the Trust when their are numerous small local charities providing free or cheap food to people in need.
This page from the Scottish Refugee Council provides links to various small in Glasgow charities who can help people (not just refugees) with free or cheap food & clothing.
link to scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk
It’s long since past the time, we abandoned HMS Fekthepoor and start building a better society for all.
[…] « The state’s revenge […]
It’s a Shite state of affairs tae be in.
Apologies for the swearing but, as others have noted, not really any other way to react to this
Of course it’s just coincidence that ‘sanctioning’ claimants means they’re driven in desperation to utilize Payday Lenders, who coincidentally are big donors to the Tory Party.
link to telegraph.co.uk
link to independent.co.uk
More google benefit sanction info says if your benefit is sanctioned, or ended, you can apply by phone for a one time only hardship payment, but again its discretionary on each council where you’re resident.
Other teamGB votes no news from the great BBC vote no propaganda machine
link to bbc.co.uk
6 will get you 10 its a landslide YES. Just kiddin.
My heart goes out to Julie
Food banks in the day and age are a sign that the union is well and truly broken. This is a person who helps the most desperate and poor. being targeted by the DWP for “sticking her nose in” , i would have caused a riot.
This is a disgrace . Why anyone would vote NO is way beyond me and the more i think of them the angrier i feel. They (No voters) are blind , selfish and fools to think that this is the right way to run a country in the 21st Century.
Bloody downer now.
Traitors and fools all of them.
This is off topic:
“Not long to go and still time for No voters and people with English accents to invest in shutters for their windows.”
Terry Kelly
Labour councillor in Paisley
July 08 2014
These stories never ring true to me. Job centre staff don’t apply sanctions – despite whatever Google might say. All they can do is suspend payments while a decision maker – always off the site – makes a decision by applying the appropriate legislation (or guidance, in DWP parlance).
Can’t comment on the initial thing she got involved in – doubt even she was aware of what was going on. Easy to jump to the defence of people in the wrong when you already are looking for the worst from staff.
All gov depts are short staffed – especially this time of year. Chances are her getting involved in someone else’s business caused her to miss her appointment slot. Seeing her late would cause other people to have to wait – making them aggressive and creating complaints as well.
Amuses me how everyone accepts that turning up late to the dentists or doctors will mean you won’t get seen. But turning up late in a job centre is obviously the staffs fault and they should be demonised for it, apparently.
The benefit system stinks, but blaming that on the staff at the coal face – especially when those using the services do themselves no favours and their own problems – is shite. I’ve seen dozens – hundreds – of cases where the member of the publics story is one thing, and further digging shows actually if they had done what was required of them (and they had agreed to beforehand) ‘their’ money would not have been effected.
I used to think food banks were for asylum seekers who were not allowed to work to earn money or claim benefits.
Is there any way to help Ms Webster herself, maybe something like what was done for Wee Ginger Dug in his moment of need?
@Ken500 “What is the Maryhill Food Bank’s address?”
61 Chapel Street, G20 9BD. Going up Maryhill Road from the town, you turn right at the first lights after the McDonalds at Tesco’s and the unit is into the left. Anyone who wishes to donate in person can do so between 10.30 and 2.30 each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If you turn up you will be made very welcome indeed. You might even get a hug. 🙂
Follow on Twitter at @MaryhillBank, and you can phone on 0141 946 6828 or 07436796256 if you want to donate outwith these times.
I am making a commitment from now until my 50th – the referendum (four days apart) to cut back on any excesses bought at shops and unneeded to be able to contribute at least £10 a week to my local foodbank.
Trussel Trust have a list of foodbanks:link to trusselltrust.org.
I think we also need to write to MPs about Benefit Sanctions – esp. if you were once a Labour Voter and live in the Lab Heartland (or if you once supported the party of your local MP) and demand redress on this or a failure to support them in the future.
Emails probably too easily dismissed by MPs.
I would also write to ask for comment on the unpublished Polls, and the issue of international observers for indy ref.
@a2
Arriving at Kilmarnock Jobcentre for an interview, a Security guard approached me and told me” Do not cross that line!”
Three Jobcentre staff standing idly by the enterance said nothing. My interview started after waiting for fifteen minutes, during which time I counted at least twenty DWP staff all standing doing SFA!
I was interviewed, then told I had to see someone else sitting at a desk behind me.
Unemployed people ARE treated as second class by DWP staff, they are Ian Duncan Smith’s sock puppets and far too many have chosen to ignore this fact!
“Not so long ago I had a client who was advised verbally she was being sanctioned for trying to obtain a CSCS card which she needed to apply for an industrial cleaning job, as ‘women don’t work on building sites’. Of course once we got the papers the stated reason for the sanction was that she was not doing enough to find work.”
Yes, that’s always the OFFICIAL reason. And it’s akin to the reason for death that could be put on every single death certificate; asphyxia. What that’s caused by, on the other hand, is the true cause. I have little doubt that you are completely correct in what the official reason will be; that’s it’s going to be that reason regardless means it is a complete load of nonsense.
I have been in and out of job centres for more times than I care to remember. I have heard conversations with some staff in there which could have you believe they are one step down from God and your payment can be withheld at their whim. There are some petty little tyrants in job centres.
I would also add, for balance, that I personally have had good advice, help and good wishes from most job centre staff I’ve ever had cause to speak to, and that the last time I was in the atmosphere was one of uniform misery as IDS’s draconian changes were coming in and they were expected to enact them. I have enormous sympathy for some of the folk in there.
Others, as I said, are petty little dictators and frankly if they’re miserable I’m pleased.
See Robin McAlpine speaking about the ‘broken people’ here: link to youtube.com
A while back I was kicked out the JobCentre for being 25 minutes early – I walk the 4 miles (?) from Kinghorn to Kirkcaldy because I can’t afford the bus fare. A few weeks back I was given a ‘warning’ for being 10 minutes late.
In the past I was told by my Doctor I was ‘unfit for work’ – ATOS disagreed and after an appeal which took over a year to be heard the experts (incl. 2 Doctors) on the panel took around 5-10 minutes to agree I was ‘unfit for work’. Within a week of the appeal JobCentre told me I had ‘ticked the wrong box’ on my Doctor’s sick line, that my claim was cancelled and to reclaim I had to go through ATOS again. Needless to say, I declined and am on Jobseekers again against my Doctor’s advice.
You are not an individual; you are a number to be got off the books.
Sorry to go OT, but did anybody else have a problem with this site this morning? I switched on my computer this morning, hit the wings link which immediately threw up a video link regarding the latest poll putting NO at 57% and YES at 43%, Therefore a 14point lead for NO suggesting there are no undecided voters. When I tried to enter my reply the computer wouldn’t connect and the link disappeared from the wings sight! Some skulduggery, have I been hacked or was there a legitimate reason for its removal…or am I going nuts…tin foil hat too tight?
Depressing! Quote from Wikipedia …
“Bipolar disorder …… characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression.”
Sheesh! That sounds awfully like following the day to day, hour to hour even, ups and downs of this campaign! I can hack it, though ….. Especially if we end in an “elevated mood” on the 19th September! Articles like this make it so obvious that we need a Yes.
link to bbc.co.uk it’s getting exciting in Corby and BBC also filed in ballot paper at bottom of page for NO too, incase voters forget how the unbiased impartial BBC want you to vote.
Other daily weird vote no teamGB stuff on CIF Guardian with prof Tomkins way over compensating like the shyster lawyer he really is
From
link to id.theguardian.com
To
link to adamtomkins.net
Professor give up it dude, or at least go to the uni library and read up on how to spot liars and fraudsters, reading up on the “overcompensating” chapters. Everyone can read up on Slovene beauty spots Prof.
I am a single mother with 2 children I have worked since leaving school with only a cocouple of gaps. I served my country in the RAF as well. Unfortunately I have had to leave my job due to childcare falling through. I started at 5am in the morning so had no other options. I spoke to my work and they were unable to do change anything so i reluctantly handed in my notice. I applied for JSA and continued to look for work I have been applying for at least 3 jobs each day and have been accepted to university. I received a letter yesterday informing me that I left my job voluntarily so they sanctioned me. I now have no JSA until September which means I am trying to look after my kids on £120 a week and rin a house. I am totally disgusted that they are able to treat people like this especially when I am doing everything possible to get back into work. I would love for them to explain to me what I was supposed to do with my 7 and 12 year old children and how they would get to school when I started at 5am!!
Another relevant/sickening read here: link to mirror.co.uk
@Alan McHarg.
If you are talking about the post entitled “Right in front of your eyes” I haven’t been able to find it either. I keep getting an error message. Tried to link to it via the email but it doesn’t seem to exist.
Steady guys, this is a fine site, in fact its the best but don’t start attacking the staff that work at these places. They have to put up with unimaginable crap day in and day out.
Don’t think for one minute their job is easy, they get babies dumped on them because some drugged up father didn’t get a crisis loan, they get assaulted (hence the security guards) nobody is allowed in without an appointment for this very reason. A classic my wife received lately from a joiner who is working and who is trying to get benefits on top of working said to her “ye’ll fuckin smile if ye get ma cock up ye ya fuckin whore!”. Or how about ” Ah know wher ye fuckin live ya whore! Yeah its a great job and their sole purpose is just to be horrible?? Come on guys, put the burning torches down.
But hey lets not let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt, yeah they are all bastards etc etc
Not good enough folks, not good enough.
My wife actually gives a shit about people, but what they are not allowed to do is see someone without an appointment, and if they are late for that appointment they can get sanctioned, it is not the staff who decided this, it is Mr IDS.
Perhaps if you have to endure verbal abuse and threats of violence throughout every day at your work maybe you will start to get a bit fraught.
How many of you go home at night from work and cry. or is it just a case of “tough shite change your job if your not happy ya fucking whore”
Very disappointed with the attitude folks, these folk are our ain and we want them to vote Yes too.
An arse is an arse, but the vast majority of people who work anywhere are decent people.
link to facebook.com says the referendum results do at 4.30pm but no result announced yet although its bound to be, check the media interest listed by the organisers on their Facebook page, mainly the BBC interest. Funny that.
Media coming to the Gathering 2014.
Confirmed Corby Radio, Evening Telegraph , BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Midlands inside Out TV , BBC East politics , BBC on line , BBC national news , all day at show and live in Corby in Monday, ITV regional , enquire Sky. On top of this many newspapers from Scotland and England. Let’s hope the rain goes away .
Is there a way to help Julie herself out?
Sickening action from the DWP as usual. These policies are only to be expected from greedy self-centred Tories. But why are Labour promising to retain this punitive system? Would the MSM care to ask next time they are interviewing them? Ann McKechin is the MP for Maryhill so could she take up the issue now?
Stu made a mistake and took the post down, that’s all. He explained on Twitter.
Since when was paying in via the tax and National system and so claiming in times of need a little of what you paid in a hand out if that is the case then the Government itself is living of handout our deductions. Its time these people especially the Tories realised that they are the benefit fraudsters they take our taxes etc and spend it on projects that most of us don’t want eg. nuclear weapon and illegal wars.
O/T I see the Huffington post has went the same way as the unionist pap claiming that support for yes has in their words “nose dived” I will no longer access them.
how can I get rid of these shit emails from BT
I don’t have any difficulty believing Julie account of events. When a new manager started at Leith Job Centre last year, he set staff a target of 30% sanctions.
However, I would also like to know what on earth PCS union are doing to challenge this and to support staff when they refuse to do this.
Incidentally, the staff in the JCPs for under-26s are even worse. They’re supposed to be specially trained to help younger job seekers access training. They don’t – they just sanction them once they’ve been unemployed for 3 months. Without telling them, writing to them, anything. This whole rotten system needs to be destroyed and replaced.
Dr Ew 2.34
Totally agree. The DWP system has recently and very quickly become one that is increasingly hard to access and virtually impossible to navigate when in. I work with vulnerable folk and the biggest single problem outside of their physical/mental health or addiction is the system which treats them with disdain.
It is also taking up more and more of my and my colleagues time dealing with the issues that ensue.
The WM system seems to have become a big stick to keep the population in their place. Oh wait … that’s how they have treated Scotland for hundreds of years.
B******S !
I do hope all food banks have a supply of yest leaflets and that the staff are fully engaged
Also that yes volunters are active at the unemployment exchanges.
The Corby result was 28% Yes and 72% No
I’m actually impressed we got 28%. I see Curran was at the event with Labour peeps to encourage a No vote…may account for the respectable Yes vote 😉
OT
I really like the football match over on Bella.
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk
@ HandandShrimp, and cue nationwide blanket BBC etc coverage. 72% no in Northhamptonshire will bring a big smile to Bliar Macbloated’s special sauce smeared lips, but in a week that saw the billion+ quid loss or billion+ gains for Royal Mail buyers and surveillance of all our emails, phone calls etc by teamGB spooks, things can only get worse, until we vote YES!
72% sounds like the type of result you used to get in some bogus democratic regime manipulating the polls,so not very surprised.
Would people STOP posting about Julie Webster ( IE FUNDING ) YOU<S have no IDEA how that can effect her&family ( ARE WINGERS THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO READ THIS SITE ) THERE is a address further up the thread ( Stuart Blacks post )[.Use the BLOODY THING privately] Donations to the FOOD BANK use Mark Coburns Indygo site.
yea, and they will all be “Proud Scots”, self interest at work again.
Corby isn’t in Scotland. Many of the Corbyites are second and third generation Scots. There is an emotional attachment to 1950s/60s Scotland and Rangers and Celtic but the bulk of them are never ever going to move back to Scotland. Asking them if they want to see their cultural anchor leave the UK, with Mags Curran there to watch over proceedings and tell then they would be foreigners….
I think 28% is quite surprisingly good actually.
In the 2011 Census, 12.7% of residents of Corby were born in Scotland…
link to bbc.co.uk
…Yet 28% understood the benefits of Scottish Independence, despite the English media information filter.
That looks like a great Yes result to me.
DESPICABLE treatment of Julie Webster by Jobcentreplus staff at, presumably – Maryhill Jobcentreplus, where all those who are unemployed can be Sanctioned if they dare to complain or assist the frail and infirm.
The local New Labour Party MP for Maryhill – Anne Mc Kechin, who once upon a time pretended to be a socialist, has only just returned from an overseas junket at our expense to highlight the plight of poverty and injustice abroad?
Julie Webster is running a foodbank within spitting distance of Mc Kechin`s constituency office, but you can bet your last charity tin of soup that Mc Kechin is nowhere near Julie`s foodbank, just as she has distanced herself from her inconvenient socialist beliefs.
Lest we forget:- Mc Kechin was/is Claiming £300 per week for food via “Expenses” as an MP whilst being a member of the most exclusive club on the planet where the best champagne and the best caviar has their costs subsidised by taxpayers like Julie Webster.
Mc Kechin can easily ship real food to Maryhill from one of the many WESTMINSTER bars and restaurants and claim her MP`s Expenses and tax deductions for charity?
On Sept 18th 2014 McKechin will vote “no” to impose the rest of the 60 per cent CUTS yet to be imposed by Westminster – by a ConDem Govt via a system of foodbanks instigated by Brown and Darling prior to 2010.
“Good Samaritans” in the socialist conclave of Maryhill must have been made redundant after Maria Fyffe was forced outby SLAB to be replaced by McKechin in 2001.
When people die of malnutrition in summer, there will be change.
OR – vote “YES” before people die, before voters and their chidren die.
@Angus says
Guys a stirrer for sure, but he might wan’t to invest in a ‘gumshield’ if he spouts his usual pish outside of his own ward.
Very strange Pro Union site he has online, personally think he’s a bit of a nutter.
Not touted much by NO more Scotland campaign.
O/T
The PQ3 Facebook page seems to be getting heavily trolled by nutters making bizarre allegations about policing of the event.
£2000 raised so far for Greater Maryhill foodbank! Keep this moving. Share the donation link and the video with all of your No and undecided friends and family. It’s not a Yes campaign anymore.
There seems to be some dispute surrounding the Corby poll
link to twitter.com
Corby was 414 Yes vs 162 No?
What is the world coming to? Just heard from a friend yesterday that there’s a foodbank in Portree! Come on BT? NT – justify that.
Lest we forget
McKechin, MP for Maryhill was also a MINISTER OF STATE under Brown when she was earning £94,228 in salary -PLUS – Mortgage Interest Payments at £740 per month on her designated “second home” a flat in London.
She was not Claiming £300 per week for food – she was claiming (and got) £713 per month for food at taxpayers expense when earning multiples of the average salary of workers.
I hope these corrections will be clear to the SLAB voters.
Clarify the abject difference between this MP versus the plight of Julie Webster and her 5 x children.
Adrian B
I think Mags and numbers are unhappy bedfellows.
I think Mags and numbers are unhappy bedfellows.
No doubt about that, however the real poll results are not so clear. It hardly matters as Corby is not in Scotland and these people who voted today are not able to vote in September.
Labour will use anything possible as an indicator that they are winning. The work being done on the ground here in Scotland is showing more a positive vision with Yes gaining ground.
Jesus, it just keeps getting worse and worse.
I also find the use of the term “handout” offensive. There are no handouts; there are entitlements that are bought and paid for by us all via taxation, whether through direct or indirect taxation.
@shug – I gave Julie’s daughter Naomi about 20 Wings Alert Reader badges at the coffee morning, for handing out, amongst other Yes badges and wristbands. 😀
Still, the more the merrier. 😉
I have to agree with Steve B. The so called ‘reforms’ being pushed through by IDS at the DWP are worse than evil but it is unfair to blame the individual JCP staff for what is happening.
I worked there through a lot of the recent coalition reforms and the average Jobcentre worker is living in despair over what their job has become. I used to leave my work at night and sob in my husband’s arms after spending a day listening to people’s devastating stories. I also spent a great deal of time on the receiving end of abuse because the claimants were under the mistaken perception that I had any power to help them. The system is rigged and the vast majority of staff are utterly powerless to help even though they dearly want to.
I desperately wanted to quit every single day, but I have to put food on the table same as everyone else and other work was hard to come by in a recession.
I respect that some people will definitely have had a bad experience in JCPs on the front line – but god knows what abuse those staff members have had to endure on a daily basis and it does harden some people. It’s the only way for them to deal with it and stay sane.
As for myself, I couldn’t harden my heart and have ended up suffering from a stress related disease and have ongoing anxiety issues as a legacy of my time working for the government.
So next time you have trouble with a Jobcentre, by all means get angry but please remember the staff are people too and chances are they probably hate what they are doing as much as you do.
I’m so desperately sorry to hear what has happened to Julie. The only long term solution I can see to this nightmare is to vote yes.
@Shagpile says: 13 July, 2014 at 2:21 pm
“Bloody Sundays. Why does our state government hate Her Majesties subjects so?”
May I point out, Shagpile, that you are in error with that statement.
In 1688 the English Parliament had their, “Glorious Revolution”. They deposed King James II of ENGLAND and imported King William & Queen Mary, (of Orange), as joint Monarchs of England. By also removed from them the royal veto over the Parliament of England they made the 3 country Kingdom of England legally a,, “Constitutional Monarchy”. This gave The Parliament of, “The Kingdom of England”, sovereignty over the subjects of The Kingdom of, ENGLAND..
However, as you will know the Deposed King James II of England was also King James VII of Scots but as Scotland in 1688 was still an independent Kingdom, (the reason for the different titles for their monarchy), England deposing their monarchy could not depose an independent Scots monarch. Thus began the Jacobite Uprisings that continued until 1745.
Now the Scottish legal system established in 1320 by the Declaration of Arbroath that monarchs in Scotland were not sovereign but the people of Scotland were and the inheriting of the English crown by James VI did, NOT establish a United Kingdom then Scots could not be subjects to anyone as they were, and stll are, legally sovereign.
In fact that means not only do they have legal right to sack a monarch and appoint another in their place as, “Protector of the People’s Sovereignty”, but that the Monarch is the legal the subject of the people.
There was NO United Kingdom until 1st May 1707 with the beginning of the Treaty of Union. At no time have the People of Scotland ever given up their, Claim Of Right. In fact they reaffirmed it in 1889. The Claim of Right is an Act passed by the Parliament of Scotland in April 1689. It
is one of the key documents of Scottish constitutional law.
This Claim of Right was reaffirmed in 1989 and three of the prominent signatories were Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Donald Dewar, Now, unless you can show legally otherwise, No legally sovereign person can be subject to another person.
Please do not insult your fellow Scots by calling them subjects of the Queen of England and hence the Parliament at Westminster. We are the sovereign people of Scotland and no ones subjects. Our Monarch is legally Queen of Scots – Not legally Queen of Scotland and we have never given up our legal sovereignty.
Such a mess this society we’re living in here, we’ve got to pray we get to sort it out ourselves, as WM/Tory posh boys & IDS just seem to care less and less about the dire straits that so many are facing on a long term basis. And Labour can’t be trusted either, the lack of quality leadership here & rUK is not what’s going to get the big issues resolved if they’re always beholden to London/WM.
A very sinister and worrying trend to belittle and demonise anyone who needs help and has no means of support nor means to survive without state help.
My brother in the North East of England has recently been made redundant, I wont go into it, but he is 60, suffers ill health and has always worked and likes to work and contribute to society. My sis is helping him because the DWP are basically treating him like vermin. He gets £54 a week, is required to look for jobs daily, everything must be done online, he has no computer skills he has no internet. He is panicking because his cv that my sis helped him do was not to their liking.
I cannot express my horror enough at how he is being treated. If he has no internet he is required to use the library, you have to pay to join and pay to use the internet. He has NO bus pass, can’t get that until you are 62 in England now.
Sorry I did go into it, because I know that tomorrow my sister will call me in tears again if things do not print out or she cannot download stuff for him and she has her own problems.
We ain’t seen nothing yet regards the treatment by westmontser of the poor, and with the national service bill likely to go though our young will be kept unemployed in order to send them to kill people in other countries. A no vote really really scares me. The dwp are like ten gestapo.
oh and by the way it is perfectly legal to take anyone you want to, to an interview at the dwp. I would take the security guard to court for throwing anyone out who is attending to support a claimant. Time to start recording discreetly when attending these places.
Also, the DWP job centres have removed the telephones that were for people to use regards jobs etc…no computers available either, no wonder people are absolutely destitute, its a deliberate attack on the poor and vulnerable.
Hetty.
Its maybe not much help but as someone who advocates for Homeless People and their dealings with DWP Main Office in Aberdeen, I’ve found the Citizens Advice Bureau invaluable.
DWP might and do treat individuals without back up like dirt. They don’t do that with CAB.
Hope it may be of some help
Robert Peffers dear xxx
Anyone attending the DWP do not be intimidated.I was told to take the phone of speaker I told the guy to get away from me I shouted on the floormanager for a complaint form ( follow through with complaints )now they dont approach me, when the ask what your buisness is tell them to mind they,re own,they are not commisionairs.
The Better Together No thanks lot talk about intimidation yet ignore the intimidation foisted on the ordinary guy that through no fault of his own is having to sign on.
We have somehow become cowed and allow this, I doubt it would have been possible in my youth. In fact I know it would not have been possible.
Fight back by voting Yes.
[…] is the allegation that the public face of the Maryhill Food Bank has been hit with a callous and punitive action by the Department of Work and Pensions for no other reason than she showed some common human […]
I’ve always preferred saying Yes!
I experienced the dirty/nasty/wilfully incompetent side of Job Centres a few times over the years – including taking Maryhill JC to a tribunal once – but I really wouldn’t fancy it now.
Presumably that’s the effect they’re after. Why the hell am I working and paying into this system, when people aren’t getting the help I’d want them to get?
Stuart, it would be great if you can get Julie Webster to post an article on W O S, explaining in her own words this incident and also the incident about the woman and her two children not eating for 3 days.
The DWP is a department of state that has escaped control of the rest of liberal democracy around it. It operates its own police force, crime detection unit and judiciary. It’s a police state within the liberal democratic state for the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Its victims have no access to proper legal advice or the protection which our system of justice accords people charged with straightforward criminal offences. It’s no wonder the DWP is under investigation for human rights abuses by the United Nations and Amnesty International UK.
Just thought I’d pass on some of this recent Guardian comment –
link to theguardian.com
Our social security system was not “broken” until IDS got his hands on it. It worked most of the time.
2010 – number of sick people claiming benefit – 2.6 Million.
Now – 2.6M People are still getting sick at the same rate. Surprise surprise.
2010 – number unemployed and claiming – 2.5 Million.
Now – 2.5M. Work Programme – 1.5 Million people through it – success rate 3%
2010 – number out of work for 3 years or more – 5,090
2014 – number out of work for 3 years or more – 57,340
2010 – people waiting for their ESA assessments – 23,000
2014 – people waiting for their ESA assessments – 712,000
2010 – people waiting for DLA decisions for 6 months or more – 5,000
2014 – people waiting for PIP decisions for 6 months or more – 265,000
2010 – people with cancer waiting more than 10 days for DLA – minimal
2014 – people with cancer waiting more than 6 months for PIP – 4,500
This is what IDS’s “reforms” have done.
This is what IDS’s efficiency means.
People dying in large numbers with no state support.
People going hungry while they wait, ill, with no help.
If you support IDS and what he’s doing, then you support this.
I was in the unfortuante position 2 years back where I had to sign on for a short spell following being made redundant. Despite paying into the system every month for the previous 13 years I came up against some crass indvidual jobsworth who had the audcaity to tell me I had to lower my sites, I mean I couldn’t/shouldn’t expect to find a job paying the salary I felt worth my experience and skills which involved doing a regular monday to friday, 9 – 5. I then questioned said jobsworth on his salary/hours/working days etc he never liked it and threatened not to pay me my JSA. What came after that was a nicely worded letter to DWP explaning how said advisor had also broken the DPA rules by showing me other peoples CV’s including personal details with addresses/phone numbers and explaining to me what they had been doing to find work etc. I had much fun with that, and as I wasn’t working I was able to free up much time to reply to every communication immediately. These peole don’t like to be challenged and sadly many of the people who find themselves in the position of not getting what they are entitled to don’t know how to take them on.
[…] The disgusting behaviour of the DWP in taking revenge against the woman who founded and runs the Maryhill food bank Wings Over Scotland _ The state’s revenge […]