This is annoying I can’t access
my blog from the local library because it’s behind an ‘unsuitable content’
wall. So because of a few choice words the overzealous pedants at the library
have neutered their service completely even though I can get a book of the
shelf that has explicit sex scenes or equally choice language. Work that out?
I have just signed on,
successfully thank fuck. I have been fretting about this ever since last time
when I stupidly said I’d heard nothing from the Work Programme since April.
This time I lied and said I’d left a message. Unfortunately the adviser took a
note of this which may have repercussions, the least of which being that the
useless god botherers may well get back in touch. I’m more worried that as
there’s no trace of me leaving a message I will get into trouble. Oh well, fuck
it. The whole system is weighted against us there’s only so long before the
friction catches up with me. No one’s interested in the fact the Salvation Army
are inept and deliberately unhelpful. They will just focus on me not contacting
them and thus me being seen as refusing help. There’s nothing I can do about it
and I’m certainly not wasting my time chasing up an organisation who, by their
own admission, is no help.
I also had to sign for receipt of
a document. This is similar to the sanction letter we all received a couple of
months back detailing, in the wake of the Cait Reilly case, the rules for
sanctions. Since the regime changes in a couple of weeks this letter contains
the updated facts (i.e. the harsher regime). I’m still not convinced I should
have signed for this, but I guess I had no choice. Hopefully it won’t come back
to bite me on the arse. The letter is genuine, but who can take anything the
DWP/Government says as fact these days. On one hand I’m relieved to have gotten
today’s signing over without undue hassle, but on the other I feel no less
stressed than when I got up – you just can’t drop your guard with these people
for a second, no matter what they say or how they seem. As another day goes by I find nothing surprises me
anymore about this system: we receive our handout, Oliver Twist style, and then made to feel guilty if we spend it and frightened if we spend too much.
It appears we sign on the same day - and I too received the letter detailing the new sanctions regime. Unbelievable, is the word I'd use - not least the fact people can be sanctioned for leaving a job "voluntarily". Surely that criterion is open to all sorts of abuse as a reason to deny someone benefits. What if someone was badly treated in a particular job and left for their own health's sake, but didn't feel it was worth pursuing through a tribunal? Especially since the tories are now keen to limit peoples' rights to access industrial tribunals in the first place. No, this system is getting ridiculously harsh, and I think many people will find it impossible to keep claiming benefits at all and will simply sign-off; no doubt this is the government's aim...
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is about finding as many ways to trip or trick people out of benefits as possible. This is how they cut the budget. It's why i say it's only a matter of time before we all fall foul of it.
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