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BENEFIT CLAIMANTS ARE FACING MORE INTIMIDATION!

Community Socialist (Liverpool) | 20.02.2005 13:02 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles | Liverpool | Sheffield

Note the following article on Sheffield Indymedia:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2005/02/304633.html

The above article was the first time I've seen anything at all on this issue, there are many people here in Liverpool and elsewhere on social security benefits both in work and out of work, disabled, sick or retired. Many claimants have had the pressures put upon them, I for one have been getting letters pressuring me for months and months into accepting payment firstly into a Post Office (P.O.) card account.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) recently rang and told me they no longer pay into a P.O. card account and they won't pay by giro. I'm now on DWP computer file as a 'refusal' while income support department can and have paid by giro cheque without any direct contact with me at all. The DWP appear to be in complete turmoil, just today they're stating in their latest weekly letter that they aren’t sure if I live at this address, talk about paranoid, they called me and gave me the third degree now they're playing mind games.

It seems that the bullying, intimidation and confidence destroying tactics, that I personally recall, of the old Job Centre/Unemployment office staff are now being used against all benefit claimants. So we're all suspects now! Typically we have government departments having differing and often opposing implementation of policies. I welcome the stand and support of the PCS in Sheffield for benefit claimants, we need to see some joint action between workers and claimants to defend jobs, services, welfare benefits, workers and claimants rights.

The P.O. card accounts (run by US CITIBANK International PLC) are set up without any proof of identity hassles, a bank account requires an array of identity and residence evidence to prove you're who you say you are, even if you just want an account to put money into you'll be asked for a driving licence and/or a passport, and a council photo bus pass simply won't do even for pensioners.

The majority of claimants don't have driving licences or passports. My personal suspicions are that the P.O. card account was/is merely a transitionary method to get all benefit claimants off payment books and giros, the ultimate aim to force all claimants to have to set up a bank account. The knock on effect will be fewer people using their remaining local P.O.s and buying their food and other supplies at their local shops. This will obviously directly benefit big business, the supermarkets and the banks at the expense of local shops and communities. Bare in mind that the government has granted the right of access by utilities, local councils and other authorities to all our bank account files, despite some fluffy thinking individuals claiming this simply isn't true, it was enabled by the government last year.

Consider your weekly benefit spending linked to your supermarket loyality card or if you buy your weekly shopping on your P.O. or bank card there will be a payment trail on what you are spending your weekly benefit on, even if it's just down to the amount you spent at supermarket A on a specific date and time. Don’t think that the DWP won’t harass or question what or where you’ve spent your benefit money on, because they will. Here are some examples both actual and possible.

As an example it’s already happening for needy students at colleges or universities, when you apply for an ‘access grant’ to help you make you make ends meet, the access fund officers demand to see your bank account statements and wants to know literally what your income and outgoing costs are and you won’t get an access grant if you’ve not already taken out the now obligatory bank overdraft and a student loan.

When you become a ‘new’ tenant of a Registered Social Landlord (RSL) which includes the housing associations and housing companies they want your National Insurance number, your birth certificates for all household members, bank statements, copies of all utility bills, a credit check and other information as well.

Think about this future possibility, if you ask for a ‘community care’ grant in an emergency (you are usually refused at first and have to appeal) and the DWP (or whatever the DSS is then called) will demand to see your bank statements and ask if you’ve requested a bank overdraft already. Yes you are in an emergency situation and to add to your misery you are put through the gruesome means test and humiliation process to get a cash handout to alleviate your immediate dire circumstances.

THE BIGGER PICTURE: NUMEROUS –SEEMINGLY- SEPARATE BUT LINKED ISSUES!

ID CARDS:
Here we have a vulnerable, unrepresented, unorganised, forgotten section of society to impose government ID cards policy upon - how convenient. It means once all those without banks accounts have been pushed into accepting P.O. card accounts (there will be evermore P.O. closures) benefit claimants can then be forced into setting up a bank accounts or you simply don’t get your pension, income support, sickness benefit, disability living allowance etc.
This will mean the majority who don't have proof of who they are or where they live can then be requested to queue up obediently at one of the remaining central social security offices or even Job Centre Pluses for compulsory photo digitising, finger printing, iris and facial scanning, and while they're at it why not do DNA samples for the ever growing national DNA database. Local housing associations, housing companies and/or the local council might even be sub-contracted to carry out such work, which some have already had a go at. Recently here in Liverpool a local housing company Community Seven in Kensington requested that newly transferred tenants (from council Stock Transfer) present themselves to be photographed and their details be placed on computer file, this was according to a local activist in that area, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

POST OFFICE CLOSURES:
In Liverpool we've just lost 11 Post Offices in 2004 with many more under threat, what are the CWU doing about it we don’t know, obviously not enough. The counters service section of the P.O. no longer makes a profit since losing the exclusive government contract to pay benefits. Benefit claimants have been encouraged (pressurised) into bank account payment over the past two years. Many have thought this would mean them not having to queue up for twenty minutes or often far longer in winter cold or the rain. This is the part of the P.O. that isn't part of the cherry picking process of the ongoing privatisation of the Post Office, it’s seen as a loss making burden, who says the P.O. has to make a profit, it’s a service!

Due to the P.O. services being rundown and regular sub post office closures and fewer staff employed this has lead to ever longer queues at the remaining main P.O.s just to get a stamp on certain days and at certain times, Monday mornings being the main day for most benefit payments.

Banks which are expected to take this increased pressure and they can't even handle their own customer base now! Banks have suffered from massive branch closures and huge staff cuts over the past decade, not all local communities have a cash machine let alone a bank branch, certainly there isn't one within walking distance of my locality for example and take a look at your local branch at certain times there are queues many people deep (again outside in the cold and rain) waiting to withdraw their wages or benefits from cash machines, inside the branches there are often longer queues to be seen as well.

There was a cash machine in our local P.O. but within months of it being put in it was taken back out again with no explanation. Many banks are charging their customers for withdrawing their own cash from bank cash machines, which again is another issue of growing concern, this is however all part of “THE BIGGER PICTURE”. A further issue has been brought to my attention, cash machines only payout in multiples of £10 notes and many are now moving to paying out in multiples of £20 notes, meaning those who have to withdraw their meagre full weekly benefit to buy food, to pay their rent or buy credit on their fuel cards may not be able withdraw it all to the nearest £5 or even the nearest £3, £2, £1 or 50p that's if they can find a cash machine in their neighbourhood in the first place. If there’s no local cash machine it will mean another cost getting the bus to a cash machine or a local bank or a large supermarket so you can get some cash back with your card.

FACT: You can not withdraw £9.99 or anything less from a cash machine!

JOBS AND OFFICE CLOSURES:
Jobs are being threatened throughout the entire social security system and many offices are being marked for closure. There are undoubtedly more policy changes being readied in the pipeline behind the scenes, this also includes evermore means testing, evermore checks and humiliations for all benefit claimants.

In conclusion if Blair gets his third term then wave ‘bye-bye’ to what remains of the Welfare State and the NHS, we’ve nearly lost all ‘council housing’ and public funded access to Higher Education.

LATEST: I've heard about a case of a Job Centre+ threatening one claimant who's been overpaid with court and are charging them an AD-PEN (Additional Penalty) 30% on top of their overpayment and this was on appeal. More when I can get it... So they'll be paying £1000+£300=£1300

Community Socialist (Liverpool)

Comments

Hide the following 15 comments

You

20.02.2005 14:16


Indymedia is not about true change, it's not about really achieving social justice on a world wide scale. Indymedia is about a group of pretentious, middle class students who like to enjoy the benefits of living in Democratic, Capitalist, Western Secular countries while winging about bad their life is. Active involvement in Indymedia is for most around four to five years before they discover that in the real world things like houses, food, clothes and holidays have to be paid for with actual work rather than Daddy's money.

There are exceptions of course, there are those who despite the wisdom of middle age still think Tony Benn would have made a good PM or that the old Soviet Union wasn't that bad after all. These people generaly don't have jobs in the real world but have spent their lives receiving a wage in the Public Sector.

Read and respond to Indymedia by all means but please don't think it will achieve anything because the people behind it are only playing at it.

Me


so you can see into the future?

20.02.2005 16:47

so how good is this "Democratic Capitalist and Western secular society" for people? I suggest you read the above article again. If there are young people who can study due to their parents' support (or taking on huge student loans) who care about other people and about what is happening in this world, and they help setting up action and support networks, they at least are doing something usefull/constructive with their time. And do you know how the authorities and some in "this Democratic Capitalist and Western secular society" treat engaged and righfully concerned people? Believe me - you would not say they are playing at it. You know about all the bullshit bills they are trying to pass to restrict our freedom.

Can I ask what kind of constructive things are you doing? So you have a "real" job in the "real" world, let me guess.. at something like a Bank? And how usefull is that really? At a bank you are working for shareholders and yourself, not for a community. So that is what you do with your "wisdom" of middle age?

Real social change does not come from a single grass roots organisation, and therefore people need to communicate and come together to create communities, rather than like the government breaking them down, but to break down class boundaries and help eachother in the fight, that is why Indymedia is important.

Your are just saying "Indymedia can't do it on its own". Well, help then, if you really
sympathise with people.

>>>

mv


"Active involvement in Indymedia is for most around four to five years" ... hehe

20.02.2005 17:07

Me clearly knows very little about Indymedia, Me doesn't seem to have any idea how long Indymedia has been around for starters... ;-)

Also Me has clearly not met many (any?) IMC'ers... University Students? Don't be daft, Indymdia activists are *all* public school boys you prize fool!

Not Me


Instead of an argument

20.02.2005 17:30

The person self-described as "me",

Not for the first time here or elsewhere, someone has chosen to respond to dissidents and social critics by avoiding actaul discussion over any issue and instead having a bit of a go at psycholanalysis.

Unwilling even to come up with an original piece of psychological guesswork, you have plumped for the cliche about how people on the left are wealthy middle class moaners. (With a hint that they might be Stalinists thrown in for good measure).

It may have only a tenuous basis in fact, and it may not be relevant to anything in particular, but lacking anything else, you'd thought you give this one a go and slander people you've never met before.

Your own class origins i can't comment on. But the prejudice in this remark might prompt speculation:

"These people generally don't have jobs in the real world but have spent their lives receiving a wage in the Public Sector."

Right - so why is there a division between the public sector and reality? This remark implies that nurses, classroom assistants, social workers, those involved in education, in prisons, in police stations, in social security provision etc. are in fact, disconnected from the "real world" and busy living a cosseted, protected lifestyle.

Sounds like there is quite a lot you could learn about the real world for yourself.

Alex Higgins
mail e-mail: respond_alexblog@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://bringontherevolution.blogspot.com


playing at it

20.02.2005 17:51

a hollow libel

- -


Back to the point!

22.02.2005 01:08

Found this on my cyber travels....

"Whatever type of account is used, Government remain fully committed to meeting the Prime Minister's pledge that those who wish to do so will so will continue to be able to get their benefits in cash in full at post office branches."
 http://www.dti.gov.uk/postalservices/universal_bank.htm

Oi!
- Homepage: http://www.dti.gov.uk/postalservices/universal_bank.htm


We are all "Refusals"

22.02.2005 14:05

Thanks for that info Oi. It'd be good to have that quote (about the Govt.'s committment to letting people get paid directly in they want) copied and spread around Job Centres. As the Sheffield PCS pointed out, people have a legal right to direct payment.

To the Community Socialist in Liverpool - I am also classed as a "refusal" by the DWP. Fair description! Your examples about the possible monitoring of spending are good ones. I can see the headlines now: "Heartless benefit mum buys chocolate ice cream while kids starve" followed by a print out of her entire incomings and outgoings for the year.

And, of course, the running down of local Post Offices is a factor. Our local P.O. has a sign urging people to complain about the direct-payment bullying and lets people know their right to be paid by giro/order book if they want. So there is the potential for a wide campaign here: a community campaign for P.O's to remain open; PCS workers to resist bullying and redundancy and benefit claimants to get paid in a way they want.

stu


Dear Me

22.02.2005 16:59

If you think I'm collecting my public sector wage and not living in the real world then come for a ride in my (or any other) NHS ambulance - you'll see how nice the Western world is, especially on a night shift.

And the theory that IMC is entirely populated by wealthy Westerners is toss - click the links to some of the 2nd and 3rd world IMC sites.

And since we're in the business of defamation - you smell - ha ha.

Mr You


Also a 'refusal'

22.02.2005 21:41

It would seem I am also a 'refusal' as I received the same letter of concern regarding my current address. On phoning them I was told "...the govt. would prefer it..." if I set up a direct payment friendly bank account. The word prefer suggested to me that this is not compulsory and on pointing this out during the phone call I was then subjected to a 5 minute monologue on the ease and benefits of setting up a bank account, in other words he avoided the question of other methods of payment. I am currently writing a piece which links Direct payment, Chip and Pin cards AND ID cards, hopefully be up in next 24-48 hrs.... watch this space!

Oi!


And don't forget....

24.02.2005 00:50

If its ID card related you can also post it at NO2ID's discussion forum...

I was forced to use my bank account by them as they messed up big time with this PO card and then rang me up to abuse me about their mistake...

The same bunch of people that threw me off incapacitybenefit when they told me I was 95% incapacitated and fit to work and that there were "plenty" of jobs for someone of my calibre :)

I live in a very rural town, my past posts have not only included the Legal Aid board, asst to the General Manager of Gt Ormond St, senior support manager for an american merchant bank to name a few positions, I get told that Lidl's are employing at the moment.

I suspect actually that what the government is aiming at is leverage and instant compliance, don't do as you are told and you are cut off immediately and I do believe that they can clawback in certain instances.

Ancient One
Unity Injustice/RPSSUK

Soon to come... The UK Objector

Ancient One


Payment into accounts

09.03.2005 16:42

I know this doesn't directly relate, but in some areas there are numbers you can call for extra advice about getting payments into accounts. One I know of is 0800 5872934.

Michelle


Payments into accounts

09.03.2005 16:44

I know it doesn't directly relate but in some areas there are numbers you can call for extra help getting payments into accounts. One I know of is 0800 5872934

Michelle


Accounts and payments

09.03.2005 16:54

There is extra advise on direct payments avaialble on 0800 5872934.

Michelle


Payments

25.01.2006 22:28

I too am getting threatening letters from these people. Although they share the same address as regular benefite staff, they are not part of the team. Several members of staff have indicated to me that they are actually very unpopular within the offices
1. Because they are mostly sub-contracted staff, on casual target-based contracts and therefore undermine the terms and conditions of "regular" staff

2 They attract a lot of hostility from their targets, which is sometimes mis-directed at other staff.

What can be done about the letters, though?


First of all deal in writing with them so you have a record of it. Send letters recorded delivery too.

If you have to telephone, make them call you back so at least the cost wont come out of your pocket.

This is just a start.

Its about time some MP or other got involved in this. Any suggestions?

peter


A Refusenik

26.01.2006 20:12

 http://liberaldissenter.blogspot.com/2005/02/clarence-willcock-liberal-hero.html


Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Clarence Willcock - Liberal Hero
If you were asked to name the most influential Liberals of the post-war era, Clarence Willcock would be unlikely to feature on your list.

Yet it is thanks to Willcock that wartime ID cards were abolished. Today's edition of BBC Radio 4's The Long View recalled the occasion in 1950 when Clarence Willcock, who happened to be a member of the Liberal Party, was stopped by a policeman for speeding while driving through North Finchley. The policeman demanded to see Willcock's ID card and he refused to produce it on principle.

(The Long View will be repeated on Radio 4 at 9.30pm this evening, or you can listen to it online for the next seven days here or here).

ID cards had originally been introduced as a temporary wartime emergency measure, but survived the war because of 'mission creep', as more and more government departments found their use expedient.

Willcock's act of defiance became a test case at the High Court, where Lord Justice Goddard gave the opinion that for the police to demand ID cards from all and sundry was wholly unreasonable. ID cards were consequently abolished in 1952.

If New Labour succeeds in re-introducing ID cards, I trust that Liberal Democrat members will follow Clarence Willcock's example. He demonstrated what a principled stand by one ordinary citizen can achieve.




# posted by Simon @ 1:12 PM

peter