Speaking to a BBC Journalist a DWP spokesman stated:

The government plans to place 350 psychologists in job centres by the end of the summer to help benefit claimants beat depression and get back into the jobs market.

Having learnt that Streatham Jobcentreplus is the site for a pilot of the scheme, the Mental Health Resistance Network have called a March on the Jobcentre for Friday 26th June.

Local people in Southwark yesterday staged protests outside the Salvation Army UK HQ at Elephant and Castle, before moving onto to a local Salvation Army 'Charity' Shop. They are angry that the organisation continues to participate in the coalition's workfare programme which forces people to do unpaid work for their benefits.

Boycott Workfare’s welfare action gathering on Saturday was a massive success. 80 people from groups across the country came to participate in the day of workshops based around info and skill sharing on the various welfare issues we face. The programme was packed, with sessions on JSA, ESA, housing, fuel poverty, and more, with people remarking on the difficulty of deciding which workshop to attend when there were clashes. We organised the gathering because supporting claimants to know and enforce their so-called rights, and claimants organising together and shaping the campaign, has always been a major part of what we do. For this to happen effectively local mutual support groups are key (it was from a London Coalition Against Poverty group that Boycott Workfare came out of) – we’ve distributed thousands of ‘How to Avoid Workfare’ leaflets but along with these, we really need a buddy or a group of people when challenging Job Centre Plus. The gathering was called to support the growing number of local groups so that we can build on the impressive work of challenging workfare and sanctions across the country through mutual support and direct action, like the examples shared with us early on in the day of the occupation of the £3 million council house and a blockade of the workfare exploiters Salvation Army.

I had so much fun this afternoon on an M&S workfare picket today.

Feminist Fightback, North London SolFed, Rhythms of Resistance, and Boycott Workfare descended on M&S off Mare Street, Hackney. As the hot sun scorched Hackney, the samba band rang out across the street interspersed with chants of ‘M&S pay your workers’. Passersby were loving the samba, with two children clapping along as they waited for a bus and then improvising their own instruments with two twigs. People stopped and joined the demo to chant ‘M&S pay your workers’ with us. There was loads of support and good vibes from people. We handed out so many ‘How to Avoid Workfare’ leaflets and leaflets explaining about M&S’ use of forced unpaid labour that we had to rush off and photocopy another batch.

Hundreds of people bombarded Marks & Spencer on social media on Wednesday night after the company boasted of their use of workfare earlier in the week.

The company were forced to lock down their facebook page in an attempt to silence criticism and are now preventing people from posting on their wall. This has simply led to people leaving hundreds of comments threatening to boycott the company on their gaudy posts advertising over-priced food instead.

The ‘workfare party on the M&S facebook page’ as one person described it seemed to be holding strong on Thursday morning whilst the company haven’t fared any better on twitter where they can be found @marksandspencer.

After the London Mayday trade union march up to 300 people took part in a roving anti-workfare demo with a banner reading "Workfare is Stealing Our Jobs", shutting down various branches of MacDonalds, Greggs, Topshop, BHS, Holland and Barrett and others including Boots, Pizza Hut, Greggs and more all along Oxford street and beyond. The protest was called by the London Solidarity Federations and supported by Occupy London. The final destination for Occupy London was to retake Paternoster Square.

a few dozen protestors targetted a range of high street outlets at lunchtime today, highlighting the businesses that exploit workfare labour, paying nothing for workers forced into modern slavery under threat of losing benefits. police attempted to stop activists from entering any of the businesses in a cat and mouse game over a couple of hours.

click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
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at 11.30 this morning a group of protestors assembled outside the bhs store in oxford street and listened to some opening speeches. shortly before noon, two black and white 'BW' (boycott workfare) flags led the way to the first target of the day, while a dozen or so police ran alongside trying to second guess which shops would be hit.

the first target was a pizza hut, where the crowd, with numbers gradually swelling, blocked the entrance to the shop with banners and their bodies, while an open mic allowed people to explain the issues to passers-by. loads of leaflets were also handed out throughout the actions.

after about ten minutes, the group moved on. police were consulting their own maps of possible targets, with some officers running along to the next one at each stage.

passing the holland & barrett shop, where two officers were already stationed, the next protest was at mcdonalds, where a handful of protestors entered but were swiftly ejected by police. the white flags set off again east quite soon, and police ran ahead, but suddenly the crowd turned back and this time managed to get a few more activists into the same mcdonalds branch. police were quite heavy-handed protecting the business and once again robustly ejecting any of the peaceful demonstrators from inside, as well as man-handling an impromptu sit-down at the entrance.

after a few minutes there, the group set off west again, this time stopping at holland & barrett, and then breaking into a run, which a few of the cops seemed to find quite challenging. indeed, getting ahead, a few activists managed to enter the pizza hut which was revisited and closed for a while once more.

next, the flaggers headed west again, apparently passing the 'plaza mall', but in another twist, suddenly people ran into this shopping centre, aiming for another pizza hut outlet. a couple of police lashed out indiscriminately at the front of the crowd, and it got a bit messy for a while. despite the fact that the ukuncut and boycott workfare protests have continually proved to have peaceful intent, it's disappointing that some of the cops are so quick to resort to violence just to protect the corporate businesses that are shafting us all. others, however are clearly quite sanguine about it, and my own experience is that more and more police are willing to express their own doubts and disillusionment - something which used to be far more rare.

onwards to the west of oxford circus, and an attempt on a mcdonalds there was thwarted by an advance police presence. the crowd by now had also swelled to around a hundred.

once again, the white flags led the way, this time to the north, away from oxford street. the next target turned out to be the welbeck street holiday inn, where we heard of their past practice of hiring precarious migrant workers, who had to put up with very poor conditions and wages under the threat that they'd be shopped to the authorities if they didn't accept the abuse. now, the same chain is using the free labour provided by government welfare schemes. a few protestors had managed to enter the hotel ahead of the main crowd. after police crowded the steps of the entrance, these protestors were once again literally thrown out of the hotel and pushed down the steps into the crowd.

there were some final speeches, and a smaller crowd headed off along oxford street while most split up and went their different ways.

despite the police violence, there didn't appear to have been any arrests today.

follow ukuncut and boycottworkfare for future campaigns.

Right to Work and unemployed activists and supporters occupied Westminster Tesco on Saturday. Police issued warning over trespass and refused to answer why they weren’t arresting Tesco bosses for breaching minimum wage legislation. Defiant protesters demanded that Tesco withdraw immediately from all government schemes that force slave labour on the disabled and unemployed chanting: Tesco bosses hear us say, we won’t work if you won’t pay. And ‘first they stole our ema, now they want to steal our pay’.

Pics: http://www.demotix.com/news/1059514/workfare-protesters-close-westminster-tesco-london

Some background and organising: http://www.boycottworkfare.org

The new social workhouse? Workfare, the labour market, prison
http://libcom.org/blog/new-social-workhouse-16022012

Supermarket giant Tesco must know no shame. As unemployment blights the lives of millions, Britain’s biggest private sector employer is taking on staff — for free.

This is part of the scandal of “workfare” — making people work unpaid or face being thrown off benefits.

Tesco reports that over the past four months some 1,400 people have worked for them without pay. Only 300 got a job with the company.

The Tory government is slashing jobs and then punishing the jobless. And to add insult to injury, they are forcing people to work for free to boost profits for big business.

Activists promised that the campaign by Right to Work and other anti workfare groups would continue their action, shutting tesco stores down until they withdraw from the scheme and the government drops its slave labour schemes and replaces them with real jobs and training.

Right to Work is calling for a day of action against Tesco stores on Wednesday 22nd February and will also be supporting the national day of action called by Boycott Workfare on 3 march.

As well as taking the fight to the Government when the next unemployment figures are released on March 14 with a Mass Dole queue at the DWP offices in Westminster.

http://righttowork.org.uk/2012/02/right-to-work-occupy-westminster-tesco/

March 3rd London Info:
Meet outside BHS on Oxford Street, 11:30am
http://www.facebook.com/events/168924943221854/

Flyer: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/3rd-March-london-leaflet.pdf