How Twee - Are They Not Supposed To Be Doing It Anyway?

Tuesday 15 January 2013: Published on Monday 14 January 2013 09:02

Give us a chance to work (Star)

"TODAY The Star kick starts a campaign to get Sheffield’s unemployed back into work - as latest figures show more than 17,000 city residents rely on jobseeker benefits.

The We Want to Work campaign is giving 10 candidates taking part in the Government’s work programme the chance to showcase their skills and potential.

The Star has joined forces with Action 4 Employment to give these men and women a platform to pitch to prospective employers.

The initiative comes as latest jobless figures show 4.6 per cent of the city’s population is on Jobseekers’ Allowance.

Every week The Star will profile jobseekers as they work on their CVs, prepare for interviews, and gain qualifications to boost their chances of securing employment.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield MP Nick Clegg has also given backing to the campaign."

STAR CAMPAIGN: Backing Sheffield’s jobhunters to find work - VIDEO (Star)

Tuesday 15 January 2013 07.00 GMT

Former Sheffield driver eyes return to work routine (Star)

Sheffield gets a taste of cold steel as spending cuts hit (Guardian)

"The city's financial plight is set to affect a devastating range of local services. Kevin Meagher reports on the range of cuts following the Government's austerity squeeze."

Leading MPs back The Star’s back-to-work in Sheffield campaign (Star)

Joanne just wants work (Star)

Daryl has determination to get on career ladder (Star)

On the right lines: Chris gets fast track back to work (Mirror)

Nigel

Moral? Priceless

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill (Hansard)

*****

The Welfare Bill: A government of millionaires just made the poor poorer - and laughed as they did it (Independent) 

MPs’ pay demand signals end of ‘Austerity Britain’

MPs call for, in private at least, a 32% pay rise

All in it together?

Who are Britain's real scroungers? (Hint: they want a 32% pay rise (Herald)

 Deconstructing Iain: Coalition benefit lies fall apart at debate

In work benefits – who really benefits from them?

Stuff the workers: Osborne mugs 1.7m breadwinners with Tory welfare reforms (Mirror)

Capping welfare benefits is the moral thing to do (DT)
 
Pensioners could face universal benefit cuts after election, says Iain Duncan Smith (DM)

Clegg criticises Cameron's 'irrational' pledge to protect pensioner benefits while imposing cuts on everyone else (DM)

MPs vote for 1% benefits cap (ITV)

Benefits cuts for ‘shirkers’ passed after angry debate (Scotsman)

MPs vote on 1% benefits cap: Politics live blog (Guardian)

Duncan Smith defends benefits squeeze (Guardian)

There is a problem with welfare, but it's not 'shirkers' (Guardian)

Poorest households will be hit hardest by benefit changes, Whitehall admits (Guardian)

The Welfare State, 1942-2013, obituary (Guardian)

The Tories’ Big Lie on Tax Credit Cuts

Tell a lie often enough….

The BBC: helping the Tories force-feed falsehoods to the masses

8 January 2013

Demonisation of people on benefits is a 'stain on our society' (PCS)

"The comparison between benefits and wages is unfair and misleading. The main unemployment benefit has dramatically fallen in value from just under 21% of average wages in 1979 to 11% now. At 21%, jobseekers allowance would be £135 a week today, instead of just £71."

Nigel

Moral? Priceless

Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill (Hansard)

*****

The Welfare Bill: A government of millionaires just made the poor poorer - and laughed as they did it (Independent) 

MPs’ pay demand signals end of ‘Austerity Britain’

MPs call for, in private at least, a 32% pay rise

All in it together?

Who are Britain's real scroungers? (Hint: they want a 32% pay rise (Herald)

 Deconstructing Iain: Coalition benefit lies fall apart at debate

In work benefits – who really benefits from them?

Stuff the workers: Osborne mugs 1.7m breadwinners with Tory welfare reforms (Mirror)

Capping welfare benefits is the moral thing to do (DT)
 
Pensioners could face universal benefit cuts after election, says Iain Duncan Smith (DM)

Clegg criticises Cameron's 'irrational' pledge to protect pensioner benefits while imposing cuts on everyone else (DM)

MPs vote for 1% benefits cap (ITV)

Benefits cuts for ‘shirkers’ passed after angry debate (Scotsman)

MPs vote on 1% benefits cap: Politics live blog (Guardian)

Duncan Smith defends benefits squeeze (Guardian)

There is a problem with welfare, but it's not 'shirkers' (Guardian)

Poorest households will be hit hardest by benefit changes, Whitehall admits (Guardian)

The Welfare State, 1942-2013, obituary (Guardian)

The Tories’ Big Lie on Tax Credit Cuts

Tell a lie often enough….

The BBC: helping the Tories force-feed falsehoods to the masses

8 January 2013

Demonisation of people on benefits is a 'stain on our society' (PCS)

"The comparison between benefits and wages is unfair and misleading. The main unemployment benefit has dramatically fallen in value from just under 21% of average wages in 1979 to 11% now. At 21%, jobseekers allowance would be £135 a week today, instead of just £71."

Nigel

The Poor Sheeple

Support for benefit cuts dependent on ignorance, TUC-commissioned poll finds

"Ministers cannot assume that voters will continue to back them in their plans to cap welfare benefit rises, according to a new poll commissioned by the TUC from YouGov and published today (Friday).

Voters least able to give accurate answers about benefits are the most likely to back the government's policy on cutting benefits. The poll shows that once people learn that the benefit up-rating cap will hit workers in low-paid jobs, support moves away from the government, with 40 per cent overall opposing the cap on low-paid worker benefits and only 30 per cent backing them.

The TUC's poll, carried out in the run-up to Christmas, found widespread ignorance about spending on welfare, the reality of unemployment, the generosity of benefits and the level of fraud.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'It is not surprising that voters want to get tough on welfare. They think the system is much more generous than it is in reality, is riddled with fraud and is heavily skewed towards helping the unemployed, who they think are far more likely to stay on the dole than is actually the case. Indeed if what the average voter thinks was true, I'd want tough action too."

TUC Benefits Survey is Bad News For Tories

"The TUC report which was splashed across the front page of The Independent yesterday shows that the Tory’s benefit bashing obsession may yet unravel as the impact of the vicious welfare cuts becomes increasingly visible."

YouGov / TUC Survey Results: Fieldwork: 11th - 12th December 2012

Why working people should fear the Coalition’s social insecurity

Welfare Reform: What Do The Public Really Think?

Nigel

It's What They Do - Does Not Matter Who They Are

Friday 04 January 2013

Voters 'brainwashed by Tory welfare myths' (Independent)

"Survey shows public ignorance of the level of benefits and who gets them

Ministers were accused last night of demonising benefits claimants in an attempt to justify their controversial decision to increase most state handouts by less than inflation.

Polling commissioned by the Trades Union Congress suggests that a campaign by Tory ministers is turning voters against claimants – but only because the public is being fed "myths" about those who rely on benefits.

The criticism comes before a crunch Commons vote next Tuesday on the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, which will ensure that most benefits and tax credits will rise by only one per cent for the next three years. Labour, which will vote against the measure, will try today to answer Tory claims that it is "soft" on scroungers by announcing a "tough love" plan to force adults who have been out of work for more than two years to take up a government "job guarantee" or lose their benefits."

Editorial: Who said the nasty party had gone away? (Independent)

Friday 4 January 2013

Labour proposes 'tough but fair' jobs and welfare scheme (Guardian)
Labour urges temporary jobs for long-term unemployed (BBC)
Making work pay: Balls announces compulsory jobs guarantee for long-term unemployed (LFF)
Job Guarantees give hope to long-term unemployed (LFF)
Labour's job guarantee (PH)
Labour revisits old welfare ghosts with its jobs guarantee (Spectator)
The Trouble with a Job Guarantee
Ed Balls: Britain needs real welfare reform that is tough, fair and that works
Working reforms will introduce job guarantee plan for long-term claimants over 25, announces Ed Balls

"Shadow chancellor Ed Balls says the £1bn jobs subsidy would be linked to a cut in tax relief for higher earners' pensions. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

Labour will move to protect itself from the politically damaging charge that it is soft on welfare claimants, by proposing that every adult aged over 25 and out of work for more than two years should be obliged to take up a government-provided job for six months, or lose benefits.

The "compulsory work or lose benefits" announcement by the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, and the shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, comes ahead of what threatens to be a fraught second reading debate on Tuesday over Labour's refusal to back a government bill restricting increases in benefits and tax credits to 1% a year for the next three years – which is likely to represent a 4% cut in real terms."

Friday, 4 January 2013 

Back to the future?

"On many forums, including the comments on newspaper articles, it has become commonplace for people to forecast a return to the workhouse.  As a historian, in an amateur sort of way, I have begun to see genuine parallels between the plans and attitudes of the current governing classes and the climate of opinion which brought about the Poor Laws of 1834.".

January 9th, 2013 

Labour’s real guarantee: Workfare

"Last week saw the Labour Party announce its own form of workfare: the Job Guarantee. Labour, who introduced workfare and welfare reform into the UK whilst in government, now guarantees a number of things: It guarantees that yet again politicians will give billions of taxpayers’ money to subsidise big private businesses – probably the likes of failing and government contract reliant A4E, and workfare-users ASDA – helping them to drive up their profit margins. It guarantees to further undermine real job vacancies as companies replace job roles with subsidised compulsory short-term placements."

Labour’s Job Plans, Concerns After Some Serious Thought

Isn’t it time Labour’s plan for jobs and growth was different from the Coalition’s?

Nigel

“Think Of The Press As A Great Keyboard On Which The Government Can Play.”

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually

come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can
shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences
of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to
repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,
 the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Monday, 31 December 2012 11:00 AM

Labour 'squandered £10bn' on tax credit blunders
IDS: Tax Credit System 'Haemorrhaging Money'
£10bn lost to fraud in tax credits system ‘not fit for purpose’ says IDS
Iain Duncan Smith: we’ve brought back fairness to welfare
Iain Duncan Smith launches scathing attack on tax credit abuse
Iain Duncan Smith: universally challenged
UK Minister Iain Duncan Smith condemns tax credits
Number of foreigners claiming tax credits 'unknown', ministers admit
Tax credits and a fairer system
David Cameron: we’ll help the strivers, not welfare claimants
Keeping up the attack

"Labour's tax credit system resulted in £10 billion being wasted on fraud and error, Iain Duncan Smith has claimed.

The work and pensions secretary used an article in the Telegraph paper to mount a sustained attack on the New Labour government's "sorry story of dependency, wasted taxpayers' money and fraud""

Monday 31 Dec 2012

FactCheck: is Britain a tax credit haven?

"It’s also worth pointing out that of the £11.16bn lost to fraud and error under Labour, just £1.27bn of that was actually down to fraud. Or 0.7 per cent of the total amount spent on tax credits."

December 31, 2012

IDS on welfare reform -how do I lie to thee let me count the ways

"How do I LIE to thee? Let me count the ways. I LIE thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach….

That sums up Iain Duncan Smith’s latest attempt at spin about welfare reforms. Perhaps this is just to deflect that the word ‘reform’ means to improve and his reforms will cost everyone more but his latest diatribe is simply plagiarizing the most loved poem of Elizabeth Barratt Browning and should be seen for what it is."

31 Monday Dec 2012 

Iain Duncan Smith: Monster of the Year 2012

"It seems Iain Duncan Smith, the creature whose Department for Work and Pensions launched an ethnic cleansing programme (in all but name) against the sick and disabled in 2011 and 2012, has now turned his baleful glare on the working poor."

31 Dec 2012

Duncan Smith's attack on working poor a 'smokescreen', say critics

"For many, it may be additionally shocking that a punitive approach which seems to lack both compassion and understanding towards the most vulnerable in society is being pursued by a government minister who uses the cloak of 'Christian values' for such policies and appears to have no regard for his own church's social teaching," said the Ekklesia co-director."

Tuesday 1 January 2013

IDS’s rebirth is one of the wonders of the age

"So far at least, this false distinction between workers and shirkers – those who trudge off to the office or factory, in Osborne’s malevolent fantasy, while the feckless neighbours drowsily prepare for another day in front of Jeremy Kyle – is working as planned. The popularity of this wicked misrepresentation and the dilemma that poses for Ed Miliband is the one visible oasis on an otherwise arid Conservative trek towards the 2015 election.

More than morally repugnant, it is unbelievably dangerous for the country and the Tories themselves. Some 30 years after Thatcher opened the divide, the party has no councillors, let alone MPs, in Liverpool, Newcastle and other Northern cities. Messrs Osborne and Cameron, clad in tails and throwing bread rolls at the time, have either learned nothing from the residual damage inflicted on their electoral chances, or are too preoccupied with short-term survival to care about the consequences of this thuggish reawakening of the monied South’s contempt for the destitute North. A year ushered in by the strains of “We pay your benefits, we pay your benefits” from the mouths of beery London arrows fans does not sound, to these ears, like one that can possibly end well."

Welfare Whoppers

A Year of Lies and Blunders at the DWP Part 1

2012: A Year of Lies and Blunders at the DWP Part 2
 
Monster of 2012 starts the New Year as he means to go on

Nigel

The Sun: Recruiting Freud's Youth

Published: 16 hrs ago

£100 benefits perk claim

"Much needed extra help' ... Lord Freud

YOUNG workers will be up to £100 per month better off under radical benefit reforms to be announced this week.

Most single people under 25 cannot currently claim working tax credits — while over 25s earning up to around £13,000 per year can.

But from October up to 300,000 young people with no kids will be eligible for the new Universal Credit, Government experts claim."

*****

Universal Credit Personal Planner
Universal Credit App available for Android and iPhone

"This planner will show you what you need to do to be ready for Universal Credit

The Department for Work & Pensions have provided a Personal Planner which will show you what you need to do to be ready for Universal Credit.

It will help you to find out if you’ll need to do anything differently to manage a Universal Credit claim.

For example, some people may need to set up a bank account or budget for a monthly payment instead of a weekly payment."

*****

Universal Credit Software Delay
Benefit Cap Delay as Computer Software Runs – Again – into Problems

*****

Recruiting new Soldaten ...

20 December

Employment Advisor - Work Programme

"The Role Advisors manage a caseload of clients who are unemployed. Through assessments and ongoing engagement with your clients you will come to understand their abilities, ambitions and barriers and you will work with them to provide the support needed to progress them towards their employment goals. You will be targeted to build relationships with local employers, championing the work of your organisation and highlighting the benefits of using your organisation to recruit from. In this way you will seek to secure sustainable work for the clients on your caseload that matches their aims and ability."

Employability Tutor / Advisor (Work Programme)

"Experience in working towards targets in regards to placing clients into sustainable employment."

*****

Transparency ...

All Written Answers on 20 Dec 2012

Work Programme: Yorkshire and the Humber: Work and Pensions

"David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden, Conservative).

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have come off benefits after joining the Work programme in (a) Haltemprice and Howden constituency and (b) Yorkshire and Humber to date.

Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)

The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost."

*****

Nigel

Mac Beschäftigung

Thu, Oct, 11 2012

Partnership helps hundreds Leap into work

"So far, more than 40 previously unemployed people have found work at McDonald’s restaurants across the North East, with new recruit Elaine Hall being the 300th success of the Leap project."

26 Feb 2012 00:00 

McDonald's spends £10m of taxpayer's cash from employment scheme without creating a single job

"McDonald's has ­pocketed £10million of public money for an ­apprenticeship scheme ...but has not created a single new job with it.

Instead, the multi-national fast-food giant has spent the whole sum on ­“career progression” for 18,000 existing staff.

A Sunday Mirror investigation has found that among nine other major firms which take the most money from the scheme, ­£20million has been spent to create just 2,559 new jobs."

Thursday 2 August 2012 19.29 BST

The unemployed young academic: facing life on the outside (Guardian)

"I'm called complacent for failing to respond to listed vacancies for checkout operators at Asda."
 
Nigel

Democracy