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I draw your attention to the comment by Beastrabban: “The DWP is no longer fit for purpose, and there should be a comprehensive review of it, its policies, and its staff, with mass sackings for the callous, the cruel, the manipulative and officious.” Hear, hear. Vox Political has been calling for the same.
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I cannot believe what is happening in this country.
This system is totally horrendous, obnoxious and despicable!”….I agree, but how do we stop this from happening?
I am generally in full agreement with this blog. However, I would point out that the staff in these offices are put in a position where their arms are tied and they are often encouraged not to help. The policies of DWP are to make it pretty much impossible to get to see someone – use a phone and await ages to get through – or eventually find someone with no power to do anything. These are the policies in place, so it’s not always the staff. Many of the staff feel upset at how they have to treat the public. I know this as I have family working in DWP and have listened to their complaints about how it is changing (DWP over last few years) and how the “top management” are making sure they are provide an inhuman service by taking people off the front desk and telling them to inform the public to phone through when at all possible – even though this clearly places people at risk. Higher management don’t give a damn and staff who do, are penalised!!!!!
That’s exactly how Hitler got total Compliance – there are Sanction Targets – for no good reason
I do appreciate that, Daggersborn007. I have met some genuinely understanding, helpful people in the Jobcentre, as well as the horrendous petty tyrants. It’s why I said that the callous, cruel and officious should be sacked, not ‘everyone in it’. I worked in the Benefits Agency, as it was then, about 20 years ago. It was by no means ideal, but I do remember working with some great people and feeling that I had genuinely helped people at the end of the day. Unfortunately, through the reorganisation of several administrations, it has changed for the worst.
I also agree with what you said about the changes to the DWP, in which people have been taken off the front desk and told to handle as much business as possible by phone. A friend of mine in another branch of the Civil Service told me how they also experienced a similar re-organisation.
And I’ve also heard the same complaints by former civil servants of the lack of support and pressure from senior management. I feel very strongly that the civil service as a whole has been comprehensively wrecked in every department by the pro-privatisation and rationalisation agenda carried through by successive administrations, including Tony Blair. At the heart of it all has been the adoption of the advice and plans of auditors and consultants such as Arthur Anderson. The result has been that many of the really decent people have left, and those few remaining are left in despair at their work.
I am sorry but the people in jobcentres who enforce this evil on behalf of the morons who wish to eradicate the welfare state are no better than IDS.It is no good saying I am just doing my job and I cannot afford to leave because of BLAH BLAH BLAH it is the very excuse that the Germans used during world war two we are just obeying orders was not good enough then and it is not good enough now.If the people who work in the system walked out the and explained why to the media then maybe things would change.Sad as it is there are many who do the job who enjoy it way too much. I believe they are no better than people who work as bailiffs and car clampers; they enjoy the power they have over others. The few that don’t are probably on long term sick leave as that is the only way they can look at themselves in the mirror and still get paid. It’s a sad world we live in. I have always been cynical but it was tempered by the idea that most people cared about their fellow man but in 2014 here and now I truly believe Thatcher’s statement that there is no such thing as society – it really is everyone for themselves and screw the rest of us.
Well,the election coming up and if the DWP workers think they can carry on when the filthy Tories/LibDems get destroyed.The mob will be after them and not before time.What goes around comes around.
Whatever happens to the Tories, the Lib Dems are dust as the voters will rip the wings off the Lib Dem bird. In eight by elections the Lib Dems lost their deposit after getting 5% or less of the vote.
BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – DWP Original post 12/10/2012
People on welfare benefits must have one voice whether they are disabled or able bodied our independence on both fronts will be eroded by proposed draconian cuts .Universal Credit will put us all back socially ,encourage poverty ,crime and a more lawless society .The whole exercise is not to rescue the country because it’s on bended knees but to enforce the class system between those that have and those that have not .And we that have not will have even less when Universal Credit comes into force .It will not only affect the sick ,disabled and unemployed but those in work also.A married working couple with two children will be worse off by £2700 per year .Universal credit will replace all present benefits and will be rolled into one ,which will be paid monthly to one claimant per household .Housing benefit will be included in the payment and it being part of your overall benefit entitlement it will mean less money because there will be a cap on the total amount you will receive .VOTE AGAINST DWP CUTS
http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com
THis is deeply distressing.
What someone ought to do is set up a fighting fund. It shouldn’t have to be this way, but at least it could help those in this kind of situation. God help us all, especially those like this poor sod.
“Monday’s Panorama also uncovers evidence that a jobcentre appears to be explicitly alerting its staff to the financial savings to be made through “sanctioning” job seekers when they are judged to have broken benefit conditions.”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/70000-job-seekers-benefits-withdrawn-unfairly-thinktank
Now that even the BBC’s Panorama(tonight) thinks there are sanction targets, perhaps HM the Queen’s new advisor will have to stand up in parliament and deny it – again.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/esther-mcvey-describes-appointment-position-6758233
By sitting here commenting, we are playing into their hands. As long as we continue, we wont be on the streets. I believe that whilst the positives of sharing stories is being outweighed by our inactivity, the government are content to let us continue.
They do not care, that posts and pictures about them are being shared. They are laughing as they line the pockets of their cronies. I don’t have the answer but I know sitting here wont change a thing.
As I mentioned in response to another comment on the same lines, I don’t just write blogs; I am active in my local community. There are plenty of people reading this blog who are also active in their own communities.
“By sitting here commenting……..I know sitting here wont change a thing.”
I get the impression that almost every day a company or gov. changes it’s policies based on what people have said on blogs or social media, and that it’s effect is growing.
[…] Mike Sivier:I draw your attention to the comment by Beastrabban: “The DWP is no longer fit for purpose, and there should be a comprehensive review of it, its policies, and its staff, with mass sackings for the callous, the cruel, the manipulative… […]
[…] This week I read about a man who came out of a Jobcentre seriously distressed and cried out that they wouldn’t help him, they wouldn’t pay him any benefits, that they said he’d already had his full allotment of vouchers for food banks. He then wet himself and collapsed, curled up around his dog on the ground. […]