Thieving Tories have breached the laws of human rights – and arithmetic – over workfare legal ruling
Once again, the Conservative Party has been found to have trampled over UK citizens’ human rights – and, once again, they are refusing to make proper reparations for the offence.
I remember the Cait Reilly ‘Poundland’ case very well – I covered it in detail at the time. See this article for an example of the coverage.
The facts are clear: The Conservatives stole £130 million from people who could ill-afford the loss – no doubt in the hope that their victims would go away and die.
Now they are determined to keep almost 99 per cent of that money, despite the court’s ruling.
It is time their crimes were exposed for what they are – and the perpetrators imprisoned for committing them.
The Tory government is planning to refund almost £2 million in benefit sanctions to 4,000 jobseekers after breaching their human rights.
It comes five years after a legal fight over the Tories’ hated ‘workfare’ schemes – which forced jobseekers to work for free or have their benefits docked.
The saga began in 2013, when graduate Cait Reilly won a Court of Appeal victory over her unpaid work placement in Poundland.
Judges found the government had not described its back-to-work schemes in enough detail when establishing them in 2011.
So an emergency law was passed in 2013 to make the schemes legal – and stop Tory ministers having to refund £130 million to those who’d had their benefits sanctioned.
It later emerged, however, that the 2013 legal change had led to thousands of appeals by jobseekers being unsuccessful.
A court found this group of jobseekers had lost their right to a fair hearing under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Officials also said the DWP will only repay a “very specific, small group” – people who:
- Had been sanctioned on jobseekers’ allowance, AND
- Had a live appeal on the tribunal system on 26 Match 2013, AND
- The appeal related to compliance with the 2011 laws that outlined ‘workfare’ schemes, or the referral notification letters they received.
Campaigners today… said the payments do not go far enough.
Visit our JustGiving page to help Vox Political’s Mike Sivier fight anti-Semitism libels in court
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Are there any laws the nasty Tory Party hasn’t breached?
Why is it legally acceptable to make a law “Retro Active”? People drove cars without wearing seat belts but were never charged after the law came into effect. What gave this government the right to benefit from their failures because the law wasn’t on their side and then change it so it was?
I too remember the Cait Reilly case.It was the time where retrospective legislation was used.I thought,yes the left can use that later to retrospectively lock up crooked bankers etc,who acted “within the law”but in a totally unacceptable way.
What came to the rescue? the European Convention of Human Rights.
Is this the same Poundland who have now gone bust? I think we should be told!
I thought it was PoundWORLD that went bust.