Bob Evans* wasn’t the only one feeling frustrated with the staff at his local Jobcentre. A fellow claimant wrenched a computer screen off a desk, hurled it across the office smashing a window….Read more…
Govt slammed in disabled ‘shame’
The Tories blew £39m over a year in mostly fruitless efforts to block benefits for sick and disabled people, new figures show. The cash was spent contesting appeals from thousands of people…Read more…
Compassion wins the day
A new report has revealed the staggering success of Unite Community members in overturning wrongly implemented benefits sanctions in Newcastle and the north east. The newly published annual…Read more…
Cruel cap ruled unlawful
In a damning judgement the Tories’ cruel benefit cap has been ruled unlawful by the High Court because it discriminates against single parent families with children under two. Delivering the…Read more…
‘They simply don’t care’
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner on benefits sanctions: “There is not one shred of evidence showing that benefits sanctions help people get back into work. But for those who do…Read more…
Benefits sanctions a failure
The Tory government’s benefits sanctions regime, which has brought misery to millions and in some cases has even been fatal, continues unabated under the assumption that it works – that it gets…Read more…
‘Into a hellhole’
Exactly half a century after the iconic television play Cathy Come Home sparked a national conversation about homelessness, another Ken Loach production, a film which will be released in cinemas…Read more…
‘It’s got to end’
Unite Community members were out in full force for Anti-Sanctions Day today (March 9), as dozens gathered outside the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to protest the government’s brutal – and…Read more…
“Sanctions just stink”
A man was waiting in the pouring rain outside the Jobcentre in the town of Shirebrook, Derbyshire. He was 15 minutes late for his appointment at 9.45 am, although he’d arrived on time. His…Read more…
Stop cruel sanctions plea
Today (March 9), across the country, thousands of campaigners protested against the government’s inhuman benefits sanction regime, which can stop Jobseekers Allowance for up to three years for often…Read more…
‘Grotesquely cruel’
The coalition government’s benefits sanctions regime has ravaged the nation, punishing vulnerable people up and down the country for the ‘crime’ of being the victims of a failing economy….Read more…
Mind the disability gap
The employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people has hit 31 per cent, having remained stubbornly above 30 per cent since 2008. Progress in reducing the gap remains stuck, with less…Read more…
War on the poor
Benefits sanctions, in which people out of work are punished by having their benefits stopped for often absurd reasons, were significantly ramped up in 2012 under work and pensions secretary Iain…Read more…
Cuts by a new name
After months of criticism from all sides, Chancellor George Osborne finally caved in on tax credits in his autumn statement last week, pledging to reverse cuts that would see Britain’s poorest…Read more…
Fit to die?
The department for work and pensions’ (DWP) Work Capability Assessments aren’t fit for purpose and should be scrapped in their current form, Unite urged today as shock figures revealed over 4,000…Read more…
Shameful act
Benefits sanctions, in which welfare claimants are stripped of their benefits for often spurious reasons and so deprived of their only lifeline, became the hallmark of the previous government’s…Read more…
Holiday hunger
For many families the six weeks holidays are a time to look forward to where children can relax, enjoy day trips and holidays abroad or try different holiday clubs. But for many the shocking…Read more…
The secret sanctions figures
The government is stopping payments to nearly three times as many jobseekers as their official figures suggest, according to new research by the Guardian newspaper. And the numbers being…Read more…
The truth must out
Two years into the coalition government’s austerity programme in 2012, routine figures released by the department of work and pensions revealed a shocking phenomenon – in just one year (2011) more…Read more…
Only the beginning
“Conditionality” in the benefits system – the idea that claimants must meet certain conditions in order to receive their benefits, or face the consequences—has been taken to absurd levels by the…Read more…