“UC could not be enforced without the mass cooperation of the staff. They are collaborators.” I completely agree with this - even though I personally know 2 people who work for dwp.
One is a friend of long standing who is generally a lovely person, she works now in the fraud dept and admits the vast majority of reports they receive are malicious and lacking foundation. Mostly ex husbands/partners but also neighbours/friends who’ve fallen out with the people they’re reporting. The dept is required to investigate all reports but how investigations are carried out and what action is taken varies. Also common to receive malicious reports against the same person repeatedly, what frustrates her is that this is a waste of her (and her colleagues) time and resources. She strongly feels such reports should result in prosecution of the malicious reporter and that they should be allowed to officially note that reports from them against the same person repeatedly are likely to be malicious. It’s usually an extension of previous domestic abuse and her and her colleagues are also frustrated that officially they’re not even allowed to direct the victim to appropriate agencies that may be able to help.
The other is a relative I haven’t spoken with now for many years, this is one reason. She’s worked for dwp in various forms for over 40 years. She has zero understanding of illness or disability despite supposedly being a disability job centre advisor for the last 10 years. She’s never spent a night in hospital herself and has zero patience for anyone sick or disabled and is firmly of the belief that the majority of claimants could do SOME kind of job if they’d just “pull themselves together” she’s especially lacking in compassion wrt mental illness, mild learning disabilities and conditions like adhd and autism (when I used to have her on fb she’d share that crap about “in my day we called it being a brat”). In my opinion she has absolutely no business doing the job she is and I wonder wtf the person who assigned her was thinking!!
I’ve had mostly bad experiences with dwp staff. Occasionally better experiences in terms of competency. But in terms of compassion and understanding? VERY rare to have a decent experience. The few I have come across who gave a damn didn’t stay in the job.
The size of that workforce is so massive that IF they collectively decided to, they could very much influence the govt to change if they cared enough. They certainly mobilise themselves VERY well when it comes to protesting their OWN pay and conditions to good effect.
The parallels occurring in this country right now with pre wwii nazi Germany are terrifying
The demonisation of the weak
The disenfranchising of the less fortunate (I was only able to vote in the last election thanks to the kindness of strangers both on here and locally)
Censorship of the press (deeply disturbing that journalists have been “disinvited” from 10 Downing Street)
The lack of action against hate crime...
Very very worrying times
@LakieLady well said on mentally ill and engaging with the system. In addition many mentally ill people don’t trust mobile phones, internet etc. I don’t have a poranoic dx I have ocd, agoraphobia (related to the ocd), depression and general anxiety (mostly around dealing with strangers again because of the ocd) and mostly I do have a grip on reality but even I have anxiety regarding who can access my personal info. I’ve also been in contact with others who are mentally ill in therapy groups etc which included schizophrenics etc and they very much were paranoid about tech. Several wouldn’t even cope with a radio in their home let alone something like a smart speaker! They certainly didn’t trust having internet!
@helenadove - Exactly! That was the first thing my mum said when they announced rising state pension age. That it blocked jobs younger people coming into the market need! Totally illogical!
My dad is more like the woman with the attitude “I’ve a job there’s loads”. I’ve told this before on my (As I’m sure you will remember) at one point my sister and I were both single parents and job hunting and decrying the lack of jobs. Dad (who hasn’t been a job hunter since the 60’s!) declared “what you on about? I see loads of jobs in the paper”. He really ought to know better than to argue with me by now but anyway, I proceeded to go through EVERY job advertised not only in the paper but on websites and local Facebook pages and pointed out how/why even if we applied we wouldn’t get them (lacking the required qualifications, lacking even the minimum required experience, hours impossible with childcare - had to remind him that all childcare aside from nannies/au pairs which are more costly are only available within set hours, location - neither of us had a car at the time due to lack of funds...) he then argued “we’ll get the qualifications/experience” to which I pointed out to him that the local college didn’t run the required courses OR they were courses which weren’t govt funded and had to be privately paid for which of course we hadn’t the funds for. He then said about voluntary roles to get experience/maintain cv. We were both on the waiting lists for every voluntary role available. Everybody around here is told this by the job centre so actually in a deprived area with high unemployment voluntary roles are OVER subscribed. Many of the voluntary employers try and mitigate this by sharing the workload out so rather than having someone who COULD volunteer 2/3 days a week with them doing that, they only let them do 1 day a week so that the other days can be given to other people.
He eventually conceded he didn’t know what the bloody hell he was talking about!!
@LakieLady I know people who have been told and are currently receiving less than full housing Ben for rent for council properties now. If that indeed is incorrect and they’ve been lied to I’d actually be most grateful for a link to legislation to forward to them so that they can address this - genuinely appalled if that’s the case. This is a few people in different parts of the country so they’re very unlikely to be getting advice from the same people.
“The first part of this post that you posted was mine. It wasnt aimed at the OP, but at another poster who said her and her husband value family time over money and therefore she doesn't work and he only works 20 hrs as UC pays a "full time wage". That's unfair.” Ok apologies for the misunderstanding.
I agree CHOOSING not to
work because you “value family time” is ridiculous. At least one of them should be working full time assuming dc are still very young. But my understanding of UC is that this position will not be supported. They will be expected to make a work commitment that they will endeavour to achieve that level of income.
But then I worked when dd was little, I was working full time when pregnant, went on mat leave but then it got complicated as ex (army) was posted while I was on mat leave so I had to leave that job. We were lucky that between his wage and child tax credits we were ok financially until I got registered as a childminder. I then worked as a cm until we split (we were living in military accommodation and I didn’t think it fair to let down my employers. I had a good idea my marriage was going to end a couple months before it did and I did a phased ending to the childminding in anticipation of that), I claimed income support etc when we first split but very luckily found both a full time job and childcare within 6 weeks (I say “luckily” but I put a lot of effort into it too, but luck is definitely an element with these things) so I worked at that job until dd was almost school age and then I went back to uni, the plan being to retrain for a career which would pay better and fit around raising dd. Unfortunately that didn’t pan out due to a serious car accident I had just after graduating (see? Luck)
@PorpentinaScamander “I was extremely tired and haven't slept for 2 days.” Oh bless you! Hope you get some rest soon.
“One of the big scandals of UC is that the people who are wrongly migrated over cannot go back. Which of course they could, the systems are still there for the people still on them. They won't, which is not at all the same.” Totally agree! A few times people at dwp have tried to persuade me to move, even implied I HAD to. I always check with the welfare rights people and make it clear to dwp not to do anything until I have. I have no doubt they are deeply unscrupulous about this and have deceived people into doing so when there was no need.
“And why havent NHS prescription forms been changed to include UC. Theyve had SEVEN YEARS.”
Omg yes! This has caused a lot of problems including large fines for people who ARE eligible for free prescriptions but been given wrong info, lots of appeals ongoing with this.
“Well yes, this posters is just on the wind up, they have posted before.”
Oh that’s interesting!