To ask you to all sign this petition asking the government to investigate 9,580 benefits-related deaths?

[BowieFan]

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/170364

The excellent Jack Monroe has started a campaign on twitter and has been collating stories of awful experiences with the DWP, Atos, Capita and Maximus. Some of the stories are heartbreaking.

Please, please sign this petition - at the very least, the families of people who died because of the DWP deserve some closure.

Take David Clapson - former soldier who died of hunger and insulin-related shock. He had been sanctioned for being late for an appointment, and couldn't afford to pay for electricity for his fridge to keep his insulin cold. The coroner said his stomach had had no food in it for upwards of three days. Nobody should be dying like that in 2016.

I recommend you check out Jack's twitter (@MxJackMonroe) and read some of the stories using the #HungerHurts hashtag. It's heartbreaking, but we need to confront this.

The mouth breathers employed at the job center would know no more of labour economics than I know of particle physics.

I doubt there was a GCSE among my lot. See a box and tick it was the sum of abilities...

Which, when you're dealing with lives, is fucking terrifying

The comparisons between Jack Monroe and Jamie Oliver are EXTREMELY disingenuous and shouldnt even be being made.

Jamie was "othering" poorer ppl and banging on about flatscreen tvs to sell a cookbook (Save with Jamie) that he then admitted wasnt even aimed at them.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/a1836958-Jamie-Oliver-webchat-Thursday-29-August-2-45pm

What an unpleasant thread mouth breathers ..... at the job center shame on you

Infinite, that's all you could pick up on?

No its too depressing to repeat all of it but one of my best friend works her arse off trying her hardest to help people at the job centre calling her a month breather reduces us all to a level I'm ashamed of.

mouth breathers....dear lord what a horrible expression.

I am a Carer so don't have to look for work, however I do keep in touch with the job centre because I don't wAnt this to be forever...I will go back to work one day. The man I speak to there is fabulous and really supportive.

I doubt there was a GCSE among my lot. Its that attitude that gives genuine claimants a bad image.

Infinite, you and your friend have a lot more to be ashamed of than calling someone a mouth breather.

She might not be ashamed of her own behaviour, but she should be ashamed of that of many of her colleagues, and ashamed of the system she's being asked to administer.

We should all be ashamed of that.

ComfortingKormaBalls

Having dealt with jobcentre staff, I can tell you she's right. Anyone with a heart and decent qualifications burns out after a few months. The people working there long term are either emotionless or, even worse, they think they're helping.

See, back in the old days, I came across some really good JobCentre staff.

I've frequently relocated for work or training, and have occasionally claimed to cover the gaps that entails. I've also used JobCentres from the other side when recruiting staff.

Some were excellent, very professional, really knew their stuff. Some... weren't.

When the 2008 restructuring came in, I saw chat by these professional staff on talkboards about how unhappy they were with the change in their role - from supporting people into work to administering a punitive system.

I've also seen the change in my local JobCentre.

Before 2008, I went in to ask if the Pathways to Work support set-up for disabled people had anything to offer me. The answer was: not a lot given I could already read and write, write my own CV, and a ramp wouldn't change whether I could work.

The interview took place in a private room at the JobCentre: their normal practice at the time.

After 2008, when I got summoned for a compulsory "disabled people to prepare for work" interview while they'd mucked up my claim, the treatment couldn't have been more different.

It was a summons (with threats) at only a few working days' notice, so if I'd been in hospital I wouldn't have got it in time. The phone number on the letter didn't work, so I wouldn't have been able to re-arrange if I'd been in hospital or needed someone to come with me (there's no legal requirement to be available at 24 hours' notice - they seem to have confused the sick with the unemployed).

And they they admitted in writing that all these interviews - about people's medical conditions and work capacity - took place in the main JobCentre hall. Where everyone in the room would be able to hear about the interviewee's incontinence and mental health problems, or whatever.

When I told them I was planning to mention this to my MP, suddenly the need for me to come in vanished like the morning mist.

They were fortunate I was so ill at that point, because I'd been laying a paper trail to take this to my MP for everyone's benefit, not just my own. But I just wasn't well enough to.

So I can absolutely believe that most of the good staff have left in despair, to not be part of something that's just wrong.

Absolutely! Job Centre staff are just as disillusioned as the rest of the public sector staff.

However, it's unfair to insult them - I doubt it would be their preference and some may need their shitty job.

Everyone should see "I, Daniel Blake", before they think they know all about or can judge people who claim benefits. Absolutely disgusted at some of the heartless comments on this thread.

Is it on general release now Creme?

Yes, Manumission. I saw it in my local cinema in Durham last night.

I need it to come to my local cineworld so i can use my unlimited card

I'll check the listings now.

ComfortingKormaBalls

Sorry but I have no sympathy. They should be fighting against the system instead of just blindly following orders (Hmm, sounds familiar!)

I don't know how anyone can do what they do - it's just so heartless.

Job centre workers are like any other person - they do what they need to do to feed and house themselves (and their families) . Comparing them to the nazis is offensive.

Why should they 'fight the system' when (a) it will make fuck all difference to the system and (b) they will lose their jobs as a result?

They aren't social justice warriors, they are people just trying to get through life, same as everyone else

And however lovely it may be as a concept, very few people will sacrifice their own well being for that of an abstract group of people.

Well all kudos to the former PIP assessor who started a thread almost the same time as this one, to say she resigned from that job because she felt it was wrong.

She's no longer making her own living out of harming the most vulnerable people in the country.

to her.

Job center staff Know the system.

Can't blame them for keeping the line because they Know what the alternative is.

They aren't a well paid trouble shooting task force, their role has morphed into this.

Job centre workers are like any other person - they do what they need to do to feed and house themselves (and their families) . Comparing them to the nazis is offensive.
To whom?
Why should they 'fight the system' when (a) it will make fuck all difference to the system and (b) they will lose their jobs as a result?
So, they're just following orders then?

So is doing what you are told at work exactly the same as being a nazi? Wow. Everyone has to do what their employers tell them to within the law - it hardly compares to the SS.

How do you suggest they 'fight the system' out of interest? Why should they put themselves on the line - them losing their jobs won't help the people who are supposedly suffering. And as I said above, people rarely risk their own necks for other people, it's naive to expect people to.

Perhaps those of you who object to them not fighting the system can get a job in the job centre then YOU can overturn the regime...