(not satire – it’s social security today!)
If you want an illustration of the mess created by Iain Duncan Smith in our social security system and the incompetence of the present government, you only need to see this letter from the DWP to a 90-year-old woman ordering her to attend a job related interview which was posted online by her grandson:
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Or maybe it’s not a mistake at all.
Work till we drop?
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
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When I reached retirement age and thus became a pensioner, the DWP reserved the right to reassess my IB entitlement in the future – despite the fact that I would no longer be claiming it.
I assumed, at the time, that this was due to a fundamental failure to grasp how calendars worked which, in the light of this, might well be a widespread problem.
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Reblogged this on TheCritique Archives and commented:
She thinks she’s entitled to stay in retirement just because she’s only ten years away from getting the telegram? Such leftie impudence!
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A woman turning 80 in 2016 will not get the tiny top up to an even tinier part basic state pension.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
It is said disability benefit will be taxed, which will reduce the benefit to all ages, as I saw that benefit is taxed even if all income together is below the basic tax allowance.
For women born from 1953 and men born from 1951 they will get
NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE
and fo 70 per cent of the rest
get far far less state pension
that already lowest of all rich nations bar poor Mexico.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
They say poverty in pensioners is at an all time low. Rubbish.
30,000 elderly die each year from freezing to death in their homes. I don’t call that low.
You can equally be benefit sanctioned, lose ESA (even support component) and forced onto Workfare, at 60 able bodied or chronic sick and / or disabled.
But 60 and over are not put on any unemployment government statistics.
Half of the over 50s til retirement age and older are within the working poor. The majority of that age group not in work is due to being disabled / chronic sick and those benefits are being lost more and more, which means once retirement age is reached there will be many with nil benefit.
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FFS Tom! – You’re making a massive mountain out of absolutely nothing at all. Why don’t you grow up and try to think about stuff which actually needs thinking about. There’s no shortage of real injustice, so why are you wasting time on this drivel? If you want to address the very real problem of people being forced to work beyond the person’s capability of work, then use your profile to do that.
Let’s start with how many Mrs Campbells there are in the Musselburgh Jobcentre area. Go on Tom, remember that it’s Scotland and then take a f*cking wild guess about the probability of an administrative mistake. The letter was only five days ago, so I bet it will be sorted out long before the date of the interview. Also, if you think a 90 year old would be surprised by government making a cock-up then perhaps you need to talk to more old people. Most of them have seen far more cock-ups than you’ve had hot dinners.
You’re tilting at windmills whilst the real giants do as they please.
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Well said ^^^^^^^
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Reblogged this on These Things Worth Shouting About.
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good its time we did something about all these sponging layabout old age pensioners.
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Reblogged this on Notes from the north.
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Tom – Have you bothered to check on the outcome of this story and let your readers know that it was just a clerical error which has now been corrected. Of course f*cking not!…… so I’ve done it for you.
Crap satire or crap journalism? Your readers can choose for themselves……
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Finkfurst – I didn’t mean to like your comment – please take it as a minus1, as I think you’re so, so wrong. Do you bother to think (fink? first?) that getting a threatening letter from the DWO is inconsequential, especially for a 90-year old? Are all inappropriate threatening DWP letters ALL admin errors? (e.g. currently being sent out by the fraud squad in the Midlands to applicants for ESA, or to members of the support group When they expect 10% of the recipients to be frightened to death or stop claiming any benefits?)
To quote you – Of course f*cking not!!!!!
But I do wonder why you bother to lurk here & elsewhere on the blogs, with your deroga-tory comments. Wouldn’t you benefit from a lie down, some meds for blood pressure, and hanging out with some like-minded types, Elsewhere.
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Reblogged this on idontbelieveitagain and commented:
Bop till you drop…….
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Florence
As far as I can see you didn’t ‘like’ my post, so I’ll take that as a ‘dislike’. As to your points:
1) I see no threats whatsoever in that letter.
2) “Are all inappropriate DWP letters ALL admin errors?” – No, but this one obviously was and so it undermines the very important argument Tom is making, rather than helping it. Don’t you understand that?
3) I’m not lurking here or elsewhere. I’m openly offering my opinion and then openly answering any questions which might arise…… unlike some people.
4) If your only argument is that I should take some medication and go elsewhere then your mind is plainly empty. You could try to prove me wrong with rational argument, but I bet you won’t even attempt it…
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Thisis also happening in Oz. 59yo woman,forced onto dole, sole carer for seriously ill 13yo child, $200 pw left after bills, just sold her furniture to take her child to sydney childrens hospital. Has cancer.Told if she doesn’t attend govt job appt, pay will be cut off. She is undergoing chemo while holding her childs hand in hospital.Lives in tiny country town, no transport or support.Can’t get any support from ‘human services’. The theory of the lack of empathy used to excuse the desinfektoren of nazi shrinks in ww11 and PoorLaw mentality governs the 5eyes.
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FinkFurst – you’re slipping back into making me the main object of your comments again.
Stick to discussing the story.
Oh and journalism? Don’t get back into all that again. You know what will happen.
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It would be great if she was to go to it. When I am a pensioner I shall apply for jobs and claim JSA lol..just to confuse them
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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Reblogged this on SMILING CARCASS'S TWO-PENNETH.
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Thanks for the reminder Tom. I will try harder to stick to the story, except that in this case there isn’t one!
One day we must have that discussion about what is or isn’t journalism. Let me know when you’re up for it. Keep up the good work (with the emphasis on “good”).
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I’m an experienced welfare rights adviser. This is not NOT a work or job-related interview. If you read the letter you would see – it is to check the accuracy of the benefit being received: ‘this interview has been arranged because your circumstances may have changed and we need to ensure your payments are correct’.
Letters like this are usually sent when the jobcentre know, or strongly suspect, there has been an undisclosed change in circumstances.
Every benefit recipient, of any age, has a duty in respect of thier claims, and the DWP has an equivalent duty to ensure the accuracy of the payments being made.
I’m afraid I must agree with Finkfurst – this is scaremongering. As I said yesterday, if you fall into the same pit of spin and lies that you are seeking to combat, then you are no better than those you diss.
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Yes, what’s happening here is that since government saw fit to CLOSE all Social Security offices the only actual point of human one to one contact for anything to do with ANY benefit is the Jobcentre. A ploy by the government to imply that all benefit claimaints (no matter which benefit) should be “helped” into employment.
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imv everyone has failed to ask what preceded this letter…except tony…then i must ask did it arrive out of the blue?
the letter obviously caused concern to those who inhabited the space around receiving it…
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pensions arnt benefits your entitled to a pension whatever you circumstances so im not sure what your talking about tony.
no change in circumstance affects your entitlement to a pension
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@Tony
“Every benefit recipient, of any age, has a duty in respect of thier claims, and the DWP has an equivalent duty to ensure the accuracy of the payments being made.”
The lady isn’t responsible to Jobcentre Plus – she’s a PENSIONER and her pension is paid by the PENSION SERVICE. That applies to those on pensions and Pension Guarantee Credit. Any “compliance” doubts can only raised by the Pension Service, and I haven’t heard of that ever taking place.
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wildswimmerpete and nuggy. The letter does not state what benefit it is about. It could be pension (e.g change in household composition – undisclosed death of a partner), or pension credit, or attendance allowance, or another benefit.
The office that pays the benefit is not necessarily the one that does the investigating. For example, local authorities can investigate, and prosecute if necessary, offences relating to DWP benefits.
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Can’t you useless lot even follow a link? To save you the trouble I’ll copy what Mrs Campbell’s grandson said YESTERDAY:
“Hello just of the phone it’s been “a clerical error, mistake and the letter should not have been sent” well thanks for stating the obvious I will sleep better at night knowing the Gov has a crack team on the case. NOT !”
Even when it’s a totally obvious cock-up, you deluded wasters STILL want to make it into a government conspiracy! …and I include you in that criticism Tom.
[FinkFurst – As usual you do not even bother to read the blogpost before you jump headlong into criticism and insults. Read the first line again:
“…..an illustration of the mess created by Iain Duncan Smith in our social security system and the incompetence of the present government”.
That’s not an accusation of government conspiracy – it’s an accusation of incompetence. An incompetence which is causing worry and hardship for thousands of old, sick and disabled people. Your attempts to obfuscate on this blog are wearing thin. And so is my patience.]-TOM
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this is indeed a cockup….however the DWP have picked on coma patients before now so what’s next dig up the dead….this is a system that does not give a shit and has to be bullied into doing what’s right…the buck stops with Duncan scumbag Smith but he’ll blame someone else…just like this shit….good to know were in safe hands I THINK NOT….the fight goes on…regards Sandra……UP THE REVOLUTION
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we never said it wasn’t a cock up fink first your the only one using the word conspiracy.
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Tom and nuggy – I read first line, and also right through to the last line, which perhaps I should remind you of:
“Or maybe it’s not a mistake at all.
Work till we drop?”
[And there FinkFurst, in a nutshell, is why this site is not for you.
As a general rule I try not to fall into the trap of ‘explaining’ satire. Because in my experience, anyone who needs satire explained to them is not clever enough to understand it. But here goes anyway.
The comment was sarcastic. But it was sarcasm born of a fundamental underlying truth – in this case about the state of the welfare state today. In other words – it was a satirical comment. The many thousands of people reading this blog ‘get’ that. You clearly don’t. You need to go back to the mainstream press FinkFurst. What I write here is clearly going way over your head.]-TOM
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…and as to your argument about the first line – Why would you assume that the frequency of clerical errors such as this has increased under Iain Duncan Smith and the present government? Do you have any evidence for this? I assume not (because it would have been a huge news headline!) so why immediately jump to that conclusion?
[Huge news headlines? Yet more evidence that this site is not for you FinkFurst. Let me break it to you gently FinkFurst: most UK newspapers do not report news. They report biased opinion and propaganda – most of it pro-government. Here’s the truth about the DWP: http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/07/11/dwp-quietly-ditches-stats-on-deaths-of-benefits-recipients/.
Now stop trolling this site and go back to your ‘news’papers.] -TOM
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(not satire – it’s social security today!)
[FinkFurst – you just don’t get it, do you?]-TOM
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Oh I get it, I just don’t agree with it. Do you think it’s not the site for me because I think objectivity IS the best way to counter false establishment narratives? Do you only want readers who agree with your philosophy, or would you like discussion about it?
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Reblogged this on The Greater Fool.
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just imagine the impact of that brown envelope letter, on possibly a frail 90 yr old and without family support…the communication turned out to be in error after several days..but that is not before alarm and distress was 1st caused, which led to the query of it’s validity = harm done….and notwithstanding the renditions of the stories of others, when dealing with official bodies in this country @ this present time, which are all too common and indeed a hallmark of this outrageously bad govt, we now suffer…a clerical error may be a mistake but harm has been done…to claim that the communication lacked inertia was/is also therefore not true…alarm has a role in causing concern or alerting one/others to a problem or danger…
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“Job related interview”, bit of an assumption, no? It clearly states the interview is to check that her benefit payments are correct. Who knows, she might be entitled to more money! Doesn’t half wind me up when people who obviously can’t (or won’t) read jump to conclusions like this, then spread it like it’s gospel.
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sad
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