Another day, another report on the latest from the Nasty Party. The Guardian is claiming they have a leaked document from the DWP proposing that anyone who has their benefits stopped due to sanctioning or for any other reason and who appeals against the stoppage will be charged for the privilege of having the matter considered. According to the leaked report this is an extension of the same policy that makes people pay in order to go before an employment tribunal if they wish to appeal against unfair dismissal. This charge can be up to £250 depending on the case and can easily prevent people appealing at all if they have limited funds or for low paid jobs. Basically it means only the fairly well off have the right to appeal against the actions of their employer. Now what we have is a proposal to do the same for the hundreds of thousands of people who are sanctioned or otherwise have their benefits stopped. Since its the DWP I presume that this will cover all forms of benefits and will include JSA, ESA and others. Under our cruel and inhumane government the number of people being sanctioned has climbed incredibly and given the fact that well over half of them who appeal win those appeals it seems fairly clear that the grounds for being sanctioned are fairly flimsy. Just the DWP trying to dump people off the system in whatever way they can.
Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, is reported to have said: "When government's own figures show a staggering 58% of appeals against Department for Work and Pensions decisions to dock jobseeker's allowance are upheld, it's clear the system is broken. Rather than penalising thousands of people by charging them to appeal, ministers need to ask why they are presiding over a broken system which is making so many bad decisions, which are overturned on appeal." Well Mz Reeves. I would ask why you are so utterly out of touch with reality. This is not an oversight, this is not a mistake, this is deliberate oppression of the poor on behalf of the cruel and tyrannical coalition government that has dedicated its entire five year term to the persecution of millions of people in this country. The fact that the Tories AND the Lib Dems are doing this and that Labour’s response is so polite and weak tells the poor and the voters of this country that none of the three political parties actually gives a damn about them.
But the herd doesn’t listen. The political class, Tory. Lib Dem, Labour, all of them have a vested interest in keeping the sheep munching the grass and ignorant of the butcher. People get used to being sheared so often they think it normal, five years of government cruelty and people come to see it as the way things are. Death of civilisation by a thousand cuts. Our society is slowly bleeding to death, the wounds inflicted by our so called leaders who follow a political and economic path that leads, who knows where. The poor, the sick, the less able, those who cannot contribute to the work force, the young, the troublesome. Punitive punishments, denial of appeal, starvation, life in the streets, suicide or death. Is this the inevitable fate for millions who are too poor to be considered important? Will Dave at some point just skip the whole suffering bit and just start killing the poor. He could even charge them for the privilege! |
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2018
Categories |