Alan Wheatley
Notes
At Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group's weekly business meeting on
Thursday 23 March, though we warmed to the page 2 prominence given to your news
story 'Universal Credit: Claimants "stealing food" to eat due to
benefit delays: Finance chief warns people are being forced into new debt',(1)
we were very concerned at what to us seems a fundamental error in one sentence
of your report.
That error concerns the length of wait for Universal Credit payments to
be processed. You report, 'In some cases, people are waiting up to six weeks
before claims are processed.' Waits as long as six weeks for benefit claims to
be processed and "unacceptable" telephone helpline service standards
are nothing new and pre-date Universal Credit and even the 2010 General Election.
In November 2006 Community Care magazine reported: "MPs slammed Jobcentre
Plus for leaving 21 million calls unanswered. Despite government claims of
improvements, stories of poor service continue to mount."(2)
Where our 'experts by experience' would disagree with your report is
that we believe your report should state, 'People wait a minimum of six weeks
for claims to be processed.' Those delays are exacerbated by the income
fluctuations caused by processing of Universal Credit claims in zero hours
economies; and the DWP's deepening reliance on 'pay-as-you-go' call-centre
service delivery that penalises economically vulnerable people for their
vulnerability.
Now, as you report, 'Telephone calls [to the Universal Credit helpline]
can cost up to 55p a minute from pay-as-you-go mobile phones, which are
commonly used by people with lower incomes. Wait times to speak with an adviser
can be very long – one claimant in Camden has reported that their phone bill
for a month was over £140, used almost entirely on calls to the DWP.”' That is
an all-too-common experience, leading in many cases to rent arrears and
subsequent evictions.
This sickening system leads more and more people to sickness and
suicide, while the DWP refuses to take lessons from coroners courts and insists
instead that disability benefit claimants be reassessed every six months as
standard.(3) Against that backdrop, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group will be
highlighting local benefits-related suicides on Monday 3 April as
follows:
12 Noon: Assemble outside Kilburn Jobcentre, Cambridge Avenue, NW6 5AH
for rally with local Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, PCS (jobcentre workers union)
National Executive Officer Zita Holbourne and Brent Trades Council Executive
Committee.
12:45: Black Flag march to Paddington Cemetry via Kilburn High Road.
13:30: Address at Leon Burmont graveside by Dawn Butler MP and RMT
Political Officer Cat Cray.
14:00: Prince of Wales PH, Willesden Lane NW6 for
Tea & Sandwiches
1 comment:
The text above is a re-edit of a letter I wrote for Camden New Journal letters page that later developed into a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group blog post: .
The Camden New Journal letters editor later e-mailed me:
"... I've edited your letter: it wasn't the CNJ making these observations, it was Camden Council's submission to the select committee..."
I thus responded, copying in LB Camden's Lead Councillor on Finance:
"I suppose the fact that the "up to six weeks" miscalculation stems from the Camden Council report serves to emphasise how cushioned the report's authors might be."
How did Camden's Lead Councillor on Finance respons? "Very odd reaction from Alan there, you'd think that highlighting our submission to the government was a bad idea."
Alan Wheatley -- aka 'Dude Swheatie of Kwug'
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