Tag: sanctions

Protest against sanctions

Unite Community link up with TSM and the People’s Assembly to protest against sanctions today! Held outside the Job Centre on Middlesborough, Unite Community plan a march through the city on Saturday. More here.

A helping hand in desperate times

The Gateway Food Bank in Barnsley Centre is an oasis of caring support for those in need

FoodBank1Gateway Food Bank Voluntary Co-ordinator Janet Crownshaw, with volunteer Linda.

Tucked away on Mottram Street just behind Barnsley Interchange, is an unassuming brick building at the end of a row of old terrace houses, called Mottram Hall. It is the kind of place that you don’t really notice in passing.

This is the home of the Gateway Church, where as welfare cuts began to bite, the first food bank in Barnsley town centre was opened in early 2013. Janet Crownshaw, a Gateway Church partner and voluntary co-ordinator explains, “after attending a conference in Barnsley on poverty in 2012, we realised a food bank needed to be organised as soon as possible, to help the people of Barnsley who were in crisis situations.

“A group met at Gateway Church and formed a team to begin to get a food bank up and running. We not only needed food but somewhere to store it and volunteers to sort it and do the admin work. We also needed donations and to create links with agencies to be referral partners. Once all of this was in place, we opened the food bank in April 2013.”

Shocking figures supplied by the Trussell Trust show that food bank use has risen sharply since 2011, when 128,697 people were supplied with food parcels, rising to 913,138 in 2013-14 (1). Although the government claims that there is no evidence of a link between welfare reform and the increase in the use of food banks, 83% of food banks reported that benefits sanctions had resulted in more people being referred for emergency food (2). A report for Defra, which remains unpublished, confirms this (3).

Last year, the Gateway Food Bank fed 2,013 people. So far this year 1,335 have received food parcels. Each food parcel provides three days of food, clients are allowed three vouchers per year and are referred by partner organisations to people who are assessed to be in a crisis situation, such as those who have fallen prey to job loss, homelessness, benefit cuts or are in a situation of emotional vulnerability.

FoodBank2Volunteer Dawn in the store room.

FoodBank3Gill helps to sort donations.

Janet said, “we offer a hand-up not hand-outs. We are able to help with food parcels, to be a listening ear and sometimes a shoulder to cry on. We are not trained counsellors but are able to sign-post clients who are in need to services that can help.”

The Gateway Food Bank is an independent, community project and not part of the Trussell Trust. As with many community driven projects, funding is in short supply and donations are always welcome.

“We never turn down any offer of help” said Janet. “We have received great help and support from local schools, colleges, supermarkets, hospitals, Berneslei Homes, local churches, charities and the people of Barnsley.

“Even some of our clients have offered to help, wanting to give something back when they were helped in times of need.”

Suggestions for donations are food items such as cereals, tea and coffee, powdered and long-life milk, sugar, biscuits, bottles sauces, tinned food such as fish, meat, beans, vegetables, tomatoes, pasta and fruit, desserts and dried packed foods.

The food bank has its own bank account too, so donations of money can also be given to not only help to replenish food stocks, but also help to buy vital equipment such as shelving. Donations can be taken to the food bank on Sundays after 3.30pm or on Thursdays between 11.00am and 1.00pm.

As for the future of the food bank, Janet is resigned, “as austerity continues and we expect further cuts in Barnsley next year. We foresee that demand will continue for us to provide food for those in crisis. We have also identified that people need support for ‘emotional needs’ to be addressed. We hope to continue Gateway Food Bank for as long as there is a need.”

More information can be found at the Gateway Food Bank website here.

FoodBank4Janet, Dave, Linda and Pastor Mark Reasbeck.

 

(1) The Trussell Trust

(2) BBC News: Food banks see ‘shocking’ rise in number of users. 16 April 2014

(3) The Guardian: Families turn to food banks as last resort ‘not because they are free’. 20 February 2014

Jobcentres push zero hour contracts

‘SH’ on his experience of how Jobcentres are forcing claimants in to accepting zero hour contracts.

job centre plus in glasgow

As my wait had exceeded the usual 15 minutes, which normally consists of a cursory glance towards my painstaking 26 step job search and a “sign here please”, I knew it was my turn to see ‘The Enforcer’.

Every now and then I’ve noticed I would be signed by a member of staff whom I didn’t recognise, and subsequently realised this was a roughing up process to make clear that I was only one wrong step away from a three month benefits sanction.

On this particular occasion, I presented my job search as usual, and welcomed any questions. However, it was immediately clear that this member of staff had taken zero effort to look in to me or my circumstances and thus proceeded to quiz me on the credibility of newspapers and websites which I use to find job vacancies. I have experienced this before however, so answered the questions politely and in full. The next step however, left me aghast. I was initially given a thorough dressing down on how I couldn’t hope to work in the public sector and “preach about benefits” when I had been claiming JSA for 3 years (I have been claiming JSA since graduating little over ONE year ago) and had “no life experience” so I should strongly consider looking at zero hour contract work as a way to gather it.

Now, I am, and always have been under the impression that the role of DWP Job Centres is to get those of us unfortunate to be seeking work back in to suitable and sustainable positions. Zero hour contracts offer no security to the employee and can surely, given their nature, not be seen as a sustainable form of employment.

I was left shell shocked that I was being actively encouraged to pursue such an insecure form of employment and on doing a little research, I found it may be worrying common practise in job centres across the country.

SEE LINK

Breadline Britain: One in three now living in poverty as chasm between rich and poor widens

This story by Jason Beattie originally appeared in the Daily Mirror here.

Almost 18 million cannot afford adequate housing and 2.5 million kids live in damp homes while ‘working poor’ are on the rise.

The number of Britons living in poverty has soared to one in three, a shock report reveals.

Almost 18 million cannot afford adequate housing and 2.5 million kids live in damp homes.

It also shows that poverty has more than doubled in 30 years, as David Cameron allows the gap between rich and poor to become a chasm.

Furious Labour MP Frank Field branded the rise “horrendous”.

Smug ministers keep saying they are helping people out of hardship – but their claims have been shot to pieces today by shocking evidence.

In a damning verdict on the Coalition, a report has revealed that 33% of people in Britain are living below the breadline.

It means poverty has more than doubled since 1983, when the figure stood at 14%.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves said: “David Cameron’s government has completely failed to tackle poverty and deprivation.

“Child poverty is set to rise, not fall under his government. And there are more people in poverty in work than out of work.”

And Mr Field added: “Tackling the causes of poverty is clearly the right strategy – this report shows that the Government’s strategy isn’t working.

“Here then is the most major challenge to all our political parties; what is your manifesto going to say to reverse the horrendous rise in the numbers of people in poverty detailed in this report?”

The major study, led by Bristol University, revealed a string of shameful findings.

  • Almost 18 million cannot afford adequate housing conditions.
  • 1.5 million children live in households that cannot afford to heat the home
  • 2.5 million kids live in properties that are damp
  • More than half a million children live in families who cannot afford to feed them properly
  • 12 million people are too poor to have a social life
  • 5.5 million adults go without essential clothing
  • One in every six adults in paid work is still poor.

Read: We are example of how inequality ruins a nation’s prospects, says director of The Equality Trust Duncan Exley.

The study blows apart the idea peddled by the Government that getting a job tackles poverty.

It found the majority of children living below the breadline have at least one parent in work.

The report said: “These results dispel the myth, often conveyed by government ministers, that poverty in general and child poverty in particular is a consequence of a lack of paid work – a result of shirking rather than striving.

“It found the majority of children who suffer from multiple deprivations – such as going without basic necessities, having an inadequate diet and clothing – live in small families with one or two siblings, live with both parents, have at least one parent who is employed, are white and live in England.”

The Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom report, which studied 14,559 people, is the largest of its kind conducted in Britain.

While Mr Cameron has allowed fatcats to flourish, the research showed that one in three people cannot afford to heat their homes properly in winter.

And four million people are not properly fed by today’s standards.

Professor David Gordon, from the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at Bristol University, said: “The Coalition government aimed to eradicate poverty by tackling the causes of poverty. Their strategy has clearly failed.

“The available high quality scientific evidence shows poverty and deprivation have increased since 2010, the poor are suffering from deeper poverty and the gap between the rich and poor is widening.”

The shocking statistics shatter the PM’s boast that his welfare reforms are a “moral mission” giving hope to the poor.

But a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “There is strong evidence that incomes have improved over the last 30 years, despite the misleading picture painted by this report.

“The independent statistics are clear – there are 1.4 million fewer people in poverty since 1998.

“And under this government we have successfully protected the poorest from falling behind, with a reduction of 300,000 children living in relative income poverty and 100,000 fewer children in workless poor families. As part of our economic plan, the Government is committed to tackling the root causes of child poverty.”

This comes a week after Mr Cameron’s anti-poverty tsar Alan Milburn warned that t he Government’s child poverty plans were doomed to fail.

Ex-Labour minister Mr Milburn said the Coalition’s policies were a “farce” and warned that 3.5 million children will be in poverty by 2020.

Despite the size of the economy doubling in the past 30 years, the number of families who cannot afford to heat their homes has also doubled in that time.

There are now 13 million people living in cold or damp homes – three million more than in the 1990s.

Recent figures also show the number of emergency food parcels handed out has soared to more than a million because of the Government’s austerity measures.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breadline-britain-one-three-now-3721284#ixzz3ATM0Y1lL