Tag: ECAP

Edinburgh claimants stop Jobcentre breaking benefit rule

Currently, benefit claimants on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are being transferred over to Universal Credit. According to law the vast majority of disabled ESA claimants keep their ‘not fit for work status’ while being transferred over, and continue to receive disability-related payments.

High Riggs Jobcentre in Edinburgh was illegally forcing transferred disabled claimants to obtain a fit note from their GP and go through unnecessary ‘work capability assessments’.  A local anti-poverty group found out about this, through voluntarily accompanying benefit claimants to their appointments, and providing moral support.

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty is a community group which helps local people access benefits, register complaints, and voice their concerns over government response to the cost of living crisis.

ECAP held a demonstration outside High Riggs jobcentre on 30th September.

Four local claimants went in, delivering a letter for and requesting a meeting with the local manager. Jobcentre staff told ECAP that they were “unavailable”, and refused to give any contact details.

Local benefit claimants were told that staff would pass on the letter, and that the manager would contact ECAP the next day.

However despite this promise ECAP received no further contact contact from High Riggs Jobcentre, or the DWP.

A second protest was organised to occur at High Riggs jobcentre at 3PM on 30 October, a day before Halloween.

Members of the local community held placards proclaiming “Cutting Disability Benefits Kills”, and a protestor dressed as the “DWP Grim Reaper” brandished their scythe menacingly. Meanwhile an ECAP delegation swerved past security guards into the Jobcentre where they met the manager of High Riggs Jobcentre.

The manager admitted that the jobcentre had been wrongly telling migrating ESA claimants they needed to get a Fit Note. They told us that all High Riggs work coaches had now received instructions that ESA claimants migrating to Universal Credit kept their existing “not fit for work” status and did not need to go through another Work Capability Assessment.

The Manager assured ECAP that if there were any future problems a meeting could be arranged to sort matters.

If you are in this position and have problems contact ecapmail@gmail.com.

An ECAP spokesperson said: “This victory was only achieved by numbers of people mobilising and taking action”.

More information available at edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk
and in particular at https://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?p=3463

Contact ecapmail@gmail.com

Edinburgh protest against cut to Universal Credit

Demonstrators gathered at High Riggs Jobcentre yesterday to demand the re-instatement of the £20 cut to Universal Credit. The protest was called by Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty in response to a call from Disabled People Against the Cuts for UK-wide protests.

Participants included disabled people, pensioners, workers and a group of school students.

Police attended but did not intervene.

The demonstrators denounced the UK government cut, due to be implemented from the end of this month. Protestors held placards with the hashtag #20MoreForAll, demanding the £20 increase be extended to “legacy benefits” like Job Seekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.

Campaigners have raised alarm at the hardship which a £20 cut will cause to the six million Universal Credit claimants, who include the low paid, unemployed, families and sick and disabled people.

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty leaflets distributed at the protest quoted research by the Child Poverty Action Group.

The research reveals that over the last decade nearly 100 cuts have been made to social security entitlement and the value of payments has fallen as social security rates have been either frozen or increased by less than inflation.

Thus even with the £20 increase a typical Universal Credit claimant would be hundreds of pounds worse off in 2021 than in 2010.

Ethel MacDonald of Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty said: “The brutal cut in Universal Credit is yet another example of governments attacking the poor to benefit the rich.

“This is also an attack on wages and conditions, aiming to force people to accept insecure low paid jobs. Many on Universal Credit are of course already in such badly paid work, since 39% of Universal Credit claimants are in employment.”

The ECAP spokesperson urged people to organise: “ We need to organise at the grass-roots to resist the cut to Universal Credit, the entire austerity agenda, and the whole profit-based system.

“Claimants need to join together and support each other – for example by accompanying each other to appointments and assessments.”

ECAP stress: “After today’s protest, the struggle against the cut continues. What’s more, we are opposing the DWP’s reckless return to compulsory jobcentre appointments – this endangers both claimants and jobcentre workers, due to the continuing covid threat. We totally oppose all sanctions, and urge claimants to contact us for solidarity.”

While MSPs will debate the Universal Credit cut at Holyrood today, the decision lies with Westminister. The UK Government insists the UC uplift was always intended to be a temporary measure and that their focus is on getting people into work.

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty ecapmail@gmail.com

www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk 

Twitter @ecap_org 

https://www.facebook.com/edinburghagainstpoverty

Activists concern over positive Covid test at Leith Jobcentre

A staff member at Leith Jobcentre has tested positive for Covid, raising yet more questions about the DWP drive to force claimants and workers back into the jobcentres, say Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty (ECAP) campaigners.

On 29 June the Jobcentre worker learnt that they were a close contact of someone who was Covid positive. They were rightly sent home to isolate.

However, the DWP went ahead with a Jobs Fair in the Jobcentre the next day, 30 June, on the first floor where this staff member had worked. And when it was learnt on 30 June that the staff member had indeed tested positive, the DWP still kept the Jobcentre open to the public for the rest of the week.

ECAP have raised the issue with MP Deidre Brock, MSP Ben Macpherson and local councillors.

The Jobcentre workers union the PCS have voted for possible industrial action in a Britain-wide consultative ballot on their concerns over covid safety in Jobcentres, following Covid outbreatks closing jobcentres in Glasgow and Wigan.

Read article with photo and links at http://edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk/?p=3113

Protesters blockade Salvation Army store

 

 

protesting

Anti-poverty protestors blockaded Edinburgh’s main Salvation Army shop for three hours last Saturday (5th April) over the charity’s support of the Westminster government’s ‘work for benefits’ scheme. The demonstrators – the group included members of local campaigning group North Edinburgh Fights Back – displayed a giant banner proclaiming IF YOU EXPLOIT US, WE WILL SHUT YOU DOWN at the Earl Grey Street shop.

Dubbed The Starvation Army by its opponents, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty (ECAP) says the Salvation Army is heavily involved nationally in the government’s controversial work-for-your-benefits schemes, and in Edinburgh is believed to be the main work placement for claimants ordered to participate in the Mandatory Work Activity scheme, administered by the provider learndirect.

ECAP claim The Salvation Army is also very involved in the Work Programme, under which even disabled claimants can be forced onto workfare. Claimants unable to take part in this unpaid work, or who decline to work for no pay, face having their benefits stopped under the government’s “enhanced sanctions” regime.

ECAP say the blockade was a success – the shop closed for a time and at least two women turned away and took their bag of donations to the nearby Shelter shop when they were informed of the ‘Sally Army’s’ involvement in workfare.

“We felt our action was very successful. We shut down a key workfare user for three hours at the busiest time of the week. And we gave out hundreds of leaflets to passers-by, stressing that workfare is an attack on the wages and conditions of all workers, and many people reacted positively,” said Esther McDonald of Edinburgh Coalition Ágainst Poverty.

The protest was aimed at galvanising opposition to the government’s plan for a new workfare scheme, Community Work Placements, which extends the period of compulsory work-for-benefits to six months. A Britain-wide week of action, co-ordinated through Boycott Workfare has seen actions in many towns and cities. On 31st March in London protestors invaded the YMCA and sang “Forced to work at the Y-M-C-A”.

“The Community Work Placements scheme is already in trouble, ” say ECAP. “Many charities have already said they will not participate – even the Salvation Army won’t touch it – and its start date has been postponed. We urge all charities and voluntary organisations to boycott the scheme. Research shows that workfare does not help the unemployed find jobs and being unemployed is not a crime.

The main contract for the Community Work Placements scheme in Scotland does not yet seem to have been awarded – we are researching which organisation is to be involved as we plan to take direct action against them and make this workfare scheme unworkable.”

For more information see:

www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk

www.boycottworkfare.org

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and Boycott Workfare are both on Facebook and on Twitter

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