Jobless Nottinghamshire lorry driver wins landmark case after benefits axe

“SuperGerrard:

I know its not amied at me personally, and to an extent I agree with your points about long term unemployed who are blatently abusing the system, this is why its an interesting discussion.

From what I have read about the work programme it is aimed solely for their profits and only helping the unemployed when its economically viable for them to do so, and I am aware of many cases of them failing to provide appropriate training because its not cost effective. One of the issues is that of reimbursement, yes they will reimburse, but only after an unemployed person has paid out and kept receipts; so its catch 22 for the unemployed person and the issue I raised remains. Many WP providers also reimburse at a lower rate than the DWP so it adds to their profitibility, so unemployed people are still having to pay out up front and are not fully reimbursed.

From the last figures I had, DWP reimbursed at a rate of £0.25p per mile, yet one WP provider, Ingeus only reimburse at £0.20p per mile, and only after the fact; meaning the unemployed still have to pay out initially, and many are unable to do so. According to official documentation the DWP WP provider reimbursement package calculates and factors in reimbursement at a rate of £0.25p per mile so essentially Ingeus make £0.05p per mile profit from everyone travelling by car.

Such situations could reasonably be overcome if WP providers provided up front payments for travel by the issue of one of the various travel warrants available such as a pre paid bus pass or train pass for a week or month. By doing this it mitigates the problem of up front payments to the unemployed, it allows them to travel to work without having to pay out money they can't afford, the WP gets the receipt directly for their audit trail, and the system begins to work with nothing more than a little common sense applied.”

“An interesting little snip-it I discovered, "Nearly half - 46% - of the first jobseekers referred to do a month's full time activity under the Mandatory Work Activity scheme either signed off Jobseekers' Allowance or failed to turn up rather than starting the placement. Those failing to turn up face losing their JSA". That is a benefit saving if nothing else.”

“To the thing and KeithCP2..

by the-crossed "I wish both of you well and hope things pick up for you as soon as possible and you both find jobs.

Don't listen to fools who label you as scroungers....You are nothing of the sort...Keep your heads held high.."

I would second that. Don't allow the short sighted and self obsessed to deflate your self esteem and confidence. Only you truly know your circumstances and if you can look yourself in the mirror with pride in the knowledge that you are doing your best then that should be enough for you and anyone else who wants to interfere or ctiticise.

That you maintain your motivation despite the adversity is something to be very proud of.”

“by smshogun

I would but Job Centre plus or one of their sub contractors, depending on how long a person has been out of work, will pay the train fare for the interview, the first month and cover the first months rent when working.

Aside of that, and this is not directed at you by smshogun, I do not believe anyone are scroungers and I don't think that has even been said on this thread. Some have played an inept system over the past 16 years but I can't fault them for that but now that system has become arguably fairer for the VAST MAJORITY of the population people are up in arms. Just to put this into context if someone had been on benefits for 7 years and had turned down all the provision available is that slave labour to ask them to do community work? I'd argue it's obtaining money through deception.”

“@by thing and @ KeithCP2....You both sound like decent types who have worked most of your lives and are now having some bad luck...

I wish both of you well and hope things pick up for you as soon as possible and you both find jobs.

Don't listen to fools who label you as scroungers....You are nothing of the sort...Keep your heads held high..

All the best!”

“'Now I quite like the sound of that furniture job this guy was thrown in to, but I'd like the chance to do the job for the legal minimum (£7.19) per hour, not the benefits that I am apparently entitled to because I've paid NI for 30 years.'

£7.19? Either you're mistaken, or I owe a lot of back pay. I'm hoping it's the former...”

“SuperGerrald:

Would you pay his train fares for a fortnight or a month until he gets paid, given the cost of train travel its unlikely any genuine claimant would have the funds to fork out this amount, or afford to sustain it on a minimum wage job.”

“brorabrora;

Newark is 30 minutes away by train (which leave at least one per hour) and it would take you longer to get to Gedling. I'm not surprised they stopped your benefits.”

“Keith;

You do make some good points and it may well be that at this time you are unable to overcome the barriers but I reiterate that you cannot create a provision that is suitable for everyone. Were you also put on mandatory work activity though? If not then I'm not sure of the relevance to this thread.

andyjsy:

There has been a 6 month programme that was trialed and is no more. The student in question had a 2:2 in Geology I think so unless there is a vacancy on time team and considering her attitude I'm not surprised she is now in entry level work. To me work is important no matter what the role and there are a whole lot of "job snobs" in this Country.”

“I must agree with KeithCP2. I was made redundant last year (I'm 61) and have never previously been out of work for any length of time. I too, have found the job center website almost useless since it was changed a couple of months ago. And despite 45 years working, paying my tax and N.I., the people at Bulwell job center seem to imply that I'm some sort of scrounger. This because I refused to attend an interview for a warehouse job in Newark (I live in Bulwell). Are there no out of work people in Newark?. They stopped my Job Seekers allowance and I've not been back since.”