The DWP aim to remove the right for claimants in Scotland and Wale to conduct appointments by phone, from 31 January. So in all three countries of Britain the DWP are now flouting covid safety and pushing for ever more in-person appointments. On top of this is yet another new attack on claimants – the so-called “Way to Work” which menaces claimants with more sanctions. We must resist!
It is important claimants join together to take action against “Way to Work” and stand up against the unsafe imposition of face-to-face appointments which exposes claimants and workers alike to needless risk. The Jobcentre workers union PCS has stated opposition to both Way to Work and the insistence on in-person appointments and ending of other covid precautions.
Tell your work coach if you feel in-person appointments are unsafe. Make an official complaint to the Jobcentre manager. Complain to your MP. Contact ECAP for support. 262 people are dying every day in the UK from Covid , as of late January (official figures, 7 day average at 27.1.22)
The return to in-person appointments is linked to the DWP and Government’s other latest attacks to impose sanctions on claimants. This includes the drive for weekly, or even more frequent, appointments. This does not offer more help, it means more harassment and threats of sanctions.
Way to Work – No way !
And now the DWP’ has just introduced “Way to Work”. “Way to Work” attacks job-seekers right to seek work in their normal area of work, limiting this right to the first 4 weeks of the claim, rather than 3 months.
This is an attempt to force claimants to take up low paid exploitative work in areas with a shortage of workers such as care work and hospitality. This is an attempt to undermine wages and conditions and is thus an attack on the whole working class.
If threatened with a sanction, don’t delay, don’t wait to see what happens, act immediately to put your case to the DWP and seek support. And if they don’t listen to complaints and representations then we can go as a group to the Jobcentre to insist on just treatment. More info here (some of the details at this link are dated but the general message remains very sound and relevant )
Remember you have the right to be accompanied to all appointments and if being harrassed can ask the manager to change work coach.
We urge claimants and jobcentre workers throughout Britain to organise escalating action to make these new oppressive DWP policies unworkable. If in the Edinburgh area contact ECAP via ecapmail@gmail.com to join our regular jobcentre stalls, the more people we have the more often we can do the stalls and the more pressure we can put on the DWP.
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Note
DWP press release on Way to Work – Among the usual lies about offering claimants more “support”, the real brutal face of the DWP is shown by this threat : “However for the small minority who do not engage, the sanctions regime will operate as usual.”
