TAKE ME DOWN TO PARADISE CITY..............not Sanctions City? Im so excited about the waterfront development in Dundee, it’s a grand public project, with massive scale designed to reinvent the city fit for the 21st century. From the V&A, to the new railway station & the myriad of new buildings, and a huge new public space it’s really going to turn things around for the city & provide a much needed boost to the area. The local SNP council & Scottish government have worked very hard on the project & the inward & external investment into Dundee has been very encouraging, job creation, & a huge economic boost is very much foreseeable, but with all the excitement I feel & the positivity from the Yes city as a whole is brought crashing down when you hear of the endemic big poverty issues & epic sanctions regime in place at the heart of the miserable job centre. The city dubbed ‘sanctions city’ by many is feeling the brunt of welfare cuts & the impact is severe, more so than in almost any other community in Scotland. The incredible work being undertaken by SUWN (Scottish unemployed workers network) is just one of many organisations that are out there seeking to help people in the darkest of times. The SUWN meeting last night was very powerful, to hear first-hand from those who are facing such unjust penalties & particularly to hear from those who are assisting people who are being sanctioned, the scale of the issue is vast. Tony Cox, Grant Campbell & Sarah Glenn are a few amongst many, many others who are documenting these injustices, but more importantly they are getting people the vital help & services they need. It is estimated that around 25/30 people a day in Dundee may be having sanctions imposed upon them, the figure may well be more. The peer pressure by staff within the Job Centre is a big cause of this, they have certain expectations forced upon them by the DWP & no-one wants to face an employment evaluation, so they of course comply. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest many of the staff can’t handle it, there may well be the odd one or two who really don’t care about the people they affect but the vast, vast majority do. It seems many of the staff are failing to provide those being sanctioned with proper reasons for the outcome, but more importantly so many people are leaving the Job centre after being sanctioned without the faintest idea of what to do next. Lucky for some SUWN are there to put people in the right direction. The staff have a difficult job, the goalposts are being changed all the time by DWP, new rules are being introduced & the change over to universal credit is causing havoc, the legislation isn’t clear, the guidelines they have to follow aren’t clear & almost all these new rules are open to interpretation by individual staff & managers. Its clear that the system is broken & the chaos has no clear end. No wonder so many staff leave or try to move to other departments. But feeling sorry for the staff is one thing, what about the people on the other end. The in work poverty, the child poverty, fuel poverty, illiteracy, mental health care, the low wage economy, and the lack of sustainable quality jobs, joins the list of major issues which need to be addressed in post No vote Scotland, does it look likely that the Smith Commission will seek to propose any meaningful measures to tackle this effectively? Is there any chance on the horizon for the Scottish Government to have real ability to end the disgrace of sanctions? It remains to be seen, but ideological conservatism is to remain until at least May. A Labour government seems set on more of the same. Only a decent contingent of pro-indy parties at Westminster allied with Plaid Cymru & the Greens could have a chance at making an arrangement with Labour for a supply & demand parliament where legislation can be put in place to actually work for the people who need it most. Sanctions are utterly pointless, the idea of punishing people for mistakes which time and again have been show to be caused by the DWP, Triage and general incompetence is being defended because of the successful vilification of so called benefit scroungers. These policies are actually popular & the stereotype of junkies, foreigners and cheats using the system is prevalent. The % of so called benefit fraud is miniscule in the grand scheme of things & to generalise a whole section of society because they need to use Social Security for its intended purpose is one of the greatest achievements for the Conservatives. They have successfully managed to turn us all against each other whist they kick back & reap the benefits themselves in government. The Smith Commission must deliver robust proposals, which of course will be watered down on its way back to Westminster & through the Lords, but substantial powers are desperately needed. Either way these powers aren’t coming anytime soon, so the quickest opportunity that presents itself is in May’s Westminster election. As if independence wasn’t looking more attractive by the minute for those who voted no, when people actually start dying due to sanctions this winter, it’ll be a clear solution for change. An independent Scotland would face challenges but its citizens at least would never have to face the bedroom tax or the intense sanctions regime. Sanctions City is the lexicon for Dundee at the moment, let’s hope that becomes a distant memory soon. The Alliance promotes the work carried out by SUWN, DAWS & the various food banks & we hope you do too. scottishunemployedworkers.net/home/
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:41:26 +0000
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