Jobseekers made to carry out bogus psychometric tests. Unemployed people are told they risk losing benefits if they fail to carry out meaningless questionnaire

[vivizone]

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/30/jobseekers-bogus-psychometric-tests-unemployed

AIBU to think this is just not on?

From the article, I am surprised to find that a single mother is only entitled £71 PW. Where is the hundreds and hundreds of pounds per week we are told unemployed people get?

No matter what your stance is on benefits, do you ever worry that you/your family could one day face the benefit system? redundancy, illness, even death of a loved one can change your life in that one split moment. Why do people not want to protect the unemployed?! there are rogues in every part of society - why are the poor being regulated so much whilst others get away scot-free? big companies not paying tax, rich people hiding their assets. Why this heavy handed systematic attack on the poor?

What if your children couldn't get jobs - would you want them tarred with the same brush as benefit claimants - workshy/make them suffer attitude? It?s very easy to turn up your nose when you have things going well for you but you could lose all that you have tomorrow.

I work in quite a secure organisation but feel so desperately sad with is happening. Every single person I know who is on benefits are decent people. Being prosecuted by every angle of society. Makes me feel sick and ashamed.
And if the benefit system does need to be reviewed, it can be done without treating people on benefits like scum. It?s just not on.

[Tortington]

by propagating the skiver myth the tory govt turn working people against poorer working/ unemployed people. an divert their thoughts from the true ruination and out and out theft from this country by rich people and business

[Tortington]

and that labour is proposing a 'lite' version of the tory hardline against skiver spin

makes
me
want
to
sick
up
a
fucking
leg

[vivizone]

But Custardo, are people really so stupid? with all the information that is available in today's digital world, WHY WOULD ANYONE RELY ON THE GOVERNMENT TO BE YOUR MOUTHPIECE FOR INFORMATION?

It seems like 8 people will buy what the Government is sprouting, and 2 people trying to scream 'don't believe everything they tell you!'

[NC78]

A single mother would be entitled to more than that with child tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit on top. The £71 is just the income support. The guardian puts a spin on stuff too. YANBU about the tests though.

[Babyroobs]

Lone parents get a lot more than £71 per week , that is just income support . On top of this there is Child tax credits ( about £57 per week per child), housing benefit and child benefit.

[siezethenight]

We have all seen the advert on Telly where the young girl is saying, 'I am a crisis and I do not care who you are...'
Those that bad mouth the unemployed, the benefit seeker must beware... A crisis is not picky and can strike you at any time.
That advert sends a shiver down my spine whenever it comes on as its true - a crisis can hit anybody, no matter how well equipped and able to cope you think you are. No matter how you think you are safeguarded against every eventuality. You are vulnerable, we all are vulnerable to a crisis.

Vivizone I stand with you and hang my head in shame at the way society has forgotten to be caring and decent and just bloody human to one another. Where is the compassion?
Most people are in the positions they are in today because of a crisis. There are those who are taking the piddle out of things, yes, but that person is not the norm, its the exception.
And as those who have had or are in a crisis are trying to get themselves and their lives back into some form of order, they get heckled and called nasty and often insulting names because they have to claim benefits.
Which, apparently, is perfectly acceptable today.

[Babyroobs]

I agree op, I have a friend who has always worked but lost his job last year and is struggling. Each time I see him he looks more sad and downtrodden and it breaks my heart. No-one knows what is around the corner.

[badbelinda]

Couldn't agree more OP. Because of the stigma now attached to being on benefits. Through work I have come across a lot of people, often elderly who refuse to claim what they need because they're "not that sort of person" often with great cost to their quality of life and that of their carers. Glad to see this thread and that not everyone buys into the spin.

[2old2beamum]

vivizone Babyroobs
Thank God for a few people with some humanity

[badbelinda]

Apologies for the poor grammar

[LaGuardia]

Unsure of what the problem is here. Unemployed people with poor IT skills will find it useful. The results are recorded. And it isn't like they have anything better to do now, is it?

[erowid]

The government seem to be doing everything they can to bring down the number of unemployed in this country, only instead of actually helping them get jobs, they just want them off the benefits list. Leaving more neither employed nor 'officially' unemployed.

[siezethenight]

Now, see, that irritates me - Housing benefit and Council tax benefit IS NOT available spending money. It is to keep the roof over a person's head unless we should send all unemployed people to the park to sleep on a bench? Its not cash to splash, its not spending money, its not a buffer, its not easy street.
And both those things have been hit by the Government in the form of bedroom tax - there are NO 1 bedroom houses in the entirety of Wales to move people to who wish to downsize and free up their home for a larger family so they are trapped into paying the bedroom tax or they can move to private rented which costs the Government more than the council house they were in before. And just to satisfy the people who think the unemployed have got it so very easy - we slap them with a partial council tax bill as well, well, they put their bins out on a Friday night the same as the rest of us, right? They should pay.
nc78 I am not attacking you at all - but the housing benefit is not the claimants to spend as they see fit - its not easy being on benefits, its made harder by misconceptions and idea somehow that, if you have your rent paid, you are living it up in life... Even with 71.00 Income Support/JSA
Child benefit payment.
54.00 Child Tax Credits - how do you pay your gas, electric, water rates. Food. Transport costs to job interviews? Schooling costs such as uniforms and bus fare if its needed? All other household bills considering how much everything costs today. How do you manage to pay all those and keep your head up, your self esteem up when all about you it is now acceptable to bash you verbally because you 'have such an easy life.'

[siezethenight]

That questionnaire is very odd - by the way - sorry op to take things away from your original post.

[ophelia275]

But siezethenight, if you get housing benefit, then you get the benefit of what that money pays for, namely a roof over your head which you have to pay for from your taxed salary if you are in work.

I never understand why people say that housing benefit isn't money in the pocket of those on benefits. Maybe not but those in salaried jobs also do not get the money in their pocket, they have to pay rent from their salary which they have worked for whereas housing benefit does not depend on work.

[GalaxyDefender]

ophelia, you're right in a way, in that housing benefit should be counted. But see, the vast majority of people in receipt of housing benefit are workers in low-paid jobs getting top-ups because barely anybody in Britain has a living wage.

So unless you're earning quite a bit (I can't remember the threshold off the top of my head) then at least a portion of your rent costs won't come out of your salary either. So housing benefit is, to an extent, reliant on how much work you have. It's a sliding scale. A lot of people who like to sneer about "scroungers" don't take that into account and just lump all benefits under the unemployment umbrella.

[doubleshotespresso]

Housing benefit very rarely covers the rent owing though does it?
It is certainly not free cash to splash for many, it falls woefully short of their monthly commitments. Which means then that JSA / child tax benefit has to be dipped into and basic living costs are thus overlooked.....


The maths just does not work for so many, how anyone thinks otherwise clearly needs updating

[NC78]

Until recently, I was on benefits as a lone parent of two.

I got
Income support £71
Child tax credit 113.68
housing benefit £64
council tax benefit £14.17
Child benefit 33.70 per week

Not enough for foreign holidays, boob jobs, a mansion in chelsea and other such shite you read in certain papers, but more than what the Guardian is saying. £71 per week is what a single person would have after housing costs, not a lone parent.

The assumption that people on benefits are skivers and all the degrading gimmicks that this government keep dishing out to jobseekers (workfare etc) are, however, fucking awful.

[doubleshotespresso]

A single person living in private rented accomodation yes would get £71 per week, but their housing benefit does not even cover half their rent payments.

[ParsingFancy]

LaGuardia, the "test" is fake.

It gives the same "result" whether you answer all the questions with one extreme or another.

It was even giving out "results" when people just paged through without inputting anything (though that's been stopped since a blogger mentioned it two weeks ago).

Much more info on a link from that article: FAKE DWP ?TEST? REVEALS SINISTER GOVT ?PSY-WAR?

Plus THE FILE THE DWP DOESN?T WANT YOU TO SEE" another post from that blogger with links to DWP documents about behavioural control.

[AThingInYourLife]

"a crisis can hit anybody, no matter how well equipped and able to cope you think you are. No matter how you think you are safeguarded against every eventuality. You are vulnerable, we all are vulnerable to a crisis. "

No, we are not.

Most of us are.

Hence social insurance.

But the very wealthy, which includes most of this government, and not vulnerable.

And most of them have never been vulnerable.

They are pulling apart a system that offers them nothing but a safety net they don't need.

And they seemingly despise anyone who does need it.

And needing it doesn't just fall under actually claiming benefits.

Knowing you will be looked after in a crisis is valuable, even if that crisis never comes.

It affects behaviour, society, families, mental health, weekbeing.

But they want to take that away from us.

[PatPig]

"A single person living in private rented accomodation yes would get £71 per week, but their housing benefit does not even cover half their rent payments."

Why do you think that?

The current BRMA rates are here:

www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/RentOfficers/LHARates/lhaFeb2013.html

They are based on 30th percentile rates, for a broad area. In cheaper parts of the BRMA (which can vary a fair bit in price), you will find many properties below the BRMA allowance.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Unsure of what the problem is here. Unemployed people with poor IT skills will find it useful. The results are recorded. And it isn't like they have anything better to do now, is it?

Filling in a bogus questionnaire does not make someone computer literate.

As for having nothing to do, peoples lives involve more than work. They are looking for work. Looking after their kids or elderly parents. Doing all the other tasks that daily life requires.

Claiming JSA does not equal lazy. Nor does it equal sitting on your arse all day able to fill in ridiculous questionnaires so that some arsehole in Westminster gets paid £100,000 per year.

Its disgusting.

[PatPig]

How is it disgusting that someone's been told to fill in a pointless questionnaire? They are part of most jobs these days IME.

It becomes increasingly difficult to take claims about the evils of the government seriously when faced with such hyperbole.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Its disgusting that DC has basically created some nonsense department, headed by someone being paid £100,000 per year to issue questionnaires that mean nothing.

Claimants of JSA are people not just beings that deserve to be demeaned and pushed into corners.