Nick Phillips of London Unemployed Strategies will be holding a training session for Lambeth and Southwark benefit claimants on Friday 20th May between 12-2pm at Stockwell Park Community Centre. Please come along to learn about the changes to the Universal Credit system, avoiding sanctions and details how the Housing Bill will impact you. The Lambeth and Southwark branches of Unite Community will kindly be supporting us. 
Tag: WELFARE TO WORK
Osborne turns the screw – work or no benefit
GOVERNMENT ENDS WORKFARE SCHEMES
From Work and Benefits:
‘ MANDATORY WORK SCHEMES TO CLOSE
The government is axing mandatory work activity and community work placements. The announcement comes after years of protests and court action by claimants forced into unpaid work with no prospect of a job at the end.
The not so good news, however, is that a new scheme called the Work and Health Programme is to be introduced.
As one commentator has already suggested, this might be the beginning of attempts to force claimants into compulsory treatment programmes such as CBT or help to combat drug or alcohol misuse.’
SCHEMES DUE TO END MARCH/APRIL 2016. BUT JSA/ESA/Universal Credit claimants will still be under pressure to take ‘reasonable’ offers of work or training under threat of sanctions.
See our factsheets on this website for more advice and to get more involved with LUS contact us on nickplus007@gmail.com
WELFARE CHARTER LAUNCHED AT TUC CONGRESS 2015
The Welfare Charter, a series of demands to make life better for all types of benefits claimants, was launched at a fringe meeting at the TUC Congress this week (Sept. 14). It is supported by, amongst others, Unite Community, PCS, The Unemployed Centres Combine and London Unemployed Strategies (LUS). For the full Charter, click on the link below:
WelfareCharter_A5 FULL VERSION
We want everybody to endorse and promote the Charter and get it circulated as widely as possible. LUS wants to start up support/campaign groups all over London run by and for unemployed people, aimed at getting their full rights both as they stand now, and as they can be in the future if the Charter demands are won. If you are living in London, are unemployed or underemployed and want to help build up a group in your area, please contact Nick at LUS: nickplus007@gmail.com or 020 7467 1283/07530 001653
DEATHS ON BENEFITS
The National Welfare Charter will be launched at a fringe meeting at the TUC Conference next week. It includes the demand for the scrapping of the current Work Capability Assessments scheme which has been a major factor in the tragedies described above.
More details about the Charter and how you can support it to follow soon.
NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST SANCTIONS
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A demonstration of Southwark claimants took place on Thursday 19th March outside Peckham Jobcentre Plus.
It was organised by London Unemployed Strategies (LUS) as part of the Unite Community National Day of Action Against Sanctions. The Southern and Eastern region of the TUC (SERTUC) were also out in force to support.
Many claimants and passers-by signed the national petition against sanctions and signed up for the ‘Stand Up For Your Rights’ sessions being organised by LUS.
Nick Phillips, LUS organiser, said: ‘We are delivering training sessions called ‘Stand Up For Your Rights’ for local claimants. Many of them feel they are being punished and having their benefits stopped, or ‘sanctioned’ as the Jobcentre calls it, for not being able to find the work they genuinely crave. Peckham Jobcentre Plus according to official DWP statistics is one of the worst in the whole country for sanctioning people and there is no good reason for this. We at LUS are trying to work cooperatively with the JCP and DWP staff unions, management and claimants in the borough to resolve this issue. So if there has not been a dramatic fall in the sanctions rate by the time the next stats come out, we will want to know why.’
One claimant said: ‘I have been screwed by this Jobcentre. In one week I was rejected for three different jobs I applied for. That very same week I was sanctioned for nine months for not looking hard enough for work. I have only just been allowed to sign on again and may never recover from the debt this has put me in.’
Later on, LUS took part in the London demonstration outside the DWP HQ in Westminster where the national petition was handed in.
Claimants wishing to sign up for the ‘Stand Up For Your Rights’ sessions organised by London Unemployed Strategies can contact Nick Phillips at the TUC on 020 7467 1283 or on nickplus007@gmail.com‘
londonunemployedstrategies.com 
