Flexible New Deal Scandal:
Flexible New Deal

Ipswich Unemployed Action and New Deal Scandal has confirmed that Ipswich Borough Council has granted YMCA Training full planning consent for Dencora House.

Dencora House is a detention centre located on Whitehouse Industrial Estate – isolating New Deal participants from society. Even in an industrial estate, the property has a perimeter fence, the entrance is a vast distance from the main road and towards the opposite side the place is shielded from an even busier road by trees – it is good to see trees but I can’t help thinking that this place was chosen to keep the unemployed away from the town centre where most of the towns jobs actually are: funny that …and also where all the recruitment agencies are and the Jobcentre. They think the unemployed goes around creating crime such as stealing so sticking a large group of them in an industrial estate seems a way of solving that problem.

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As from today the New Deal Scandal network will be also promoting the abolishment of the Jobseekers Agreement (JSAg), an proposed act of Welfare Reform View the rest on Flexible New Deal Scandal

Well, not any more…

(former) Secretary of State: James Purnell MP

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I was reading a great article on Welfare Reform (the Welfare Reform Bill 2009) however I greatly disagreed with the points made in the article so I decided to quote sections of it and comment!

The Welfare Reform Bill is to be a tough piece of legislation that will compel people in meeting with their obligations. It comes as no surprise and is long overdue. One of the first targets will be in removing 1 million people off Incapacity Benefit and into work. The entire benefits system is to be streamlined with Income Support being replaced with a leaner ‘out of work benefits’ system. The time has come by which those who “fiddle” the system should take account of what their obligations and duties are.

Removing one million people off “Incapacity Benefit”? Incapacity Benefit doesn’t exist. To the best of my knowledge the Welfare Reform Act 2007 replaced Incapacity Benefit and Income Support with an Employment and Support Allowance in 2008.

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So on June 4th prior to when the election polls closed, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: James Purnell MP cowardly stepped down, leaving Welfare Reform up in the air and Flexible New Deal future uncertain.

What is certain though, the official announcement for successful candidates winning the Flexible New Deal contracts are to be delayed until after the Elections and the highly disapproved Welfare Reform Bill is moving closer to be made law – both long after James Purnell had made a run for it.

A Press Release on the DWP website called “welfare reform is about putting families first” back in April, failed to answer and build confidence in parents about the proposed welfare reforms. All James Purnell went on about is partnering with Relate to help families who are “under stress” (open to all families regardless if married or not) and support for alcoholics, heroin and crack users.

That is all well and said for but the big drug and alcohol problems typically are those outside a family environment. Most benefit claimants with these issues are either single (without child caring responsibilities) or single parents (without both parents doesn’t really constitute a family regardless if a child(ren) is involved).

Another case of the Government neglecting the majority while capitalising on the smaller amount of people with greater needs in order to  solely claim that they are making a big impact on the needs of people who seriously require support.

This said there is likely extra ties involved – Relate counselling is likely to be offered only after a contractual agreement signed with the parents enabling the sharing of information with DWP and other Government bodies when it should actually be confidential.

So… the Government sticks the unemployed who are out of work more than 6 months on to an intensive course called New Deal which is contracted out to organisations such as faith organisation YMCA Training who are supposedly meant to stick New Deal participants in work placements to gain experience and help them find employment.

Enter Andrew Coates, someone who has protested peacefully on an online blog of a newly formed group called Ipswich Unemployed Action about the mistreatment of New Deal participants on the course at YMCA Training’s Dencora House (who were providing such courses without planning consent) – with the group’s other members.

After 30 minutes, an YMCA Training manager and another member of staff removes Andrew from the room and summons him to a meeting with copies of the blog on the table in front of him.

It is apparent that the Freedom of Thought (known in there as “Freedom of Conscience”) mentioned in the Induction Pack wasn’t applicable.  Not only now has he been rejected for thinking different (it might be best also to state that he wasn’t exercising his Freedom of Expression, he didn’t disclose his views with anyone else in the room) he is now without benefits and pending a 26 week sanction.

A lot of the disputed content wasn’t even posted from himself, none of the content was slanderous or libel in nature and he also got the blame for people accessing the blog via their computer systems before he actually was on the course.

Numerous bloggers have picked up on this story – so this may not have been the first you have heard of it.

I ask YMCA Training: why was Andrew rejected from this course? Why have you gone against your principles??