Sunday, April 21, 2013

The truth behind 'sanctioning' the jobless - by a former Jobcentre manager


So, the TUC has caught Iain Duncan Smith on the fiddle over the evil Con-Dem government's benefit cap.
 
As a former manager in Duncan Smith's Jobcentre Plus I have first-hand experience of seeing how easily damn lies become statistics.

The Work and Pensions Secretary is no stranger to being economical with truth. In recent weeks he has made some pretty unbelievable statements.

He told us all that he knows what it is like to be unemployed.

Conveniently, he forgot to mention he had the benefit of substantial savings to cushion the blow. He is, of course, just one of the many millionaires in Cameron's posh boy cabinet.

Neither did he mention his multimillionaire father-in-law who could bail him out if necessary.

He also said: "I have worked hard all my life for what I've achieved and nobody has given me a damn penny," which is surprising considering he lives rent free in a £2 million mansion provided by his wife's father.

Like anyone who has worked for Jobcentre Plus over the last few years, I was amused, if not surprised, by the recent denials from Duncan Smith that staff had been given targets for sanctioning claimants.

"Sanctioning" is one of those popular weasel words. For the claimant it means losing your benefit.

Over the last few years I attended many meetings where instructions from above were passed on and we managers had to order staff to sanction or disallow more claimants because the office stats didn't look good.
Managers were usually careful not to use the word "target," especially in an email. The thesaurus must have been consulted on many occasions before they finally settled on another weasel word - "expectation."

They do say: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck the chances are it is a duck."
It doesn't matter what terminology was used, everyone knew what these were. They were targets.

Staff were told that there was an expectation that they would refer more cases for dismissal or disallowance. Put simply it meant more folk would lose their benefits.

No targets? Oh no. But if staff failed to achieve a required percentage, they could find themselves in line for discipline.

There may be many Morning Star readers that find it difficult to sympathise with those who work on the other side of the counter down at the jobcentre.

We front-line staff are the face of the government's policies and have to take the abuse, both verbal and physical, for enforcing things with which many of us strongly disagree.

I worked in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the best part of 20 years and the vast majority of my colleagues were motivated by a desire to help people in the most difficult of situations.

People working in your local jobcentre will live in the same community as the claimants they try to help.

Many, like myself, would have been claiming benefit immediately prior to working for DWP and had first-hand experience of life the other side of the counter.

This government's attempt to bully the most vulnerable in society is not confined only to those who have no job.

Jobcentre staff complete an annual anonymous survey. Over the last few years 13 per cent of them have stated that they have been subjected to bullying in the workplace.

Most staff do not feel confident to complain about this bullying. It is almost unknown for a case to be won. Staff know that simply by raising a complaint they open themselves up to further reprisals.

Workers who complain will be told that if they are unhappy they should work somewhere else.

Some staff, managers included, do fight back against this cynical bullying culture.

They need to be brave. They know they will themselves become the target for personal attacks. The bullying culture goes right to the top from senior managers to the minister.

However, this constant pressure on staff and claimants may be counterproductive for the government.

Nearly three-quarters of DWP staff are members of the Public and Commercial Services union and PCS members have taken more action in the last few years than almost any other group of workers.

Today they are also working alongside claimant organisations to provide a united fightback.

We all know bullies only get away with their bullying by isolating their victims.

Our present Con-Dem government knows all about bullying. They have proved themselves a gang of bullies, and none more so than Duncan Smith.

Despite their own divisions they are still attempting to divide any opposition to their savage policies. Like any other bully their greatest fear is that their victims join forces and fight back.

That fightback need to start on both sides of the jobcentre counter. Public servants and those on benefits have exactly the same enemy.

Only by us all working and fighting together can Cameron, Clegg and the despicable Duncan Smith be dumped on the dole queue of history where only they belong.

John Andrews is a pseudonym to protect the author's identity.

Morning Star