'Warm Ups' across the country to demand action on fuel poverty

 Fuel Poverty Action, Unite Community and allied groups are holding nationwide protests this weekend, carrying out ‘Warm Ups’ to demand action on fuel poverty.

The protests are taking place at 3 of the UK’s “Big five” energy companies’ offices, as well as shopping centres, supermarkets and other community spaces. 

Fuel Poverty Action has carried out Warm Ups for over a decade. Entering buildings or public spaces in order to warm up as a group, on the grounds of being unable to do so at home due to unaffordable energy prices and poor condition housing.

At 11am today, FPA members and supporters will Warm Up at OVO Energy’s HQ in Bristol, bedding down with blankets, sleeping bags and hot water bottles to symbolise millions of people struggling to keep warm this winter. Further Warm Ups will take place at Tesco Express in Chesterfield at 10.30am, Glades Shopping Centre in Bromley at 11am and Grosvenor Shopping Centre in Northampton at 1pm.

Stuart Bretherton, from Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All campaign, said:

The energy system, with its high standing charges, forced imposition of prepayment meters and other inequities, literally punishes people for being poor. Energy starvation this winter means that lives will be lost if we don’t see concrete action from this Government. People are ‘warming up’ to demand our human right to energy is respected and delivered. There’s plenty of money in energy company profits to ensure access to clean and affordable energy for all.

Yesterday, a Warm Up took place at Scottish Power HQ in Glasgow for the second winter running. Participants condemned warrants granted to the energy giant a month ago to forcibly enter the homes of families with newborn babies and install prepayment meters. Meanwhile, protestors entered and occupied a British Gas office in Cardiff for 30 minutes, the amount of time they say it takes the company to make half a million pounds in profit. Further Warm Ups took place including at the Arndale Centre in Manchester and Kirkgate Market in Leeds.

The actions are in support of the Energy For All campaign. Launched by FPA in 2022, it demands that every household is guaranteed enough energy for safe and adequate levels of heating, lighting, cooking as well as protecting additional needs like medical and mobility aids. To be paid for by ending fossil fuel subsidies, redistributing energy company profits, and higher tariffs on household energy use beyond necessities. 

Unite Community launched the Unite 4 Energy For All campaign in November to support the demand, in collaboration with Unite the Union's campaign to nationalise energy. Branches have organised over 30 events this weekend as far afield as Southend-on-Sea, Portsmouth, Gateshead and the Isle of Arran.

Holly Donovan, a Unite Community member and campaign spokesperson said:

Living with a prepayment meter as a disabled person with mobility issues has been a nightmare for me. I’ve had to ration everything, cut down everything...Last winter, I switched my heating on only once as a treat...My home is damp, my clothes are going mouldy in my drawers...I shouldn't live like this, I deserve dignity. We need Energy For All

.

Find more info at fuelpovertyaction.org.uk or energyforall.org.

A unique invitation to Brent local election candidates - Community Assembly Saturday 19th March 385 High Road, Willesden

 An interesting and enterprising meeting coming up with a unique perspective (Click on image to enlarge):
 

 

Brent urged to adopt 'No Eviction' policy on Universal Credit rent arrears

At yesterday's Chalkill Community Centre meeting on Universal Credit there was a strong call for Brent Council to follow neighbouring Camden LINK in adopting a policy of not evicting any of its tenants who fall into rent arrears because of problems with the roll-out in Brent.  There is a minimum five week wait for payment.There was an additional call for the Council to persuade housing associations in the borough to adopt the same policy. It was pointed out that it would be more costly to the Council in the medium-term if it had to provide temporary accommodation for families who had been made homeless.

There are currently 2,000 Brent residents on Universal Credit who are mainly job seekers and not claiming housings costs. However 45,000 are due to move over to universal Credit of whom about half will have housing benefit.

Brent Central MP, Dawn Butler, addressing the meeting, said the she feared a big rise in evictions from private rented accommodation and an increased demand for food banks.  Butler asked the audience  to send in stories of the impact of the introduction of Universal Credit on individuals and families to inform and reinforce the campaign on the issue.  However, she did not favour the 'stop and scrap' demand saying that the Labour Party had been advised that this would cause even more harm to claimants. Instead there should be a 'pause and fix' approach.

There was particular concern that people, particularly those with disabilities or learning difficulties, or the poor without broadband and computers, would be 'digitally excluded.' 40% of people in Brent do mnot have access to their own wifi. Claiming Universal Credit does not only involve an initial on-line application, itself not an easy process, but regular access to the on-line account day to day or week to week, to correspond with the DWP regularly. If accessed through a library or cyber cafe there would be no claimant advice available. Butler said that she was seeking information from Brent Council on how it was using a government grant to help claimants with advice and access.  Butler favoured direct payment of the housing portion of Universal Credit to landlords.

There is a 'claimant commitment' in order to access benefit for those without employment to be actively seeking work for the equivalent of 35 hours a week. Those working part-time are expected  to top those hours up to 35 by seeking work.  After one year of trading the self-employed will; be assumed to be earning the minimum wage for a 35 hour week.

Unite Community will be holding a follow up meeting to organise campaigning. Check out Wembley Matters for an update.

Universal Credit in Brent - Information & Campaign Meeting Nov 23rd - Chalkhill Community Centre

Stop Universal Credit: Harlesden Job Centre May 24th 11-12

From Unite Community

Please join the local protest to Stop Universal Credit, the damaging (and expensive) new benefits system this government has been trying to introduce.

Universal Credit will extend the use of benefit sanctions to those receiving in-work benefits (housing benefit, working tax credit and child credit) - a target driven agenda to remove people from the survival benefits they are entitled to. 

11am -12 midday, Thursday 24th May, Harlesden Job Centre, 161-163 High St, NW10 4TL

Read more here

http://www.unitetheunion.org/ca…/stop--fix-universal-credit/

Despite knowing Universal Credit causes serious problems for claimants, the Tory government is pressing ahead and rolling it out to thousands of people who will have to wait weeks to receive any money.

Claimants are descending into debt, relying on food banks, getting into rent arrears and in many cases getting evicted from their homes because of in- built problems with Universal Credit.

Who gets Universal    Credit 
 
Universal Credit replaces five benefits – child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income-related employment and support allowance and working tax credit.

Seven million households will be affected, including over one million low paid part-time workers. For the first time ever people in work could face being sanctioned (having their benefits stopped) if they don’t prove to the job centre that they’re searching for better paid work or more hours.

10 reasons why Universal Credit should be stopped

• Unbearably long waits for claimants to receive money
• People can only apply for Universal Credit online making it inaccessible for many
• Not enough help for claimants when the system fails them
• Rent paid directly to claimants instead of Landlords causing people to get into arrears and even to lose their homes 
• Letting agents are already refusing to rent to anyone claiming Universal Credit
• Cruel sanctions for both in-work and out-of-work claimants 
• Payments only go to one named member of a household
• Universal Credit takes 63p in every £1 people earn 
• Universal Credit leaves many working families much worse off than the old system
• People in part-time work could be forced to give up work that suits their disability or family life in order to take up worse paid full-time work or risk sanctions.
  

Volunteer English teachers required in Brent - training provided by Unite Community

Free Community English Classes in Brent

Call for volunteer teachers of English successful

Just before Christmas we carried an advertisement LINK asking for people to train as volunteer teachers of English for the Unite Community project that will set up classes in Brent.

Robin Sivapalan reports on the first training session:

--> We had a great teacher training session at the weekend, organised by Brent Unite Community and delivered by English for Action. 

In two days such a lot of content was covered, complex issues explored, and a strong team of colleagues formed. Nobody entered the room with no experience, and we have much to still learn as we go along. The EFA approach towards the teacher volunteers is exactly the one they encourage us to take towards the student participants: that respects prior experience, where we are all simultaneously teachers and learners at all times. 

We have one class confirmed, an intermediate class at CVS Brent, Wednesday afternoons. About 5 more are likely to be confirmed soon. Please let me know of any community groups, housing associations etc that would likely want one of our teachers to run a course with them. It is not an accredited ESOL course; it is a space for people to build confidence communicating in English in the situations where they need it; it is to create community; it is towards welcoming migrants into the local labour movement so we can campaign for social justice more united. 

If you want to become a teacher with us, we will run further training in the year. Please go check out the work English for Action are doing in the city, get involved, donate etc, as you can do with this local project in Brent too, especially by joining Unite Community, only £2.19 a month.
http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-o…/communitymembership/

Stop and Fix Universal Credit - demonstration Neasden Parade on Saturday

From Unite Community

This year Christmas will be cancelled for thousands of families claiming the government’s new all-in-one benefit, Universal Credit. 

Unite is calling on the government to stop and fix Universal Credit before even more families will be forced to use food banks and struggle to heat their homes this Christmas.

The government has also admitted that the Universal Credit helpline for claimants will be closed for the majority of the Christmas period, making life even more difficult for claimants needing advice and emergency help. 

Unite Community members and campaigners will be holding street stalls in 70 towns and city centres across the UK on Saturday 2 December to help raise awareness of who will be affected by Universal Credit.The Brent event, with Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group,  will be at Noon until 2pm on Saturday at Neasden Parade, Neasden Shopping Centre. Other demonstrations listed HERE

As well as the long waits for the benefit there are other problems with Universal Credit such as the complex online-only application process and the housing benefit element not being paid direct to landlords causing rent arrears and in some cases eviction.  

Liane Groves, Head of Unite Community says:

Despite knowing that Universal Credit causes serious problems for those claiming it the government is ploughing ahead regardless while claimants are descending into debt, relying on food banks and getting into rent arrears and in many cases are being evicted from their homes. 

In order to claim Universal Credit claimants need an internet connection which many simply can’t afford. 

Unite is demanding a cut in the long waits to receive money, for people to be able to apply in job centres not just online, better help for people when the system fails, landlords to be paid directly to avoid people getting into rent arrears and losing their homes, and an end to benefit sanctions for people in and out of work. 

In Britain there are currently 505,549 households receiving Universal Credit but a further 1,513,970 will be put on this winter and this figure is expected to reach 5,915,290 once the government has finished rolling it out fully by March 2022. 

Over 1.2 million low paid part-time workers will also be affected by Universal Credit and for the first time ever people in work could face being sanctioned (having their benefits stopped) if they don’t prove to the job centre that they’re searching for better paid work or more hours. 

The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest foodbank, says demand in areas where Universal Credit has already been rolled out has increased by an average of 30 per cent and landlords report a huge increase in rent arrears.  

Community members will be handing out leaflets with information and getting people to sign a petition to call on the government to stop the roll out of Universal Credit and fix the problems with it. 

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group join in national demonstrations against punitive benefit sanctions

Outside Kilburn Job Centre today

Members of Unite Community, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group and local activists protested outside Kilburn Job Centre today as part of a national protest day on sanctions.

Unite said:

Members came together across Britain today in a national day of action to stop benefits sanctions, with demonstrations in cities and towns up and down the country at over 80 job centres.

At the main demonstration, protestors gathered in London outside the Houses of Parliament and marched onwards to the Treasury and then to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to reiterate their call for the government to stop its ‘cruel and ineffective’ benefit sanctions regime.

Unite wants to highlight the shocking impact the government’s benefit sanctions are having on individuals, driving people further into poverty, misery and even death.

Since the Tories first came into power in May 2010 over 3m individuals have been referred for a sanction 8m times.

Punitive sanctions have resulted in over 318,000 people having their welfare payments cut or stopped without warning in the last year, affecting thousands of children and dependant adults. Sanctions are given for reasons such as missing or being late for appointments with the job centre, or being too sick to ‘actively seek work’.

According to the Trussell Trust, one of the main providers of food banks, more than 500,000 three day emergency food parcels have been distributed to people in crisis in the first half of 2016/17 – over 188,500 to children. The most common reason given for people turning to the food bank charity is problems and delays with their benefits.

Unite is also concerned that if people do not appeal against their first sanction, if they are sanctioned again, they will be sanctioned for longer – leaving people without money for three months or up to three years depending on the level of ‘offence’.

Figures released by DWP in December 2016 show that of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for between 1 and 2 years during 2010 to 2015, 37 per cent were sanctioned, after challenges; of those claiming between 2 and 3 years, half (49 per cent) were sanctioned; and of those claiming between 3 and 4 years, 85 per cent were sanctioned.

Head of Unite Community Liam Groves said:

The government really needs to stop the cruel use of benefit sanctions which are destroying lives. The stress they are putting on people, and the effect on their children and wider families, is unacceptable. We should all be shocked.
 
The government has shown no evidence that benefit sanctions are working. The opposite is true, when people are in survival mode, fighting to put food on their family’s table or stressing how they will pay their bills means their mental and physical heath suffers and finding work is so much harder.

Rather than punishing the unemployed for not having a job the government should be helping people get jobs. People need a hand up – not a slap down.

Unite Scotland Community co-ordinator Jamie Caldwell highlighted the dire situation facing claimants in Scotland:

Last year an estimated total of 25,000 benefit claimants were sanctioned across Scotland – many of whom were left with nothing. What kind of a country are we living in, where a government can deliberately set out to leave children without enough to eat? It’s heart-breaking for that to happen in developing countries, but it’s a source of national scandal and shame in a rich country like the UK.

Unite in the Community co-ordinator Albert Hewitt explained that Northern Ireland’s working class has to date largely escaped the full brunt of the Tory government’s so-called welfare reforms, including benefits sanctions:

But with the Fresh Start agreement, this situation has changed. Despite the mitigation measures agreed as part of that agreement, the most vulnerable are being hard-hit by the range of punishing changes.

Unfortunately as a result of the Fresh Start Agreement, benefits sanctions are becoming an increasing reality for many of the most vulnerable in working-class communities across Northern Ireland.

Housing groups call urgent meeting with Brent councilors and Brent Community Housing

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, Brent Housing Action, Housing 4 All, London Radical Housing Network, Residents of South Kilburn and Barham Park Estates and Unite Community have  jointly convened a meeting about housing in Brent.

They have invited Kilburn councillor Rita Conneely and lead member for Regeneration and Housing Cllr Margaret McLellan to the meeting along with Brent Community Housing staff.

A particular focus will be recent developments on the South Kilburn and Barham Park estates.

The meeting will take place between 11am and 1pm at CASA LATINA, PRIORY HOUSE, 10 KINGSGATE PLACE, NW6 4TA on Wednesday 13th August.

BACKGROUND

Barham Park LINK

South Kilburn  LINK

BedroomTax: End it Now. Demonstration tomorrow.

From Unite Community

Bedroom Tax - one year on - end it now!

Saturday 05 April 2014 at 13:00-15:00

5 April marks the first anniversary of the hated Bedroom Tax. 

The Bedroom Tax causes misery to 600,000 families, increasing financial pain and contributing to growing food bank queues.

Unite Community believes one year is one year too long. Please join us at One Hyde Park, London’s most expensive residence, to call on Westminster to follow the Scottish parliament in binning the Bedroom Tax.

Join us for speakers, entertainment and sign an alternative birthday card to Iain Duncan Smith.

Event – Bedroom Tax, one year on, end it now
When – 1pm, 5 April
Where – One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, London SW1X &LJ
Travel Details – Closest tube: Knightsbridge. Buses: 9, 10, 19, 22, 52, 137, 452, C1. For an accessible tube map of london please click here
Speakers – Owen Jones and some of those affected by welfare reforms. 
Contact – Pilgrim Tucker