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no work no home

Keith Parkins | 06.02.2008 15:47 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

In a speech to the Fabian Society, government minister Caroline Flint says no work, no home.

"What is being proposed would destroy families and communities and add to the thousands who are already homeless." -- Adam Sampson, chief executive, Shelter

The latest crass policy from a government minister is that if you have no work, then you will lose your council home. New tenants are to be required to sign a contract that makes this explicit. It is reasonable to assume this policy will be extended to all social housing tenants, ie tenants of housing associations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7227667.stm

In a speech that was deserving of an Orwellian prize for news speak, Caroline Flint said that she wanted to "begin a debate" about how to best serve the needs of people who live in social housing.

Caroline Flint wants to break the link between social housing and long term unemployment. Kicking people out of their homes will undoubtedly do the trick.

Caroline Flint went on to echo what Brown had said the week before on training and unemployment not being an option.

This is part of an unseemly bidding war between the two major political parties, see who can hit the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged with the biggest stick.

Only a week ago we had Gordon Brown regurgitate a policy that he announced only a few weeks before (the only recycling Brown understands) that there would be no such thing as unemployment, if you were out of work, then you had to go on compulsory training.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390290.html?c=on

Bogus training courses that do nothing for the unemployed, but afford excellent get rich quick schemes for the companies that run them.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386689.html?c=on

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388044.html?c=on

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388504.html?c=on

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390153.html?c=on

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news614.htm

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390290.html?c=on

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390471.html?c=on

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390638.html?c=on

When on these scam training courses, clients (ie no longer unemployed which helps massage the unemployment figures) have to go on work placements, ie go and work for nothing. On these work placements, clients find they are doing the same jobs as those doing Community Service.

We are told the prisons are full (another pocket lining scheme for private companies), that Community Service is not a soft option. Are the unemployed therefore being punished for being unemployed?

Who is to decide?

Already we have Job Centres arbitrarily stopping benefits on a whim.

It is bad enough to lose benefit, now you will lose your home too.

The policy would be a clear breach of the Human Rights Act, right to a family home, disproportionate punishment, but it seems the government has already thought of that one, they are going to drastically cut the money available for legal aid.

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news618.htm#1

There are ground for putting people out on the street: failure to pay rent, abuse of neighbours, trashing the property. Being out of work is not grounds to be kicked out of ones home.

Once people are out on the street they will find it far harder to get a job as they are of no fixed abode. Then starts the downward spiral into crime, alcohol and drug abuse, with society left to pick up the cost.

Yes, there are people who are unfairly claiming Disability Living Allowance, who cause all disabled to be tarred with the same brush.

Everyday locally, we see one such individual whose performance would be deserving of an Oscar. In the town centre during the day, he slowly walks along on his crutches with a pained expression on his face. Tells anyone who will listen how ill he is, that he has to go into hospital to have his hips replaced, his legs amputated (a tale he has been telling for at least five years). In the evening or away from the town centre, he makes a miraculous recovery, you would have to jog to keep up with him. Late at night he is seen walking along carrying his crutches.

Unemployment is an economic fact of life of a modern economy. A situation made worse by unrestricted immigration. A responsible government should be introducing measures to positively deal with unemployment, not punish the unemployed to grab a few cheap votes.

The gap between rich and poor is the widest it has been in forty years.

The government is creating an underclass outside of society. Will the next stage be the Final Solution, round up all the undesirable, all those surplus to requirements, and send them to the gas chambers?

Web

http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/

Ref

Anger as Labour tells unemployed tenants 'find a job or lose your council house', Evening Standard, 6 February 2008

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23435815-details/Anger+as+Labour+tells+unemployed+tenants+%27find+a+job+or+lose+your+council+house%27/article.do

Change of P.A.C.E, SchNEWS, 1 February 2008

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news618.htm#1

Pippa Crerar, If you want to get a council house start job hunting, Evening Standard, 5 February 2008

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23435821-details/If+you+want+to+get+a+council+house+start+job+hunting/article.do

Keith Parkins, Brown's global 'arms' training race, Indymedia UK, 28 January 2008

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390290.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, McDegrees from McD's, Indymedia UK, 29 January 2008

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390346.html

Wealth gap 'widest in 40 years', BBC news on-line, 17 July 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6901147.stm

'Work or lose home' says minister, BBC news on-line, 5 February 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7227667.stm

Keith Parkins

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

War on the Poor

06.02.2008 17:27

So now the government want to further punish the poor for being poor and it is nothing more than a War on the Poor. Social housing was introduced to help those at the bottom of the social/ecnonomic heap to give them a roof over their head and access to clean water and sanitation. This is now on the way out and once again the poor have to be sanctioned 'for their own good' while the rich have 'guidelines' to keep them from robbing from our common wealth, and, when they are caught in breach, are at best forced to resign and take up a company directorship somewhere else, with the very companies they have been passing our money through privatisation. Politicians who are entrusted to look after our common wealth can receive hundreds of thousands of pounds and not question where the money comes from or hardly even notice they have the money - meanwhile the War on the Poor hots up more every day, from those same politicians who feather their own nests with our money and take great pains to pass on the stolen wealth to their children through inheritance, private health and private schooling and guaranteed pensions, to ensure that their kids grow up as greedy and conniving as themselves.
The War on the Poor needs to be recognised as such, and not allowed to be couched in the mealy-mouthed terms of 'for their own good'. When the social and health problems this War causes become ever more apparent, more taxpayers money is hived off to the private sector to 'cure' the social evils caused by those same policies. A truly VICIOUS cycle. The pillaging of our common wealth continues apace with much of the money repatriated to the homelands of foreign companies, or stockpiled in offshore 'tax-havens' so we, the real wealth creators, can never get it back. And great pains are taken to scapegoat the poor for suffering from the very problems caused by the broken trust of politicians and their paymasters in global capital. The whole system stinks and yet most don't even notice the putrid smell of the trough as the 'great and the good' trample and kill the poor in their rush to gorge themselves on that which belongs to us all.
And remember, you sanctimonious poor blamers with a 'steady' job, the majority of us are only one pay-check away from poverty ourselves.

e-Victed

great article

06.02.2008 18:00

great article, well referenced.

ill be forwarding this link to alot of people.

the situation in our country keeps getting more and more fucked up.

we need to take action...

Class warfare

07.02.2008 13:11

Flyer for you guys

This is class warfare, pure and simple. If we don't fight back we will wake up one day with a million living in shanty towns and the rest a paycheck away from joining them.

My take on this is that they want to sell off the council estates to the yuppies. Mine would make a great "gated community" with its three access roads, little park, even a school -and they'll need armed guards, never mind gates, to keep us out! -And would be worth, I calculate a good fraction of a billion quid.

Since the end of the 70s the economy has relied on taking from the poor and giving to the rich, with the coming recession they need to intensify this so that they have more money for corporate welfare. It's a zero-sum game, and the general public are the losers - with increased crime, insecurity and banana republic levels of poverty.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES...

(BTW, if you live in a council house, have a flyer. Feel free to distribute, modify, etc)

housing activist

UK Indymedia

no work no home

Comments

War on the Poor

great article

Class warfare

Global IMC Network