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Burton blockade against workfare – Saturday, 23rd March 2013, 2.00pm

Nottingham against Workfare have announced a local action during the Boycott Workfare week of action.

Saturday, March 23, 2013. 2:00pm until 5:30pm.
Burton Mens Clothing, 11-13 Beast Market Hill, Nottingham NG1 6FB

NaW say,

As part of the workfare week of action
http://www.facebook.com/events/517491058274105/ Nottingham against workfare will be taken action against Workfare scummers Burton’s. Part of the Arcadia group notoriuous for their tax doging way, Burtons have been using those forced into workfare to stack their shelves and clean their floors for quite some time without ever paying them. We plan to close down their shop amd let them know how disgusted we are with them and others like them who continue to abuse the working class.

Facebook event page for Burton blockade: http://www.facebook.com/events/341132549339550/

NaW facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/nott.workfare

Background to the week of action

Workfare Can Be Broken – Join the Week of Action on 18-24 March and help make it happen

The Government is pushing ahead with increasingly savage workfare policies despite the fierce resistance to the scheme causing many high street names and national charities to pull out.

Unemployed people can now be sentenced to six months compulsory unpaid work as part of the Community Action Programme. On December 3rd last year – International Disabled People’s Day – the DWP introduced forced work for sick and disable…d claimants.

Companies such as Superdrug, Argos and McDonalds, who have all been quick to take on unpaid workers on government schemes, have seen a year of boycotts, pickets, demonstrations and occupations due to their involvement in the scheme. Many national charities have pulled out as a result of protests, but some, such as The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), Salvation Army and Sue Ryder Foundation are unrepentent about their army of government subsidised unpaid workers. Many of the new workfare programmes depend on charities like these to provide placements.

Workfare can be broken by showing these organisations that the public have clearly rejected unpaid work. Evidence has shown that mandatory work has no impact in actually helping someone find a job, the stated aim of the scheme. Instead workfare is used to replace real jobs, with some companies even caught taking on unpaid workers to fill temporary Christmas positions.

Join Boycott Workfare on 18-24 March for a week of action against workfare exploiters everywhere. Take action in a town or city near you, join in online and show all those who profit from forced labour that we mean it when we say “if you exploit us, we will shut you down”.

Nottingham Anonymous anti-cuts action on 23/2/2013

Brief report from a participant on the Nottingham Anonymous anti-cuts action yesterday:

Up to one hundred demonstrators assembled in Old Market Square and proceeded to blockade tax-dodging firms such as Starbucks, Vodafone, banks, etc. People passing by responded very positively. Some joined in the fun. The police followed the demo around but kept a low profile. The mainly young people participating were very lively and positive. Anonymous are to be congratulated for organising this direct action.

Update: longer report and more photos: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/5393

Another photo on Notts Indymedia, outside NatWest: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/tumbles/5379

Nottingham Indymedia relaunches

It’s good to see Nottingham Indymedia has reopened publishing as of today. Over the last few years of austerity, and long before, the independent newswire has been an important source of news, comment, photographs and videos about anti-cuts activism and events in Nottingham and Notts. Most importantly it is a place where anyone can publish. Notts SOS has regularly linked to articles and features from the website. Take a fresh look and get publishing!

Back to work schemes quashed in court & Mandatory Work Activity under pressure from anti-workfare campaigning

Good news from Boycott Workfare and all over the news.

Today, the Court of Appeal quashed the government’s workfare schemes, which have seen tens of thousands of people put to work without pay and many more put at risk of destitution through sanctions.

Of the numerous workfare schemes introduced by this government, only Mandatory Work Activity remains lawful. With immediate effect, those on the controversial Work Programme, Sector Based Work Academies, Community Action Programme or other workfare schemes may leave without risk of sanction. Sanctions currently in place must immediately be brought to an end.

The government has however threatened to swiftly lay new regulations which may make the schemes mandatory and subject to sanctions. The impact of the ruling remains substantial, since unless the DWP wins the right to appeal in the Supreme Court and succeeds in that appeal, everyone who has been sanctioned on the schemes to date should be entitled to be paid back and all referrals to date will have been unlawful.

The viability of the remaining ‘lawful’ workfare scheme, MWA, is under question due to campaigners’ success in persuading charities and companies to withdraw. A DWP evaluation of Mandatory Work Activity in December 2012 noted that “The high profile withdrawal of placements from a number of larger charities meant a sharp reduction in placements.”

[…]

Boycott Workfare’s UK-wide week of action on 18th-24th March will go ahead with the aim of bringing Mandatory Work Activity to an end and ensuring the government don’t bring workfare back. The campaign will do all it can to ensure all those who have been sanctioned on the schemes are repaid, so watch this space.

Full article: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=2020

Fuel poverty protest in Nottingham, Thursday 14 February 2013 at 12:30pm

Fuel poverty protest against E.on.

Event venue: Eon Open House, 33 Lister Gate, Nottingham, NG1. [Map]

Thursday, 14 February 2013 12:30 until 14:00

Eon and the other five big energy companies (EDF, Centrica, SSE,
Scottish Power and npower) are a cartel which controls 99% of the
domestic energy market. Domestic energy prices for us are constantly
rising whilst every year these companies declare record profits.

According to a recent survey, this winter 1 in 4 families have had to face
a stark choice between heating and eating. Whilst e.on executives and
shareholders spend bumper profits on second homes and holidays abroad,
people in the UK are freezing because they need to eat.

We are starving to stay warm!

On June the 17th and 18th the G8 world leaders will be meeting in
Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, to discuss how to maintain the capitalist
system which enables and justifies this daylight robbery. While we allow
our lives to be governed by these crooks profit will always come before
people. The only way to achieve real change is to break from this
vicious cycle of exploitation, smash capitalism and reorganise our
communities in a way which ensures everyone has access to the
necessities of life.

From the 10th of June there will be a week of action, workshops and
meetings in London to protest against the G8 and to work towards
building the sort of world that we want to live in.

Background

Stop the Great Fuel Robbery weekend of action… One week to go

Hi everyone,

Next weekend, between 15th-18th February, hundreds of people across
the UK will be taking to the streets to Stop the Great Fuel Robbery in
our national weekend of fuel bill assemblies and action
( http://fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/stop-the-great-fuel-robbery/ ) All
the details of what’s going on are at the end of this email. But,
first, here’s a round-up things you can do to help.

ONLINE SPEAK OUT FORUM

We’ve launched an online forum for people to speak out about their
experiences of the likes of mammoth fuel bills, greedy landlords,
rip-off energy companies. If you can’t make it to an event on the
weekend, submit your testimony online in advance (make sure you let us
know if you want it read out at a fuel bill assembly.
Find the online speak-out forum here:
http://fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/speak-out-on-your-situation/

DO YOU HAVE TRADE UNION CONTACTS?

We’re asking trade union branches to offer their support for Fuel
Poverty Action and our weekend of action. If you have union contacts,
email fuelpovertyaction@gmail.com and we’ll pass on a model email and
letter and motion of support.

SPREAD THE WORD

The facebook event for the weekend of action is here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/480595618645346/
Please join the event, invite all your friends and share it as your status.
And, don’t forget to follow @FuelPovAction on Twitter.

Warm wishes,

Fuel Poverty Action
====================================================
Visit http://www.fuelpovertyaction.org.uk
Twitter: @FuelPovAction
http://facebook.com/fuelpovertyaction
Email us at fuelpovertyaction [at] gmail.com
Tel: 07586 482 157
====================================================

Benefits campaigners to leaflet Nottingham Job Centre about Universal Job Match – Wednesday 23rd January at 9.30am

Benefits campaigners will be outside the Jobcentre this
Wednesday meeting at Station Street Jobcentre at 9.30am.

We will be handing out leaflets informing people on JSA about their rights
and data protection, especially around the new UJM (Universal Job Match)
scheme. UJM is not mandatory yet but is being treated as if it is. The
scheme has received widespread criticism (see link below) for its security
weaknesses with personal data being easily accessible by anyone posing as
an employer. It is also the latest step towards the draconian (Jobcentre
can track everything you do on the UJM, meaning when it is in full flow
they will be able to keep complete tabs on the job searching of people
claiming JSA.)

We are also inviting people to the “Nottingham Unemployed Workers Club”
which meets every Thursday afternoon between 11am and 2pm for cups of tea
and coffee, some lunch and sharing of ideas. We meet at Sumac Centre, 245
Gladstone Street, Forest Fields.

Be great to see you there!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/unemployed-to-be-forced-to-sign-up-to-universal-jobmatch-website-at-the-centre-of-security-concerns-8427546.html

See also: Info on UJM in English and Polish. http://universaljobmatch.eu/.
http://universaljobmatch.eu/pl.

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign – JOIN THE LOBBY ON MONDAY 28TH JANUARY AT 1.00PM OUTSIDE THE COUNCIL HOUSE

Heed your own warning on “chaos” of Council Tax Benefit changes: Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign urges Nottingham City Council

The campaign group have written to the Council asking them to take seriously their own criticism of their latest proposals for a Council Tax Benefit Support Scheme for 2013/14. Instead of going ahead with an 8.5% cut to all Council Tax Benefit recipients of working age, they say the Council should delay passing on the cuts. The Council are permitted to pass a scheme with zero cuts to Council Tax Benefit for 2013/14 and still be entitled to transitional funding. If they did this, they would have a year to build a campaign with local residents and other groups across the country to demand a sustainable and fair alternative and prevent the introduction of a minimum 20% cuts in 2014/15.

JOIN THE LOBBY ON MONDAY 28TH JANUARY AT 1.00PM OUTSIDE THE COUNCIL HOUSE

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign
http://defendcounciltaxbenefits.blogspot.co.uk/

Read the letter to Nottingham City Council. Council letter Jan 13

Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign – Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Campaign Group urges Nottingham City Council to heed its own warning on Council Tax Benefit changes

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign [1] have written to Nottingham City Council asking them to take seriously their own criticism of their latest proposals for a Council Tax Benefit Support Scheme [2] for 2013/14 , and buy time and fight with local residents for a sustainable and fair alternative.

In their letter, the group say the new proposals are unsustainable, as they do not provide a long term solution to the funding crisis with Government free to keep cutting funds regardless of need. They quote Nottingham City Council Leader Jon Collins predicting “chaos”[3] in trying to collect the money from benefit recipients. They point out that, under transitional funding rules, Nottingham City Council had the option not to pass on the cut to Council Tax Benefit, but have chosen to ask for the maximum amount of 8.5%. They also say that removing empty property council tax discounts and exemptions to part fund the scheme would be unfair and could penalise carers and other groups.

“These new proposals represent a shift away from a Council Tax Benefit scheme based on people’s real needs. A cut of 8.5% in your Council Tax benefit may look better than a cut of 20%, but it will still cause hardship and debt for people who have no money left at the end of the month, and will do nothing to prevent much bigger cuts in future years. We call on Nottingham City Council not to pass on these cuts to the poorest and most vulnerable people in Nottingham” – Chris Jackson, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits.

Contacts

Cathy Meadows: 07913476905

Email: defendcounciltaxbenefits[at]yahoo.co.uk

Ends

Notes: 1. Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign is opposed to the proposed abolition of the Council Tax Benefit Scheme and its replacement by local Council Tax Schemes; campaigns for councils to refuse to pass on the cuts to its local community; supports those who are unable to pay their council tax due to the proposed changes; and calls on councils not to pursue those who are unable to pay their Council tax due to the council’s changes. Contact information below.

2. The current national Council Tax Benefit (CTB) scheme is being abolished under the Welfare Reform Act. All councils in England must bring in their own Council Tax Support scheme from April 2013, with less funding. In October, the government announced transitional funding for councils on condition that anyone previously entitled to full CTB will now receive at least 91.5%. On Dec 18, Nottingham City Council agreed to apply for Transitional Funding of £775,000, and changed its CTB Support Scheme accordingly:

· Putting a maximum limit on the amount of council tax support that could be paid to all working age people, so that working age households who got 100% help with their Council Tax bills now could receive a maximum of 91.5% help in 2013/14
· All working age households would pay at least 8.5% of their Council Tax bill in 2013/14
· No sharp reduction in support for those entering work. The following additional elements were recommended and included, following
· Consideration of the findings of our formal consultation exercise:
· Removal of Second Adult Rebate
· Retaining backdating
· Setting a minimum award level of 50p

3. http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Council-leader-warns-council-tax-court-chaos-cuts/story-17627391-detail/story.html”>http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Council-leader-warns-council-tax-court-chaos-cuts/story-17627391-detail/story.html

Co-operative stops using ATOS

ATOS kills logo
In the face of protests both on and offline, The Co-operative Group have ditched poverty pimps ATOS as their occupational health provider.

The Co-op posted the following on their facebook page this afternoon:

“Hello everyone, here is an update as promised on our occupational healthcare provider, many thanks for your patience on this matter.

The Co-operative Group can confirm that a robust procurement process considering, amongst other factors, cost, operational efficiency and geographical capability is currently underway for our occupational health services provider. Having been scored against an agreed set of parameters and against other bidders, Atos Healthcare have not progressed to the later rounds of that process and our intention is to have a new provider in place when the current contract terminates.”

Source 14/1/2013: http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/co-op-ditch-atos-keep-up-the-pressure-it-works/

Action against ATOS in Nottingham:

Nottingham Defense Campaign: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/groups/nottingham-defence-campagin

‘Too much of this sort of thing’ Atos Two pamphlet: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/zines/2548

The subject of ATOS is currently receiving House of Commons debate:

Hansard: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130117/debtext/130117-0002.htm#13011761000001

Guardian 17/1/2013 Atos comes under attack in emotional Commons debate: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/17/atos-attack-emotional-commons-debate

Defend Council Tax Benefit – Lobby and Rally in Nottingham – 18th December 2012, 12.30pm and 5.30pm

DEFEND COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT LOBBY AND RALLY, TUESDAY 18 DECEMBER 2012, Nottingham City.

FIGHT FOR A FULLY FUNDED SCHEME BASED ON NEED

Lobby: Loxley House, Station Street 12.30pm.

Rally: Nottingham Market Square 5.30pm.

Organised by Notts Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign
defendcounciltaxbenefits@yahoo.co.uk or http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/450355785005204/
https://twitter.com/defendbenefits (tweet us @defendbenefits).

See also

* Nottingham City Council pay freeze battle: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Pay-freeze-battle-just-starting-council-warned/story-17594444-detail/story.html
* Elderly and families to feel the pinch as Nottingham City Council makes £25m savings: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Pay-freeze-battle-just-starting-council-warned/story-17594444-detail/story.html