JSA injustice
JSA injustice
Stan Marsh gives a round up of action against the JSA.
The Job Seeker's Allowance is one of the most important piece of recent Government legislation affecting the lives and living standards of the unemployed in Britain.
The JSA is primarily designed to save money - £70 million in the financial year 1996/7. More than 70,000 claimants will lose all entitlement to benefit in six months, and a further 95,000 are likely to have to apply for means-tested benefits six months earlier than they would otherwise have to.
As a result, 250,000 claimants will be worse off once the JSA is operating.
Employment service advisors will have annual performance targets set to get as many so-called positive outcomes as possible. These advisors will have power of 'direction' over interviewees' actions and even appearance - including everything from clothing to haircut - with the power to withdraw benefits. The potential for abuse resulting from management pressure to get results is great.
A wave of industrial action is growing as members of the Civil and Public Services Association in the Benefits Agency (BA) are involved in trials for the Job Seeker's Allowance. CPSA is looking to broadening the dispute.
Many of the disputes concern health and safety. Staff in BA offices have security screens to protect them from disgruntled claimants. Even with these there were 125 assaults on BA staff in 1994.
BA management is seeking to transfer staff working on the JSA to Employment Service (ES) offices, where screens were removed some years ago. Assaults on staff are much more commonplace in ES - 546 in 1995.
This is despite the most desperate claimants - those being means-tested - being dealt with at BA offices rather than by ES.
BA staff in Leicester and Nottingham struck for a week after management ignored the result of a survey by consultants which recommended the use of screens. The strike has been followed by an overtime ban and a work to rule.
Members in East London also struck for a week after management commissioned a risk assessment which ignored the issue of screens.
However management in Northern Ireland has agreed to spend 1.5 million pounds after considering the same risks to staff as in Britain. CPSA members in Tottenham BA struck for a week in protest at the introduction of the scheme on a trial basis. Brighton members also struck for a week against plans to post them compulsorily to JSA work. Sheffield is balloting for all-out action. Protests have also occurred in Ealing, Middlesborough and Shropshire.
CPSA is planning a ballot for selective action, including a two-day strike, in all 600 BA offices open to the public.
They have four key demands:
In two Sheffield Benefits Agency offices CPSA members have defeated management's attempts to transfer staff compulsorily to work on the JSA. A matter of days before an indefinite strike was due to start, management withdrew its proposals.
On July 10th, the National Unemployed Centres' Combine is organising a national conference at Congress House, Great Russell Street, London (off Tottenham Court Road). This will bring together all the voluntary agencies concerned with the effects of the JSA to discuss the impact of the Act on poverty levels and to investigate alternatives.
More details: JOB (Jobs or Benefits), 24 Hardman Street, Liverpool L1 9AX, tel: 0151 709 3995, email: Centre@mtucurc.com
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