Defending the rights of the unemployed!

 by New Worker correspondent

NCP campaign organiser Theo Russell joined demonstrators outside Caxton House, the headquarters of the Department for Work and Pensions, in London last week. Called by the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, the picketers were protesting against the radical overhaul of disability benefits that could see people with complex or invisible conditions left hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
    Under the changes, the deeply-flawed work capability assessment (WCA) for determining benefit payments will be replaced with the existing personal independence payment (PIP) system – which is used to decide what day-to-day help a disabled person might need.
    In its post-Budget analysis, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the Government could face a choice of either widening the criteria or seeing hundreds of thousands of people no longer qualifying for benefits. Tom Waters, economist at the IFS, estimated one million people could be forced into work and some 600,000 could lose an estimated £350 per month in support.

Stop Universal Credit!

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other comrades and friends picketing the DWP HQ in Westminster last week to protest against the hated ‘Universal Credit’ scheme and demand that Labour scrap it if they win the next election.

                        Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) hold protest pickets outside Caxton House every month to highlight the injustices of Universal Credit which discriminates and penalises the people it purports to help.

Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight, who helped set up the campaign during the Financial Crash of 2008, said the picketers were demanding that Jeremy Corbyn keeps his promise to scrap the scheme if Labour wins the general election next month.

Jeremy Corbyn says Labour will axe Universal Credit when it returns to power.

“Universal Credit has been an unmitigated disaster,” the Labour leader said. “It is inhumane and cruel. Labour will scrap Universal Credit. We will introduce a new system that will alleviate and end poverty, not drive people into it.”

                        The protesters ended their lunchtime protest with the KUWG’s traditional salute – ‘V for victory’ and ‘two-fingers’ to the Establishment –  but they will be back in December to keep up the fight.

Stop Universal Credit!

NCP's Theo Russell on the left

By New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends protested outside the Department for Work & Pensions offices in Caxton House, central London, on a busy Friday lunchtime last week to call for the hated Universal Credit system to be scrapped. Leaflets were handed out and speakers drew attention to the thousands of people who have died after being after being declared fit for work. Many passers by and drivers showed their support for the protesters, and leaflets were given to DWP workers taking their lunch breaks. The pickets, called by the Kilburn Unemployed Worker’s Group are held on the first Friday of every month from 12 noon.

Scrap Universal Credit!

by New Worker correspondent

There was a big turnout from Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group picketing the DWP HQ at Caxton House in London’s West End last week. The protesters were calling for the scrapping of the hated ‘Universal Credit’ benefits scheme that is killing the poor and disabled.

Universal Credit is a punitive measure against a vast section of the population on low income rather than a rational simplification and streamlining of the benefit system, as the Tories claim. Universal Credit combines six working-age benefits into a single payment — but is paid monthly in arrears.

The roll out of Universal Credit (UC) threatens to ruin thousands of families throughout the country, forcing them into huge debt, homelessness and unemployment while a recent study led by the University of York found that benefits sanctions are pushing people into destitution, survival crime and ill health.