I object to that or, I have a good reason for not doing x,y or z!

After spending many years helping people face-to-face, on-line as well as providing a free, personal advocacy service in various DWP settings (Jobcentres, work programme provider premises, Tribunals and more recently in ESA assessments centres), I have learned that the primary way to stop DWP staff abusing their powers is having access to relevant FOI requests as well as the most recent legislation, policy and procedure documents handy.

In many cases the reaction is, "where did you get that information from?"  Lol!

I admire every forum and website owner who has taken the time and trouble (predominately for free) to provide help and support to people claiming welfare benefits or NI credits.

There must be an easier or better way?

Every case I have been involved with has been won on the basis that the DWP/provider/JC official failed to consider an individuals circumstances or, the correct process and procedure was not followed.

Perhaps, we need to be more proactive rather than reactive!

In the perfect world the current regime wouldn't exist!  

Unless there is an active movement akin to the Suffragettes very little will change and we will be using sticking plasters to deal with the day to day problems, some of which are life threatening!

I agree proactive is the way to go.

I think the weight of the argument is overwhelming but the will of the people is at a low ebb.

It might change when UC is fully rolled out, sanctions are on the increase after a slight dip.

on a side note,

I would love to document all your fights and knowledge, I am sure it is scattered far and wide across the inter-webs it is a shame it is not all gathered and made into some sort of E-Book or whatever, be a shame to lose all that to time.

May I ask if I come across any of your letter templates or information which might useful for a site I am in the process of building which is an attempt to be more pro active, and this sites admin agrees may I copy it ?

Would love you to write an article for site about your experiences or I will send you a Q&A like a interview type thing.

http://killwelfaresanctionskill.org

No matter if not, just a thought.

dboy wrote:I agree proactive is the way to go.

I think the weight of the argument is overwhelming but the will of the people is at a low ebb.

It might change when UC is fully rolled out, sanctions are on the increase after a slight dip.

on a side note,

I would love to document all your fights and knowledge, I am sure it is scattered far and wide across the inter-webs it is a shame it is not all gathered and made into some sort of E-Book or whatever, be a shame to lose all that to time.

May I ask if I come across any of your letter templates or information which might useful for a site I am in the process of building which is an attempt to be more pro active, and this sites admin agrees may I copy it ?

Would love you to write an article for site about your experiences or I will send you a Q&A like a interview type thing.

http://killwelfaresanctionskill.org

No matter if not, just a thought.

Thanks for your comments dboy.  

I was approached by a Blogger before Christmas to become a guest contributer to his page.  In the past he would write my articles for me.  At the moment my health limits what I can do and I have also noticed that the quality of my work here is not what it used to be, hence, the reason I am trying to limit my input.

The problem with writing people stories is, you need consent and based on experience most people prefer to deal with their personal affairs in private.  

The reason I prefer to post information on a forum is, that people can seek support if they need it and more importantly members can provide valuable input about the content.  



If you copy articles without rewriting the work, Google will penalize your site in regards to its ranking position.  One of my templates (ASE) can be found on a professional welfare site, but the content has been changed.  A number of welfare organizations have asked to use some of the templates for training purposes which is fine.

Admin decided to make the RB templates available to members only so that support could be offered if necessary.

Public templates can of course be posted with the website link attached.

I will help out when I can on any articles you write.  I note one is a wee bit misleading.

The site overall is coming together very nicely - well done!

Thank you for taking the time to look around and kind words.

I fully appreciate your point about keeping up to date and the dangers of relying on outdated information.

At the moment I have been concentrating on getting the bare bones together so padded it out for now with some articles and news stories that I haven't commented on yet to get an idea of how it all comes together.

I have not allowed those search engines that honour the protocol, IE google to search the site at moment until it is ready to go live.

I am more a organiser than anything and just trying to get a team together at the moment and pitch my idea, obviously someone with your vast wealth of knowledge and experience would be fantastic to have on board but I also appreciate the time and effort it takes to even respond to a simple post let alone get involved in something else like this.

I chose word press because of its collaborative nature, it is a ideal platform to build a team, a knowledge base of peer reviewed articles that are regularly updated and provide a front face to the campaign to end sanctions by 2022.

As I say the collaborative nature of WordPress allows me to give you or anyone else that is interested access to all the articles so you can add, edit as you wish.

Use the contact form or join the forum and ask there if you want access.

Not sure if you have used WordPress before or any software like it but if you need help in that regards, then this is where I can help.

It is pretty intuitive once you get the swing off things.

Anyway, regardless if only in passing you can give me some input be much appreciated, but your more important than anything else so do not worry if that is not possible.

take care,
dboy

when creating this site it was fun making everything work for everyone to use there is still some glitches on the site, but at least people can see it

forming the sites forum base was interesting it has grown twice already to what it is now
members have asked for stuff being added

the thing with to much all over the place or too big of a site is keeping up with it and what people post on here keeping the forums busy or interesting is kinda hard work it also relies upon its members as well wordpress is different

going live and letting others know your there is something that has to be done but spamming other forums to let them know your there is kinda frowned upon

it takes a while for google and other search engines to start profiling your site and whats posted there slowly over the past year we are moving up the ranks

yes you can pay to get too number 1 slot but to stay there your still going to have to pay once you stop your ranking is dropped

I have put a link on my site to yours, I would never dream of paying for pie in the sky schemes to boost traffic, all scams and cons imo.

As for having a big site and organising it, this is where WordPress comes into its own.

The content management system and plug-in architecture makes light work of most tasks that can be automated.

There is pretty much a plug-in for everything and it is the most documented CMS out there so tons of free support.

Its all a matter of Balance;
When a person sets up a forum, Many hours of hard work goes into it;
No Administrator is going to be best pleased if someone comes along and uses there Forum
[Or Website or Blog] to promote there own "Creation";
And a great many forums will Kick you off
A Link in your Profile, perhaps a post saying what you are doing, A Few Forums have a section for there members to promote there Websites/Forums.
So it's the best etiquette to leave it at that.
To get a good popular Forum going takes YEARS;
So its work for the long-term; Good relevant Content, New Content every day, Get one or two new members Dedicated to posting Daily, and in a year or two who knows where you will be;
but just start with "Small Steps".

dboy,

My suggestion is, to proactively focus on the information gaps and what is needed most today.

If you research Dr. David Webster's work, you will discover that failure to participate/failure to attend and alleged failure to actively seek work/complete the work search activity within a Universal Credit claimant commitment are the areas where claimants are caught by disallowances and sanctions the most.

One million extra people face benefit sanctions under Universal Credit, warns leading expert [VIDEO]
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/01/30/one-million-extra-people-face-benefit-sanctions-universal-credit-warns-leading-expert-video/

The key templates for challenging JSA sanctions can be found easily on the net and you have already copy and pasted one of them in the Work and Welfare section of this forum from the JSSA site. You have also linked your site to this one so that people can access tailored advice and support, which is great!

Universal Credit sanction rates are significantly higher and harsher than those for JSA and the volumes are expected to rise further.

Support for Universal Credit claimants is a priority in my view.

All the best and I will assist if I can.

Yes with UC affecting over a million people when it is fully rolled is a good area to concentrate on.

Then there is the GDPA coming replacing the DPA in may not had a chance to look at it yet or what changes if any but I suspect it might have a impact so somewhere in the benefit system.

My site is mainly aimed at removing sanctions I have no legal training to be able to confidently say without doubt any of legal articles are factually correct to date so hesitant to publish without them being reviewed by someone with far more experience it would be useful resource for anyone should they need it.

When you consider all the different groups and major or subtle differences it becomes a mammoth task to cover them all so I would rather concentrate on areas that cover all groups regardless such as consent if it still exists in the new GDPA lol.

Any yeh anytime your passing click the contact button on my site and I will send you an invite to access all my files and drafts if you want to make any changes your welcome there is a versioning system in place so I can revert any changes though I doubt it, more a nod to you that you cannot break anything whatever you do.

Any help would be would be appreciated but no worries if not.

The about link now contains some information on what my site is about rather than trying to keep explaining.

I think it would be very difficult to create a generic template for all benefits.

For example, ESA is a complex benefit:

https://dwpexamination.org/forum/esa-how-to-guides-sample-letters/

However, in essence, an appeal is simply writing a statement of reasons explaining why you think the decision made was wrong.

Here is an example a local government form (the DWP one is very similar but I cannot find one on line)
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oOkUsvFv7BYJ:https://www.leicester.gov.uk/media/178163/mandatory-reconsideration-request.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

The problem is, that many DWP Decision Makers do not understand their own guidance or the legislation. A professional welfare adviser will make the DM's job easier by explaining precisely why the decision was wrong. The mandatory re-consideration /appeal will include; legislation, case law (if available), physical evidence as well as all the relevant facts and circumstances.

The more complex templates, for example, 'availability for work' are harder to use without assistance. On a forum, guests and members can read the story and they may understand the context and content more easily. However, I have seen forum members use the wrong template for their particular case. Many people contacted me via pm for help.

If I felt confident about making all the templates available without support, I would have uploaded them to a public site.

Must be a bit like shooting fish in barrel for a well trod warrior like your good self.

It really is a broken system and heading towards meltdown if something is not done soon.

Totally understand your reasoning behind not releasing your templates without support and grateful that your happy to share your knowledge, work and time for free for the greater good of the community.

dboy wrote:Must be a bit like shooting fish in barrel for a well trod warrior like your good self.

It really is a broken system and heading towards meltdown if something is not done soon.

Totally understand your reasoning behind not releasing your templates without support and grateful that your happy to share your knowledge, work and time for free for the greater good of the community.

Thanks dboy

dboy wrote:Yes with UC affecting over a million people when it is fully rolled is a good area to concentrate on.

Then there is the GDPA coming replacing the DPA in may not had a chance to look at it yet or what changes if any but I suspect it might have a impact so somewhere in the benefit system.

My site is mainly aimed at removing sanctions I have no legal training to be able to confidently say without doubt any of legal articles are factually correct to date so hesitant to publish without them being reviewed by someone with far more experience it would be useful resource for anyone should they need it.

When you consider all the different groups and major or subtle differences it becomes a mammoth task to cover them all so I would rather concentrate on areas that cover all groups regardless such as consent if it still exists in the new GDPA lol.

just as a reference with no legal training be polite and use a disclaimer make sure they are aware, if you use this reference you could face a sanction as many advisors dont use the facts infront of them its why we use them on here

something we all know all to well on here

gdpa is interesting already ahead on this was on tt's site however ive had /come across an foi post by ico that basically says you want the money you have to provide and do everything they demand

Yes exactly the case, the front line staff have no clue about anything other than if in doubt, raise a doubt.

This is why, imo,it is far better to guide towards not going there in the first place than reacting to it after the fact.

Removing conditionality from the welfare system is not the universal panacea to all the woes of the welfare state, far from it, but it would be a good start.

https://www.cennydd.com/writing/a-techies-rough-guide-to-gdpr

Worth a read regarding social networking sites better get GDPA ready as they say.


The three remaining individual rights are more complex and ethically interesting, and deserve closer attention. First, GDPR provides a right to data portability. Not only can users request their data, but it must be provided in a structured, machine-readable format like CSV, so users can use it for other purposes. However, this isn’t an own-your-data nirvana – it only covers data the user has directly provided, and excludes data bought from third parties or new data derived through, for example, segmentation and profiling. Businesses that choose the ‘legitimate interest’ justification for data processing (see above) are also exempt. However, this new right still threatens some comfortable walled-garden models. For example, social networks, exercise-tracking apps, and photo services will have to allow users to export their posts, rides, and photos in a common format. Smart competitors will build upload tools that recognise these formats; GDPR might therefore help to bridge the strategic moats of incumbents.

Users also have a right to erasure, sometimes known as the right to be forgotten. This has already become a cause célèbre for data rights, and legal cases are swirling around the topic. It’s important to note there is no absolute right to be forgotten under GDPR; the right only applies in specific circumstances, and requests can be refused on grounds of freedom of expression, legal necessity, and public interest. The ethics of forgetting are fascinating and way beyond this post; I’ll save that for the book. But in The Ethics of Invention, Sheila Janasoff argues convincingly that this right helps to constitute what it means to be ‘a moving, changing, traceable, and opinionated data subject’. It’s a particularly important right for children, although it also has the potential to be abused by those trying to hide wrongs. And a right to be forgotten may come into direct conflict with emerging technologies: good luck handling a right to erasure request if you’ve already committed the data to an irrevocable blockchain.