Go: Cards Profit Off The Poor

This is a slick marketing operation to make money off the poorest people, disgusting. Given how much the govt. bailed out the banks and in fact own one they could have put into place regulations that mean people on benefits get free banking, of course they didn’t which tells its own story (even as neoliberalism is being proven not to work).(ht2 The Socialist Way)

People in some of the poorest parts of the country are having benefits paid onto pre-paid cards, but many are not aware of the costs involved. An internal e-mail from the Department for Work and Pensions expresses concern at the lack of customer awareness. One benefit office has received requests to pay benefits for almost 100 people directly onto these pre-paid cards, which incur charges.

The card providers say the cards promote financial inclusion. However when staff at the Clyde and Fife Benefits Delivery Centre contacted customers before processing the requests, they found that the majority of customers were not aware of the charges.

One of the companies mentioned in the e-mail sent 46 applications to the benefit office requesting benefits to be paid on to a GO: Card. The forms were accompanied by a letter from Go Money Solutions sales director, Steve Tobin. In the letter Mr Tobin says the forms were obtained “through face to face marketing” in the local area.

A GO: Card costs £10 to buy and a £7.50 annual management fee is charged after the first month. It costs a minimum of £1.25 and a maximum of £2.50 to have each benefit loaded on to the card and the same charges apply for each cash withdrawal.

Spot The Class War

Can you spot it?

Bonus time as banks pay out £40bn
Alistair Darling warns of toughest spending cuts for 20 years

Royal Mail’s Management Strategy- Scabbing

Wankers!

Royal Mail will recruit up to 30,000 temporary staff to deal with upcoming strikes by postal workers and the Christmas rush, the service has said. The Communication Workers Union has called two nationwide strikes next week over pay, conditions and reform. The firm said it would hire twice the usual number of extra pre-Christmas staff to cut the impact of “unjustified and irresponsible” industrial action. But the CWU said managers should be talking, not “planning for failure”. The 24-hour strikes will begin on 22 October. On the first day, mail centre staff and drivers will strike. The next day it will be delivery and collection staff.

And guess what, because of the ‘crisis’ (the creators of which are currently paying themselves multimillion pound bonuses) there are lots of unemployed people and because of welfare privatisation and ‘reform’ they cannot survive for long or take work of their choice, see how that works?

Commenting on HarpyMarx Will Get You Fired!

Mark Anthony France has been sacked by the DWP for…well being an engaged citizen in a democracy, one reason given was he commented on Harpymarx’s site, watch and hear the hilarious slight sneer as the BBC reporter says the name. It is notable the criminal activities of a Tory MP do not get her sacked but pointing them out does get a worker sacked, hmmm.

Mark who works at Bromsgrove Job Centre [as a Grade B Admin Officer earning £14,700 a year] organised the petition that called on Julie Kirkbride MP to resign immediately [ Julie is reported to have had an income of £266,000 last year]

More @ Harpy.

Student Bursaries Frozen

The good news is though people who want to study betrayal won’t need to attend university to learn about it, all you need to know is manifested in New Labour’s every move-

Bursaries for England’s poorest students will no longer have to cover the gap between grants and fees. The Office for Fair Access (Offa) has decided the minimum bursary universities must offer if they charge fees should be 10% of the fee level. Currently it has to make up the difference between the £3,290 annual fee and the maximum grant of £2,906. For next year grants are frozen but fees go up. The bursary will be £55 short of the £384 difference. Offa’s move follows revised guidance from the Higher Education Minister, David Lammy.

NUS vice-president Aaron Porter said: “Today’s announcement is nothing short of shameful. “In 2004, we were told that universities would only be allowed to charge top up fees if they guaranteed that poorer students would not be out of pocket. The government has now gone back on its word.”

Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “I cannot understand why a government that is looking so hard at social mobility has taken the decision to charge the poorest students more money to attend university.”

Prime Minster Mandelson

According to the Cabinet Office, Lord Mandelson sits on 35 of the 44 Cabinet committees and sub-committees which oversee government business. He sits on more committees than either the prime minister, the chancellor or the foreign secretary. These include areas such as health, immigration, climate change, trade, Africa, Olympics planning and food.

He’s not elected and “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they pay their taxes”. The UK’s reputation globally is that of a tax haven, a situation engineered and promoted by… New Labour, so no wonder rich Lords can be so ‘relaxed’.

Way Below Minimum

Calculate the Minimum Income you should be getting here. (ht2 Don Paskini@LC). Apparently the income I require based on what the public think is £220.33, which is great, that would be very nice, I roll on less than half that. As jailhouselawyer in the comments @LC says-

According to the DWP the government has decided that £55 pw is the minimum I need to live on. This being the case, how could MPs decide that they should receive £100 pw just for food?

Commerce, Racism & Education

A private company working with the Border Agency to oppress its workers at a supposedly enlightened university, who’d a thunk…Via Socialist Unity 

Please Join This Group – Stop the Deportation of SOAS University Cleaners!

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89511288639

 This group has been set up in Solidarity with the 9 members of the cleaning staff at SOAS who, following a morning raid by border police, have been detained and threatened with immediate deportation from the U.K. We demand an immediate end to these deportations. Below is a summary of the events. Please sign up and show your support!

 Summary of the Border Agency raid at SOAS campus on 12/06/2009

 • All SOAS cleaning staff were called into a meeting by ISS (the company who contracts SOAS’ cleaning staff) at 7am, in a ground floor room and were given no warning about the raid.

 • 45-50 Immigration police entered through the fire doors and the main entrance to the room and surrounded the cleaning staff; the police officers were in riot gear.

 • They cleaners were locked in the room and then led one by one into another room, where their immigration status was checked during which they had no representation or even a translator (many staff are native Spanish speakers). A lot of the cleaners were in emotional distress. A trade union representative was refused access to the staff.

 

• The raid was instigated by the cleaning contractor ISS who requested the police action. Two members of SOAS Management were present during the raid liasing with the police, suggesting that they had prior knowledge of the raid.

 • 9 Cleaners, five of whom are UNISON members were taken into detention. One detained cleaner was six months pregnent, she is thought to have collapsed during the events.

 • Legal representation is being sought through UNISON and other parties, the authorities have not yet revealed where they have been taken, and the detained have no way to contact us.

 • ISS have informed UNISON that some cleaners detained may be fast-tracked out of the country, thus they may be deported within 72 hours.

 • Those detained have been working at SOAS for many years; they have settled in London and have families here. Deportation will be devastating not only for the individuals involved but also the families, who could be split up. They are also our friends and fellow colleagues.

 • The heavy-handed treatment which the cleaners received was grossly over the top and ISS/SOAS are complicit in this.

 • ISS knew that there was documentation problems with their employees yet have not acted to resolve this beforehand. It’s not a coincidence that the cleaners in question were among the first to fight for Union representation and a decent wage.

 • The actions today send a clear message to other agency workers in London not to fight for union representation, such levels of intimidation cannot be tolerated.

 • Boris Johnson has recently called for an amnesty for illegal workers in London, because he recognizes the vital work they do.

 • The raid is proof once again that SOAS cleaning staff need to be brought in-house and that companies like ISS which exploit and intimidate workers have no place at SOAS.

 • We are demanding an immediate end to the deportations!

 • We are demanding that cleaners be brought in-house where they will not be exposed to this level of harassment.

A protest is scheduled for tomorrow-

Monday 15th June at 8.30am on SOAS Steps. Please bring Union banners and other visual, audio aids.

How That Bailout Works

On May 12, the day the city inspector came to board up his house, Ted Poetsch was eating lunch. After living all of his 53 years at 823 Penn Av. N., Poetsch had an hour left to pack his stuff and get out. Cane in hand, he lurched around, throwing a few things in bags, putting Kitty in the carrier. He heard the contractor outside starting to drill into the door frame. Poetsch made his way down his narrow stairway, resigned to the end he had resisted for three years, through personal financial missteps, the false promise of a foreclosure “rescue” and a court victory that gave him short-lived hope. He came to the door and realized that he was too late. A truck had driven away from the house, prompting those outside to think the tenants were gone. Poetsch had been boarded up inside his house.

The house at 823 Penn, vacant and already a target for thieves, is now owned by Fannie Mae. In September, the federal government took over the mortgage giant in a multibillion-dollar bailout after it was brought to the brink of collapse by the housing meltdown. Poetsch got no such assistance. The city determined that the house was potentially unsafe and that Poetsch was essentially a squatter in the only home he had ever known. Now this North Side neighborhood has one fewer neighbor and one more boarded house. “Everybody loses,” said Poetsch’s onetime attorney, Josh DuBois, who helped Poetsch get out of his boarded house that day in May.

Here Comes The Pain

Citizens’ advice managers in Wales are warning the “true human cost” of the recession has yet to materialise after debt inquiries rose by almost 20%. The charities 32 offices in Wales dealt with 111,339 debt inquiries in the 12 months to April 2009, a rise of 19%. CAB Cymru director Fran Targett said previous recessions showed a lag before the number of debt advice calls peaked. More recent figures suggested a “spike” in problems with mortgages, loans, fuel debt and bailiffs, she said. The service, which operates from 200 locations in Wales, overall inquiries rose by 11% on the previous year to 298,119 in the 12 months to April 2009.

More than thirds of these we related to debt, with benefits and tax credit problems rising 11% to 97,803 and employment-related problems increasing by 17% to 22,262. Problems with mortgage and secured loans increased by 57% as did problems with private bailiffs. Fuel debt problems also increased by 31%. Within the benefits portfolio, problems with Job Seekers Allowance increased by 61%. Within the employment portfolio there was a 124% increase with redundancy-related problems.

Spain Folds

Enforcement of international law is a joke (and a fixed game where the law only applies to the less powerful), made more so by international criminals who run countries or lean on more principled governments and can therefore change the laws. Notice how elites formed a ‘consensus’ to limit accountability for fellow elites, ruling class tribalism to get away with murder. 

Madrid — Spanish lawmakers voted Tuesday in favour of a resolution calling for limits be placed on the scope that the country’s judges have to probe alleged human rights crimes in other countries. Under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” which Spain has observed since 2005, Spanish judges have opened probes into genocide and human rights abuses in nations ranging from China to Israel, causing diplomatic headaches.

The resolution passed in parliament Tuesday with the support of lawmakers of the ruling Socialists and the conservative opposition calls for an “urgent reform” of the application of this principle to “limit and clarify its reach.” It recommends that the principle only apply to cases where the alleged perpetrators of a crime are in Spain or the victims are Spanish.

The resolution is only a recommendation but it could serve as the basis for a future reform of the principle of universal jurisdiction and its passage is a sign that there is a political consensus on the need for reform.

Spain is only one of a handful of countries that respects the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Oink Oink

In case you weren’t clear about the voracious greed & irresponsibility of the financial class-

City bankers and financiers are scooping bumper pay rises to compensate for losing multimillion pound bonuses in a controversial development that will trigger fresh “reward for failure” rows.

The Observer has learnt that UBS, the stricken bank that last year received a £40bn Swiss government bailout, is paying London staff increases of between 15% and 20% at a time when many workers in Britain are forced to take wage freezes.

Though it is understood some equity traders at UBS have even enjoyed a doubling of salary to over £250,000, bank sources indicate these were “exceptional cases rather than the rule”. But senior City headhunters confirmed that basic pay rises for senior bank staff were rising sharply, with US banks seeing big hikes.

Bosses of Britain’s biggest companies enjoyed huge increases in the value of their pension pots last year, despite the onset of recession and the downfall of major banks such as Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS.

Two directors have already amassed pension funds which will pay them more than £1m a year on retirement. Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, has accrued a nest egg worth almost £1.2m; Todd Stitzer, boss of theCadbury confectionery group, could pick up almost £1.5m a year, not counting any further sums they accumulate between now and stepping down.

2 Million

…and rising, and New Labour are acting like Tories attacking welfare (rather than make tax avoiding corporations pay up even as they bail them out). The 80’s again already? Except this bust is way more than that decade’s and we’ve run out of planet. I know of a second home that just went for half a million, the new owners turned up in their Porsche and Minis, capital’s going one way and suffering’s coming the other.

Anger is an energy.

Barclays Tax Scam

Barclays Bank gags Guardian over leaked memos detailing offshore tax scam

*cough* Wikileaks.

‘In a financial market devastated by the credit crunch, the SCM (Structured Capital Markets) team is one of the only teams still aggressively hiring to increase further its reach and ability to structure more trades. Where the world sees turmoil and destruction, the leaders of SCM see opportunities arising from tax loss exploitation and corporate restructurings throwing up all sorts of new and juicy areas of the tax code which can be profitably exploited.’

‘Even John Varley (Barclays chief executive) now attends meetings in Jenkins’ (chief executive of SCM) office, walking across to the offices at the other end of Canary Wharf, a sign of the shifting of power within the bank.’

‘Normally a man who has made the study of the taxes act and the accounting legislation a priority above all other things in life would be looked upon with some surprise. But within SCM these men are Masters of the Universe, commanding multimillion pound bonuses and publicly humiliating those of lesser knowledge.’

‘With a new administration burdened with two wars, economic meltdown and the choice of new drapes for the White House, SCM management is banking on the administration taking their eye off the ball.’

‘It is a commonly held view that no agency in the US or the UK (and least of all the European agencies) has the resources or the commitment to challenge SCM. SCM has huge amounts of resources, the best minds rewarded with millions of pounds. HMRC recently advertised for a tax and accounting expert with the pay at £45,000.’

I’m Laughin’ Just To Keep From Cryin’

Hahahahahahaha Privatisation and reducing entitlement, hahahahahahaha one party-consensus-bipartisan- bullsheet baby! Hahahahahahahahah Neoliberalism rather than wither under the crisis it caused will cement its fundamentalism with further shocks. Hahahahahahaha and your choice is have it done by New Labour or the Tories. Hahahahaha, democracy! Hahahahahahahahaha y’know choice, as in do you want to get stabbed in the face or guts first. C’mon now tell me Nulabour shills how are you different from the Tories, apart from a few minor points here and there, like srsly dudes- I will implement these proposals with slightly less enthusiasm than the tories- does not actually constitute a fucking difference, just going further to betray your base is not something to get excited about, speaking of which, Trade Unions, take the fucking money and give it to actual, y’know, leftists! There are even a tiny few in Labour, give them the dosh instead of the conservatives that run the ‘party’.

And here’s the kicker, name three groups who caused the crisis- Politicians, economists, bankers.

Now guess who’s privatising welfare- Politicians, economists, bankers. Hahahahahahahaha! And even better, it’s the same guy in both parties!!!!! Suckers!