Quote:
Attacks on Jobcentre staff have more than doubled since the Government began its well-publicised welfare reform programme.
Policies to slash the benefits bill have led to a rise in assaults. Increasing violence in jobcentres is leaving staff scared to go to work.
The government’s own figures show hundreds of incidents of either verbal or physical assaults on jobcentre staff every month.
Last year alone there were more than 20,000 attacks. In one of the most extreme cases a man drove his car into the front of a jobcentre in Norwich.
In Lincoln a man left the centre after being told his benefits were being stopped only to return brandishing a meat cleaver, and an Airdrie civil servant had his nose broken when he was punched in the face by someone who’d just been told their dole payment was being withdrawn.
|
Quote:
"Staff are being put under a huge amount of pressure to hit targets and remove benefits. They often have to tell people that benefits are withdrawn in meetings taking place in the middle of an open office, which is completely inappropriate. Our people know that and they are scared to go to work.”
However, in a remarkable statement, the union boss claimed Iain Duncan Smith is entirely to blame — rather than those swearing at or hitting union members.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: “No attack is ever justified but the violence this government is doing to our welfare state, and the vilification by sections of the media of people entitled to social security, have led directly to this increase in violence against staff. Ministers must bear full responsibility.
|
Well it's pretty obvious that it was going to happen.
You can't expect to tell someone who's already suffering poverty, and not able to eat, and pay electric and gas. that their money is being stopped by way of an obligatory sanction. and expect him or her to say "Oh, ok then"
Another thing is. if you're near to a jobcentre. don't say to someone "Get a job! you workshy scrounger!"
he or she might be in a bad mood at the time
http://www.sundaypost.com/news-views...-bite-1.187481