No dialogue of equals with DWP

I have today written to the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions after being threatened, along with millions of others this week, with exile from the land of milk and honey that is jobseeker's allowance if I don't adhere strictly to the rules.

When I first read it I was shocked at the meanness of the letter, the lack of humanity, the complete absence of decency.  I realised that this style and form of communication is but a sample of the kind of thing which breaks the spirit of people and in some cases ends their will to live.  Read page 1 here and page 2 here.

Rather than let it go unchallenged, I decided to reply to the Secretary of State.  What follows is my letter to him.  I do not expect a reply from him but from one of his many staff.  I shall share it with you.  If that encourages you and those dear to you to write to Iain Duncan Smith in similar terms, we shall have achieved something.

some of the people reading this ‘letter’ may well
choose to die by their own hand than endure
much longer such a degrading and inhumane
culture as you have created

I ‘signed on’ again yesterday, 25^th October 2012, confirming to staff at the Dalkeith Job Centre + office that I was still actively looking for work, having become unemployed since April this year.  As part of my session with the member of JC+ staff, I was handed a double-sided paper and asked to sign confirming that I had received the ‘letter’ in question.   It was briefly explained that the ‘letter’ was about new sanctions which now apply should I fail to meet the conditions attached to receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance.

I asked if, once I had the space and time to read and absorb the ‘letter’, I would be able to respond to it.  Staff seemed unsure what the correct response to my question was, it seeming obvious that a meaningful 2-way dialogue between unemployed people and your Department of Work & Pensions is unusual to say the least.

I have now had the chance to read the ‘letter’, which I have presumed should have been signed by you.  For some reason it is unsigned.  Never a good indicator that a mature dialogue of equals is being encouraged or made available.  With the help of the internet I was able to establish your current address.

Your letter is not in fact a letter at all.  It is a crude proclamation of all sorts of dire consequences should people – do remember we are people, each and every one of us – ‘fail to meet the conditions attached to receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance’.  It is clearly inspired by the kind of thing the Sherriff of Nottingham was said to have had nailed up in public places to dissuade the local population from supporting that socialist Robin Hood.

It reminds me what I must do to qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance.

It then lists errors or failures of mine which will lead to my losing benefit for 13 weeks, 26 weeks, or even 156 weeks, explaining that the length of exile from qualification for benefit will be based on whether I have committed theses errors or failures for the first, second or third time in the last 52 weeks.  In turn, this headline of threats is followed by the unfurling of even more detailed illustrations of wretched and depraved acts on my part which would lead to my exile from the benefit safety net for the various periods which you have decided will fit the crime I will be deemed to have committed.  Nothing in it offers any remote acceptance that I might be a decent human being doing the right thing.  Do MPs get this kind of brutalist communication from the office responsible for monitoring expense claims ?

It is a most despairing, heartless and mean epistle from a government minister and crudely disseminated to a considerable cohort of diverse people, the vast majority of whom would rather be in work.  It reflects badly on you and your government that on neither of the two sides of the ‘letter’ do you offer any hope, any articulation of decency, or any indication or trace of humanity, in that some of the people reading this ‘letter’ may well choose to die by their own hand than endure much longer such a degrading and inhumane culture as you have created and inspired in your department and which this latest ‘letter’ epitomises.

I acknowledge your ‘letter’ to me this week. 

In turn, I reply.

In future, I would ask that you and your staff treat me with a modicum of dignity and respect.  Even though I am unemployed, I remain a human being.  Leastways that was what it looked like when I looked in the mirror this morning.  In this particular instance, I would ask you to address letters to me properly, using my name and address.  The technology available to government requires minimal effort to achieve such a simple outcome.  The dividends from such an approach are immeasurable.

In future, I would ask that you or an appropriate staffer sign such letters and provide me and others with contact details, including email, which allow for responses and so create a culture of dialogue.  I presume you and your colleagues do not simply want to hector me and other unemployed people via the rather cowardly megaphone of unsigned letters.

In future, when you plan to issue further threats, warnings or proclamations which demonise me and other unemployed people, can I suggest that if you truly seek to reduce the number of unemployed people as opposed to throw more jerry cans of petrol on the flames of prejudice against unemployed people, your messages should include as much positive statements on real support, meaningful assistance and client-centred guidance as I and others may need to secure employment, as it does currently with negative hectoring and threatening ?  In this two page ‘letter’ there was nothing positive addressed at the circumstances of my particular case and which showed an awareness of the efforts I have been making to get back into work.  I am reduced to a cipher in your model of the world and in your style of communication.  I cannot and will not accept that.

I happily accept all of my responsibilities to be active in seeking work and to minimise the demands I make on the state to support me during this time.  I challenge you to accept that you too have responsibilities as well - to ensure that the culture and practices within your department need to undergo fundamental change to ensure that I and millions of others are treated with dignity and respect while accessing the services your department provides.