Those signing on for the first time, will notice a different system than usual. We now have to go in and put our signing on book in the boxes labeled A,B and C. Then after 5 minutes, you will be called to whichever desk you sign on at.Kirkby Times has got an exclusive picture of this 'system' below!

Signing on has never been a pleasant experience. In the 70's and 80's we certainly had less pressure and the Tories, despite their hatred of the working classes, could never go too far in attacking benefits. Back then, the local Unemployed could use their time creatively on the dole. Many local bands and artists honed their skills whilst signing on. Local Staff at the DSS, some still there, have seen their own role change to one which can be more intimidating.Its also true that some people may be abusive to staff, but we have had no actual reports of assaults so far. One things for sure though, cutting someone's benefit is an aggressive act. If Staff allow themselves to used by the Government to 'make or break' peoples lives, it is understandable if some see the staff as the scapegoat for decisions affecting benefits. Unemployed people need to understand that the Government is behind the benefit cuts. Many unemployed people support the DSS Staff when they go on strike to fight for their conditions. Many staff do all they can in the impossible conditions to genuinely help local people. But the Unemployed have no union, and no-one to back us.

The rules now are FAR WORSE and many of us unemployed are forced to take up training schemes which are actually wasting more funds due to the fact there are hundreds of private companies all making big profits out of unemployed people. Kirkby times will be reporting on these training schemes and we hope those who run them realise that they could well appear on this website pretty soon!

The good and the bad.......

Thanks to some of the Staff of Kirkby Job Center, some of whom are decent people on our side. some aren't, but we get Jobsworths everywhere, do we not? Kirkby Times will soon have a photo gallery up showing the old Job Center(memories)and the demolition of it which it seems the contractors are, in the tradition of all contractors, taking an age to knock down, er, its not local labour either. Well, its too dodgy to sign on innit?

Please send in your DSS related stories and accounts over the years.Anyone with any old photo's email and i can arrange to copy em and post them on this website. Anyone remember the SS Snooper Squads?, anyone with any info relating to any Snooping activities is welcome to email. In the past,likely now, there was a devide between the snooper squads and normal DSS staff. Before you chase any snoops away, ask if its the Kirkby Times photographer first! Any locals who grass people up for signing on and working are the lowest of the low. Dss employed Snoops are lowlife too.

Below, Watch out Job Seekers!

Anyone who has had their Dole stopped by Dss or the now new Department of Works and pensions Squad should get in touch so we can relate the story here. It would be good to keep a record of any particularly aggressive DWP staff who are trying to brown-nose management by cutting benefits. There's always a few nasty pen pushing little Hitlers out there who maybe have an unhappy home life and seem to enjoy having the Public to PUSH ROUND. No-one likes a Bully who hides behind a little Government name badge and it seems that under New labour these beaurocratic breed of Bullying No-ones are being encouraged to cajole the Unemployed into low paid Mickey Mouse Jobs or worse, the myriad of training schemes which are here in Kirkby.

Welcome to New Labours Class Warfare. where a 'dolite' on £54 a week is a scrounger and MP's on over £2000 a week are the ones leading the 'war' on us scroungers. It costs more to put someone on a Mickey Mouse training scheme than to keep them on unemployment pay. Blair and his vicious gang of Middle class Cronies have a deep rooted hatred of Working class people which comes to the fore when they are discussing an exclusively Working Class Issue like Unemployment.

The whole reasoning behind the New Deal is part of an ongoing campaign being waged by New Labour who will not be content until every aspect of British life is 'modernised' and privatised. Unemployment in itself is not a bad thing, the actual progress of technology means that there is a natural loss of working hours, this has increased dramatically since the industrial revolution and has increased as the advent of new technologies narrow the Labour Market and the opportunities for full time employment. Instead of welcoming this and ensuring we have an infrastructure to cater for the massive increase of spare time people have on their hands, we seek to create useless schemes and continue to ignore the fact that unemployment is a natural result of the Human Races battle to reduce labour.

Why Unemployment is a Good Thing explained Simply........

If a Household gets a Washing Machine, you never hear other members of the Household, who used to washing by hand complain that they have been put out of work. But if a similar developement occurs on a wider social scale you hear it spoken of as a 'serious problem' called "Unemployment", which can only be solved by inventing more Jobs for people to do. The Washing Machine was a great invention as it freed up hours of boring work for mainly Working class Women. These Women, once realising they had maybe 10 hours a week on their hands, did not then proceed to search for more work. Time is a precious thing. The time we save when not employed to work, is time that can be put to use by simply spending more time with people or quality time on our own chilling out and recharging the batteries. We were confidentely told decades ago that a 3 day week would be all that would be needed in the future. The future is here and like it or not, the Govt has a Duty to ensure that it either looks towards bringing a 3 day week in(so one job can be shared by 2 people) or ensuring that there is adequate provision for those pushed out of the market.(part of this paragraph is taken from a USA @nti copyright leaflet, thanks for the washing machine analogy, good one, for a Yank)

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