Dear friend,

I am emailing from London Coalition Against Poverty, a social justice group involved in campaigns for justice for workers of all statuses; the unemployed, homeless, and those demanding decent housing and better conditions.

As a campaign, we were involved in actions and attempted mobilisations around the appalling so-called Welfare Reform Bill, including a national week of action. The PCS also organised lobbying against the bill, but it passed in the third reading on March 17th. The bill calls for a number of draconian changes to welfare including the abolition of income support, radical changes to disability benefits, compulsory labour in the form of 'Work for your Benefits' and increased privatisation of Job Centre Pluses.

The work-for-benefits pilot introduced by the Bill can be rolled out without any further legislation. As jobs in every sector are evaporating at an incredible rate, what this will translate into is compulsory labour at £1.73 per hour for people put out of work, and seriously undercutting wages for those who still have jobs.

This bill is a major step in scrapping what is left of the welfare state. Clearly defeating this 30s-style attack on the currently and soon-to-be unemployed will take a mobilisation of the whole working class. In addition, the bill will privatise job centres on a payment-by-results (namely getting people off benefits) basis, no doubt endeavouring to massacre the PCS in the process.

We are calling on trade union branches, and the TUC in Hackney to declare their refusal to cooperate in any way with either the privatisation or the work-for-benefits slave labour.

We are calling on you to take a stand against this attack on workers by publicly and formally supporting the call to make Hackney a “work-for-benefits free borough.”

Please support the campaign by:
· Raising this with your branch and ask them to sign up to our statement (below)
· Planning how to stop work-for-benefits compulsory labour being used in your workplace and feeding this back to the campaign
· Nominating someone to be on our mailing list and to come along to meetings to stay in touch about the campaign
· Passing this message on to other groups likely to be interested
We would be happy to come along to a meeting to discuss this further and look forward to hearing from you.

In solidarity,
LCAP

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Statement for circulation/signing:

In March 2009 the House of Commons passed a ‘Welfare Reform Bill’ which entails a number of attacks on claimants’ rights. These include:

· Phasing out income support for single parents and cutting incapacity benefit for disabled people

· Introducing a compulsory work-for- benefits system in a US-style workfare scheme

· Privatising more of the work of Jobcentre Plus to companies which will be paid more the less benefits they award

· Increased punishments for claimants

· Cuts on carers’ allowance

· Compulsory two parent registration on birth certificates, including for survivors of violence

· Sharing our information with the police

These measures may now be introduced on a pilot basis with no further legislation needed. In a borough like Hackney, where there are 38 claimants per job available, such measures would be particularly disastrous.

Therefore we commit to refusing to collaborate with any workfare-style schemes, and to actively campaign against the piloting or other implementation of the measures of the Welfare Reform Bill in Hackney.

Organisation:

Signed:

Date: