Right to Work: Right to Welfare

The Right to Work: Right to Welfare (R2W) group have been active since the summer of 2012, when a group of experienced PPR activists began organising with people who were out of work and on benefits at the Social Security office in Corporation Street, Belfast. Against the backdrop of rising unemployment and the most radical re-shaping of our welfare system in its history, the work of the R2W group has received acclaim for its innovative approach to asserting rights in the time of austerity.

Commenting on the R2W group, Ms. Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights said, “The important work being done by the Right to Work: Right to Welfare Group in Belfast, Northern Ireland to hold the government accountable through the grassroots development and use of human rights indicators and benchmarks is crucial and should be praised as a promising practice to be followed.”

4 May 2017 - SAY NO TO SANCTIONS on Monday 8th May, 12 noon at Andersonstown Jobs and Benefits Office

Please join the Right to Work: Right to Welfare group (R2W) on Monday 8th May at 12 noon at Andersonstown Jobs and Benefits Office (Kennedy Centre, 580 Falls Road, Belfast) to present the ‘Human Rights Descriptors’ check list to Decision Makers. ‘People don’t realise a sanction can mean losing every penny’– Bertie Atkinson, Right to Work: Right to Welfare (R2W) activist

The Peoples Proposal

The People’s Proposal constitutes a simple checklist for social security decision makers, which if implemented, would safeguard people’s rights to:

We are a group of unemployed people who have been campaigning since 2012 for the creation of real jobs and for protections in the social security system. The #PeoplesProposal has been developed as a result of years of engagement with people in receipt of social security, the majority of whom are vulnerable and dealing with a range of both physical and mental health conditions.
Action research carried out between 2014-15 found

An increasing number of influential bodies are calling for the capricious benefit sanctions regime to be reformed so that people are provided with the human rights protections they are entitled to. Among the specific issues of most concern to these various bodies have been the impact of benefit sanctions on mental health, as well as the impact of sanctions on children.

In January 2017, Participation and the Practice of Rights and the Right to Work: Right to Welfare group (R2W), in partnership with the Golden Thread Gallery and Cumann Scannán Loch Lao held two screenings of

Participation and the Practice of Rights and the Right to Work: Right to Welfare group (R2W), in partnership with the Golden Thread Gallery and Cumann Scannán Loch Lao, are delighted to bring you two free screenings of Ken Loach’s award winning film, I, Daniel Blake, as part of the

Hydrografitti mural on Corporation street dole office

The message from government is that the problem of growing unemployment is one of ‘shirkers’ and ‘scroungers’ who need routed through rigorous assessment regimes to wean them off welfare dependency. The message on the wall is that the real failure lies at the door of government.

The Department for Communities work programme ' Steps 2 Success' has been heavily criticised for failing to do what's it was set up to do - get people into sustainable employment. The Right to Work: Right to Welfare campaign has been trying to get information from the Department on the programme, including in relation to sanctions imposed, the cost of creating a job and how many of those jobs created are zero hour contracts? This blog details what's known and unknown about this failing programme and calls for the Executive to follow Scotland's lead by making Steps 2 Success voluntary and removing the threat of sanctions.

The Scottish Government has recently announced that it will embark on a programme of non-compliance with Westminster's hated sanction regime once it takes on responsibility for work programmes next year. This is something the NI Executive already has the power to do. All that is needed is the political will. This blog critiques the Executive's Steps 2 Success work programme, including the use of punitive sanctions against programme participants, the lack of sustainable employment outcomes being achieved through the programme and the inaction by government in the face of these failures. It proposes that instead of arbitrarily punishing people for perceived non compliance with the programme by withdrawing their benefits, the government should adopt a set of proposals developed by the Right to Work: Right to Welfare Group ( R2W) that would ensure people are fully protected through due process and impact assessment in all aspect of the social security system.

The NI Executive's consultation on its new Programme for Government( PfG) commits to giving children and young people the best start in life. Yet the reality is that increasing numbers of children in our society are living in poverty, and benefit sanctions are only making a bad situation worse. Despite its supposed commitment to children, the PfG makes no mention of this. A number of international human rights bodies have called on government to human rights impact assess the use of sanctions to ensure that they are fully human rights compliant. The Right to Work: Right to Welfare (R2W) group has developed a set of proposals designed to ensure that any interference by government with people's right to social security is human rights compliant. The Executive should now adopt the People's Proposal and apply it as a proofing mechanism to its Programme for Government to ensure that children are actually given the best start in life.

4 May 2017 - SAY NO TO SANCTIONS on Monday 8th May, 12 noon at Andersonstown Jobs and Benefits Office

23 March 2017 - The Peoples Proposal

23 March 2017 - Who are the Right to Work: Right to Welfare (R2W) Group?

23 March 2017 - Pressure mounts for benefits sanctions regime to be overhauled

14 February 2017 - Bafta award winner Ken Loach supports the R2W group

16 January 2017 - Belfast screenings of I, Daniel Blake set to raise awareness of financial sanctions on the sick, disabled and unemployed.

16 November 2016 - Profit, Punishment and Political Paralysis - Who are the shirkers and scroungers?

27 October 2016 - Like pulling teeth – getting information from the Department for Communities on the Steps 2 Success programme

29 September 2016 - Time to Flip Sanctions on their Head - End the use of sanctions against Steps 2 Success participants

6 July 2016 - Throwing Shapes? Benefit sanctions and the new Programme for Government

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