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Deaths and the Sanctioning PolicyMalcolm Burge set fire to himself in Cheddar Gorge, after being told he was subject to court action for £800 by Newham Borough Council, after his Housing Benefit was cut in half. Malcolm had written often to Newham Borough Council to tell them that he couldn't pay, he had never had that amount of money, and that he was suicidal. Also, David Clapson, who died after his benefits were stopped. He then had no money for food, had no money for electric to keep the fridge going that had his insulin in. The coroner stated that David had no food in his stomach and £3.44 in the bank. Esther McVey (The previous Employment Minister) stated to MPs that there is no link between the deaths and the sanctioning policy and that 'we ensured that all of our processes correctly'. If there is no link between the stopping of benefits and the deaths of 49 benefit recipients, why won't the DWP release the reviews? The sanctioning policy needs to reviewed when used in relation to vulnerable people, not used as a blanket policy.12,879 of 15,000 SignaturesCreated by Linda Theaker
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Exit Timeshare contracts - they shouldn't be for life!Many timeshare contracts are for 54 years without exit clauses. The contacts pass on to children and grandchildren irrespective of ability to pay or ability to use the holidays even in cases of ill health. An example of a 80 year old lady having to pay almost a £1,000, pa for holidays which she could not physically use nor afford. Timeshare providers are now offering vacations to the general public at rates which are less than members pay, and at all times of the year using exactly the same facilities. Initially timeshares were sold as exclusive deals. However, it is still not possible to exit timeshare contracts. Timeshare clubs use the excuse, 'by letting it to non members use the facilities it keeps the maintenance charges down'. Latest scams/deals request exiting timeshare holders to pay in excess of £10,000 to change their current contracts to 15 year contracts again unrealistic if elderly, ill or with no ability to pay crippling costs373 of 400 SignaturesCreated by Milton Pearson
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Rights for People with Disabilitiesdisabled are bearing the Brunt of the Cuts to Public Services and Benefits which is wholly Unaccepatable and Unfair in Society that shouldlcare for the less fortunate that are afflicted by serious health conditions ,not of their Choosing. Poverty caused by illness People using Foodbanks to feed themselves and families access to Medical Treatment limited by cuts to NHS front line services. a Disable treated Unfairly given Sanctions and left to Struggle .Equality and Parity of Esteem accorded to. Social Wage given instead of a cluster of Benefits Opportunities for Educational Advancement,Retrainingtion g and Rehabilitation,. Building Social Housing that is Adapted for Disabled Usage and equipping Public Amenities for Acess ie Day Centres ,. The application of Human Rights Laws efficacy when denied Support by Social Care and successful appeals to European Courts where there has been a breach of the statutory "Duty Of Councils and Health Departments..66 of 100 SignaturesCreated by jonathan bellini
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Stop the Counter Terrorism and Security BillPlease sign the petition to stop this government rushing through legislation that has the power to impact on all our lives not just the Muslim community. This year is the 800 year anniversary of the Magna Carta, this bill seeks to undo the very principles signed 800 Years ago. In the guise of fear mongering and scaring the wider community about Islamist extremist and criminalising the whole of the Muslim community, this bill will erode the civil liberty of all people and all communities. For further details please see www.stopthebill.co.uk or sign this petition It is an erosion of civil liberty, fair trial, the freedom to travel and justice for all.48 of 100 SignaturesCreated by shahida siddique
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Apply the Benefit Cap to MP PensionsMP's should not earn more when they're not working than Hard Working Families who have to support them. MP Pensions are catagorised as Welfare in the HMRC's Tax Summary, being posted to every tax-payer, but are not subject to any Welfare regulation, while JobSeekers Allowance only accounts for 3% of the Welfare Catagory. The purpose of the Benefit Cap is to prevent people, regardless of circumstances, who are not working from earning more than Hard Working Families.151 of 200 SignaturesCreated by Dr. Stephen Lathwell
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Stop the Snooper's CharterThe proposals, which will compel telecoms companies to retain data about customer calls and internet usage for one year, comes after Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to crack down on encrypted communications over the internet. But encryption is a normal part of internet security. This is dangerous nonsense. Besides, it doesn't make us any safer. In fact, the recent shocking murder of Lee Rigby was facilitated by the fact that our security agencies have too much useless information to wade through, much of which returns false positives during keyword searches because people talk about what happened in the films or programmes they've seen, or mention that something they bought cost a bomb. They are too busy sifting through all that trying to find any useful data to go about the business of catching criminals and stopping terrorists. Indeed, most of the high profile arrests made lately were for making abusive or foolish comments online. They're not catching terrorists or criminals, they're catching people who make fools of themselves online. We are no safer. "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?" he asked rhetorically in justification. "In our country, do we want to force people to leave their doors and windows open to let the law enforcement and security agencies in as and when required? Do we want to grant them instant access to all our private business without question?" FIFY, Dave. Further reading - http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2391667/-snoopers-charter-sneaked-in-to-counter-terrorism-bill Please sign this petition. We stopped the Snooper's Charter for a reason. They should NOT be allowed to sneak unwanted legislation back in under the guise of amendments to existing laws. It's anti-democratic. UPDATE: A last-minute attempt to revive a "snoopers' charter" before the general election has been dropped... The BBC understands they will try again next week unless the Home Office publishes a government redraft of the bill, of which the Lords has been told... In response, the peers withdrew the proposed amendments, which threatened to enshrine the controversial measures in law, and called on the government to produce its draft... A source told the BBC that if the Home Office was to refuse that request, the "snoopers' charter" proposals would be revived once again and added to the draft counter-terrorism legislation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31001575 Can you BELIEVE these people? Lord King is a former Conservative defense secretary, Lord Blair is a former Metropolitan Police commissioner, Lord West is a former Labour defense minister and Lord Carlile is a former Liberal Democrat reviewer of counter-terror laws. Each of them was around during the Troubles when attacks were taking place in mainland Britain and they weren't calling for mass surveillance then. Like The Terminator, they'll be back. We need to show them that we know this and that every time they try to put this in, we will be right there to yank it back out. Please keep signing this and please use https://www.writetothem.com/lords to write to each of the lords involved in this atrocious attempt to undermine our right to privacy.2,147 of 3,000 SignaturesCreated by Wendy Cockcroft
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The truth about the new state pensionI believe that the government has totally misled the electorate regarding the introduction of the new state pension in 2016.Mr Cameron's pitch at the launch in 2013 promised that "the idea here is that for new pensioners in 2017 instead of the £100 or so basic state pension it'll be over £140" This promise has been repeated and reinforced by other government members such as Steve Webb and Ian Duncan Smith. Consequently, most people retiring after 2016 believe they will receive a state pension in excess of £150 a week. This is completely untrue and misleading. Firstly, anyone of the millions of people in an occupational pension were automatically opted out of paying additional state pension contributions .All of these people, providing they have paid 35 years NI, will only receive the old state pension of £113/week. Those who paid into "the additional state pension" will receive, quite correctly, what they would have been due under the old system The question to ask, therefore, is who actually is better off under the new system. The truthful answer is very few people. For the majority nothing changes. There will be only gradual increases to the state pension as people pay the increased NI contributions .Only in 30+ years will David Cameron's promise of equality for all be true. Unsurprisingly, the government has been" economical with the truth" It is all "smoke and mirrors"- a cheap headline and vote winner. My intention is to highlight the situation so that millions of people are not misled into expecting far more than they will actually receive. I want the government to admit their inaccurate rhetoric and publish a true and accurate guide of future state pensions.118 of 200 SignaturesCreated by john delller
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Stop attacking small businessesAcross the country, self-employed people who are low earners and therefore claim working tax credits have received letters from an organisation called Concentrix [a private, unelected and unaccountable body working on behalf of HMRC].These letters state that the recipients' self-employed status is to be investigated, and demand proof of hours worked. A person working alone from home will normally have no way to prove the hours spent on preparation, planning, strategising, thinking, social media, networking, paperwork, website management or any of the other daily responsibilities of a small business person. In the absence of this "proof", tax credits will be stopped. This will force many hardworking people to cease their business and become unemployed. Small businesses are the foundation stones of a strong economy. This policy will cause untold hardship and damage, not only human but also economic.2,418 of 3,000 SignaturesCreated by Zoe Holt
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Haringey Council to oppose TTIPTTIP will have a major impact on the lives of the people of Haringey. * It represents a dangerous new step in the process of opening public services - including health and social welfare, housing, education and the environment - to unaccountable, private, corporations. * It undermines the ability of local authorities to impose minimum standards of employment, training, quality, environmental protection, energy conservation, or health and safety. * It ‘locks-in’ the current privatization programme and makes it extremely difficult for future local authorities to take back, ‘in house’, contracted out services.610 of 800 SignaturesCreated by Rod Wells
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TTIP SHOULD GO TO A NATIONAL UK REFERENDUMThe UK Government have assured us that any other transfer of sovereignty away from the Westminster Parliament should be put to a referendum. This treaty is a back door method of getting around this pledge to the detriment of our democracy and sovereignty.187 of 200 SignaturesCreated by David Bellamy
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Make Elections Public HolidaysThis will focus everyone on the national democratic importance of elections and encourage participation. It would also raise children's awareness of the importance of elections so they can be more informed and interested by the time they are adults and have voting responsibility.84 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Pam Booker
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Include SNP in Election DebatesScotland is part of the UK. Many policies affecting Scotland are decided by the Westminster government, and even some of the devolved policies are affected by Westminster, and SNP MP's vote on these matters. The SNP currently have 6 MP's and 2 MEP's. They hold 64 seats out of 129 in the Scottish Parliament. They have over 92,000 members. Polling suggest that in May the SNP could win up to 32 Westminster seats and could be the third largest party in Westminster. UKIP are being included in the debates. They have 2 very recent MP's and 24 MEP's. They have 42,000 members. The same polling suggests that they could win 3 seats at the election. The Liberal Democrats, by the same polling forecast could win 27 seats. The SNP could therefore have more seats than the LibDems and UKIP combined and have a greater impact on decisions on policy. I think people across the UK should be able to hear how the SNP could affect policies after 2015.71 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Tillie Baird
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