Edinburgh Anarchists

Fraud-riddled sponges off of the tax system A4e, who specialise in forcing benefit claimants into unpaid “voluntary” positions (featured here before), are the target of countrywide protests this Wednesday at 11am. Their Edinburgh office is at Earl Grey Street (i.e. Lothian Road).

Details at Indymedia.

Local organisers, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, condemn A4e’s multi-millionaire owner, Emma Harrison, for “raking it in”, while “ the sick, the disabled, the unemployed, single parents and other people who need support face cuts in services and the prospect of being made to work for their benefits.” ECAP continue: “We want to let Emma Harrison and her pals in government know that welfare is a right and should not have to be earned. People not in waged work contribute a lot to their communities. Single parents are already working and deserve a decent wage.

“Welfare to work” effects us all, waged or unwaged.  Low income, temporary and insecure jobs will be replaced by “work for your benefits”. Privatisation of the Department for Work and Pensions role, e.g. bringing in profit hungry firms such as A4e, is an attack on DWP/ Jobcentre Plus workers and on our rights to access welfare.

In what has to be the most ironic riposte to a picket ever, protesters against the Welfare Reform Bill were told by an employee of one of the forced-training “back to work” agencies to “get a job”.

Report of the protest here. More seriously, an insight into how this company A4E (offices on Lothian Rd.) treats its “clients” can be found in this disturbing first hand account of the group, described variously as “Poverty pimps” and “On a campaign to re-invent bonded labour”.

I was forced to go to A4e and told I would lose my benefits if I didn’t attend. I already had low self esteem because I hadn’t been working for the previous 6 months and had tried to get a job that would cover all of my bills. I had even voluntarily taken up typing courses and had got my level 3 qualifications in the hope that I could get a job that paid enough. I was also waiting to start voluntary work at citizen advice but I couldn’t start there because of attending A4e.

Things don’t seem to be any better at their Edinburgh office. Some of their clients told the protesters “it’s a fucking jail” where they are forced to spend the whole day (some for 12 weeks) searching for jobs that just aren’t there.

Worse, there’s the “Volunteer to Work” programme, where you go work for nothing for a month. No wages, you go sweep the fruit & veg aisles in Asda or you lose your benefit. After a month’s “trial”, the company can simply get someone else to work for free for the next month.

This website, Watching A4E could be interesting.