Declan's formal complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus – Stage 2

It is not just Declan's petition to the UN that is taking a hammering (see previous blog “Declan's UN petition: Nothing gets through to France”). On 13 March, Declan lodged a formal complaint against our local jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus (of the Department for Work and Pensions), for threatening him with the termination of our benefits if he did not agree to a “training course” of the Jobcentre's choosing, basically putting us back to the street. Well, this morning he received a reply from Jobcentre Manager Patrice Mulligan, stating in sum (the letter is archived here):

Thank you for your letter of 13th March 2010 to Highgate Jobcentre Plus. As your complaint has been received by London Regional office your concerns will be fully investigated by them and you will receive a full reply from them in due course.

Taking none of it, Declan lodged his complaint this afternoon with Jobcentre Plus District Manger Isobel Morton at Stage 2 (District Manager) of the Department's complaints procedure. And he has no intention of resting his case there. In two weeks, it is Stage 3 (Chief Executive), then Independent Case Examiner followed by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. This is his email this afternoon to Jobcentre Plus Chief Executive Darra Singh, copied to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper:

Subject: My Formal Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus - Stage 2

Dear Mr Singh

I am writing to you as the Jobcentre Plus Chief Executive. Provided below is a transcript of my registered letter of today's date to District Manager Isobel Morton at Stage 2 (District Manager) of my formal complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus. You will note that Highgate Jobcentre Plus does not refute that it refused and continues to refuse to refer me to a "Start Your Own Business" Course. Please also see the related attachments.

Kindly be advised that should this matter not be settled within the next ten working days, I will be asking for a Stage 3 (Chief Executive) review of the part of my complaint that relates to Mr Freddy Brooks of Highgate Jobcentre Plus, who threatened me on 11 March with the termination of my benefits if I do not undertake a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

83 Priory Gardens
London
N6 5QU

http://religionandmorality.net
http://network-of-those-abused-by-church.blogspot.com
http://www.gopetition.com/online/14861.html

Dear Ms Isobel Morton

My Formal Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus – Stage 2

I am writing to you as the Jobcentre Plus District Manager for my location. Please find enclosed a copy of the response I have received to the attached copy of my formal complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus at Stage 1 (Manager) of the Department's complaints procedure. Kindly note that Highgate Jobcentre Plus does not refute that it refused and continues to refuse to refer me to a "Start Your Own Business" Course. Accordingly, as my complaint has not been settled at Stage 1, I hereby respectfully request a Stage 2 (District Manager) review of the part of my complaint that relates to Mr Freddy Brooks of Highgate Jobcentre Plus, who threatened me on 11 March with the termination of my benefits if I did not undertake a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre.

My wife suspects, as I believe, that our ongoing abuse at the hands of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is almost certainly related to the Network of those Abused by Church (NAC) website we maintain at religionandmorality.net. I would be delighted to have a "Start Your Own Business" Course, which would enable me to turn NAC into a registered company limited by guarantee, but Highgate Jobcentre Plus won't allow me to do that. I beg to point out that NAC is a world network organisation for exposing the public to the scientific perspective on public policy issues. It has a distinguished list of agreed Trustees pending the registration of the (social) enterprise as a limited company as well as a distinguished and growing list of Honorary Associates, which includes two Nobel Prize winners. Among other activities, NAC has been running a petition to the United Nations on Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (Therapeutic Cloning). Since October 2007, this petition has gathered more than 600 signatures. The petition's backers include recognised authorities from the world's leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Prize winners.

I can confirm that I am currently looking for a solicitor or counsel to represent me pro bono, who might be able to tell whether Highgate Jobcentre Plus has been acting lawfully (a) by directing me to apply for specific jobs on threat of termination, (b) by insisting on my taking a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre, and (c) what can be done to prevent recurrence of this form of unfair treatment. Notice, in particular:

• My joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) was terminated on 27 September 2006 because I did not “sign on” TWO DAYS BEFORE I was due to do so on 29 September 2006.

• My wife and I were forced to live rough on the streets of London for more than 2 1/2 years, from 3 November 2006 to 13 July 2009.

• I exhausted the appeals process from the street, where my case was dismissed by the High Court (Judicial Review), Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights in spite of the fact that I was denied the internal appeal process by procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority (the DWP).

• My joint claim JSA was not even reinstated until 9 October 2009 – almost three months after we gained access to a roof over our heads – because my wife’s National Insurance number was “lost” from the Department’s computer system.

Kindly note that this complaint relates to Mr Brooks threatening me on 11 March with the termination of my benefits if I do not undertake a training course of the choosing of Highgate Jobcentre Plus. I understand that I can have Jobcentre Plus Chief Executive Darra Singh review this part of my complaint at Stage 3 (Chief Executive) if I am not happy with the reply or not that I have received to this letter within 10 working days.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

cc The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (at ministers@dwp.gsi.gov.uk)
Mr Darra Singh, Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus (at darra.singh@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk)

Declan's UN petition: Nothing gets through to France

As I said in the blog of 14 March “The manipulation of email”, Declan has received a French translation of the email he has been sending to scientists and academics on his petition to the United Nations, which calls for the establishment of a reasonable timetable for a UN declaration that would draw a distinction between reproductive cloning and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes referred to as “therapeutic cloning”, while specifically leaving it to UN member states to decide for themselves on SCNT within a regulation framework. A couple of days ago, he also received translations into Spanish and German.

So far this petition has over 600 signatures, including 24 Nobel laureates. Nonetheless, Declan is having an absolute nightmare trying to reactivate it. Not even a letter to Home Secretary Alan Johnson on the possible interception of electronic communications has cut any ice (see the letter in “The manipulation of email”). In fact, since Declan wrote to the Home Office, things have gotten a lot worse. Yesterday, he sent almost 200 emails in Spanish – each was targeted and personalised. He got one failed delivery and one signatory that came from an email that was sent within minutes of him receiving the email that was returned to him. Today he has sent almost 200 emails into France in French – again, each one targeted and personalised. He has not had one autoreply or signature, nothing.

The petition has taken a battering, to such an extent that Declan is preparing to go back to the street tomorrow to look for a solicitor or counsel to represent him pro bono, who might be able to tell (a) whether the statute of limitations has run out on the theft of our money, documents and references or the withholding of evidence by the RC Sisters of Mercy (see blog of 7 February “Sisters of Mercy withhold evidence from the police”), (b) whether our local jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus (of the Department for Work and Pensions), is acting lawfully by directing us to apply for specific jobs on threat of the termination of our benefits (see blog of 14 January “2nd letter to the manager of Highgate Jobcentre”), (c) whether Highgate Jobcentre Plus is acting lawfully by insisting on us taking “training courses” of the choosing of the Jobcentre (see blog of 11 March “Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus”), and (d) what prompt action can be taken to stop the unfair treatment we are getting from Department for Work and Pensions and prevent a recurrence.

For the record, this is Declan's letter on Friday to Jobcentre Plus District Manager Isobel Morton regarding his formal complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus at stage 1 of the Department’s complaints procedure (the thread referred to in this email is archived here, and the attachment here):

Subject: My Formal Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus - Stage 1

Dear Ms Isobel Morton

I am writing to you as the Jobcentre Plus District Manager for where I live. Provided below is the thread of my correspondence with Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper with respect to stage 1 of my formal complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus, in which I have established that the Jobcentre has refused, and continues to refuse, to refer me to a "Start Your Own Business" Course. Please also see related attachment.

Kindly be advised that should this matter not settle within the next five working days, I will be asking you to look again under Stage 2 of the Department's complaints procedure at the part of my complaint that relates to Mr Freddy Brooks of Highgate Jobcentre Plus threatening me on 11 March 2010 with the termination of my benefits if I do not undertake a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

83 Priory Gardens
London
N6 5QU

http://religionandmorality.net
http://network-of-those-abused-by-church.blogspot.com
http://www.gopetition.com/online/14861.html

Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus

This morning Declan and I were once again formally interviewed at our local jobecentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, about the jobs we are applying for, and our benefits were almost terminated! “Freddy”, the interviewer, threatened Declan with the termination of our benefits if he refused to do a training course of the Jobcentre’s choosing – I (and no doubt just about everybody in the jobcentre) could actually hear him trying to bully Declan into submission.

Freddy’s mood didn’t change one bit when it was my turn: my CV was rubbish and he was particularly upset that I was declaring under “References” that we were robbed of all our money and documents, including academic qualifications and references, in the Dellow Day Centre of the Providence Row charity run by the RC Sisters of Mercy (see blog of 7 February “Sisters of Mercy withhold evidence from the police”). He was so worked up, in fact, that when he finally allowed me to “sign on” – after more than an hour of taking issue with just about everything – he refused to sign off on my jobseeking for the past two weeks.



Anyway, this is Declan's letter of complaint to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Yvette Cooper (he will be putting the contents of this letter through the Department's formal complaints procedure, stages 1 (Manager), 2 (District Manager) and 3 (Jobcentre Plus Chief Executive); then it's Independent Case Examiner followed by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; somewhere after stage 3, he will be asking, pursuant to section 9(6) of the Jobseeker's Act 1995, that an employment officer refer his "jobseeker's agreement" to an adjudication officer for him to determine whether he satisfies the conditions mentioned in sections 1(2)(a) and 1(2)(c) of this Act):

Dear Secretary of State

Complaint against Highgate Jobcentre Plus

Further to my previous registered letter of complaint to you of 19 December 2009, I wish to further complain that this morning Personal Adviser Freddy Brooks of Highgate Jobcentre Plus threatened me with the termination of my joint claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) if I did not undertake a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre.

My wife suspects, as I believe, that our ongoing abuse at the hands of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is almost certainly related to the Network of those Abused by Church (NAC) website we maintain at religionandmorality.net. I would be delighted to have a "Start Your Own Business" Course, which would enable me to turn NAC into a registered company limited by guarantee, but Highgate Jobcentre Plus won't allow me to do that. I beg to point out that NAC is a world network organisation for exposing the public to the scientific perspective on public policy issues. It has a distinguished list of agreed Trustees pending the registration of the enterprise as a limited company as well as a distinguished and growing list of Honorary Associates, which includes two Nobel Prize winners.

I can confirm that I am currently looking for a solicitor or counsel to represent me pro bono, who might be able to tell whether Highgate Jobcentre Plus has been acting lawfully (a) by directing me to apply for specific jobs on threat of termination, (b) by insisting on my taking a "training course" of the choosing of the Jobcentre, and (c) what can be done to prevent recurrence of this form of unfair treatment. Notice, in particular:

• My joint claim JSA was terminated on 27 September 2006 because I did not “sign on” TWO DAYS BEFORE I was due to do so on 29 September 2006.

• My wife and I were forced to live rough on the streets of London for more than 2 1/2 years, from 3 November 2006 to 13 July 2009.

• I exhausted the appeals process from the street, where my case was dismissed by the High Court (Judicial Review), Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights in spite of the fact that I was denied the internal appeal process by procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority (the DWP).

• My joint claim JSA was not even reinstated until 9 October 2009 – almost three months after we gained access to a roof over our heads – because my wife’s National Insurance number was “lost” from the Department’s computer system.

My formal complaint to Highgate Jobcentre Plus Manager Patrice Mulligan at Stage 1 (Manager) of the Department's complaints procedure will relate to Mr Brooks of Highgate Jobcentre Plus, who threatened me this morning with the termination of my benefits if I do not undertake a training course of the choosing of Highgate Jobcentre Plus. I understand that I can have District Manager Isobel Morton review this part of my complaint at Stage 2 (District Manager) if I am not happy with the reply or not that I have received from Ms Mulligan within 10 working days.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

cc Mr Darra Singh, Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus (at darra.singh@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk)