“They can try and take everything but they can’t take away my sense of humour”

I don’t know his name — the “No Junk Mail please” sign made me chuckle and then made me think.

So I asked him if I could photograph it — he said it was OK as long as I did not sell the picture or that he was in it.

We started talking — just like a couple of guys on a Saturday morning standing outside a shop on the high street waiting for our partners to finish their browsing.

I will share what I know of his story.

Car mechanic — ground in oil & grease on his hands and cracked & broken finger nails attested to that.

Work dried up — he was not paid for 3 weeks — like most of us he had household bills to pay.

Confronted his boss about this and told nothing in the pot, he walked out.

To the JobCentre — to sign on — yes, you guessed it he was deemed to have made himself jobless and therefore not entitled to help for 13 weeks: the automatic sanction.

There is something really wrong here — A SYSTEM CHANGE perhaps — HMRC are quick to tax and take deductions — they will have the employer’s details. Surely in the days of so called joined up thinking — contact could be made with the employer and verification could be made.

We all know the next step — no money for rent or food — off he goes to the council to apply for housing benefit — fill in the forms only to be told that as he was Sanctioned by DWP—they cannot accept his application for housing benefit.

I would like to think the civil servant who designed the JSA sanction system did not intend that to happen.

So my normal remedy of a ‘no income’ statement won’t work here. I know the team at my local council and I know they will have felt all of the pain here and would have sign posted — I have seen details about food banks and other places who offer help and even the odd fiver slide along that well attended counter.

So the landlord allows him to stay another week [in lieu of returning his deposit] but then he had to leave. So now he is street homeless.

Of that age and with no protective shields to use it is deemed that there is no duty of care.

So Mr DWP Secretary of State — all his working life your system takes taxes and NI contributions from this person and when he needs a little help you give him the finger!

He tried the local Homeless Centres — but found those to be full of those souls with other problems and he knows he will catch these highly contagious things if he hangs around.

So it is the shop doorway for him as he desperately hunts for another job — I hope it is soon because day by day his health will fail — day by day his desperation will increase and day by day that temptation to chase away the pain and loneliness will grow.

I commented on the other ‘Posters’ in his makeshift home — and his parting words were. “They can try and take everything but they can’t take away my sense of humour”

I hope they don’t