THIS Thursday sees the first anniversary of the weekly pickets mounted by Tameside Against The Cuts (TAC) outside Ashton jobcentre in Tameside. I spoke to Charlotte Hughes, the regular Morning Star columnist who is founder member of TAC and a key figure in this grassroots campaign — an important source of support for people who have been affected by universal credit and the sanctioning process.

Hughes has lived in Tameside all her life. She is a single parent with two grown-up children and an eight-year-old. She became involved in TAC because of her own experience as a claimant after she was made redundant from her job and signed on for jobseeker’s allowance.

“I was told by the jobcentre that I had to spend 12 hours a day walking around to employers and giving out CVs with my five-year-old or I would be sanctioned,” she recalls. Hughes refused to accept this and challenged the ruling at all levels of the jobcentre and then through her local MP. She won and then, with a number of local people, started the weekly pickets at Ashton jobcentre.

The jobcentre was chosen to be part of the new universal credit system and Hughes’s own daughter was sanctioned under the new regime. “She had already been sanctioned and at 23 weeks’ pregnant was sent to B&Q for an interview for workfare. The jobcentre sanctioned her again as they said she hadn’t told them she was pregnant.”

Hughes has become an expert on challenging illegal sanctioning. She says: “I didn’t think I would be still standing outside Ashton jobcentre one year later, or that the sanctioning system would have got so much worse.”

During the last year there have been three cases of suicide just before Christmas and jobcentres are now challenging people on disability living allowance and carer’s allowance.

Over the year relations with the Ashton jobcentre have improved as it has accepted the right of TAC to stand outside its building. Locally the group has endured the odd abusive remark from passers-by but generally it is welcomed by the claimants and even offered food by local shops.

TAC has tried to build up a relationship with the local branch of PCS. She says;”We have made links with Mark Serwotka nationally and the local union branch.”

Hughes acknowledges that it’s not easy as the PCS has faced privatisation and massive job cuts among its members.

Activities by TAC have not stopped at the weekly pickets. It has also targeted all aspects of the benefit system. The group has stood outside workfare providers, lobbied the local Labour council on its use of bailiffs on claimants who are unable to pay their council tax and produced leaflets to inform claimants about changes in the benefit system. But they have had to fund their own resources, including buying a copy of the Disability Rights Manual and their leaflets. The local Unite Community branch has provided training courses on benefit changes.

At their weekly pickets Hughes and her comrades hear the stories of the poor and the persecuted and in response she started her blog The Poor Side of Life to inform the public about what is happening — not just in Tameside but across the country. Her blog has been very successful and has nearly 200,000 hits per week.

She says: “It is a key part of the campaign informing people about their rights and updating them about the changes to the benefit system.”

But Hughes pays a high price for her political activity. She is self-employed but spends most of her time helping claimants with their problems. She would like to turn her blog into a book and is looking for funding. “If anyone out there can help me, please contact me at the blog,” she says.

This week’s picket is going to be a celebration of the work that TAC has done over the last 12 months and will have music, speakers and food. Reflecting on the past year’s work Hughes sums it up: “ Nowadays people who use Ashton jobcentre do know their rights and they know that they have support. It has not been easy but we are not scared any more of challenging the system.”

• Join Tameside Against The Cuts at Ashton jobcentre, 101 Old Street, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 5SB on Thursday August 6, from 1-3pm.

nCharlotte Hughes blogs at thepoorsideoflife.wordpress.com.