I have been looking around the internet for details regarding Jobseekers Allowance payments over the christmas holidays but it isn't easy to find. I did notice one statement that payments due on christmas eve(24th) would be paid on that date but if they are then it really is a sign of how little the DWP care about the unemployed. I am hopeful that JSA will be paid early as it makes sense to give people the chance to get their food and bills paid early. My experience of christmas eve is going into stores and finding most of the shelves empty. Just like most of the unemployed I will be doing jobsearch over the holiday period and recording it online and on paper although it won't be easy finding job vacancies. I personally have to make 14 active efforts a fortnight and if I can't find a job to apply for then making sure my efforts are recorded is important. Occasionally, once every ten days or so I would click on the skills link for a job and add a few skills to my list as this is recorded in the activity log. So far this fortnight I have applied for 10 jobs and had three email confirmations from them. Before Jobcentreplus got tough on claimants we used to receive slips of paper informing us that our benefits would be paid earlier during christmas and sometimes not to sign just before christmas until the new year. I wish we could go back to the days when Jobcentre staff just did their jobs without any intent to find people to sanction but we all know that even in the past some advisors received bonuses for getting claimants to lose benefits. I myself many years ago had my benefit reduced by 40% for twelve months. It was an awful time, just after my father died in agony and I hadn't applied for a job for a few months as I was in no fit state mentally to find work. The bills didn't go down by 40% and living on one meal a day for 365 days wasn't easy. I remember every fortnight when the giro came through the letterbox I had to control myself to avoid being physically sick so that I could walk to the post office and cash the giro before buying some food. I would buy a cheap packet of biscuits as a treat but as soon as I had eaten four or five of them my stomach would hurt. When I say being sick I mean a colourless liquid repeatedly coming up into my mouth. Of course these days people who receive a sanction are losing all entitlement to money and in effect facing starvation. This is totally wrong as we don't let people serving time in prison starve and they would probably be force fed if they went on hunger strike. It doesn't matter what party are in power, when governments make decisions that affect the people of Britain they must make sure that they cover all bases. That means if they say someone must go without any income to buy food for example then they must be able to explain what a person in those circumstances would have to do to survive. Sadly they don't and only suggest that the person finds a job but if that isn't possible what then. They might suggest that food banks might help but if that means that the person would only receive at most 9 days supply of food in total then how do they survive a three month sanction. From this simple example it is clear that the government are playing with peoples lives. The old system would have at least given people on sanction at least one meal a day and allow them to pay their bills. It isn't a nice experience but possibly would make them fall in line. Making people potentially live on fresh air for three months shows that this government has spent very little time on thinking through harsh policies. Unless of course this government really is out to keep the poor down and would rather scare the low paid workers in Britain to make them conform and accept low wages and be grateful that they are not unemployed and on the receiving end of bullying.