Should you be forced to work for no pay if you are terminally ill...

[MayaAngelCool]

...mentally ill, or disabled?

here

I am very tired so perhaps I am reading this incorrectly. But this seems to be horrendously cruel!

It's one thing if working is a personal choice for people in these groups. But this almost seems to have an Arbeit Macht Frei philosophy behind it - we will make the most vulnerable in our society work for nothing, because work is GOOD for you!

Vile.

but this government is cruel,

That such a question needs to be posed is profoundly fucked up.

Forcing the dying to work for benefits - it's unspeakable.

To be honest it sounds like the government is planning on getting the poorly to work for free, and therefore narrow down the amount of jobs for those who are able to work! MAYBE we should be making people on jobseekers allowance who have been on it LONG TERM, do these sort of things and not those who really are ill, and whose health it could affect.

Sounds like they just want to save money.

Or MAYBE NOBODY should be forced to provide free labour at public expense?

How about that?

why should anyone be made to work for next to nothing?

Why don't the just bring back the workhouse? I do think this government seems to be picking on the weakest in society.

That's because it's their own fault that they're weak!

We must scapegoat and vilify them at every opportunity to prove that we are strong and not weak like the poor and unwell.

I think those on jobseekers allowance who decide not to take a job for no real reason should be given the choice, take the job they were offered or work for free, doing something they probably wouldnt want to do.

Offering those with disabilities etc the chance to work IF THEY WANT TO AND CAN, is fair enough and putting support in place for those who do is a good idea, but not forced work for the ill. How about we start forcing the MP's etc to do what they are suggesting?? Maybe they should not inflict upon someone else, anything they would not inflict upon themselves?

so you think disabled people should work for less than able bodied?

People should be paid, what they are entitled to, wages should be based on the job NOT the person. I have my own health problems and would feel very peeped off if someone else got more money, for the same job. Being disabled, should not limit you to what you can or cannot do, or the wages you are paid, but the government should not be allowed to push you into work that wil harm you physically, emotionally, or mentally, or any combination of these factors.

Everyone should be paid a fair wage....BUT I THIN FOOTBALLERS ARE PAID A STUPID AMOUNT, how the hell is that a fair wage, a cleaner works hard at early hours too, but gets paid pittance in comparison, and the england WOMENS team all have to hold down FULL TIME JOBS.

Lets stop forcing those who cannot work to work and making them more unwell and start picking on lazy arsed people, who like a friends partner choose not to work. He actually after much nagging got off his arse and did get a job, it lasted a whole DAY, yes 1 DAY! He said on the second morning (he's been taken and collected on the first day), that the bus fare was too expensive and the wages werent great. He refuses to sign on, cos it means walking from the pub to the job centre and is on probation for drug offences....How about we get these twats out the pubs and off drugs and doing something worth while? And leave the poor disabled, ill and elderly people to have some peace?

Didn't you know work was the new god? Pray to it and ye shall be healed!

There are some statistics somewhere that show that people in work have lower rates of ill health and depression - the welfare to work industry has managed to convice many people that work is a cure all and that you make yourself ill by now working - therefore if you force everyone to work they will be much better off.

Sadly they are doing the old correlation/causality mixup (and I'm being generous there - Icould call them clodhearted callous bastards out to make a quick buck on other peoples misery, but I am refraining from that). People who are in work tend to be in better health becasue um... they have better health

Absolutely not!!!! I am totally horrified by this and many of the other ideas being bandied about by this government.

To force people deemed unfit to work to work seems nonsensical. Surely if they were fit to work they would be claiming Jobseekers' allowance?

Not that that would make it ok; NOBODY should be made to work for less than the minimum wage. If there is a job, there is a job- let the employee be paid in accordance with the law.

(BTW- If your friend's partner isn't working and isn't signing on, what's the problem, MyLittleMiracle? )

"People who are in work tend to be in better health becasue um... they have better health "

And a wage.

Tethersend I'm not sure they have better health becasue of the wage - I know that poverty shows worsening health outcomes, but most people on disability benefits have been in work before becoming too ill to work - so you would assume if the wage kept you from disability/ill health that very few people would ever leave work due to this - which I'm pretty sure isn't the case? Or have I misread what you mean?

I posted (under a nc) recently about my mum, who is mentally ill but doesn't believe she is, so is terrified that Shiny Dave and his gestapo are going to make her work (she really isn't capable). Maybe he will. But for free. :(

fuck, no

That's shocking.

why don't we just get the terminally ill to work for nothing at a coffin factory - that'd learn 'em a thing or two.

Of course nobody should be forced to work for free, that goes without saying. Even prisoners get paid for the work they do, don't they?

But targetting these groups of vulnerable people in this way is utterly, utterly execrable. Beyond execrable. It is evil.

When I look at the anti-disabled policies coming out of David Cameron's government I sometimes wonder if he's forgotten that he once had a son called Ivan.

Horrible! Seriously, terrible!
How about they stop picking on the people that don't have engry or can't fight back.

Can't believe this stupid government thinks any of this is a good idea

Oh look - I've just found an article that explains why they need to pimp out the vulnerable like this Well that justifies it nicely. Good to know this cost-cutting is all in a good cause, eh?

I have no problem with MPs having a subsidised canteen. It has fuck all to do with forcing the sick onto workfare.

"so you would assume if the wage kept you from disability/ill health that very few people would ever leave work due to this - which I'm pretty sure isn't the case? Or have I misread what you mean?"

Sorry Trickle, I get what you mean- I just mean that data which points to working people having better overall health than those out of work is no great surprise; earning a wage tends to mean better housing, better food etc. And fewer money worries, so lower rates of depression not so surprising either.

To conclude from that data that work makes you healthier is absurd; if a difference is made, it is made by the wage, not the work.

The damage that these bastards have managed to do in the past 2 years scares the shit out of me. I'm dreading what they can do in the next 3 years. They won't be happy until all us little people are slaves in the workhouses.

tethersend Ah I see what you mean - totally agree - with the removal of DLA that side of things will only get worse

I think I've got far too used to the WTF??? schools of thought on the ill health/work stats - must start to remember most people have a brain