To think the injections for weight reduction should be offered to the unemployed?

I lost 10 stone 22 years ago. along with my job I got gallstones and it got so bad i couldnt eat SOLID food. i went through months and months of excrutiating pain and A + E admission. In and out of A + E for TEN MONTHS. then doctors coming to my home to give me morphine injections whenever i had an attack . Finally a doctor prescribed me morphine pills which melted under the tongue that i took every time i had an attack. First attack was 3 July 2002 Scan was on 19 Dec 2002 after months of A + E admissions . Early Feb 2003 i got a letter telling me id have to wait for ANOTHER YEAR. I cried my eyes out and actually considered suicide. It was only after a private consultation with a surgeon and then another admission to hospital and an NHS appointment with the same surgeon that my op was promised within 6 weeks It was done 5 weeks later on 28 April 2003.id lost 8 stone by the time i had my op. The surgeon and two doctors told me it was caused by losing weight too fast. (slimming world) The pain was excrutiating and the first attack appeared after id lost nearly 4 stone. Back then i had no idea fast weight loss could cause gallstones I was losing a stone a month and whenever i did try to slow it down i either stayed the same or gained.
I actually did seriously consider suicide especially after i got the letter telling me id have to wait ANOTHER YEAR. I thought it was beyond cruel especially when id lost the weight by myself with willpower.
i believe due to mixing tramadol with as many over the counter drugs as i could in the early months to stop the pain i have been left with long term issues and its also left a bitter taste in the mouth TBH. Im grateful for the NHS but i was in so much pain i was thinking of overdosing (which i was bloody close to anyway) i also think the fact i won Class Slimmer of the Year and started to appear in our local papers may have been a factor in me getting the op sooner than that awful letter said but i shall never know.

And...................Back in 2014 Ian Duncan Smith thought that overweight claimants should go on the Cambridge Diet.
https://www.politics.co.uk/blog/2014/10/16/liquid-diets-iain-duncan-smith-targets-obese-benefit-claimants/

I think that it's a good idea to look at different options for getting unemployed people back into work and generally improving the health of the nation. Having a proper long term clinical trial of the effects of weight loss injections on employment is one strand of that. It m8ght work, it might not. That's why we do research.

I don't hear OP suggesting any constructive alternatives, I just hear more whinging about Labour, and more refusal to acknowledge actual source information about what is going on.

YABU to see the headlines and misinterpret them. It is a study being carried out... it is not being rolled out to the general public.

I am obese, and not working. But my reasons for not working are nothing to do with my size, and I would hazard a guess that is the case for most people like me too.
My dad is morbidly obese, but retired. He could absolutely do with this injection, as he has several health conditions related to his size.
I do think that in the long term, it could save the NHS money... but I am not sure about the benefits bill.

Also, I know of someone who lost 160lb on the jab. When he came off it (for him, the NHS would only fund it for 2 years), the weight piled back on and he is now the weight he started at.

They said it would save the NHS a lot of money, and for the life of me I cannot think it would work. How do they know it will get people back to work and save social security benefits if they don't know how many unemployed it will affect?
FFS @llizzie you really don’t care about the facts that have been pointed out to you repeatedly, do you?
They've said if it helps people work/stay in work/avoid sick days it could save the country money and help the economy. The study will look at these things which is how they will know whether it does. In 5 years when the study finishes. They haven’t suggested all, or even most, unemployed people are overweight. The study will also look at people who are in work.
No action is being taken, ‘lightbulb’ or not (though I’m not sure you know what. A lightbulb moment is, based on your comment).

This has been pointed out to you repeatedly. Why on earth are you still trying to wind people up with it?

Waste of money, they'll either have to be on them forever or they'll just put the weight back on as soon as they stop them.

Elsewhere in the interview we with Streeting. Surely you are aware that media outlets don’t give you every single word in every single exchange any politician had ever?

It. Hasn’t. Been. Announced.
FFs. Read the posts.
There’s a privately funded study into weight loss injections, one aspect of which is about the ability to live a more normal life, including working.
Streeting mentioned the study in an interview, saying the results would be interesting in terms of what it could save the NHS/add to the economy.
There’s no policy.
Theres no announcement.
He was just elaborating on the stated aim of focussing on prevention of illness to relieve strain on the NHS.
I don’t ’now how much more simply anyone can put it for you.

Lol

Yes we have to be weighed every day in the office, aka Fat Fighters (dust anybody?) and then if you're seen eyeing up any biscuits you're given a disciplinary!!

What on earth are you talking about? No one is saying that employers are going to employ or sack people on the basis of their BMI. I don't know what you're talking about.

This needs repeating over and over again. The last thread is full of misinformation and nonsense because the announcement is a load of rubbish

I would agree with psychological support and other support to be offered to people.

That also feeds into the larger national conversation around mental health and the shameful lack of MH support I the country.

Ironically, by not addressing that, the government is also seeking to take a short cut to economic health.

I mean quick fix as opposed to the healthier time frame of losing weight the recommended way.

I'll have to say that instead of diet and exercise because that is somehow judgemental.

Thank you for your assumption that I am not obese.

You know what they say about assumptions though.

I have ran the gamut of weight- I have previously recovered from anorexia and recovered a little too well.

So yes I do know that struggle myself.

I still do not believe that a quick fix drug that is experiencing global shortages will resolve much in the long run. Many cases of overeating are psychological in nature - I.e we need to get in early with children and dissuade a relationship where food = crutch or shame.

The Health Minister is part of the government, you know. I watched the BBC News last morning and understood it exactly the same way the OP; nothing was said about a '5 year study'. It's not a coincidence that the government is floating these ideas (the latest is 'job coaches on mental health wards') two weeks before the budget.

Obesity might well be why they are unemployed, though you have to wonder what came first, but if no one will employ them, for fear of not being able to sack them when the weight goes back on, what is the point?

But employers don't ask if you used to be obese and then refuse to hire you in case you become obese again.

Yes but you don’t understand them - as stated above every quote states ‘COULD’ not WILL.

Wes Streeting is considering multiple ideas. He has stated them in his article in The Telegraph (that you have clearly not read). These included, amongst several others, plans to run a pilot scheme to explore whether these jabs might help the unemployed return to work or those who are in work to reduce sickness days. A pilot scheme. In one area of the country. To observe whether there is a positive impact.

The PM was asked questions about the ideas and commented in support of general principles but said NOTHING that, as reported by the BBC, directly to indicate that these medications will be rolled out to the unemployed or will become policy.

It’s not rocket science. It’s basic reading comprehension.

I confess I need to read more about all this to get the facts. If the headline grabber is true and not just exaggerated journalism, then my first reaction is , this isn't good. Isn't there potentially alot more behind the unemployed than obesity? Isn't it likely something else has led to the obesity, and that has also factored in to the unemployment.
Or is the intent to reduce health costs associated with the obese and a large proportion of those obese aren't working 🤷‍♀️

My BBC app on the website from which I cut and paste is also not ‘wrong’… but you do not seem to understand the difference between something that ‘COULD” happen vis a vis something that WILL happen.

I’d suggest a dictionary and grammar primer. Those are available on line also.

‘Unemployed Britons COULD be able to…’

And ‘sick days’ applies to people who are working, obviously, not unemployed.

Are you wilfully misreading the article now?