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

Then it should never have been announced at all

What shouldn't have been announced? Have you read his article - the bit below is basically the only bit where he talks about unemployment in conjunction with weight loss drugs.
None of this is an announcement of any kind. It's not even particularly original.

The only "announcement" is a private research project into Mounjaro, and whether it improves people's employment - and even that doesn't just focus on unemployed people, but also looks at sick days as well, so must include employed people.

"Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether. The long-term benefits of these drugs could be monumental in our approach to tackling obesity. For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”

@Paperdolly direct from the manufacturer, who has no shortage of Mounjaro. It's nothing to do with supplies of semaglutide for diabetics via the NHS.

Nuts. and insulting. If you obese it doesn't mean you cannot work. These jabs have apparently potentially life threatening side effects. Proper eating and exercise surely a better route to lose weight.

Fat unemployed people aren't without feelings and self respect you know.

We need to treat people like human beings. This would be incredibly humiliating for anyone.

Nothing was announced, @llizzie, no govt policy was committed to. It was a possibility that was being tangentially discussed.

No one will be forced to participate in a privately funded research project, no one is going to worry that their benefits will be cut if they don't participate in this research.

Totally fuming with regard to diabetics not being able to get hold of any of these meds at the moment!! Where is this latest supply going to manifest itself from?

The question I'd like to ask is what will happen if people refuse them? Will they have their benefits slashed? There are side-effects to weight-loss injections too; would it therefore be ethical for the state to encourage people to take them when there are alternatives?

@silenceinside
Ah no far too much dignity to rely on benefits unnecessarily when I can work, they are or should be for people who genuinely can't work, illness etc , I'm good thanks and like to pay my own way.

@llizzie Jfc. People have explained to you that this story is about an actual research project! One of the outcomes they will look at will be whether losing weight has any impact on gaining employment. What you are asking for is literally what will be happening.

The. Study. Will. Look. At. This.
That’s part of it.
As you’ve been told repeatedly.
Why keep on as though you don’t know?

@johnson39 if you wonder why you bother working, can I suggest you quit your job and live of the amazing generous benefits that will immediately flow your way.

You’ve been told several times that it’s not an announcement and not. Policy, but that it’s a privately funded research study, one part of which will be to look at the impact of weight loss on ability to work. That’s all. Streeting just commented that if it shows that it makes people healthier and fitter that could take some burden of the NHS and get people off benefits.

Everybody else getting worked up about it needs to read the many posts that have pointed this out too.

I know people using weight loss jabs and the benefits are way beyond weight loss - all day the food noise is switched off, some I know have adhd (suspected or diagnosed) and find that weight loss injections suddenly mean they can focus better and are more motivated to exercise, and that their work productivity is better without the low energy slumps and adhd paralysis.

My concern about it becoming a government led thing is that it’ll turn to shit like everything else they touch.
I also fear it’ll create more barriers to getting back into work - if you know you’ll have to start paying for it once working and you know that this is perhaps your only way to effectively lose weight it takes away incentive to work.

Everyone who could benefit from it should be able to access it, 15 years of research is showing them as relatively safe compared to surgery. Being obese is not just about being fat and lazy, there’s far more to it, and the expectation that fat people need to suffer when there’s an effective option seems cruel.

Of course your views are relevant! You started the subject. Jeez, do you talk like this with others. I can’t imagine ever saying a line and then ‘discuss’, unless I was a secondary school teacher 😂

@thegoodenoughwife
I do have sympathy but again not everyone is obese because it's a medical
Condition, some people just eat crap.
Anyway as long as it's not my taxes then that's fine. We will just support them to stay unemployed instead cause if they ever work they will have to pay for it , what a mad world we live in.

My reservations are whether an employer should be told the applicant was having the injections, and that if an unemployed person agrees to have the drug, and gets a job, then puts the weight back on, will the employer be able to sack them?

What on earth are you talking about?

There is no policy that has been announced to give unemployed people weight loss injections.

Helping people get back into work was one potential benefit of weight loss injections that was listed in an article by Wes Streeting. That's it. There is research being done into the injections, and not just effectiveness and side effects but wider benefits to people. But no one has suggested any policy to single out unemployed people and give them the injections, let alone make it a condition of their employment!

Replace weight loss drugs with...

Why are people who are depressed on antidepressants? Don't they know it isn't a long term fix? Can't they just walk out in the sunshine and cheer up? No one knows the long term side effects?

Stop! Have some bloody sympathy for people who find themselves living with obesity. It isn't a great way to live. The likelihood of addressing it themselves with diet and exercise (as someone has said) is infinitely small (like 1%). They need help and now medical help is available. Good.

(Also these drugs have been around for a while for diabetics - are you stopping those people in the street and scaremongering the side effects to them? Or do you feel they are more 'deserving'?!)

I'm not saying obese people shouldn't be helped, but I don't personally think the injections are the answer, I get that obese people's bodies work differently , but surely there is another way ... gastric band for example , I do also understand how much they cost the nhs and yes it can be classed as an illness but these injections surely aren't the quick fix they need. Again just my opinion.

@johnson39 when the funding ends when that research project ends. The private company will continue to pay for further research - drug manufacturers spend huge amounts of money on R&D, endlessly.

You can't sack people for putting on weight.

Do you think that about every prescription (or OTC) medicine that makes anyone unwell?? Do you disagree with paracetamol because so many people die from paracetamol poisoning (261 in 2022)?