Well this is a new fucking low....

[CherryMyBrandy]

Tories are now proposing to stop benefit claimant's access to medicines if they have been deemed not doing enough to look for work....

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-heseltine-hate-politics-jobless-prescriptions-b2449412.html

It's not enough to sanction them, so they basically have next to no money to live on. Now they want to take away their access to medicines, some of those will of course be life-saving.

absolutely this. You got a little hint of it with the Truss short lived government, when those rates started to affect the middle classes. If it hadnt affected the media types, who whipped their dismay in the papers, you would have fallen too, and soon seen what it was like t rely on help. So many people had their eyes opened during covid, when forced to claim UC, but that was the sugar coated 'kind and caring' UC with even a 25% upboost in payments (which they took away again as soon as nobody important was claiming it)

Just remember that this lot want everything. And once theyve squeezed every drop out of the poor and the working poor, the next up the rung will be their next supply.

The true vileness of Jeremy Hunt has returned

he had somewhat softened his approach but he is back

I am not shocked tbh

Nothing incentivises people to work like denying them healthcare. Imagine how quickly you’d be running to the job centre if they stopped your epilepsy meds or your insulin.

Maybe people are refusing to fill one of those 1 milliion job vacancies is because the job is so badly paid that it would mean a real cut in income for someone who is already barely scraping by. Plus they would still qualify for benefits once they were back in work.

The government should clamp down on employers who don't pay a living wage and expect the rest of us to support their greed.

it's completely fine because having an illness is a lifestyle choice.

I wonder how many of those 1 million job vacancies are full time? Years ago there was a shop advertising for staff near me. It was 12 hours a week but they wanted you to be flexible. But how ?

Maybe people are refusing to fill one of those 1 milliion job vacancies is because the job is so badly paid that it would mean a real cut in income for someone who is already barely scraping by. Plus they would still qualify for benefits once they were back in work

Or they get the same but don't want the added stress of getting up in the morning, arranging childcare and dealing with moaning bosses about their proformance.
At which point we are back at the issue of having a low wage economy.....

Sadly, it isn't impossible. My uncle, who is in his 60s and has probably held down a job for around 3 years in total of his adult life is a testament to that. For a good few years, he couldn't work because of a "bad back". Not bad enough to stop him from climbing munros on a regular basis and fishing trips/the occassional round of golf. Then his mother became ill so he spent 12 years (genuinely) looking after her till she passed away. Now he can't use the bad back excuse to not work as he was physically providing a lot of care for her, so it's now "depression". He has received disability benefits for a large chunk of his life, based on these alleged disabilities he has.

He's not the only member of my family to allegedly not be able to work due to 'disability'. Me, my sister and one cousin are the only ones in our wider family to hold down jobs. Out of our wider family, only 2 have genuine disabilities which prevent them from working and who do need those benefits.

Always the same tall tales whenever this topic is discussed.

Benefit fraud is investigated.

The bigger issue is that those who are seriously unwell are deemed fit to work.

We have people dying due to lack of support, by suicide and poverty.

Exactly this.

The true vileness of Jeremy Hunt has returned
Nominative determination
https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/10/radio-4-jeremy-hunt-gaff-jim-naughtie-rory-morrison

I work with people deemed "fit for work" who get regular sick notes. For a few you apply the adage "would I want to work with this person". Some drink, they self neglect so they smell etc. No idea why they are deemed "fit for work" because they are not and may never be.

As for reducing benefits...I have swear words in my head. I have young men on my caseload sleeping in tents because they are not a priority for housing, many have ongoing MH issues and are at risk of declining health. Their income is around £300 a month on UC. And the Govt talks of reducing benefits. Appalling.

^^ This.

The idea the 'processes' are fair or work is, frankly, total bollocks.

Do you remember that case a few years back that hit the headlines - where there was a purpose-designed assessment centre for disability benefits, where disabled people were required to attend in order to process their cases? The one that had been situated on the first floor in a building without a lift?

That one single decision alone tells you all you need to know about the absolute hatred and contempt the government hold disabled people in.

They're also planning to ban people who are on benefits and are sanctioned from accessing legal aid.

Imagine being a fit and healthy taxpayer who caught a fatal disease from a feckless layabout who couldn't get the medicines and then dying and leaving your family to find out that having sorted out the workshy the government is sorting out widows and orphans too.

I'll never forget David Clapson. I know it sounds bizarre for someone who never met him but I often find myself thinking of him.

That poor man worked for 29 years. He served in the army. He saved the government thousands by giving up his career to care full-time for his mum.

He died a horrible death as a direct result of Tory policy. And even worse, his death changed nothing. Claimants are still sanctioned for spurious reasons leaving them well below the poverty line.

I can't imagine a time when my eldest would be able to work. She has severe mental health issues and struggles to navigate the system even with my support. The thought of her trying to survive within a system designed to punish her without me terrifies me.

They always punch down and like the privileged, entitled thugs that they are, to stamp on the people with the least or who struggle the most. Why anyone votes for them is utterly beyond me.

It’s ok, the dwp will have cured them of all illness during assessment before removing their access to medication, so there’s no need to panic. They won’t be sick or disabled anymore.

(that’s sarcasm in case anyone didn’t get it)

Well, if your uncle cared for his mother for 12 years he has more than made up for what he has had in benefits. He has probably saved the state hundreds of thousands of pounds. He sounds like a decent man.

He might genuinely now be depressed. Caring full time takes a massive toll on a person. In any case, at 62 with no work history, employers aren't going to be champing at the bit to employ him.

@RoundTheBendThenBackAgain a question. How do you know your uncle was claiming benefits for a bad back and then depression? Did you see all the paperwork?

So no one in this country claims to be sick when they're not to get benefits? I assume you haven't grown up with the same kind of lifestyle that I have, where there are generations of people around you who have never worked?

Imagine how quickly you’d be running to the job centre if they stopped your epilepsy meds or your insulin.

Not very as you'd probably be dead - which is probably what Jeremy Cnut & this government wants.

Is the Chancellor doing anything about the billions of pounds of fraud that his predcessor ignored in the procurment of PPE and other aspects of the pandemic?

With a bill to your family for the burial. Although I guess you might get a discount if you flog off the organs. Although who'd want poor peoples parts ? Ugh !