No benefits if unemployed for more than a year and other ways Sunak wants ti tackle the Benefits system

[cakeorwine]

This are the headlines - I can see some massive issues here for people - it's easy to say there are job vacancies - but what if they aren't in the area people are and there is no transport to get there. How does that work? I can see a lot of exploitation here.

There's also the other rules here around PIP payments, part time workers etc.

I wonder how much personal experience Sunak has of such things?

This is an outline from the Daily Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13330045/Benefits-axed-year-stop-lifestyle-choice-Prime-Minister.html

12-month rule for unemployed

Tory manifesto plans will see people on the dole have their benefit claims closed after a year unless they can convince Jobcentre staff they are actively looking for work and willing to accept any reasonable job offer.

Personal Independence Payments

Hundreds of thousands of people with anxiety and depression could lose access to payments worth up to £700 a month and instead be offered therapy to help them back to work.

PART-TIME WORKERS

New rules will require part-time workers on Universal Credit to look for more work. Anyone working for less than the equivalent of 18 hours a week on minimum wage will have to show they are actively seeking more hours.

Disability rules

The work capability assessment rules, which govern who is eligible for sickness benefits, will be tightened to require 424,000 with milder mental health conditions to start looking for work.

Sick notes

GPs could be stripped of their role in signing off people as sick and replaced by 'specialist work and health professionals' who will focus on what work people could do with support, such as flexibility to work from home.

Benefit Fraud

Investigators will be handed new powers to tackle benefit fraud, which hit £6.4 billion last year. In future they will have similar powers to those investigating tax fraud, including the ability to make seizures and arrests

No not 5* just adequate investment or are you saying mental health should go the same way as dentistry as regards the NHS. That will help people into work- not.

You do realise most people presenting at A&E after suicide attempts will be on medication. You can’t just doll out pills and say get thee to work.

I’m staggered at the ignorance on here and most worryingly by our prime minister as regards this.

Its already happening, people have already starved to death

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2021/may/82-benefit-claimants-have-died-after-some-alleged-dwp-activity-such-termination

Sounds a bit like one-upmanship. I've been on medication for 20 years and more recently started another for a different illness. I have no choice but to work.

Everyone is different. This is a good policy to help those who can go to work and who are able. There's nothing wrong with that.

I work with medication and chronic illnesses. That is not unusual, it does not make you special. It is very common for people to do so, especially as they get older. So what.
And lots of people working are on anti depressants or anti anxiety medication. Again so what, not uncommon.
We are not talking about those people.

That didn't answer my question though did it?

You call what I am saying one upmanship. I call what you are saying a race to the bottom and utterly lacking in critical thinking or compassion.

Over that I will take one upmanship. But then I am someone who doesnt exist according to you, because I chose to retrain when I could have stayed on benefits so I think you are just very one dimensional in your thinking

gosh this thread is the reason I am not confident tories won’t get in .

All these I know someone who chooses not to work . They have this that do this -

There are also tales of people committing suicide so stressed by deep - people receiving sanctions for not attending when they are at work, on the school run .

i work 32 hours over 4 days - some people may think I should work more , some don’t know the extent of my DC’s additional needs I do work earn less than £1 more than NMW . I am on antidepressants to cope with the stress of my life .. I can guarantee some on this thread in RL judges me as someone who should work more , get my child sorted , oh and because his dad is a danger to him has no contact which will also be my fault bad I should have foreseen how he would behave towards our child .

One thing I definitely think has changed is how people view poverty in the sense how it affects them .. not how to support people out of it , how to improve life expectancy for people .

no it’s the the whole work harder

It's incredibly superficially thinking, lots of soundbites no substance. Sounds like a second rate politician tbh

It’s not a good policy though if it forces people into work who aren’t able to though which is what the aim is

Do people not realise that the reason many people are unable to work is the erosion of mental health services. If you treat people and help them to get well- they will work and you will have less people claiming benefits.

Put it this way. Mentally ill young people having no access to the treatment they need isn’t working out so well is it. Withdrawing support even more isn’t going to help.

Maybe we could try a different tack and divert some money from ridiculous Tory schemes, court cases, contracts for mates and put adequate investment into CAMHS and adult mental health.

43% of UK Adults of working age do not pay income tax. There are about 32,557,265 18-60 year olds in the UK. So are we saying roughly 13,999,624 people, do not pay taxes? That's a huge number of people.

From the figures you shared before 89000 are on job seekers allowance. Personal Independence Payment - 2.7 Mil. Around 2 million at Uni. What about the other 8 million 18-60 year olds? Rich? Or stay at home parents?

Then you and the rest of the country should support better pay for MH workers. Nobody wants to work in that specialty hence the shortage and delays. Most Brits go abroad for better pay and better working conditions.

It’s not about pay. Specialised therapists and psychiatrists are paid quite well. It’s about the jobs , inpatient places not being there because of the erosion to services .

Lots has been outsourced to the private sector who in many cases deliver it very badly.

It’s not about pay, it’s about eorosion of services.

my dad worked in adult mental health for his whole carer, he retired when the department he worked in was “merged” with another 30 miles away. Realistically there was no merge it was his service being closed down even though it was working at capacity. That was 15 years ago and things haven’t got any better.

you don’t have to look far to see the shocking lack of provision for mental health in this country. People - especially children - too often need to be at crisis point before they can access help.

The problem with this, as with many Tory policies, is it’s about sound bites rather than actually looking at the root cause of the issues.

This policy will reduce the amount spent on benefits, it will also increase the number of suicides and people living in poverty.

So many excuses.

I agree. The attitude shift is worrying and I don’t like the way england is becoming.
we aren’t all born equal. We aren’t all born with the same opportunities and we don’t all have the same life experiences.

for some dusting yourself off and getting on is just not possible

We're only just balancing the scales between those working and those who need support.... the less tax payers, the less money in the system. The Government has to get the money from somewhere at the end of the day.

So get people into work by treating them. Many young people are just wacked onto medication and left.

We need to increase the amount of support there is available but how do we do this without the workforce? The who's and hows need to be worked out

Yep and when the companies that sell us our food, electricity and gas, all necessities, are making millions if not billions in profit whilst, especially in the case of supermarkets, not paying their staff enough so their staff have to claim benefits I know where I would be targeting for more money and it wouldn't be people with mental health problems

With you on that @dimllaishebiaith

Money for what . Tax cuts for his chums , tenders for his mates - remember the we are in it together - there was no such thing as warm hubs - food banks were not a thing .

Do you really think that the money to fund the nhs , provide the sadly lacking social care , addressing the growth in children with additional needs whose needs are not been met in the classroom will be sorted by getting sick people into completely unsustainable jobs and let’s not forget how easy childcare is for parents with children with additional needs .

Exactly. There is another side to this. Those on the left seem to think everyone claiming benefits is a poor little Dickensian orphan with big brown eyes. In reality, the benefit system is constantly exploited, and it's ordinary, hard-working people who have to fund it.

Let me give you a few examples from my own life:

First, my friend's brother. A vain, arrogant oaf who has never had a proper job and has lived on welfare for at least ten years. His social media accounts are crammed with photos of him down the gym beating his 'PB'. He clearly has enough money for fake tans and teeth bleaching as well. The roads round here are full of potholes, but no way would he help fill them in! That would be beneath him.

Second, my cousin. Three kids, never really worked. Apparently he has a 'bad back' and depression. Doesn't stop him going on fishing trips to France though. Nor does it stop him driving 200 miles to visit his uncle – in a secondhand BMW.

Third, the ghastly woman who lives opposite. She has two children, a son and a daughter. Both are in their 30s and neither works. They are 'professionally ill' and have spent most of their lives in assisted living, with various social workers and care assistants looking after them. I have no idea what is wrong with them, and their mother is very vague on the details. The boy was arrested for viewing indecent images of children, and also for sexually assaulting one of his carers. He is utterly repellent in every way. The girl is obese and walks with two sticks. One day, I watched her pull up on her mother's driveway after a trip to Tescos. It was raining, and she got out of the car with a tray of donuts. At first she fumbled with her sticks, then, after checking to see if anyone was looking, she ran into the house with the sticks and the donuts under her arm.

That's the reality of the welfare system. I get up at six in the morning and slog my guts out to pay for people like that. Of course there are genuine people. I knew a girl with crippling agoraphobia. She'd been sexually abused as a girl and had awful PTSD. I'm happy to see my taxes spent helping people like her, and also to fund centres for the elderly and isolated, or to help single mother's who've lost their job and are looking for a new one, etc. I don't want to live in a society in which everyone is out for themselves. But any system that gives out money and housing will be exploited, whether it's people lying about their illnesses, or young girls having lots of kids so they can get a house, or whatever. And they're not a tiny minority. They are in every street in this country.

PTSD will just get a massive waiting list. She will be on the a year of benefits and then nothing rule even though she will be living with untreated trauma.

Appatantly a job will sort her out.🙄