Government plans to get long term sick back to work.

[Miley1967]

Does anyone have any information about how the Government are planning to get long term sick/ disabled back to work? I have read there is a paper being published/ announced this week. In my local area ( East Midlands) I have seen jobs advertised this week ( multiple jobs) for health and work coaches but employed through the NHS and based in Gp surgeries, so it does seem as though they are already taking steps to implement this.
Just a bit worried for some of my clients( I work in benefits advice work ) as to whether this is going to be pushed on them or if it's a scheme they will choose to be part of and just wondering what it is going to entail, will these coaches be working with employers who are genuinely going to be able to support this group of people into work?

This scheme seems like window dressing to appease voters who have bought the benefit scrounger narrative. If it’s genuinely going to help lots of disabled people, it needs more funding. And there needs to be more consultation with employers.

I agree @username8348 but it needs to fall off the picture harder and faster. Argentina is a harsher place than 2 years ago but rents are affordable again, and that's the most significant cost in most family budgets.

I know I am in a minority of one, but I suspect most people would not have MH issues if they could earn enough for a roof over their heads and food for their children. That's actually adding up to quite a lot of money if you have to pay for childcare, given the COL in the UK.

There was a lot of schemes in the late 80s and early 90s. Of course we had JTS and YTS, with variable outcomes. But there were also other "back to work" schemes, job clubs, etc.

I was the auditor of our city's Chamber of Trade around that time and they were awarded the contract from the Govt for the various schemes. The funds were huge and the Chamber rented a couple of floors of an office building and employed lots of staff to both manage and administer the schemes, but also job coaches to support the unemployed, give them careers advice, do mock job interviews, help them with cv preparation etc.

I remember rooms full of "job seekers" who had access to several copies of the local newspaper (job advert pages), free access to stationery, stamps and telephones to make applications, free basic refreshments, etc. I think they were allowed unlimited access to the rooms so some will have used them just for somewhere to go and keep warm and to get tea and biscuits. They were also able to claim reimbursement of travel expenses for attending the job club and interviews etc., and in some extreme circumstances, interview clothing was provided (not given, loaned).

It's a great shame that kind of thing wasn't continued. It's what we need now.

Even better was that with it being a non profit organisation who got the city's contract, the (hefty) profits were effectively re-invested in the Chamber's activities. I do remember that they provided the job seekers with "more" than they had to under the contract, as they had the surplus funds to do so.

Those two floors were a real hive of activity.

One school leaver who joined the YTS scheme and worked there as an accounts clerk, was kept on after her YTS period ended, studied for professional exams herself, rose up through the organisation and ended up as their Managing director being highly influential in the city's business matters. Not bad for a YTS girl!

Vintage MN

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1409863-To-be-purple-with-rage-over-workfare

www.mumsnet.com/talk/politics/1412708-I-STILL-think-Tesco-should-fucking-well-PAY-THEIR-STAFF-Workfare-is-wrong?flipped=1&page=1

So if people work for their benefits i take it they will scrap NI

Unflipped.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/politics/1412708-I-STILL-think-Tesco-should-fucking-well-PAY-THEIR-STAFF-Workfare-is-wrong

There's just not enough support. Many women are struggling with unaffordable childcare, low paid work, the two child cap, rocketing rent and bills and failing public services.

The relentless grind contributes to poor mental and physical health. There's a mental health crisis with children, male suicide is high. People dependent on benefits tend to be poor and poverty often means poorer health outcomes.

Domestic abuse is a national crisis and causes billions to the economy. One in three children are currently in poverty and that has a knock on effect on everything in their lives.

Sanctioning people just creates more problems.

Yes and no. I'm autistic and the lifelong effects of not doing very well at interacting with earthlings look an awful lot like depression and anxiety. Getting a degree and a salaried job hasn't made that go away.

However, it was a hell of a lot worse when I was on means-tested benefits than it is now that I have a job that keeps me and catofhate comfortably.

Two of my school friendship group did YTS schemes and both did well/. One started with Barclays bank and ended up quite high up in the banking world working in London for one of the big banks.

@username8348 but throwing money in the general direction without a plan doesn't seem to solve anything. I would like to see a world where no one had a baby without the ability to pay for it. I have a real issue with that irresponsbility. I had one child, at 43, so I could afford it. Not 4 before I was 23.

Is there more dementia because people don't die from smoking?

I didn't suggest throwing money at anything was the solution.

Your thinking about children lacks nuance. Some have several children young because that's their culture, some are vulnerable, some are abandoned by their partners.

Perhaps instead of castigating mothers we should sanction feckless fathers.

How do you propose to enforce that? I suspect that most people would balk at the notion of forced abortions and I'd be the first to object to mandatory contraceptives, having had them utterly fuck my body up and put my sister in hospital with a life-threatening complication.

You've also got the problems that a) falling birthrates threaten the long-term viability of everyone's pension schemes and b) older mothers are more likely to have disabled children who will be less likely to be able to work when they reach adulthood.

Even China is rolling back its one-child policy now.

My DS has self-designated himself as autistic. He's very dyslexic, but sociable, able-bodied, fit, bright, good looking, excellent communication skills and thin skinned and I think he's a bit wet, if I am totally honest. But truthfully I was too

Sometimes we need to grit our teeth and get on with life.

China rolled back the one child policy 30 years ago, but there's still a preference for sons.

This is why adult diagnostic services need to be available everywhere, with waiting lists measured in months or weeks, not years. I was on the waiting list for four years to be assessed.

Short waiting lists would allow you to say "prove it".

Sometimes we need to grit our teeth and get on with life

For someone already struggling and internalising messages that they just aren't trying hard enough when they do in fact have a genuine impairment, this is a really damaging message. The scars on my arms and legs and breasts bear witness to the damage that that kind of messaging can do.

And if you were disabled at age 49 and could not work and then your partner left you, how do you feel then about having a child you cannot afford?

One of the reasons im child free by choice is i saw the life of drudgery some of my friends had in their early 20s.

In a magazine last week there was an article about Mission Christmas Cash for Kids. A single mum spoke about how they helped her last Christmas. She worked part time in a grocery store and got some benefits but it barely covered the essentials let alone presents. Mission Christmas helped her. Her kids were nine six and three. An irony was the grocery store she worked at was a drop off point for donations 🤔 But i also kept thinking where is the childs father. The fathers never seem to get mentioned and collectively we seem to have accepted the fact that they dont pay for their kids.

I still think there needs to be an "insurance" safety net - but we're talking long term claimants here, there is a point where the safety net becomes a big comfy cushion that is hard to step out of. After a period of time there needs to be a true assessment of what you can do, you may not be able to go back to professional ballerina but very few are in a vegetative state and can't do anything at all. A lot of mental health issues would be solved with productive work.

How about a government backed parent loan scheme, just like the student loan scheme. If you want to have a child before you can afford it, you can take a loan to cover the costs of raising it, which is then repaid from income over the next 30 years or so. That would be a different approach. Let people make conscious decisions about their life rather than just relying on the state. Although young mothers falling behind in the workplace is a different issue to the long term sick.

Most of this is available in a jobcentre now - there are job clubs, work experience can be organised, no stamps or envelopes now but they are digitally connected and there computers in job centres to make applications - also funding for interview clothing and travel.

More jobs are needed though - particularly disability confident ones.

If you want the birth rate to fall further this is a great idea!

I think the 'plan' is to speed up the NHS operations/procedures needed to reduce the waiting lists which will also include a few people currently unable to work without intervention.

Not a bad idea really - as long as jobs can be more equally distributed around the UK it could be an improvement.

This isn’t fiscally workable. Parent(s) who can’t afford the monthly expense of their children cannot afford to repay that same sum loaned to them plus interest.

Most of the issue of unaffordability of children is due to stagnant wages, insecure work and lack of opportunity not people failing to make conscious decisions and relying on the state.