Don't be poor, disabled, sick or elderly . .

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/apr/19/rishi-sunak-sicknote-culture-welfare-reform-post-office-horizon-conservatives-labour-uk-politics-lastest-updates

So this is a big part of the next Tory strategy to get elected.

I hope the buggers don't get in

Like it or not but I believe there will be a good proportion of the UK population who agree with him

The Tories say this sort of thing (immigration is a particular favourite, despite the fact it's risen markedly in the FOURTEEN years the Tories have been in power) in the run-up to an election.

They bank on lots of people forgetting they've done zero about these things (see point in brackets above) and to an extent, this works for them. But they're unlikely to be re-elected this time.

They're always punching down aren't they? Blaming all of societies woes on immigrants and 'small boats' isn't working well enough.
Where is Michelle Mone?

Wow would you believe more people are sick after government has failed to protect public health and failed to fund the NHS properly (for years) so people can't get timely treatment. Whoever would have guessed that might happen?!

“We’re also going to test shifting the responsibility for assessment from GPs and giving it to specialist work and health professionals”

Another nice fat contract for Capita coming up.

Maybe address the underlying causes of the increase in ill health in this country instead - just a thought. Increased absence due to mental and physical health issues is not caused by “sicknote culture”, but by 14 years of Tory so-called government.

Maybe there would not be so many people off work sick in the UK if we: -

1. Had functioning GP services.
2. Didn't have millions of people waiting for treatment on the NHS.
3. Had decent mental health care.
4. Didn't have millions living under the constant stress of how to feed, clothe and keep themselves warm.

Maybe Sunak could contemplate whether the Tories have some responsibility for any of the above points after 14 years in power, rather than scapegoating the victims of his party's abject failures.

I was also reading a thing yesterday about Brexit-inflamed medication shortages and how they're exacerbating the problem of long-term sickness. People can't get the treatment they need.

Agree

They largely seem to have forgotten that GPs aren’t responsible for determining who is eligible for long term sickness benefits. It’s whoever the DWP contract to do it. So presumably he’s just advertising his ignorance of how the system works. Or appealing to people who don’t know how the system works.

Noticeably he’s not planning to do anything to tackle the issues that might be leading to people being long term sick such as poverty, inability to access healthcare, pretending that a pandemic of an illness that is a mass disabling event is over when we are in the middle of it etc etc.

And technology and AI are part of this frontline shake up.

We've already seen that systems in place have tripped up carers with savage results.

The benefits system is supposed to be a safety net but the holes are so huge and the bureaucracy is already a nightmare to navigate that this will ensure more people slip through.

I think the real solution is to pass a law saying that illness disability and old age don't exist in Britain. As the Rwanda pantomime shows, you can do anything with a law these days.

(puts claws back).

Somebody might want to point out to him that people who have been found fit to work are already dying.

Or that life expectancy has stagnated if not falling so the number of healthy working years people have is likely to be falling too.

There’s an air of spike Milligan’s ‘I told you I was sick’ about this.

OP you are brave. The "my next door neighbour's brother's son goes hunting in the Antartic while on ESA and PIP" brigade will be along soon.

It is true that some GPs are way too fit note happy, especially when it comes to stress.

There's a difference between actual mental health concerns and someone having a bit of a shit time that they can and need to get through to be able to face situations in the future.

I was offered a 2 week fit note recently when I'd said work was getting stressful. It was just busy, I'm perimenopausal so struggling a bit anyway, the answer wasn't to take me out the situation for 2 weeks because it would still be there when I got back. I refused and GP actually smirked and said that was a first (cant see that being true tbf).

Ive recently had someone in my team off for 4 weeks for work related stress allegedly triggered by them not getting a promotion. That's not stress that's just disappointment.

I think this is what his HCAs are for.

Mind you all those PAs are going to need jobs once the NHS eventually gets rid of them.

I guess they mean that GP's are ultimately responsible for making an assessment of whether or not the person is well enough to return no work. I am struggling to see how a GP who knows the person and has comprehensive health history at their fingertips in NOT the best person to make this assessment. Or, indeed, as you mentioned, how the proposed change will actually mean anything different in practice. Clinicians will still be required to write lengthy functional reports to evidence the claims, a faceless DWP entity will still be making these decisions...

But it’s not treated as a safety net, it’s treated as an option if it’s preferable to working for whatever reason. You see it on here all the time. Got divorced? Go on benefits. Having a baby with no job? Go on benefits. Job not really working around your school run? Reduce hours and go on benefits. Retired person splurged their life savings and now can’t pay off their interest only? Go on benefits.

There’s a childish ‘why can’t I have it’ attitude and if you query it, you’re told you want everyone in a Victorian workhouse eating gruel

This is the result 🤷🏼‍♀️

In some cases I agree with this....

I'm disabled, I have two disabled kids. One with T1D and another with a learning disability. I cannot work as I'm a part time wheel chair user and most days house bound!

However I do know some people who play on it, one person in particular (no names) who got their PIP form back and said when looking at the points they now know what to work on for their next assessment to get full points.. they have a horse they muck out daily and ride daily. Yet claims they cannot walk. It's baffling.

That said if they focused on the MPS and fat cats putting their money in tax havens & committing fraud, they'd get a lot more money back than those who commit benefit fraud!

No doubt some people who were born yesterday will say ‘she’s probably fine and able to muck out horses one day and totally incapacitated the next’

It's as if they don't actually understand how the system works. Oh wait, they don't actually care cos it's red meat for the right.

So people should not leave a bad marriage because they might need to go on benefits for a while?

Or should bankrupt them selves or be unable to feed their family because childcare is so expensive and difficult to find they need to cut their hours back.

I know that some people play the system, but honestly I had a period where I couldn't work a few years ago, off work for 18 months and I couldn't get PIP. I just didn't have the medical evidence (was ME/CFS). I have no idea how they do it.

But it’s not go on benefits or be shackled to them for life is it? They can always get a job and work like everyone else.

I don’t really mind what they do, but it’s not the taxpayers problem.

@GoodnightAdeline on the money there. They muck it out every day of the week, that requires a lot of muscles & joints they claims doesn't work properly. Before anyone starts

It does annoy me as a disabled person myself who does struggle to do simple things seeing people play on illnesses, but in the grand schemes of things benefit fraud is such a small percentage of fraud that goes in this country.

Tories need out, anyone who votes them back in are truly clueless.

This is why I don't participate in these threads any longer. The hatred for sickness/disability benefit claimants simply drips from posts like this.

This. Never Gets. Old.

Why not focus on the biggest citcle, Mr. Sunak ?

Because you are a cunt and a bully and a coward and you can only ever punch the weak, not help then.

May you - and anyone who enables you - rot in the hell you are making on earth.

LOL! I work with one of those. Died in the wool old-fashioned Cockney racist.