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

Are you joking?

Everyone that has bought a property especially in london in the past 20 years has had to put down tens of thousands of pounds of deposit and pay inter on their mortgages and keep their property in good order, ie not via council for free.
The so-called "wealthy elderly people " you refer to friend, I've met a few via work - thye have a house that they can ill afford to heat as they are on a realtively samll works pension they paid into and a state pension which they paid into and not entitled to benefits as they have an income of ex amount. Nor can most afford to move and why should you especially when orlder and or frail

The labour government was the one that had a 98% tax rate that drove well off people out of England and then the country went good as bankrupt as the wealth pay the majority of taxes.

So if you have your on property you have worked damn hard for and not squarned away you money in the hope to give a bteer life/start to you kids/GC, then you are very seriously fucked if Labour comes in and their mask is already slipping

Labour butters up those that have the least but open your eyes and look how wealthy most labour MP's are never mind the ministers.

England is failing due to the evny by the have nots against those that aspire to make something out of their life and move out of the hand to mouth living and being able to keep their property in good repair

@Tahinii it was the nhs.
I followed policy to the letter.. sadly HR always supported giving another chance, another warning. No one was sacked.. too much organisational risk

I left

And you think the food industry has no accountability at all? I’m sure there are many ‘experts’ virtuously working very hard right now to make foods as addictive as possible.

They have a huge asset, if they refuse to sell it that’s their issue. If I was skint and had debts my house would be repossessed, people have to sell their homes to finance their lives all the time.

A GP on the radio said today she'd have no problem writing notes for the first month in genuine cases but she knew after a month it was "the gateway to money".
When she refused to write notes after a month, some patients never returned and others made official complaints about her.
She said she frequently couldn't know for sure if a patient was kosher (anxiety, etc).

Apologies iclaudine
i read your 10.07 post as reality rather than not reality and actually sarcasm

And you think the food industry has no accountability at all?
The shift blame I expected came even quicker than I expected!

The food industry follows demand. If they made more money selling healthy food because that's what people wanted, that's what they would do.

Of course people understand this but it does a disservice to all genuine disabled and ill people to make it easy for people to access the benefits and privileges intended for the disabled.

I would draw a parallel with the issue that Disney now has with the abuse of their Disability Access System. In an attempt to accommodate disabled guests they introduced a system where disabled customers could avoid queues and would be able to join a lightening lane at a specific time. Guests could obviously use this time they spent not queuing to eat, shop or go to toilet so was arguably giving disabled guests and advantage over non-disabled guests. Lo and behold the found that lots of people were suddenly claiming to need DAS for a whole host of reasons because they basically viewed the system as offering superior access to the attractions. The disability queues were clogged up with too many guests and now Disney are having to tighten the rules.

Unfortunately I think a similar thing is happening with disability benefits in the UK where a certain proportion of the population view claiming to have a disability or exaggerating their condition as a means to getting access to the benefits they want. The system has to be tightened as it is sadly being abused. If people are willing to lie to get on a few rides a bit quicker and in a bit more comfort then you can bet your bottom dollar they will in order to avoid having to work and being able to access relatively lucrative benefits like PIP. It is a disgusting part of human nature!

Billionaire (and unelected) PM proclaims he "has a plan" and "will stop the boats" and "will make the lame walk and the blind see and if they refuse to do so I'll sanction their benefits!"

Funny how this guy doesn't go looking for photo opportunities when he's busy kicking the poor when they're down.

Maybe true with immigration but as someone sick and disabled I experienced Cameron and Osborne reducing financial support for the disabled via decreased benefits and increased social care costs in the years following them coming into power in 2010. This decrease remains.

I was thinking about Sunak (I do try not to as it makes me so angry) the other day and all his money all 730 million of it and it occurred to me that he could afford to give everyone in the UK a tenner and still have around 130 million quid left. That is how rich he is, it is mind boggling. So why did ne want to be PM? The salary is the equivalent of a couple of holiday jaunts to him and his family. He is there to sort more deals out for his father-in-law, to mess about with legislation so there are more loopholes for the wealthy to further protect and enhance their money. And then he has the utter gall to pontificate about illness and disability. There is something sociopathic about the man

I also worry what will happen to higher tax payers if Labour gets in.
As before they will probably just leave the country and pay tax to another. Some taking with them their businesses that employ people here.

Certainly with only 30% of working age people paying more in tax than taking out in benefits Taxing or penalising that 30% even more is going to make life harder and services more strained.

If there’s less money going in you get less out.

It's impossible to judge the reasonability of people going of sick because levels of resilience are so different amongst different people and groups. It doesn't mean that the more resilient are forcibly better people and vice versa, but yes, as a more resilient society is likely to be economically more stable.

Sadly, resilience comes with facing pain and struggles, and these are the exact things we went to our children to be free of. The more a society become children focused, the more likely we are to ensure children don't ever face hardship and the less likely they are to become resilient adults.

Love these. I've got 2 horses & 60 sheep & am on higher rate care PIP & 6 hours a week of social care paid for. Also a career & family oh and schizo-affective disorder & multiple admissions under section for psychosis.

But see your point it can't be a real disability as I've got a horse.

The problem is that all of you could become ill and disabled. Your children could become ill and disabled

All the choices I've made in life have been based on the scenario that this could indeed happen. So I've always been more or less prepared for it.

Indeed, it could happen to everyone, it's not something that happens out of the blue in a totally unpredictable way.

Genuine question as I've luckily never had to look at this - if you are employed full time in the private sector and the GP signs you off for a month from work (for stress or any reason), then what actually does that cost the government?

In my private sector workplace we get ten days a year paid sick leave at full pay and after that entitled to only the statutory sick pay. I assume the company can claim the SSP back from government.

If you will be off for more than a couple of weeks, you need a doctor's note but that is to show HR not for benefits.

So when we talk about someone being signed off work by a GP for a month, what can they actually claim in that time? It sounds like it can several months before any benefits or support like PIP would be processed.

True

Friend doing this.
Has been claiming disability benefit for fibromyalgia for years.
Has worked full time whilst still getting benefits and
Now!
Has claimed her daughter is her carer so that her daughter got reduced grade offers for Uni as she’s a carer. Which of course she isn’t! She plans to do the same with her other children😳

I was shocked until she pointed out all these people we know who are doing the same

She also has a blue badge and yet her job is very physical

Im just amazed how they can get away with this. GPs job is a very hard one!

So when we talk about someone being signed off work by a GP for a month, what can they actually claim in that time? It sounds like it can several months before any benefits or support like PIP would be processed.

To claim PiP you need to have suffered symptoms for 3 months and be expected to continue to suffer the same for another 9.
Then you are assessed by the DWP and it can take months to process (website says 6).

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/before-claiming/check-you-are-eligible/

I'm retired and hey, you know what, us "oldies" are as diverse a group as any other bunch of people. Some of us are good people who have worked hard all our lives, some of us have been idle all our lives, some of us are kind, generous and thoughtful, some of us are very much the opposite. A bit like middle aged people, a bit like young people. I have worked hard, I worked for almost 50 years until I retired, my little house is worth hardly anything, but it will be something to leave to my adult child. As others have said, the only tax we don't pay is NI, but I did pay it all my working life. I pay income tax, which went up quite a lot recently as both my state and work pension increased so financially I am standing still. I pay council tax and I pay VAT so I think I do contribute to the communal pot. Try not dislike old people and lump us all together, life goes by very fast and you will be old sooner than you think

You also have to get through a screening call to even have a form sent out to apply for PIP. Takes about 15 minutes, but you can be on hold for twice that waiting to speak to an adviser. I got cut off before hed finished asking me all the questions and I can't face calling back.

The result is the country have less and less money.
We can’t spend what we don’t have and that goes for both the Government and individuals.
We need to employ more people to make accurate assessments and to find the fraudsters, big and small.

With the blessing of the Government, for their kickbacks.

Your last paragraph is absolute bunkum. I cannot believe that some people actually think that way.

There's nothing to report. This is a fairytale.

As if anyone actually doing this would tell someone as clearly judgemental as this poster is. Or anyone at all really.

All these types of post are nonsense.