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

Waiting lists and delays in treatments and burden of elder care or childcare costs seem to be what forces many people out - or just being older and less desirable on job markets after redundancy thought that often lead to under employment.

Last location lived voted Tory for first time ever leading to coalition government and austerity - many people who admitted to voting Tory were shocked the cuts affected them and their families - that they were people they'd been talking about.

It will be the same with taxes - we need to fund services everyone thinks everyone else should pay more and not them - suspect that will be a nasty shock for many especially in working age population. Same with private school - not part of my world at all - but I can see if they get more unaffordable those parents will just use catchment selection instead driving up even further house prices.

I think Labour are a shoo-in - polls have tory wipe out predicted- but I think it will be a long hard slog to improve services and politicians are glossing over and doing pie in the sky bullshit talking about improving productivity an elusive goal which usually require a lot of investment which isn't looking likely. So I think Labour government will be slightly less shit for poor, disabled, sick or elderly - (incidentally elderly people actually hold most assets in our society so while some are poor bulk are being eyes up for taxes) I think it will still be shit.

We were the comfy middle classes Sunak is appealing to.

Within six months our lives have been turned on our heads. Our young adult DD with a high flying future ahead if her is claiming benefits due to a stage 4 bone cancer diagnosis if she lives she will be disabled for life. It is stage 4 due to GP telephone appointments and waiting months for scan appointments - thanks Tories.

DP main bread winner has now lost job due to absence - no rights as under two years - thanks Tories. He is a mental health wreck I don't know if he will ever be able to work at the senior level he did again.

I have only kept my very part time job due to an amazing employer, my mental health is a wreck.and I am now experiencing physical signs of stress.

Oh and don't mention my defective new build house due to lax regulation - thanks Tories.

In the flash of an eye your whole world can be turned upside down. All my Tory voting friends have been rocked to the core and are sharing our story with their friends. And the continuing story of sitting in A and E for 6hrs a neutropenic ancer teen and delayed chemo cycles due no beds.

Will it translate to the ballot box in our safe Tory who knows.

The absolute irony of Sunak saying maybe access to treatment could be given INSTEAD of pip 🤦‍♀️
Why are we accepting this

It shouldnt be either or it should be BOTH!

The nhs should be fit for purpose and treatment AND PIP given to those who need it

And why do some people not understand that you can work AND claim PIP

Lifting heavy weights was ultimately the very best thing I could do to improve my condition along with being as active as I can be.
If I have even a day of inactivity it seems to make my pain much worse. I need to keep everything moving (my frozen shoulder is always worse when I've gone a few days without shoulder/back work)

And to the horse mucking out person, if it wasn't for my sensory issues around poo (also autistic) I'd be able to do that work most days, but that doesn't mean I'm any less disabled

😂

This, a thousand times!

But, thanks Rishi, I was feeling inadequate and useless already and you've increased that 100 fold. Well done you.

Don't let the horrible little man get to you. He won't even be living in the UK soon. He'll be swanning around California whilst the rest of us try to pick up the pieces of 14 years of Tory fuck ups.

Yep. One of the best things you can do for EDS to help your mobility is to strengthen your muscles, so they can do the work of holding your joints together that your knackered ligaments don't do (I now have to balance that with arthritis too, which is putting a spanner in the works). For some people that's through physio, others do it with weights.

People not being able to fathom that, like people here who don't understand variable or fluctuating conditions, is one of the reasons why no person unqualified in the condition being presented to them should be assessing PIP claims.

The bloke who did mine was a paramedic. I got lucky and he knew about it.

Something does need to be done but I don't think this is it.

Where I work, all it takes is for someone to say a cross word to another and they're immediately off on work-related stress.

We don't need another useless third party involved. That just doesn't work!

Because they don't care enough about the fate of disabled people to learn anything about disability or benefits, but they think they know enough about it to base their vote on it.
Stupidity, mostly.

I've been chronically ill since I was a teenager. I work part time which actually makes my pain and fatigue a lot worse but mentally it helps. I take multiple chemo level medications and use a wheelchair but I can also walk (don't get me started on being an ambulatory wheelchair user).

The culture created by the Tories has been horrendous. The abuse I've received for parking my car in a blue badge bay (even when using my wheelchair) is horrible. Having to 'prove' my disability made me so ill I needed hospital treatment. I have three folders of medical notes and numerous consultants/surgeons/physios/OTs etc to corroborate my diagnoses. But no, I have to see a man in a room who will ask me to count backwards from 100 in 7s to 'prove' my disability (God knows what this has to do with anything).

What people don't realise is that to be up and out with a smiley face on takes 2 or 3 times the effort it requires of 'normal' people. That those are the best days and the general public won't see the worst times as I'll be in bed. Unable to move and in so much pain it makes me vomit. That has been my reality for over 25 years.

I would much rather be pain free and working full time. We'd have a nicer house, holidays that don't need planning like D day, perhaps even more children.

Instead of wiping off those fake PPE millions why didn't they recoup them and invest them in the NHS?

Please, please don't get taken in by the 'my friends on benefits and has a huge TV and lots of holidays and there's nothing wrong with her' brigade.

As my name suggests, I have long covid. I was off work for nearly two years, at my worst I couldn't leave my room I was so exhausted and I barely left the house for 9 months. Friends brought me food and my kids went to their dads. Despite all this I wasn't awarded PIP. It's really difficult to get. So after my paid sick leave ran out, I had £400 SSP and went into debt. It is really shit.

GPs giving sick notes and sickness benefits are a different thing, this government just doesnt seem to understand the first thing about anything. Malicious idiots.

It is not stereotyping, it is what is actually happening in society, rightly or wrongly. If people don’t want to work, that is one thing, but why should those going to work support them indefinitely? I am not talking about those who can’t work, I am talking about those who won’t work - two very different things. Doesn’t matter if they are male female, young or old, if they choose not to work or prefer to game the system under some spurious guise of physical or mental ill health then this should be heavily scrutinised and should never be a lifestyle choice. That should never be the purpose of the benefits system as it takes away from the truly deserving who live amongst us.

The fact that someone is defending this sort of crap is exactly the problem.

Anyone elderly, and receiving a pension, won’t be affected by this. It’s to get working age people back to work.🤷‍♀️

It’s so strange how, in countries that don’t have such a ridiculously lax policy/funding and perks for a myriad of different “disabilities”, there aren’t anywhere near as many people claiming to be disabled.

it is really fucking unfair on people who are actually disabled.

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.

Stress and Anxiety for many have become the 'bad back' of the 21st century.
There have always been skivers, when I was teaching 'sickness' increased on Friday and/or Monday during the caravan season.

They undoubtedly are. I’m skeptical about a few other “issues”
as well.

Love the way some politician claims to know better than experienced doctors.

Of course it's empty rhetoric. They can't use the law to force doctors to ignore their patients' health.

But what did you want the gp to do ?

What does a fit note have to do with long term disability payments?
I don't get it.

The "deserving/undeserving poor" is an idea that belongs back in the Victorian era where it came from.

FWIW, we've been tracking the percentage of the 16-64 population who are not actively working for a long time now. It's basically unchanged. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/timeseries/lf2s/lms

DD1 is 18. I can't even find anyone who can take her on for college, let alone work. If she got a job, she would need Access to Work funding to keep her and the public safe that well exceeds her wages. How does that help the public purse?

@vivainsomnia I assume you are talking about type 2? Well there is an argument that the most profitable and cheapest foodstuffs and those claimed to be diet foodstuffs (also highly profitable) contribute to development of T2. So, if you are poor or trying to be healthy you are likely to develop T2. How odd. Almost as if increased profitability for companies is linked to individual ill health. Thank god we can make it all go away by pretending the resulting cost to healthcare is due to lifestyle choice. Phew!

I'm so sorry to read this. Sending hope for a positive outcome for your daughter, and strength and good wishes to all of you