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

Plus people with longer health term issues probably won’t be asking for sick notes because their work will either have got rid of them on capability grounds or have stopped paying them (even the most generous sick pay schemes stop after so long). So it’s not a sick note issue, it’s a benefits issue (if any issue) which is already run by the govt not GPs.?

You see this is the thing. Employers may tick boxes and make reasonable adjustments but in particular large corporations, will put profit above all else because that's the point of capitalism. There are loopholes all over the place.

And as time goes on, there will be fewer and fewer smaller businesses who may actually give a sit about about people and community to employ those with challenges because the corporations are taking over, largely due to the bloody Internet

The whole world of work is changing at a pace few can keep up with and expecting those with significant challenges to step up and get with the programme is a bit bonkers when even those without challenges are bamboozled by it.

Honestly I think there's a whiff of eugenics by stealth about it all.

But hey ho, work will set us free.

Which variable conditions?

I genuinely don't understand how anyone, ANYONE, could look at around at the UK as it is currently (the NHS, dentistry, the condition of the roads, schools, essential infrastructure etc.) and think to themselves, "This an improvement on how things were in 2010".

Everything has got worse, and not by a small amount. Our public services have been asset stripped and are crumbling.

I'm mid 20s but I was once off work that a month because I had a situation where someone got into my flat a stalker because I flatshare and they don't lock the main door and I was sexually assaulted. This made me be off work for a month. I guess Rishi disagrees with my GP here.

That is because of the housing crisis because I can't access safe and secure housing. I don't think conservatives look at the bigger picture. Half of the symptoms that we see caused by deep rooted issues fixing the deep rooted issues will fix a lot of issues in society...

I'm so fed up of this country

Ms, for one. Have you heard of that by any chance? Go, and educate yourself on the rest, there are plenty!!

To be fair I had an auto immune condition that was just like this. If I dud something normal one day I certainly paid the next

Parkinson's for one, why don't you do some research before shooting your mouth off,

Exactly - "I'm disabled but I also work so every other disabled person should too."

ME, CFS, many mental health contusions, some muscular skeletal conditions, long covid, fibromyalgia..

Because they're ignorant and think it could never happen to them.

Can people stop saying "we all know someone who fiddles the system..."? No, we all don't. You may, and I'm sure you're shopping them to the DWP fraud line line a good little Stasi member rather than just bitching about them on MN. Especially as you always, invariably, seem to know the ins and outs of both their finances and their medical history in more detail than close family members know mine or my DH's.

Many of us don't know people like that. But what we do know, what we often live with, are people trying to navigate a deliberately difficult, labyrinthine benefits system. People who give up applying because the process is designed to make them do so. People who have had to take their case to tribunals, which are successful more often than not, to get support they are legally entitled to. People who are sick of having their dignity stripped away to be used as a political football.

My son has a variable condition but I’m not saying what because you seem to be determined to show you are better than other disabled people because you work and they don’t. He can walk around the park one day but he won’t be able to get out of bed for the following three. He could see his mates for a drink in a pub, be in bed by 9 while they stay out to all hours then he won’t be able to function for the next week. He is also on meds that keep him alive- two days or so without them and he would be dead. His batteries fail and he will die immediately. His wires crack and I have approx 20mins to get him to a hospital that’s 30mins away. He gets a punch to his chest- he is dead. He can’t lift or be near batteries or power tools. He can’t sit for any length of time because of a complication to previous surgery. He would LOVE to work.

Yep, it is @GoodnightAdeline who seems to be unaware of any of these conditions.

The safety net is full of holes and you don't realise until happens to you or yours. My very close friend is recovering from secondary breast cancer that required a belt and braces approach with chemo & radiotherapy. Her husband walked out on her one morning. Then began the claims journey which left her without any money for 3 months. One memorable moment was when she cut and pasted the governments own guidelines regarding face to face appointments in the job center into her journal as they were demanding she went in. They refused to back date payments and the whole thing had been a joke.
Can any one tell me why this whole process had to be so toxic for her?

As a small employer that pays sick pay rather than stat sick pay - there are high risks in employing someone with a high absence rate. The impact is bigger when you have a small team.

I think stat sick pay should be replaced by a Gov back insurance scheme that all employers pay into, they would pay a percentage of their wage bill to cover when people are too ill to work. You give everyone proper sick pay whether they work for a small employer, on min wage or a big international.

In doing this employers don't directly feel the costs of high absentee rates associated with employing people with disabilities who might need more time than most others would off sick.

There is a fear that if you employ a disabled person you can never sack them - while this isn't true, it is a very tricky thing to negotiate and it certainly does not encourage employing someone with a disability.

I'd do the same thing for maternity pay - so everyone can have a reasonable amount of time off not just those who work for companies who can afford to pay for staff when they are not working.

And in doing this you give people more security and you support small businesses grow and support the economy.

Nailed it!

Long Covid for a bloody start.

Last week l went in my wheelchair to a garden centre with ds. That put me in bed until now. Couldn’t speak, walk or wash my hair.

Is tha variable enough?

I am really worried. I have a teen who has severe learning difficulties and ASD. Will never be able to live independently or hold down a job. But physically fit an well...

it's obviously a desperate attempt to reclaim some votes. nothing else. But some people will fall for this.

Some neurological conditions are variable for a start.

My DH's condition is very advanced now, but in the earlier stages he had days when he was reasonably OK and days when he fell over when he walked or was so fatigued he had to stay in bed.

There’s ’reasonably ok’ then there’s mucking out and riding horses which is PHYSICAL and takes hours (I used to do it in a past life).

As someone who works in mental health services I find Rishi Sunaks suggestion that benefits/ financial support could be replaced by access to treatment both unbelievable and repellant.

Just what planet is this ridiculous government on ? Not this one. Clearly no one in the cabinet or civil service has had a look at just how absolutely dire things are for the many people trying to access mental health support from a system that is absolutely broken.

Not to mention the underlying concept that mental health is an individual ailment like a verruca or a broken leg. Not at all influenced by poverty, trauma and discrimination that is running through out communities like lettering on rock after years of useless political leadership and austerity.

Truly just as you couldn't imagine these clowns could come out with more offensive b* they manage another hat trick.

I couldn't agree more, @Rinoachicken - it beggars belief that they don't - or won't - understand this.

Capitalists should realise that a healthy, well educated population will be able to work better and make more money for them - but even this blatant self-interest does not motivate them.

Why the fixation on horses? And ignoring the myriad other conditions people have mentioned?
Should those who can't work stay at home and make sure they do nothing that could be construed as enjoyable?

Still ignoring all the other posts aren’t you.