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

This is true. I have a heart condition and need a particular medication which comes from Europe. I have tried getting a private prescription to tout round pharmacies to see if anyone has it and drawn a blank. My dispensing surgery eventually managed to get one month's worth but now the cardiologist wants me to up the dose and I will need more than I have here. I will also be fighting this battle every month. I cannot stop taking it as I will finish up needing heart surgery.

You asked about conditions where symptoms are variable. I gave you an example. So did arseinthecoopwindow. But you are still not satisfied.

You won't even slightly entertain the idea that you might possibly be unfairly judging another disabled person.

Well something has to be done about benefits for people who can't be bothered to work. The day is fast approaching when we will have more people on benefits than in work.

I know 2 people who claim benefits they are not actually entitled to so how many people across the country are doing the same?

My neighbour gets benefits because he has such bad anxiety he can't leave his house. I would have sympathy as I have suffered anxiety that bad except in my case I did not leave my house for several months. He leaves his house almost every day to work cash in hand, go shopping, walk his dogs, go swimming etc

Individuals should realise that they are responsible for themselves and they should take an active interest in their own health, education and wellbeing. The abdication of responsibility in the country is insane and laughable to those from countries that don't expect the government to step in every 5 minutes.

I wonder if there ever comes a time when people like you don't blame the government or capitalists? We have to wake up as a country and realise that we all can't be net takers and expect others (who?) to fund everything. A population will always have some disabled and vulnerable but with obesity and inactivity level shooting through the roof, we are hardly helping ourselves! The limited resources we have are going to be split far too many ways and this will ultimately only hurt those who need the resources most.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Love the graph too. Tories are scum, rotten to the core and always have been.

My neighbour gets benefits because he has such bad anxiety he can't leave his house. I would have sympathy as I have suffered anxiety that bad except in my case I did not leave my house for several months. He leaves his house almost every day to work cash in hand, go shopping, walk his dogs, go swimming etc

It never ceases to amaze me how much people seem to know about their neighbours. You have no idea what he put on his forms, or how his anxiety may present from one day to the next. He is not you!

This.

The dread when l get DD’s ADHD script. Which means the difference between her being able to leave the house or not, as it kills her paralysing anxiety.

Phoning round a million chemists. It’s a full time job just doing that.

@Tracker1234 let's hope you never fucking get sick or old or disabled then. The proportion of people illegally claiming benefits is tiny. Stop believing the Tory narrative.

Absolutely this ! NO ONE wants to be sick, disabled, elderly. It's not a choice.

Some people do take the piss im on various Facebook groups for DLA/PIP and some people do try and claim for the most tenuous of reasons
However many are not successful

But if your neighbour is he must have had evidence backing up his claim they don't just take a person's word for it
Also why is he telling you what he's claiming ?

I get frustrated with two women I know who are VERY active with heavy gardening work (digging, moving concrete slabs, etc), walking long walks EVERY day (at a fast pace as I walked with one recently) yet have been signed off work for over ten years. I really don’t understand it!

Another lady receives an allowance for her teenage Autistic son, only allowing her to work 16 hours pw. Her son attends school regularly, cooks for himself and has even started his own business.

Pretty much any auto immune illness.

Capitalism as it is currently structured is the ultimate pyramid scheme. It is not true free market Capitalism. It is rigged by the markets and geo-politics. It is overseen and ringfenced by those who already have money and powrr and want more.

Obesity has been driven by the food industry. Even those practising "personal responsibility " are affected by UPFs touted as healthy when they are not. And if everyone went back to foraging and growing their own food that industry would collapse.

Capitalism works by identifying a "need" I'm the market and filling it. Once saturation point is reached, "needs" are invented and psychologically driven to ensure compulsive purchasing.

Marketing is a multi million pound psychologically driven industry and it's nigh on impossible to opt out entirely.

Look at Edward Bernays. His marketing strategies were co-opted by the Nazis.

You're simplistic take overlooks the reality of the world we live in.

We ALL know someone who is working cash in hand but in the pub Friday night boasting about it.

Do we all? I don't know anyone like that.

The thing is, as a country, we do have a lot of really serious (interlinked) problems. The fact that we have nearly 3 million people too sick to work is absolutely shocking.

What is more shocking is, that in any sort of clampdown, they are probably going to screw over the most vulnerable, who really need the sickness benefits. Unfortunately, the ones cheating the system will still be able to easily get away with it. And there are obviously in that nearly 3 million people, quite a significant number playing the system. Like a pp mentioned: "My neighbour gets benefits because he has such bad anxiety he can't leave his house. I would have sympathy as I have suffered anxiety that bad except in my case I did not leave my house for several months. He leaves his house almost every day to work cash in hand, go shopping, walk his dogs, go swimming etc." The dude is working cash in hand!!

Thing is, many are needing NHS help and are on months/years long waiting lists, getting sicker.

Anyway. I didn't vote in the last GE and won't be voting this time. No party can solve this. We are really really fucked and actively making things much worse. My jaw hangs open when medical schools tell students with 4 A stars to fuck off for example. I have a painful condition at the moment and have had to pay for private help. If I hadn't, I'd be totally debilitated with pain. It's a really quick simple condition to solve if you can actually access care.

I recently had to wait nearly 3 years for surgery to remove a tumour from the middle of my fibula which had caused my fibula to shatter. I could barely walk for about the first 18 months and have been left with permanent damage and pain which will probably worsen. Thankfully I no longer worked on the frontline nhs and instead had a desk job, I’d have been unable to do my previous role.

Maybe if the nhs was funded better and people got prompt treatment and not fobbed off. Restrictions on stuff like knee replacements now, year long wait to even have your first appt with a consultant, etc. two year wait of it’s neurology! No wonder people are signed off sick!

rishi just wants to focus the blame away from him and get us all fighting amongst ourselves. No doubt it will work. Thank god the slimy fucker won’t be in power long enough to enforce this. From his ivory fucking tower, with his heated swimming pool, he won’t be waiting two fucking years to see a dr. People need to wake up and be angry.

I don’t think they’ll be able to get this through before an election though,

And there's the rub. It's not actually work we need, it's money. And too many jobs don't pay enough.

As someone who is disabled due to an accident which theNHS misdiagnosed for many years. I have peroneal neuropathy permanent damage to the leg which makes walking extremely difficult. I use a splint and crutches or walking stick. I also have fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome.
Now I have a mental health condition of CPTSD after finding one of my parents dead through suicide.
All of what the government has said has scared me. I do not want to be like this but I am. I am exhausted physically with pain and now mentally with the traumas.
Instead of handing over 54m to gangs who have defrauded the system, let's target the weak and vulnerable who are already struggling with life. I for one struggle to stay alive and no doubt mel stride will say its the everyday norms I'm experiencing. These people make me sick. They have absolutely no clue what it's like to be vulnerable.
Yes there may be a few people that play the system but you have to go through a fucking assessment and jump through hoops to even get the benefits. Disabled and vulnerable people are always the ones that get a bad name and shamed. It's fucking shameful .

...

1. Had not, as a nation, endured three years of unnatural and stressful living conditions due to being woefully underprepared for a pandemic with massive consequences for mental health of adults and children alike

Why do you need to understand it? How does it affect your life? I bet you do not disclose your frustrations to these people though.

I live in the Netherlands and here companies use a service (arbodienst) to manage sickness. Which means you call your boss to say you are sick, if it’s longer than a number of days then they will refer you to the service who manage your absence and eventual return.

I distrust the Tories and am extremely cynical of this policy and doubt that they could deliver an effective alternative but GP’s shouldn’t have had the burden of this.

Right! I mean, are these people gardeners or construction workers by trade? Or are they people who are able to manage physical tasks that makes them happy but overwhelmed by stress in their corporate or office workplace?

Yeah that's kind of the problem, they fall for it. This is dog whistle politics at its finest. Just when the Tory party are falling to bits over their own sleaze and corruption blame it all on the sick and disabled instead. 'Look over there! Look over there! Don't look over here!' And time and time again they fall for it without even bothering to check the statistics which are practically non existent. Bit like the usual tired Tory narrative about benefit fraud being responsible for the collapse of society, but not actually telling us that only around 0.01% of all claims are fraudulent.