To Think Rishi is Delusional

[Sunshineguy]

The Prime Minister wants people to shrug off increased ill health. Is he delusional? Fatigue is categorized as a mental health issue for long term disability benefits. Fatigue is also the most common symptom of Long Covid. Is Rishi right to say we're a nation of shirkers? Or is he ignoring the presence of a new virus that is disabling people? Has your health improved or worsened since Covid arrived?

Same here, everything has been downhill since 50.

hmmm with the changes Rishi the tax evading millionaire or billionaire (I mean how many noughts are needed) wants when my husband became unwell (after working with hardly a day off for over two decades) we would have lost our home and probably him. I would prefer him to sort out wealth disparity, the excessive costs of housing and provide support for struggling families and to reinstate sure start centres. As if.

I don't actually know any friends/ relatives who don't work though. Most are in their fifties and all work more or less full time. The only ones who don't are ones who have decent private pensions and chose to retire mid fifties after years of being higher rate tax payers and had no kids so took very little in the way of public funds. One does have quite significant health issues meaning he could die young but claims no benefits/ PIP. DH works full time despite two chronic health conditions, refuses to claim PIP or anything, just soldiers on.
The ones I see as work customers who can't work/ don't work are generally late fifties/ early sixties and have become too unwell to carry on doing a physical job and have no computer skills etc so are kind of a bit stuck. There needs to be more help to make that group employable again, they are just claiming benefits biding their time until they can get their state pension and to be honest they either use some kind of minor health issue to say they can't work or they say they are a carer for an elderly parent to avoid being hassled by the job centre.
Work wise I help a lot of people to claim PIP, they mostly seem to be awarded it fairly easily for MH issues, long covid, ME and fibro. These are certainly the conditions that seem prevalent at the moment. Also COPD, usually heavy smokers in their fifties having to give up work for lung conditions. I am worried they are going to make it harder to claim, we will no doubt be inundated with calls from worried people next week with all these proposal's of Rishi's in the press this week !
Not sure what is going on with all these young people allegedly out of work. My ds is at Uni and says he can't find a job, seems a bit depressed and thinks he has adhd. Lots of friends are paying for private adhd assessments for their kids, not sure if I should be doing the same.

He is completely fucking delusional. “People aren’t sicker than they used to be”. My social media is full of people in their 20’s and 30’s with terminal cancer and other terminal illnesses. People are getting very serious conditions a lot younger now and it doesn’t help that the NHS is in complete shambles and people are waiting YEARS just to see a consultant and have an appointment. That’s just the physical health side of things…

The only thing I would say is that there is a trend I’ve seen about young people and their MH and almost ‘glamorising’ MH conditions and everyone wants to have one. For example, people claiming they have really bad anxiety but being able to do everyday things… apart from work. When I had really bad anxiety I couldn’t leave the house for a year or even join on video calls for therapy. A lot more people are also being diagnosed with Autism and ADHD and in reality I don’t think they probably do have it at all, or if they do it’s on the very very low end of the scale and wouldn’t affect their ability to work (my DD has moderate to severe Autism so I’m not being ignorant about this). I do think the generation below me are being raised in this snowflake culture where their MH is concerned sometimes and it worries me how they would cope if they actually had to deal with some of the heavy shit in life.

I'm in the public transport industry and know people who almost died of COVID, some who have Long COVID, and some who have developed chronic mental health issues as a result of COVID. I know kids who are very anxious and isolated. The NHS can't cope with these extra people. The government refuses to properly fund care for them.

Many colleagues have reduced their hours so they are still working but can claim a little benefit to get them by.

I saw an excellent little sketch about mental health funding by Matt Green which encapsulates my thoughts on this but I can't post it here for some reason. :-( (Using the app)

If the Tories (Johnson) had pulled his finger out to limit the spread the country wouldn't be in this mess. Sunak played his part too.

These policies that are anti-regular-person-just-trying-to-get-by are despicable. They are Far Right in my opinion. Yet people will think they are great ideas and vote for them.

Got off the app, here's the sketch:

Worse than delusional - he knows what he's doing and doesn't care about the ruined lives and suicides this would cause. Evil.

I'm not sure what's easy about having to live off less than £400 a month and not being able to pay your mortgage.

It’s not £400 a month though. I do genuinely have a lot of physical health problems (I spent pretty much a whole year in hospital) and I also care for my DD that has a disability and because of that I’m not required to look for work for the time being. There is just me and DD and we receive around £3000 a month at the moment - that’s more than every single one of my family members that work FT jobs, but because of the stigma attached to people receiving benefits that genuinely need them - I feel shit, guilty and undeserving of receiving that every month but at the moment there is nothing I can physically do to change it when my body is failing me and not working as it should. I would swap that money every month for my health in a heartbeat.

It is just £400 for many. Lots of people aren't in your position. Many disabled people cant claim PIP.

Disabilities bring higher costs, pain, isolation. I'm sure you're not suggesting you are more fortunate than your family members who aren't disabled but no one is forcing you to claim if you disagree with it.

My post crossed with your edit.

Yes going by what I see on many benefit sites there are a lot more getting the figures you describe than people living off £400 a month, but as in your situation it is more because of multiple family members with disabilities, high rent and/ or childcare costs etc. It is a huge amount when multiplied thousands of times though.

But even if people can't claim PIP, there are many claiming the LCWRA element of UC so that means closer to £800 to live on. Over two thirds of people currently being assessed for work capability are being awarded LCWRA. Rishi does have his eye on reducing those figures too though.

God I wish I didn't I have several friends who have had their lives destroyed by long COVID. Can't work, can't make it out of bed some days.

It is a big problem. Like I said in an earlier post, I help people to claim PIP and at the moment it is one of the most common things we are asked to help them claim for. It makes you absolutely fearful of getting it again.

I was one of these that thought COVID was just a cold… until I got it. I spent 3 days unable to physically move from my bed, 40+ temperature and hallucinating. It took 6 weeks for the constant nausea to finally stop and then weeks of recovery after that to not need 3-4 naps during the day just to survive until bedtime. It was genuinely the devil’s work and I couldn’t believe that something could make you feel so unwell, I really thought I was going to die at one stage (I probably wouldn’t have minded either given how I felt!). I really do fear going through that again and I’m used to feeling pretty crappy all the time anyway given my other health issues!

Well that’s just ignorant.

My friend waited over 18 months for her assessment and as there is no mortgage help ultimately lost her home. She was expected to live on under £400 for that entire time.

It's no wonder people commit suicide. What a miserable existence not being able to eat or stay warm.

A friend is an in patient in a psychiatric hospital, how do you suggest she pushes herself out of her secure hospital to find work?

I don't think the proposals would affect people with severe Psychiatric conditions like this to be honest. How could it?
It's more aimed at people with lower level anxiety and depression etc.

@StridTheKiller

I agree that they are sick cruel bastards and probably would prefer that, but we absolutely must not. We must stay alive and take the money that we are entitled to to survive.

We must utilise whatever help we can get....votes, petitions, loud voices, media highlights, legal aid where lucky enough to get it, disability, tenants, patient action groups, to fight for our human rights, our dignity, our right to safe and secure homes, our right to eat, our right to enjoy some semblance of a life....our right to be alive.

The tories and their rich-money-grabbing-from-the-poor shit head friends will never cease this war on disabled people and we must carry on pissing them off!

Tories are cunts and have decimated the housing system, health and social care, the NHS, our physical and mental health.

When will the ordinary people of this country wake up I wonder?

I admit to feeling a bit jealous of people on benefits. One of my friends gets so much for free he says he's better off not working. He has a free travel pass, accommodation paid for and says his benefits total just over 30k a year!!! That's more than I earn! He spends his days doing art in the park & going to footie matches. He says he'll never work again as his life is great as it is. I was really shocked to hear how generous benefits are as I've never had anything.

I know two people with long covid, one is suffering terribly and she was someone who loved working. The other is also suffering but has stayed off sick longer than necessary due to other family members being unwell so lot of caring responsibility fallen to her.

I have a long term health condition, it’s very painful and I’m on both slow release opioids and immediate release, a lot of controlled drugs every day. But I work, was part time when my health was worse, pre a major surgery. I’d be admitted with a life threatening episode and be back at work days after release from hospital. Because I was desperate to keep my job. My mum thinks I’m mad for working so much, I’m full time now and often work extra hours or don’t take all my leave. But I think work is so good for people. We have a lot of reasonable adjustments to help our stuff who might be sick or have caring responsibility for children or elderly relatives. There’s a lot of people who could work and don’t, let’s face it. I’m not getting into a whole debate over benefits and I’m no Tory but the government does need to do something about the work shy

Right or wrong or whether or not he even believes it himself is irrelevant. It’s a dog whistle divisive comment intended to create resentment and division. I’d rather get rid of 90% of MPs including Rishi and give their salaries to the laziest scoundrels in the worst sink estates, it would be a better use

I think the rate at which people are signing off sick is not abating. The level of dependency in the UK is too high, it will become literally unaffordable to support a population with more and more people signing off. It’s not really about being nice or not it needs to be paid for. Even Labour are making noises about it. I don’t think any government can afford to ignore it.

I understand it’s difficult, I worked with a GAD and panic attacks, I didn’t have much choice, signing off was not an option for me. I think there are people like me who could manage work whilst not being in great shape and their are others who realistically cannot work. Lifes not fair, some of us struggle more than others but it is what it is.

Tories and their right wing brethren only allow you to eat in order to feed them (and their coffers). Unless you're feeding them on some level. you're as unimportant as an ant under their heels. They dress it all up as morality to garner votes from the selfish/greedy, gain some power, rape the country and blame the most vulnerable whilst doing so. Ever ready to rinse and repeat whenever the opportunity presents. Rayner was right.