To think the injections for weight reduction should be offered to the unemployed?

[llizzie]

The Government has just announced the intention of offering weight reducing injections to those unemployed who are obese?

AIBU to think it might backfire and cause more problems?

So I take it you don't think it will work?

JFC - the idea will be to support people who are currently signed off on long term disability due to obesity related issues. Once someone has lost weight, got fitter, feels better about themselves they will feel better able to go back into the workplace and less likely - due to lifestyle, poverty and low self-esteem - to regain the weight (although many with long term obesity/PCOS/diabetes/etc will also qualify for lower lifetime maintenance doses which may also help maintain lower/healthier weight.)

They are hardly going to declare to potential employers that they’ve lost weight, what methods, or hold it over those employees if they regain weight on the job. It will be voluntary (just as covid vaccinations were, because there is such as thing as human rights and we are still signed up to those… and we also are bound by UK data protection laws protecting individuals from invasive scrutiny into medical records etc by employers).

Reducing obesity will reduce the burden on GP time and their drug/patient care budgets. Similarly improved wellness will reduce dosages on existing drugs (eg statins, thyroid replacement meds and a whole host of other meds). Employment means a reduced social care bill and increased revenue from taxes - and more money circulating in the economy.

But at the moment, they are simply proposing a small study, with volunteers. So stop buying into media spin and take a moment to bloody think, will you?

It’s going to be a trial to see if there are benefits to health, NHS and getting people back into work. It has been said by the health minister that the unemployed will not be prioritised. Like others, I think anyone should be able to access it free from the NHS.

It’s a stupid idea by a stupid government.

They are probably hoping to solve some of the deficit by killing off swathes of the population. Let cash poor pensioners freeze then look at increasing inheritance tax to grab any money they can from their estate.

Inject fat people with a drug that’s only recently become widely available for weight loss…maybe it’ll be the next medical scandal in a few years if unexpected side effects come to light and it ends up finishing them off. That will ease the burden on the NHS.

What else? Sit back and do nothing other than blame the tories for the cost of living crisis, which means more families have two working parents and thus less time for cooking / exercising. Continue to allow food manufacturers to pile sugar into kids foods like yoghurts to get them hooked. Continue to sit idly back while ‘British’ companies lay people off in favour of offshoring jobs to the likes of India where labour is cheaper. Tax hard working families more and encourage anyone with skill and ambition to just leave the country because there’s nothing for them here.

This is what the BBC has said. It is on the teletext on TV. This is what the Prime Minister says barely 103 days in office:

Proposals to give weight loss jabs to unemployed people living with obesity could be very important for our economy and health, the Prime Minister told the BBC.
Starmer said 'he acknowledged that more money was needed for the NHS, and the Government also needed to 'think differently' to ease pressure on the health system.

His comments came after Wes Streeting said the jabs could be given to help people get back into work.

Some injections are already prescribed on the NHS for the treatment of obesity and also for people with diabetes.

Now where does he say that it is only a research?

Christ, they really do walk amongst us.

This is what the BBC has said. It is on the teletext on TV. This is what the Prime Minister says barely 103 days in office:
Proposals to give weight loss jabs to unemployed people living with obesity could be very important for our economy and health, the Prime Minister told the BBC.
Starmer said 'he acknowledged that more money was needed for the NHS, and the Government also needed to 'think differently' to ease pressure on the health system.
His comments came after Wes Streeting said the jabs could be given to help people get back into work.
Some injections are already prescribed on the NHS for the treatment of obesity and also for people with diabetes.
Now where does he say that it is only a research?

please someone explain why they would fire people who gain weight?

Or how the hell they would know anything about people’s private medical histories, anyway? Am pretty sure my CV doesn’t have a section stating my current medication or medical history.

When the government announces something like this, it is never thought out properly, and therefore it will fail.

Employers have a right to know if the person for interview is applying because they have had treatment for obesity. They have a right to decide whether to employ that person in the first place, and if they put the weight back on when the re are no more jabs. to sack them.

If the idea that obese people can have a drug to get them back to work means employers are willing to take a chance on their keeping the weight off, it cannot get off the ground. Who will employ them?

It is clear now @llizzie you are on some sort of wind up but hey ho I am invested now.

It will save the PRIVATE research so much money from running this TRIAL. since the wonder of you have already declared it won't work. Thank goodness you are around. Any other research you would like to assess as being a fail from the start while you are at it?

I think anyone who is obese should be offered weight loss drugs as required on the NHS. Just like I think antidepressants should be offered.

I also think we should accept that people who live with obesity need sympathy and kindness. The ability of some people to control their eating is not the same as others for whatever reasons and there is now medical help for that. Great.

If you feel the need to judge and criticise other people then I feel sorry for you. Educate yourselves.

I'm utterly baffled. I don't think 'the government' actually suggested giving weight loss injections specifically to unemployed people with the intention of helping them into work. Just that it may possibly be a consequence and maybe we should look at the long term impacts on health and behaviour at a population level, including employment, to see if there are correlations.

The idea that employers would know about it and then fire people for weight regain is totally mad. Where has OP got that from?

CautiousLurker · Today 22:54They are hardly going to declare to potential employers that they’ve lost weight, what methods, or hold it over those employees if they regain weight on the job. It will be voluntary (just as covid vaccinations were, because there is such as thing as human rights and we are still signed up to those… and we also are bound by UK data protection laws protecting individuals from invasive scrutiny into medical records etc by employers).

Do you mean to say that someone applying for a job doesn't have to give details to a prospective employer about their health?

I am very surprised. Here's me thinking it was fraud to withhold anything when applying for a job. No wonder our economy is as bad as it is now.

NO, AN EMPLOYER DOES NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW AN APPLICANT OR EMPLOYEE IS ON OBESITY MEDICATION. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

I used caps because the idea that they do is totally insane, illegal and contrary to multiple human rights conventions and UK laws.

FFS

No, they may have to have a medical - but that is still privileged and confidential. The employer has no legal or moral right to know what medications a person is taking or for what ailments unless the employee/applicant choses to disclose it. With respect to a health check prior to confirmation of employment, the medical professional is only legally and ethically permitted to disclose whether they have satisfied the criteria required for employment.

Am leaving this thread/and muting because I feel my IQ dropping with every post.

I joked with my Mum I should try harder to lose my job which only has a few months to go anyway so a new massive oversight by current div’s in power to make themselves look good for 5 mins.

But in all seriousness my brother who is a paraplegic (through accident a number of year's ago now) and as a more severe diabetic as a type 2 on insulin this mj is one of his last hopes, out of work so no means to pay for it, should be helped in my view.

Let’s hope it opens flood gates to people told to fat to be operated on when it isn’t an emergency - queue weight loss injections for them on prescription to lose weight for that important but denied surgery - no?

Last week as a diabetic offered the soup and shakes diet on the nhs along with 6 other counties in the UK as I’m fed up hearing oh as a type 2 diabetic I automatically qualify for my GP to just blaise write a prescription for mj. I’m fairly insulted I’m active 7 days a week (fit bit proof available for the last 10 months of the year) but got to run with disgusting punches for the laughs.

I will await the red carpet for my unemployment and far more then I can expect beyond the UC. Just another labour insult to working people. Priorities all wrong but nothing shocks me with labour and the so called medical profession.

@llizzie
I think it's way past your bedtime. You clearly know nothing about weight loss medications, obesity, health policies, medical research strategies, or employment law and practice.
I'm glad you've found a safe space you can discuss your 'reservations' and I'm sure we're all very grateful to have been entertained by you here this evening, but enough already.

I question whether what the PM suggested is workable. I knew when I gave reasons that I would be torn apart with them.

I have posted what the BBC repeated from Starmer, the horse's mouth himself. I have misgivings. I think that a man who is leading the country and has our livelihood in his hands has once again spoken out of turn and caused alarm which was totally unnecessary, just because he suddenly got an idea in his head.

Obesity might well be why they are unemployed, though you have to wonder what came first, but if no one will employ them, for fear of not being able to sack them when the weight goes back on, what is the point? They will still be unemployed, still on benefit, and still cost the taxpayer even more.

The drug was not intended for anyone other than diabetics in the first place, and no government has the right to change that in the hope of reducing the unemployment budget, because Starmer ONLY talked about money.

I object to your suggestion that I am simple minded and unable to understand anything, just because I do not agree with you.

Such pride, which denigrates anyone who disagrees with you? What makes you think you are always right? You have said the very same thing to me on other threads. I don't care.

Does "the teletext on TV" even exist anymore?

Genuine question. Are the injections a forever thing? From what I've heard, they reduce your appetite, hence the weight loss. Surely when you come off them, you get your appetite back ( perhaps even increased) and you put the weight back on?

I'd like them to use NHS money to carry out plans that are already in place but which don't have the funding before they put another plan in place without the money to do it.

My T1D husband has been repeatedly told he can move onto a closed loop insulin delivery system (NICE guidelines are now that these should be available to all diabetics, but our local trust has just decided to give them to pregnant women and children). He has jumped through all the hoops he was asked to (gone on courses, submitted no end of data, altered some of his regime) and now because his glucose levels are within acceptable levels, they say there isn't a clinical need. Levels are only in an acceptable range because he works bloody hard at keeping them there - constantly checking, injecting way more often, eating different things at different times. His mental health is shot to blazes from working so hard at managing it. He is now way down the list, behind people who don't take good care of themselves and who aren't doing what is within their capabilities to manage their condition. If the funds were there, he could (for the first time in 40 years) live without having to inject 5+ times a day. I'm aware that obesity costs the NHS a lot of money, but I can't bring myself to be pleased that this is a plan that's being given serious consideration.

I sympathise with you. I am disabled, and when things get to me I think about those who are far more disabled than I am, and thank God. He should not have to wait for anything.

People who are diabetic do not have to pay for their medicines, at least I always thought so, and know people who do not have to pay prescription costs. Are you saying that you have been denied the injections? That is shocking.

I cannot really believe what Starmer is doing. It is like a nightmare.

@llizzie probably has an telly from the good old days, when fat people knew their place and didn't go round demanding new fangled medication. And lived in gutters cause they spent their dole money on crisps.