To be concerned about what Liz Kendall is up to with disability benefits?

[Locutus2000]

The Times reporting just how enthusiastic Labour are about targeting the disabled.

I can only hope they are getting the worst ideas out there first, if not I dread to think what is coming in the upcoming review.

I was confident Labour would at worst be no worse than the Tories.

I was wrong.

Free archive link here.

Apologies @Locutus2000 I didn't mean to imply you started a benefit bashing thread. You didn't.

I shouldn't have posted that, but I am finding the general amount of hate on MN hard to take at the moment.

No, I'm totally with you. It's been very depressing round here recently.

I think I’d have to disagree with that
although admittedly there’s rarely threads now about PSchools but there’s always the odd ‘not nice’ comment if it crops up on the education or Uni entry threads.
Then there’s always bashing of the wealthy.

I don’t see that this thread was set up to benefit bash though, just to discuss as it’s all in the news atm. Everyone will have an opinion partly due to personal experience.

OP, this is probably the best thread I've seen on this topic, which is a difficult one.
It's nice to see debate and disagreement done in a healthy way.

No it wasn't set up to benefit bash, but we have had all the usual stories of people faking disability, the usual "free car" remarks etc. etc.

It is just soul destroying when you realise that people see your loved one as a sponger and would be quite happy to see them suffer.

Anyway, I said I would bow out and I will.

I agree with this observation.

I’m sure the op didn’t mean to benefit bash, but all those who want to whip up hate rocked up, as usual. It’s like there’s money in it!

Indeed. All the calls of bot and frothing were ignored and people were discussing the issues at hand. However, yet again, people can’t deal with that and begin derailing to start a bun fight. What a shame.

I’ve heard about the DWP coming into psych wards, and it’s so outrageous it simply cannot be true. Some journalist has to have made it up to shit stir.
As someone has already mentioned, it’s so incredibly difficult to get admitted as an inpatient, you have to be as mentally unwell as it’s possible for a person to be. In no way is it appropriate to even mention work to people so acutely unwell, any more than it would be to someone in ICU.

The issue is that employers done want disabled employees.

Agree with @Andwhoisasking and pp on the usual lobbing in of bots or frothing etc

But what is also coming through is people who always back Labour won't cause them too much difficulty over this

If MPs have little opposition to cuts without much threat of vote loss, then it's easier to do

With no real opposition in parliament either.

I honestly do not think this is true.

In the midst of really interesting debate we have had a bit of frothing to be fair.

I sometimes think it's just lack of all the facts and the power of the media that leads to set views and not always a delight in the misery of others.

I have to admit that when pressed there are some who just won't step outside of their view. On the whole the discussion on this one has been relatively balanced.

Sadly there have been many threads on MN including a recent one where an Autistic lady was virtually gaslit by over half the participants into accepting her shame regards not working. The mantra ' if you just try a bit harder' was the pervading theme.

I clearly remember listening to a Radio 5 phone in in the 90s. A guy phoned in who was facing being homeless due to being in low paid work.

The presenter (it might have been Nicky Campbell , i cant remember) he told the caller that he could claim tax credits. Caller replied raising his voice "IF YOU ARE MARRIED, IF YOU"VE GOT KIDS!!!!
I nodded all the way through it. I had just returned from the Job Centre where there were jobs advertised at £1.50 an hour and £50 a week and no the latter was NOT a trainnee apprentice type job as someone tried to gaslight me over on here before.
My rent alone then was £48 a week. And like the caller no extra help unless you had living proof that you have had sex without contraception.
Thats why Gordon Brown brought it in. So ppl without kids in low paid jobs got some help as well. Along with the minimum wage. And if tax credits are abolished dont think employers will just pay more. They certainly didnt after the LPU was disbanded in 1993 as you can see by the mid 90s wages ive mentioned here.

I have to question if this story is true. I'm not sure if it was a news story.

Going forward, to actually find a MH ward you have to be on the severe end of the scale these days. DWP reps will probably about turn sharpish when they find these inpatients; seriously.

I remember the media announcing this last year. Don't remember the government saying much. Media shit stirring as usual

https://www.bigissue.com/news/employment/dwp-job-coach-mental-health-liz-kendall-backlash/

The above link suggests that there are existing trials to test the feasibility of the plan.

There is no way anyone sick enough to be in a mental health ward can engage with the dwp. In fact it could be distressing, especially if there’s paranoia. It the stupidest, most inhumane thing I have heard in a long time. It won’t help anyone back to work.

I wish all this pressure and blame on those with invisible illness would just stop.

@EasternStandard I asked you a question at 16.37. Any chance of an answer? I realise it is a hypothetical scenario, but I would be very interested to know whether you feel that that there is a need for businesses to be offered incentives to employ people who are disabled or not in good health or whether you are more a 'capitalism red in tooth and claw' kind of person.

NI breaks as suggested by a pp sound like one possibility.

DWP reps will probably about turn sharpish when they find these inpatients; seriously.

Exactly, the average NHS psychiatric ward would have them running for the hills.

Well Kendall says the trials have had dramatic results ... which sounds as unethical as it does unlikely, but there you go.

So who pays for it then?

I worked in Local Government years ago. Various Local Authorities over the years.

The visions, never mind the brain capacity of leaders and councillors was something that never failed to shock and horrify me. The best one was the allocation of our homeless support budget towards metal studs next to cash points. Knowing all this, I know the disabled and poor truly are demonised and it really is not simply a case of ' we have no money and this is the only way'.

There definitely will be people in Government who think this bedside DWP back to work interview is feasible.

They'll see very bloody quickly it is not.
You only need spend a few weeks regularly in a typical ward and see even a high proportion there would not be able to engage in any realistic discussion regards this.