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Original poster

Cancer patients to face back to work interviews.

102 replies

wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 17:43

I'm posting this because it's not in the news, totally unreported so far as I can see.

www.macmillan.org.uk/Aboutus/News/Latest_News/DWPproposestoforcechemotherapypatientstoundergostressfulbenefitchecks.aspx

Honestly, thanks to Dave and Gideon, otherwise these scrounging layabouts would be living on our handouts. Some of them are so bloody lazy they're actually dying just to avoid doing a honest day's work.

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Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 17:44

argh, forgot how to do a link

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Moodykat · 04/12/2011 17:48

That's awful. Have done the petition thing.

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 17:58

Thank you. It amazes me, all my life I've paid my NI, thinking the state is there if ever we need help through a difficult time. Seems to me cancer is about as difficult as it gets, but I guess not.

I'm stunned this has missed the news.

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Tianc · 04/12/2011 18:01

That article's answered a Q for me, tho.

Looks like Macmillan and other cancer charities had previously negotiated an exemption from the medicals and back-to-work interviews for chemo patients. Perfectly sensible: interviews are exhausting, stressful, expensive to administer and chemo is hardly something you can fake. It's not cost-effective (or therapeutic!) to attempt to identify some tiny percentage might be both (a) able to jobseek and (b) choosing not to.

But this then gets cast up at the rest of us as "you get disability benefits on the name of your illness". Er, no I don't. I have to personally prove my individual level of incapacity.

So I did wonder where that idea came from.

RedRosie · 04/12/2011 18:04

FFS. This is beyond outrageous. Words fail me...

Tianc · 04/12/2011 18:14

wubbly the private insurance companies are big lobbyists for the removal of state sickness benefits. They even pride themselves on it to their shareholders:

"Unum is well positioned to be part of the solution to a growing set of issues impacting individuals, businesses and governments in both the U.S. and U.K. ...
?governments in both the U.S. and the U.K. are facing budget challenges and record deficits, leaving them reconsidering their roles in providing ?social safety nets? for people.? Unum press release, 25 May 2011

(Love the way the he misses the fact that in the UK these public funds consist of... NI premiums collected precisely to provide disability and other benefits.)

learningtofly · 04/12/2011 18:35

What new levels we have sunk to. I despair.

My mum when undergoing chemotherapy couldn't get down the stairs let alone leave the house.

PointyLittleDonkeyEars · 04/12/2011 18:54

Signed petition. This government is disgusting in the way is is squeezing pennies from the most vulnerably whilst padding the nests of the super rich...

usualsuspect · 04/12/2011 18:59

Thats a fucking disgrace

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 19:01

Ah, I've missed your straight talking usualsuspect Grin

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lisad123 · 04/12/2011 19:03

That's terrible.
Dh was turned down for any benifits when he got dx with cancer Sad
We are very lucky that his work paid him for the 4 months he was off and even on oral chemo, he is well enough to work, but that's not true of all patients.
Going though chemo is horrible, tiring and you really don't need the stress of this when your fighting for your life!! Angry

New low for the government Angry

usualsuspect · 04/12/2011 19:05

My niece is having chemo ,she can barely leave the bloody house some days

I didn't think it was possible for me to hate this government any more Angry

amerryscot · 04/12/2011 19:05

One of my colleagues had to have chemo a few years ago. She would have a week's treatment, followed by a week of sleeping, then two weeks at work.

Tinselrella · 04/12/2011 19:07

Signed the petition. This is outrageous.

I remember when DH was too ill to work from cancer, it took a very experienced Mac nurse to complete all of the necessary paperwork to ensure he got the benefits he was entitled to. He was a bright man - MBA and all that - but they make it so bloody complicated to get a penny that he lost the will to persue it until we got Macmillan involvement. I have found the same to be true following his death, including getting widowed parent's allowance, etc.

This seems to me to be one more step towards making an already impossible situation even harder. Thank you government.

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 19:09

Yes, it used to be that cancer patients receiving oral chemo had to go through the usual hoops and macmillan were trying to change that, so that all chemotherapy patients were treated the same.

Looks like the Government have done that, by treating all chemo patients, oral or IV, like shite.

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Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 19:11

Tinselrella, so sorry to hear about your DH Sad

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seasidesister · 04/12/2011 19:16

This is shocking.
Signed the petition.
Spread the word for Macmillan.

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 19:45

Thanks for signng seasidesister. I hope Macmillan get persuade the Government to see sense on this.

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edam · 04/12/2011 19:57

They never let an opportunity to administer a good kicking to someone less fortunate slip past, do they? Appalling. Who the fuck is coming up with their strategy, Satan?

BarbarianMum · 04/12/2011 20:05

Edam, that made me smile - no mean feat considering the contents of this thread.

How long before they just shoot anyone not in paid employment?

Have signed.

Scuttlebutter · 04/12/2011 22:27

I have mixed feelings about this. And to put it into context, I am a cancer survivor myself, this year I lost both my best friend and my dad to cancer and my uncle is currently going through chemo. So, with that context, I'd say that it's not and shouldn't be a "one size fits all". Chemo is improving all the time, and while some patients have a truly horrendous time, others actually do very well on it. My dad wasn't ill with the chemo at all - some slight feelings of fatigue. My uncle is currently the same. When I used to accompany my friend to her chemo sessions, we used to regularly meet other patients who were actually (happily) returning to work after their sessions. This surprised me, but I think what I'm trying to say is that cancer treatments vary considerably and so therefore I'm not sure a blanket exemption from the same tests as other sick people is something to be welcomed.

Where I do agree things should be different is where someone has a confirmed terminal diagnosis, but for the majority of cancer patients (thankfully) this is not the case.

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 22:45

Scuttlebutter, I'm onto my 3rd different chemo and unfortunately have felt utterly shite on them all. However, I'm aware that some people are able to work whilst on chemo.

The suggestion from this government however, is that there are some people with cancer, undergoing chemo who are swinging the lead and are exploiting their diagnosis in order to get a few quid each week.

Can I ask you, genuinely, how many of those people do you think they are out there? Are there really sufficient numbers of job shy skivving shysters with cancer to justify these extra costs and putting seriously ill people through this shite?

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AnyFuckerForAMincePie · 04/12/2011 22:50

Perhaps there is one documented oral-chemo-taking work-dodger in this world ?

Perfectly justified to drag the rest of this group through this to save what ? Pennies ?

Is this justified ? In the face of massive executive bonuses and payrises ?

No

Just fucking no

Original poster
wubblybubbly · 04/12/2011 22:54

Succinctly put AF, as always.

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