Record Numbers Not Working Due To Ill Health

Much of this thread has been about people on sick benefits, but there is another 'stream' of people off sick who are getting full pay for 6 months and half pay for another 6.

I am torn on this, as the last thing I'd want to see is people being forced to go to work for financial reasons if they are genuinely very ill; but there are definitely those who play the system. I am not talking about Long Covid here, incidentally.

In my workplace I had two close colleagues who had two or three instances of long term sick (for stress) on full pay (one also had insurance that paid out on top). Both timed it so that when the money ran out and they had to come back they had phased returns then took accrued leave (!!) and then it was the summer break, so there were no students around. As soon as they had been back at work (doing anything or not) for long enough to qualify for sick pay again they repeated the process. Yes, they may have been stressed, but meanwhile, people like me were juggling staffing to cover (on top of doing our own workloads), trying to keep (very demanding) students happy, and generally being run into the ground ourselves.

In circumstances like that I feel that if people find a well-paid job too stressful (which is often the case, as the reason many roles have a decent salary is because of the stress and responsibility that goes with it) they should leave and get a less stressful one, even if it pays a lot less.

Exactly as illustrated by Nexus, the wheels can fall off for any of us, and to be faced with disbelief that you are 'really ill' is appalling. Do people have to be wheelchair users to merit compassion? Being long term sick is bad enough as you try to make ends meet, battle with the benefit system, without some people thinking you are faking the whole thing.

Germanshepherdsmum

Well at least I don’t read the tabloids.

Neither do I, and I’m not some rabid right winger, either - far from it. Of course those with genuine physical or mental health problems are not the issue. However I have known perfectly healthy, capable young people who have simply chosen to live off the taxpayer, and who have been allowed to do so for years.
Excuses included, ‘I’m not participating in the capitalist system’ - while entirely happy to live off the taxes of those who do.

12:01HousePlantQueen

No problem, people can get a bit worked up on here, me included 😊

My SIL had her interest paid on her mortgage (I think they have stopped that now) her house went up in value so she sold it and bought another one paying for it outright.

there is a lot of people that don't want to work but also a lot that want to but can't afford to, my late partners daughter would love to go to work but she has a private landlord and her housing is £900 a month along with an autistic child and now she has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia working seems unlikely. i myself never thought my working life would end in my 40s, now having got through cancer twice i have been left with a chronic illness (lymphedema) that leaves me some days unable to walk and back pain caused by the fluid in my legs, chest and back, i don't want to or like having to live on £250 every fortnight, but i try and make the best of it, i would be more than happy if someone gave me a job stuffing envelopes at home, but as they say it is what it is.

Nicenanny3

10:30HousePlantQueen

Nonsense! Have you looked a benefit rates as I suggested or do you rely on the Daily Mail for your information. Nobody lives a life of luxury on benefits.

It's on the Governments Website, I never suggested you can live a life of luxury on benefits. I have first hand experience of my SIL and her family playing the system she even managed to get her mortgage paid for and before you get on your high horse no I don't approve of playing the system

And where have I said I get my information from The Daily Mail seems to me some posters if they don't like/have a different view can be very nasty to other posters, but I suppose you/I have to make allowances we don't know what other people are going through personally.

Apologies ,my reply was to Violet ,but it took some time to get processed.

For info; mortgages are not paid. After 9 months (now amended to 6, I believe), interest is paid on your mortgage as a loan, charged against your house. Obviously to stop people losing their home.

I suspect a lot of those in their fifties who didn’t return to work have a private pension or their partner does or their partner works. Some may be on sickness benefits but I doubt most are. I think it likely they have other means of support.
Younger people maybe on benefits. However I don’t think many could live on benefits for very long. I know someone who was in sickness benefit for about a year, but the husband worked.

We know someone who took a long time off on sick pay. He admitted to us later that he wasn’t really ill, just fed up of working and didn’t like his boss. Results were that he lost all his workmates who had to cover for him and were sick to death of him, he became a gloomy sod ( guilt ?). Plus we kind of looked at him differently, not the same old mate he used to be. It just wasn’t worth it in the long run.

I think we lack empathy and compassion for those who have illness that we cannot see. A broken arm or leg , yes you get sympathy but MH or hidden illnesses don't seem to get the same compassion.
My DH had to take early retirement 12 years ago at the age of 50 due to ill health. We managed on his small pension and l continued to work ft. They refused him any help.
Last year he became very ill and last December l applied for Pips on his behalf. In January he had 2 strokes. He is still in hospital, having survived sepsis 3 times. DWP called me last week to say they are still considering his application.
I don't think the majority of people want to be on sickness benefits.

Powerful words yesterday GagaJo.

I'm so sorry about your younger brother's situation.

So as a new development instead of the deserving and undeserving poor, we now have the deserving and the undeserving sick. It is sickening !!! (sorry)

We have fit notes nanna8 so if you are off sick you have to get a "line" from your doctor (after 7? days) to say what you are fit to do. Which might be nothing!

I’m wondering just how people manage to rort the system . Don’t you have to have a doctor’s certificate if you take sick days ? In which case the doctors must be telling lies if there is nothing wrong with their patients. Here you must have a sick note for almost every sort of employment if you are away more than one day. It means you actually have to attend a Doctor’s surgery every time you go off sick. Perhaps the NHS might have difficulty with that though.

When my husband died recently the funeral director told me they had been busier than ever before. She said she was shocked at the number of people dying younger and family had told them due to Covid and the problem of accessing Doctors and Hospital they had been diagnosed with terminal illnesses too late for life saving medicine.
This is just my local funeral directors but I imagine if this is replicated across the country then all these younger people would having been working so potentially signed off due to illness and contributing to these figures.

We have seen posts on GN from people in their 50s who are able to access their (or their partner’s) private/occupational pension at 55 and live (maybe frugally) on that until they get their SP rather than continue working. The experience of furlough or wfh will have made many decide that they just don’t want to return to work, regardless of health issues. I think I would probably have been one of them - escaping the daily four hour commute and the long hours was wonderful when I retired (over SP age). There will always be those who play the system of course, unfortunately.

oh, my favourite typo! that than!

10:30HousePlantQueen

Nonsense! Have you looked a benefit rates as I suggested or do you rely on the Daily Mail for your information. Nobody lives a life of luxury on benefits.

It's on the Governments Website, I never suggested you can live a life of luxury on benefits. I have first hand experience of my SIL and her family playing the system she even managed to get her mortgage paid for and before you get on your high horse no I don't approve of playing the system

And where have I said I get my information from The Daily Mail seems to me some posters if they don't like/have a different view can be very nasty to other posters, but I suppose you/I have to make allowances we don't know what other people are going through personally.

I also think a lot of fifty somethings who were working from home or furloughed didn’t want to go back to work, and so they didn’t. I’ve actually seen this reported so I know it’s not just my opinion. The reports don’t say they didn’t want to go back to work, the reports said many people in their fifties have not returned to work after lockdown.

That's like me. Not working any more, still paying tax.

This is infinitely more complicated that any of you can imagine.

Wyllow3

1. It would be easier if the benefits system was more flexible and efficient. a lot of people could work and get top up benefits but people are constantly losing out because of delayed payments as you claim after not during and its not worth the risk f managing without enough on a bad pay week.

It depends what is on offer. If it pays enough to keep a family and is not nil hours contract but a proper one and gets them right out of the benefits system then that a different matter.

I agree there are some family so lost in the education and normal system that a way of life has developed for the few.

But whats the answer? Deprive everyone who really is in need,

or address matters in Sure Start initiatives for under 5's and mums and dads, youth support, tackling drug use and the whole alternative black economy (oh yes, it exists) by providing food and other necessities at prices people can afford?

Well said Wyllow3. Make sure the positive help people need is there instead of depriving everyone of help.
I can't help thinking that this is another of the Conservative Governments attempts to divide and rule.

Nonsense! Have you looked a benefit rates as I suggested or do you rely on the Daily Mail for your information. Nobody lives a life of luxury on benefits.

10:00Wyllow3

You can get £109.40 a week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks.

You can get SSP from the fourth day you’re off sick.

If you’re eligible, you’ll be paid SSP for all the days you’re off sick that you normally would have worked, except for the first 3.

All the cost of living statistics point to the fact that more people are struggling financially.
It has just been announced that the £2 cap on single bus journeys (for most) has been extended again until October and followed by a rise to £2.50 for twelve months before being reviewed. This is much less than than I have been paying for years now.
A ban on no fault evictions for renters
If people are struggling financially then they are almost certainly struggling psychologically.
The government clearly know this and so the very least they can offer is help getting to and from work and a keeping the roof over their heads.
I suppose they also believe it might help them come the next general election🫤

Hardly anyone would be trying to fraud the system if the very basic necessities awarded by benefits weren't often more than they can earn in full time employment

I just lost a long post. Given the content about some of the smug, self satisfied posters on here, it was probably fortunate.
I suggest some of you go onto the Citizens advice website and check what benefits you could expect should you be long term sick. It will be surprise you.

We have a notice in our surgery asking people to be polite. I’ve seen them at hospitals too. I never swear so I wouldn’t swear at staff in any workplace let alone my GP’s or the hospital.

I know someone with long Covid and she is a youngish woman. She can’t work because of it. I don’t think everyone is malingering but I’m sorry, I do think there will be some of it. I also think a lot of fifty somethings who were working from home or furloughed didn’t want to go back to work, and so they didn’t. I’ve actually seen this reported so I know it’s not just my opinion. The reports don’t say they didn’t want to go back to work, the reports said many people in their fifties have not returned to work after lockdown.

My niece is fifty one and has resigned her job as a teacher. She worked all through Covid but didn’t get it then, she got it later after her vaccinations. Anyway it’s nothing to do with Covid, she’s resigned because she’s reached burn out. But she fully intends to carry on working, she’ll just do supply teaching instead. Less stress for her, a good decision for her. However for the country it’s a bad decision as there is a national shortage of teachers.