IDS - work is good for your health

I do think that productive work that you enjoy and find stimulating probably is good for you. Unfortunately that is often not the case and many people grind their way through life doing jobs that they do not like, or that are detrimental to their health, either their mental health because of stress, or physical health because of overstraining their bodies.

I have no reason at all to assume that people who have mental health problems will be handled sensitively by the benefits agency - I have seen too many examples of the opposite; and, whilst there are excellent benefits agency staff, many are undertrained, undereducated, underpaid and target-driven.

The next time I have to prove I'm ill and I'm ripping my arms to pieces and gasping for breath I'll remember it's worth it to prevent the minority from fiddling the system.

If you have mental health issues the slightest change can make you crash. Demands to prove you're ill push you over the edge.

I wonder who came up with this, 'Work is good for your health' soundbite. Did they realise/care how close it is to 'Arbeit macht frei'?

Yes Grannyknot and with alcoholism , both awful illnesses but very little understanding

If the DWP could guide people towards suitable jobs, they might have a point, but all they do is cut people's money and hound them to find jobs that mostly don't exist.

Jinglbellsfrocks wrote :
"I think getting the emotionally/mentally ill into some sort of work would be handled sensitively. Anyone with serious mental health problems would not be forced into work unsuitable for them.
(.....................)
The truly ill would have nothing to fear."

What grounds do you have to make those confident statements?

There are cut backs in the funding of treatment of drug addiction too, not as popular a theme when people comment on unfairness. Yet many many of those people have a dual diagnosis of addiction and mental ill-health.

And alcohol treatment for that matter.

What makes this latest vile scheme of IDS even more brutal is to do it at the same time as cut backs in mental health services

So true trisha , and many feel under pressure to appear cheery in public but dissolve when they can escape the pressure .

I agree that paying a few cheats is preferable to depriving the sick and vulnerable of their benefits. I wonder about the people who are posting about faking mental illness. I have friends who have mental health problems. Some of them are working some are not. Some cope with day to day life better than others. Some are receiving counselling/medication and other treatments. The ones who are coping with life may sometimes seem OK but I wouldn't say they are faking. They have good and bad periods and they still need support.

The government has the figures for tax fraud and the amount not paid out in benefits that should be.
Has anyone noticed IDS being quoted in the papers, asking everyone to check their entitlement? I haven't but I'm sure someone will tell me if I've missed an article in the DM or the Times.

But they are not hounded Anya, people on benefits make better tv viewing on the tat channels than tax dodgers , better press articles , do thr governments plan to wipe out the welfare state is being helped

I'm more than happy to have the tax dodgers and corporate cheats hounded too Annie

I agree Anya, but it's those on benefits who are being hounded

Tax dodgers, benefit cheats, all as bad as each other.

There is no alternative that I can think of , wish the government would concern themselves with tax dodgers , I think Jen is right

That's a very good question WW.

As it's very difficult for those who do the assessing to know the genuinely ill from the cheats, I suppose those of us who know what's going on ought to inform the DWP (or whatever the relevant agency is)

Trouble with that is no one likes to do the informing do they?

And then it would need to be checked out.

What is the alternative?

It's the easiest thing to fake - mental illness. Like Welshlife I know those who deliberately put it on. One I remember clearly was my ex-Headteacher's wife who left teaching due to 'stress' but never even considered getting another less stressful job. Our Nursery Nurse (as TAs were called in those days) was spitting feathers as this HT kept cutting her hours while his wife was on a nice little stay-at-home earner.

She must have had to be assessed occasionally because every few years we'd be told that Mrs HT was having palpitations or nighmares or whatever. Happily these symptoms were very short term and she was able to attend staff dinners, school quizzes and other social functions throughout the year.

Any she wasn't the only one I knew who was conning the system.

What really annoys me is that these cheats are taking money which should go to those in genuine need, the vulnerable who really do need support. It's no use saying these cheats are few and far between, they are everywhere.

I'm with you Annie - a friend rang half way through my post so I did not manage to finish it!

I agree, Annie. Far too many people think that because there are a few cheats, nobody should get the benefit of the doubt.
The biggest cheats in my mind are the ones who do not pay their taxes properly. If they did we would not need to be bombarded with articles about benefit cheats.
I cannot remember how often one or other of us has said on here that the amount of money owed by the government to benefit claimants far exceeds the amount taken by fraud. There, I've said it again, and doubtless will have to go on .......

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104436/signatures/new

A petition to bring IDS before the House of Commons and question him about his false statistics.
It's trending now, since today's article.

Luckygirl, that is why I said I have no problem with a few cheats receiving money, I don't want them to but accept there has always been and always will be cheats so better they receive money and the vast majority genuine benefit claimants are not subjected to further cuts , life is difficult enough with disabilities without extra stress , and I am really angry with the constant 'benefit cheat, tag which just humiliates the vulnerable

Citizen's Advice got so fed up of people being accused of benefit fraud that it set up a blog about real stories.

blogs.citizensadvice.org.uk/blog/was-it-fit-for-work-for-you/

Anniebach I very rarely take exception to what is said to me, I am too old to worry, but at no time did I ever accuse anyone of deceiving anyone at any time about any mental illness. I hold my ground over those who choose not to work, and those who would really love to have a job to go to, but because of a disability - of whatever kind - are unable. These people I will defend as well as I can, and help where I am needed. I have spent a great many years doing just that, I acknowledge, however there is very little I can contribute now, but that does not prevent me from expressing my opinion regarding the people who, without any disability, choose not to work.

Unfortunately weeding out the cheats is very hard as they can be very plausible, and the process itself causes pain for the vulnerable. The whole publicity surrounding the process has led to people making assumptions about "benefits scroungers" and getting their number out of proportion.

I think that scroungers are inevitable and that we as a nation should try and weed this out but accept that a certain amount is inevitable.

I agree Welshwife, but they seem unable to weed out the cheats so they are going to make the vulnerable suffer