IDS - work is good for your health

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/25/work-cure-disability-benefits-sickness

IDS thinks that those who are ill should pay for it, and Cameron agrees that it's a good idea.

I read it in the same way as FarNorth, Anya, but then I would, wouldn't I?

If you are going to be rude to people, at least spell the word correctly.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-staff-given-suicide-guidance-ahead-of-iain-duncan-smiths-welfare-reforms-10470754.html

IDS has at last recognised that people sanctioned might commit suicide; otherwise he would not feel the need to issue this guidance. Of course, it's not anything to do with IDS, as he said about the falsified leaflets.

Been out most of the morning and just caught up here -- I have read those links you posted Jen it is almost unbelievable in this day and age that people should fund their sick pay!! With the earnings of so many people either going down or failing to keep pace with inflation it is hard enough for some people to scrape by without trying to save incase they are sick. One article talks about someone getting a cold type of infection - if they feel they have to go to work it is unlikely they will do an efficient job except being efficient with spreading their germs to co-workers - anyone with asthma or another chest complaint getting a cold can be really serious. The whole thing is ridiculous. He must stay up all night thinking these mad ideas up. Why do they not just come out and say we want to go back to a medieval system and having many serfs.

This all ties in with the need for many more jobs being needed - but we have a skills shortage in many areas - much caused by ithe stopping of apprentice schemes -- don't get me started on that - or the National Curriculum!!!!

The striking through was not meant to be there!

I have had severe clinical depression - the support from the community mental health team was the best - integrated with an occupational therapist and a support worker to get me to do gardening. The cut-backs meant I lost the integrated team support, as they merged with another county miles and miles away - the OT resigned in protest at having to cover a vast area. So all that good work and people are left floundering.

're your link dj you couldn't make it up. If it wasn't about desperate people it would be utterly ridiculous

I thought that Gransnet was going to be a balanced forum. Oddly, it doesn't seem o be that! Don't bother abusing me, I WON'T beack!

No problem, michelle.

By the way, which way are we unbalanced?

I could not work out what you meant by the striking out, Welshwife. Pleased you clarified that.

Social care is getting even more scary than healthcare these days. That's a terrible story, Noplace, but we read similar all the time. I do not know how people like IDS can sleep at night.

The problem is people think that these cases are unusual, but they are not any more.
I do not believe that there is no such thing as society, but I do believe that society is made up of lots of individuals with their own stories to tell, many of them desperate, as whitewave says.
Roll on a proper opposition, and Tory MPs with guts to say enough is enough.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106068

A petition to assess the full impact of cuts on social care and support for disabled people. The new government e-petition website seems much easier to use now.

Nobody is prevented from putting their point of view on Gransnet so I don't understand why anyone complains of "imbalance".

If, as some posters have previously suggested, there is a "silent majority" that does not feel strongly enough, or can't be bothered, to contribute, is it the fault of those who do?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/retiring-from-work-is-good-for-your-health-10470001.html?origin=internalSearch

IDS didn't read this, did he?

Dj that's just silly.

I've been "retired" for a year and am starting a brand new job come September, two days a week, because I want to keep busy during the long winter ahead, it is good for my health and wellbeing. For a start, I am very chuffed with myself for having been appointed via an interview process, at 66.

I absolutely love being retired. I have never been so happy and busy in a controlled stress free way. I can't think what there is not to like? This week for instance Monday lunch all afternoon with two friends lots of chat and laughter. Tuesday evening meal with another two friends more chat and laughter. Today hair done, over Mum's to assist her in stuff. Thursday shopping for holiday, Friday free so plan to do a walk over the Downs. Saturday finish packing, etc that is on top of stuff like any crafty stuff, reading etc. So gnot being retired is definitely good for your health and not at all silly.

My remark about "silly" referred to whether or not IDS had read the article! I don't think being retired is silly.

"If current life expectancy and mortality rates continue, by the mid-2070s people could have to wait until they are 77 years old before they retire."

I've just been amusing myself reading some government info on benefits and sanctions.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-overview-of-sanctions-rules

Here is an extract:

"Prior to 22nd October 2012, JSA claimants could have a 26 week sanction lifted for failing to participate in the Employment, Skills and Enterprise (ESE) scheme (i.e. Work Programme, Skills Conditionality etc) after they have served at least 4 weeks of that sanction if they re-comply. This will no longer apply from 22 October. From this date, once a sanction is imposed on a claimant for failing to participate in the ESE scheme, it will continue to run regardless of whether or not the claimant recompiles."

So it seems this provides no incentive at all for the claimant to recomply with the rules, since the sanction will continue for 26 weeks anyway.

Of course it was a silly remark, Grannyknot.

I do not suppose he has read this either, and if he has he certainly will not believe it or take any notice of it.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sitting-target-how-welfare-cuts-prevent-disabled-young-people-from-making-their-own-way-10468093.html?origin=internalSearch

Fortunately Corbyn wants to bring back the Independent Living Fund and give disabled people a bit of dignity.

I bet his friends are keeping him away from this article, too.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/david-cameron-genuinely-wants-to-help-the-poor-but-iain-duncan-smith-is-standing-in-his-way-10469804.html?origin=internalSearch

Since Thatcher in the 80's the welfare State has been stigmatized by that bitch, and mean minded/small minded people believed her, and so Thatcher began rolling back the State and first she reduced the State pension , and second she stopped building council houses, then our infrastructure suffered, including the miners communities, and now Cameron is finishing off what she started.

Tory voters on Gransnet should be ashamed. Their tiny mindedness has assisted in returning us to Nazi Germany and their attack on the Jews and other ethnic minorities.

Forcing the ill and disabled to work, is outright evil, not to be discussed, but for the Government to be ousted.

From the article above ^^ on Cameron wanting to help the poor :

"Not many people remember, but in 2006 Cameron asked Conservative Party members to vote in a “referendum” to endorse a statement of aims and values that included: “The right test for our policies is how they help the most disadvantaged in society, not the rich.”"

I guess they didn't vote in favour, then.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/27/thousands-died-after-fit-for-work-assessment-dwp-figures

The figures are out, massaged so you cannot compare them with any others. However, they still make appalling reading. No wonder they did not want to publish them. In fact IDS initially said they did not exist, until Cameron corrected him.

I simply don't understand how he still has the job. From every angle he has failed - but there again

"The DWP defended the accuracy of the WCA and said the statistics proved no causal effect between benefits and mortality."

Deaths shortly after being declared fit for work, if not caused by the decisions, surely show that the decisions must have been wrong and the people involved were nowhere near fit for work.