IDS - work is good for your health

I had a quick look at the Mail and Voxpop links and found the same (to me) worrying reporting. In both reports he will be saying X Y and Z. He hasn't said anything yet.

Personally, I think work IS good for mental and physical health: tied to feelings of self-esteem, independence and finding a place to stand where disability is not the only thing people see. What I don't think is that threatening to deprive people of benefits they need to survive will help find work for them

Most of these articles are simple - and effective - scaremongering. Most of the problems IMO are related to untrained and wrongly directed assessments. If it's difficult for someone to understand or complete the blizzard of forms to claim benefit it seems hardly likely those people will be able to cope with work even if there is a job for them somewhere

Before anyone leaps to tell me I know nothing about it : I am currently on long-term medical leave (this time with brain-damage and cancer) and was off work for several years a while back with severe depression. When I went back that time it was a slow, hard crawl with a lot of help to get back behind a desk and be able to do the job I used to. There are no magic wands.

I think Cameron is grateful that he has IDS to take the flack

I often wonder if IDS has some friends in very high places or if he is a man that DC et al would, for some unknown reason, be worried about crossing.

If, however - in view of IDS's apparent inability to deal with queries and criticisms in a forthright and convincing way - DC does get rid of him, unless the Conservative Party suddenly has a change of heart, it really makes no difference - other than a presentational one - whether IDS pushes forward these policies or someone else.

scottishindependence.com/2015/08/benefit-cuts-dont-get-people-back-into-work-new-research-proves/

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam and Glasgow universities added: “Welfare reform does reduce public expenditure and thereby the budget deficit but it does not, it would seem, lead to higher employment or lower unemployment.”

Exactly FarNorth.
This is from the man who asked for the FOI results and was denied them for a long time.

voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/08/27/statement-on-dwp-mortality-data-new-approach/

Can you imagine anyone wanting to take the job over from him, whitewave, after he's made such a mess of it?

I notice that Lansley has been rewarded with a seat in the Lords for messing up the NHS. Can't imagine anyone wanting to take that over from Hunt, either.

"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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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'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.

"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."

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

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

No problem, michelle.

By the way, which way are we unbalanced?

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!

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

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.