The Nasty Party (AKA the Tories), it's back!

[icowden]

The fact that the number of people on sick benefits keeps rising is a huge concern.

It's almost like the value of wages has continually dropped whilst the cost of living has continually risen meaning that far more people are living payday to payday, taking on second jobs and not having enough holiday time. If only someone would do the analysis...

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Yep. He also started essentially calling anyone with a disability lazy again. "we will tighten up the pip".

How about changing it, so that if you have a disability that isn't going to get better, you don't need to keep being re-evaluated.

It has been that way for a long long time

My Dad was injusred during the war
spine was severed (low down otherwise I would not exist!!!)
that sort of thing just ain;t going to get better
ever

anyway - every year or so a Ministry of Pension doctor had to come out and examine him to see if he could walk yet
funnily enough he couldn;t - at least - not without leg irons and a stick just since he left hospital in 1947!!!

when the War Pensions were dumped onto Social Security then he had to go a get examined somewhere different
he was not impressed - they asked him loads of dumb question so that he wondered if they had even read his medical record!

I do wonder what someone is supposed to do if they have flu and the GP says - go home, drink lots, stay warm.
then a week later he needs to go and see someone somewhere else to see if he is allowed to stay off work for another few days
thus getting cold and moving around and spreading his flu around to everyone

I do wonder - does someone in the top ranks of the Tory party have shares ina big company supply "qualified" staff to the Job Centre to assess benefit payments and is looking to expand the company?
or am I being cynical???

 

[monkers]

It has been that way for a long long time

My Dad was injusred during the war
spine was severed (low down otherwise I would not exist!!!)
that sort of thing just ain;t going to get better
ever

anyway - every year or so a Ministry of Pension doctor had to come out and examine him to see if he could walk yet
funnily enough he couldn;t - at least - not without leg irons and a stick just since he left hospital in 1947!!!

when the War Pensions were dumped onto Social Security then he had to go a get examined somewhere different
he was not impressed - they asked him loads of dumb question so that he wondered if they had even read his medical record!

I do wonder what someone is supposed to do if they have flu and the GP says - go home, drink lots, stay warm.
then a week later he needs to go and see someone somewhere else to see if he is allowed to stay off work for another few days
thus getting cold and moving around and spreading his flu around to everyone

I do wonder - does someone in the top ranks of the Tory party have shares ina big company supply "qualified" staff to the Job Centre to assess benefit payments and is looking to expand the company?
or am I being cynical???

Sorry to hear the plight your father has endured.

As to your question at the end - the big company question. If there is one available with some kickback, they'll be in the VIP lane for contracts; otherwise the Sunaks will form that big company and Sunak will give them a massive contract. No your being cynical in this case - just using your learning to assess the situation.

 

[icowden]

I do wonder - does someone in the top ranks of the Tory party have shares ina big company supply "qualified" staff to the Job Centre to assess benefit payments and is looking to expand the company?
or am I being cynical???

Very cynical. It is the purest of coincidences that £1.3 million in donations to the Conservative Party have been from donors linked to ATOS who have the contract for administering the PIP (amongst many other contracts to the value of around £3bn).

 

[stephec]

Last month I saw a play called Don't. Make. Tea.
It's a comedy about what happens during a future version of a work capability assessment.
Unfortunately it seems a tory went to see it and thinks a tougher assessment is a good idea. They must have left before the end of the first act, when the assessor is beaten to death with a pair of crutches.

Things haven't half moved on a bit, at my kid's nursery they only ever did a nativity play.

 

[winjim]

I saw somebody make the good point that the reason the Tories think that ill people are cheating the system and trying to scrounge benefits is because that's exactly what they would do in that position. It's their privileged mindset, lie, cheat, steal, take advantage, and they think that everybody is like them.

 

[Bromptonaut]

The PM, the Welfare Minister and all their skivvies yesterday were giving the impression that the gateway to a life on benefit is a fit note.

That's not true. A fit note covers the first seven days and gets you into a process that assesses whether you are (a) fit to work, (b) unable to work but might get back into the workforce with support or (c) incapable of work and any work related activity.

GPs as the gatekeeper to benefits was ended under Gordon Brown c2009.

 

[multitool]

Important to point out that Sunak misconstrued the data on mental health as reason for sicknotes. He was citing it as if MH was the primary reason for absence from work but this is not the case. Very often depression is a secondary reason ie. people are depressed because they cannot work.

But regardless, this is just standard Tory. When the spotlight is on them they deflect and blame others. It was immigrants and trans people. Now it's ill people.

 

[albion]

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/rish...ople-not-taking-jobs-after-12-months-13118419

I believe they near enough do this already via their very spurious sanction regime. It matters little that the major fraud is in the millions of false claims that beed/bled billions from the badly led system. More low hanging fruit it seems for our failing bureaucrats.

 

[AndyRM]

The system is both useless and flawed.

My "job coach", lovely though she was got me a grand total of 3 job "opportunities" over a three year period. One was from a job fair in Gateshead, the employers were only able to take people who lived in South Tyneside which I still think sounds sketchy but it's because of local government funding. The second was a telephony job which was apparently guaranteed; I had and passed the interview, and never heard back about a start date. Finally one which would have involved overnight shift work at a warehouse in the arse end of nowhere so public transport wasn't an option and taxis would have taken up 80% of my wage.

Of the jobs I applied for independently (ie those I'm actually qualified to do, and I applied for every one going) I was told I was either over qualified, and in one case "too good", which though encouraging was a bit baffling. Oh I was also told that due to mental health issues I represented a potential safeguarding concern (despite the role being 90% working from home and not involving vulnerable people).

"Fortunately" I am on Limited Capacity for Work, which will probably be reviewed in the not too distant future. No idea how that will go, because I'm not playing the system and really don't fancy having to be sectioned again to go reassure the government that I really am nuts.

Punishing people for not legitimately being able to take jobs on offer is barbaric. The government is introducing AI into their systems at a pretty alarming rate too, so it's only going to get worse as the algorithms become more and more warped.

 

[stephec]

Wasn't sure if it belongs here or the joke section, but it's a bit too truthful to be funny.

 

[AndyRM]

Wasn't sure if it belongs here or the joke section, but it's a bit too truthful to be funny.

View attachment 5805

I don't see the problem here. It's not like they're actually standing or anything strenuous, you could walk miles on them robot legs.

And the metal arm can easily be used to fend off the lion.

Plus look at all that hydrating fluids on tap! That must be costing the NHS a pretty penny, it's only right to be giving something back.

12 hour shifts, 4 on, 3 off. Night shifts at peak times. Living wage. Entirely reasonable.

 

[C R]

I don't see the problem here. It's not like they're actually standing or anything strenuous, you could walk miles on them robot legs.

And the metal arm can easily be used to fend off the lion.

Plus look at all that hydrating fluids on tap! That must be costing the NHS a pretty penny, it's only right to be giving something back.

12 hour shifts, 4 on, 3 off. Night shifts at peak times. Living wage. Entirely reasonable.

We could learn a lot from old Mr Swift's modest proposal.

 

[fozy tornip]

Wasn't sure if it belongs here or the joke section, but it's a bit too truthful to be funny.

View attachment 5805

Truth is that young woman could absolutely coin it in acrotomophiliac circles, rather than sponging off hard working families like me.
Perhaps not the best example?

 

[albion]

More war on the poor.
https://www.theguardian.com/society...le-england-wales-jobs-axed-benefits-crackdown