Only 7% sickness benefit claimants unable to do any sort of work

[evildrneil]

Workhouses.

 

And what work would you have them do in these workhouses? And what about the people who previously did the work now being done by people in workhouses - build more workhouses for them?

[TeaFan]

And work would you have them do in these workhouses? And what about the people who previously did the work now being done by people in workhouses - build more workhouses for them?

 

Don't feed the trolls

[TeaFan]

but surely if they are capable of voluntary work then why do they not want paid work and not rely on the tax payers to pay the money whilst the work for free when they could be getting paid?

 

People who volunteer often do small amounts of hours as that is all their health will allow. Doing that number of hours paid will sometimes not be economically viable because they will lose benefits and be left with not enough to live on. As someone else said, if ill or disabled people could have benefits reduced as they began to earn rather than lose everything then many could probably make their way back into longer term, economically viable work but the current system makes that difficult.

 

Plus, employers of volunteers can't be so demanding about people being there 95% of the time. Ill or disabled volunteers may miss many shifts due to their health and this works ok in voluntary work but not in paid work.

[Wildcat]

Unfortunately, that 93% includes the people who can do an hour or two's work on a one-off occasion for a test, but would not be capable of doing so day in day out while in employment. So it's a fairly useless test.

 

It also includes people who are no longer sick.

 

The 93% are after all new claimants.... many of these will be people who have had a sickness lasting 14 days or more in a year and therefore not actively seeking work and eligible for jobseeker's allowance, and so have no alternative but to claim ESA, knowing full well they will be declared fit and put back on jobseeker's allowance a few months later.

[Wildcat]

The problem is if you are put on JSA, after so long you have to accept any job. So while they may say you can do certain types of work only ("able to work"), after a while you would have to accept work outside what you can do or lose JSA...

 

And then you find people being sacked for having tonsilitus or a one off illness because they have broken a 2% rule or had more than 20 days off in a year or some other arbitary number. They are too sick when sacked to be actively seeking work so have to claim ESA, even though they will be well by the time it is assessed.

 

The 93% is a nonsense figure and says more about employer's attitudes to sickness and the Govt.s attitude to the requirements of JSA.

[Tradescanthia]

Bash the sick and the disabled, why not ?? Its fun isn't it ? HM Govt deploying divide and rule tactics again and the thick Sun/Daily Mail readers fall for it again. God forbid if you lot out there who knock the disabled ever became disabled yourselves. I work to avoid having to beg for benefits. Major cancer surgery, rheumatoid arthritis and I still prefer working part time to having to undergo the indignity of dealing with the DWP. I work in pain and discomfort, should I have to ??? There are fit healthy unemployed young people out there who should be working but cannot get a job. My take home pay exceeds sick pay by £60 per week for working 20 hours, thats all I can manage to do. So I am working for £3 per hour but it beats begging. The system is crap.

As the man said, "walk a mile in my shoes", then comment, but not before.

[Tradescanthia]

Tony, has it not occurred to you that the test is designed to find only 7% of people unfit for work, regardless of whether they are or not? This government is trying to save money.

 

We could change the driving test to make it much harder to pass so that only 7% of people get through, that wouldn't mean that only 7% of people were capable of safely driving.

 

Spot on mate :clap:

[Conrod]

. . . The 93% is a nonsense figure and says more about employer's attitudes to sickness and the Govt.s attitude to the requirements of JSA.

Why should an employer feel obliged to carry the burden of somebody who is regularly sick?

They employ people to do a job, not to be charitable wage providers.

[Conrod]

And what work would you have them do in these workhouses? And what about the people who previously did the work now being done by people in workhouses - build more workhouses for them?

Of course not, but we've got it all wrong with the lifestyle expectancy people have now. Young people shouldn't expect to have a flat or house of their own until they can afford it - and the same should apply to feckless young mothers who have kids out of relationships and out of work and end up being housed at taxpayers' expense. They should be offered basic hostel accommodation with some level of activity and training to get them into the habit of a working life, rather than leaving them to slob and become increasingly unemployable as they get older.

 

If, while we're doing that, we can make a few quid out of them, all the better.

[Bonjon]

Bash the sick and the disabled, why not ?? Its fun isn't it ? HM Govt deploying divide and rule tactics again and the thick Sun/Daily Mail readers fall for it again. God forbid if you lot out there who knock the disabled ever became disabled yourselves. I work to avoid having to beg for benefits. Major cancer surgery, rheumatoid arthritis and I still prefer working part time to having to undergo the indignity of dealing with the DWP. I work in pain and discomfort, should I have to ??? There are fit healthy unemployed young people out there who should be working but cannot get a job. My take home pay exceeds sick pay by £60 per week for working 20 hours, thats all I can manage to do. So I am working for £3 per hour but it beats begging. The system is crap.

As the man said, "walk a mile in my shoes", then comment, but not before.

 

I think the whole point of this thread is we are not bashing the sick and disabled but the people who can and should be working but are playing the system.

 

Rich for example, boasts regulary about his income, bank balance, all his new xbox games, phones, pub outings etc. But then openly admits he can work but does not want to as he would have all his freebies removed.

 

Thats what ****** people off on this thread. Not the people like yourself who work, but get screwed by the system by others taking the mick out of it, forcing you to work when infact you (IMO) are one of the genuine claiments.