2 out of 3 disability claimants could work

[Cyclone]

Cyclone dosn't associate disablement with pain ???? I give up, you can talk uninformed crap amongst yourselves. Lord help you should serious illness/disablement affect some of you. You unfortunately need it to understand the other guys plight.

 

Maybe if you try you can think of some common forms of disablement that don't include constant pain...

[HeadingNorth]

Maybe if you try you can think of some common forms of disablement that don't include constant pain...

 

If he can't, I'll introduce him to some of the people I know around here who are permanently wheelchair-bound and in no pain whatsoever.

[nickfinn]

Having broken my ankle a couple of years ago in a period of 2 weeks between leaving a job and starting my new job meant that at that point in time I was deemed unemployed. My old job had gone and my new employer wouldn't take me on cus well I was immobile after my surgery etc which meant no sick pay for me but I could claim the infamous ESA. After about 5 weeks on being on ESA I was invited for a medical assessment with the private firm we all know too well. I attended the assessment on my crutches hobbling along as I had my ankle in a cast and couldn't weight-bear for 8 weeks. The outcome of said assessment was that I scored nil points. Was angry at this as result as I was struggling to do many simple tasks but in their opinion "there was a job out there that I COULD do". Anyway so they took me off ESA and then I had to apply for JSA which incidentally was the same money per week but meant that I obviously had to look for work, albeit jobs where I could hobble about doing. I began the appeals process but withdrew in the end as my court hearing would've been some 6 months later by which point I would be back to full fitness and have found a new job. I'm all for the reassessment of claimants however the way they are going about it i feel is wrong. Fortunately for me my injury was only temporary, it is those with long-term conditions that are being worst affected

[HeadingNorth]

I attended the assessment on my crutches hobbling along as I had my ankle in a cast and couldn't weight-bear for 8 weeks. The outcome of said assessment was that I scored nil points. Was angry at this as result as I was struggling to do many simple tasks but in their opinion "there was a job out there that I COULD do".

 

Hobbling along on crutches with my ankle in a cast, is exactly how I did go to work for several weeks after my own leg injury. Clearly there are many jobs which are completely impossible for a man in that condition; but equally clearly, there are many jobs for which it would make no difference at all.

 

The one good point you do make is that it's a bit silly to be calling people in for assessment who not only will be fully fit in a matter of weeks, but already have a job waiting for them once they are!

[sheff1johnny]

Let me ask again in case you didn't spot the question originally.

 

Which of the people on here has attacked him?

 

No-one attacked him, but maybe the lack of sympathy could be seen as a form of indirect attack. As said before feel thankful that you aren't going through what he is going through. I know I am.

[HeadingNorth]

No-one attacked him, but maybe the lack of sympathy could be seen as a form of indirect attack.

 

I'm not certain that anyone here does have a lack of sympathy towards him. Discussing the general case of whether all disabled people cannot work, or some can do so, has no relationship at all to people's opinions of Nimrod or his disabilities.

[sheff1johnny]

I'm not certain that anyone here does have a lack of sympathy towards him. Discussing the general case of whether all disabled people cannot work, or some can do so, has no relationship at all to people's opinions of Nimrod or his disabilities.

 

It'd be nice to hear someone say they have sympathy for him. I do, I'm not saying that no-one else does, but it seems when people have to resort to nitpicking with someone who has a terminal illness, I'd at least say that retorts to a lack of respect, if not a lack of sympathy. Maybe I just see things differently to you.

[HeadingNorth]

It'd be nice to hear someone say they have sympathy for him. I do, I'm not saying that no-one else does, but it seems when people have to resort to nitpicking with someone who has a terminal illness, I'd at least say that retorts to a lack of respect, if not a lack of sympathy.

 

The point I'm trying to make is that whether Nimrod, or myself, or you, or anyone else has a disability is an irrelevance to the topic under discussion here. We are not talking about an individual case.

 

There are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, or people who could be classed as disabled in some form or other. There are several millions who claim incapacity benefit, so if that's your definition of "disabled" there are several million disabled people.

 

The only question under discussion here is, does having some form of disability automatically mean that you cannot do any form of work? And Nimrod himself has provided the answer; he has very severe disabilities and yet still works. Clearly, it does not.

 

His attacks against me, and others, seem to be based on a belief that we are saying anyone who has some form of disability should be made to work. If that is so, his belief is wrong; it's easy to think of cases where a disability means that any form of work is impossible. Medusa, our own forum admin, is an obvious example; my own wife, who is in constant pain on a scale that most people -myself certainly included - couldn't handle even for 24 hours, is another. (If anyone's keeping score, she was being prescribed 240mg of morphine three times daily, but she was poisoned by it and now has to manage on a pathetically small dose of 10mg twice a day.)

 

My wife has been through the ATOS assessment procedure for Disability Living Allowance, but that's separate to the issue of working which involves an assessment for ESA. Nimrod, since he actually does work, and isn't on incapacity benefit or ESA, I assume has not been assessed for them; it's fairly clear that he also would be deemed unfit for work, except that he's proving himself capable against all the odds by actually working.

 

Someone who is paralysed from the waist down but perfectly healthy from the waist up, though ... surely nobody can argue that they are incapable of any work at all. Many office jobs don't require moving around, after all. Being confined to a wheelchair does not mean total inability to do work.

[sheff1johnny]

The point I'm trying to make is that whether Nimrod, or myself, or you, or anyone else has a disability is an irrelevance to the topic under discussion here. We are not talking about an individual case.

 

There are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, or people who could be classed as disabled in some form or other. There are several millions who claim incapacity benefit, so if that's your definition of "disabled" there are several million disabled people.

 

The only question under discussion here is, does having some form of disability automatically mean that you cannot do any form of work? And Nimrod himself has provided the answer; he has very severe disabilities and yet still works. Clearly, it does not.

 

His attacks against me, and others, seem to be based on a belief that we are saying anyone who has some form of disability should be made to work. If that is so, his belief is wrong; it's easy to think of cases where a disability means that any form of work is impossible. Medusa, our own forum admin, is an obvious example; my own wife, who is in constant pain on a scale that most people -myself certainly included - couldn't handle even for 24 hours, is another. (If anyone's keeping score, she was being prescribed 240mg of morphine three times daily, but she was poisoned by it and now has to manage on a pathetically small dose of 10mg twice a day.)

 

My wife has been through the ATOS assessment procedure for Disability Living Allowance, but that's separate to the issue of working which involves an assessment for ESA. Nimrod, since he actually does work, and isn't on incapacity benefit or ESA, I assume has not been assessed for them; it's fairly clear that he also would be deemed unfit for work, except that he's proving himself capable against all the odds by actually working.

 

Someone who is paralysed from the waist down but perfectly healthy from the waist up, though ... surely nobody can argue that they are incapable of any work at all. Many office jobs don't require moving around, after all. Being confined to a wheelchair does not mean total inability to do work.

 

If the medical was a short cut to work, I would agree. It isn't, its only purpose is to take an extra £18 out of the pockets of some of the most vulnerable in society. Whilst there are no jobs, for people who really need them is this the right time to say to a disabled person get a job? My fear is when DLA changes to PIP, ATOS are going to do the new assesments. Some people on DLA work, and in quite high profile jobs. These people will lose their benefit. I also resent the fact that the media portrays every disabled person as a social security scroounger, who goes on holiday every year to the caribean. The only storeis we see in the Media, are the ones that portray the sterotypes of the social security scrounger. When ATOS find a blind man fit for work, its hidden in a local news story. The ATOS system is a bad one, and getting worse. They are clever people and twist the answers that a person gives.

I had a friend who said they attended the MENTAL HEALTH ACTION GROUP for support.

This answer was twisted to say THEY GO TO THE MARKET ON A REGULAR BASIS TO VISIT FRIENDS.

Another person went to an ATOS medical and carried their own paperwork. 3 sheets of A4 paper.

This was twisted. CAME IN CARRYING LARGE DOCUMENTS.

 

The assesor gets £40 for each assement, and it seems the interviews are being done quicker than the recomended time slot.

[miss_boss]

I think the major problem is this.

 

For the past 20 years minimum, and definatly under the New Labour years, sickness/disability benefit was paid out as a means of keeping the unemployment lists down.

 

This benefit has been abused, there is no question about this. People with alcohol, drug issues who have made themselves ill, for some pubs the people on disability has created a boost in trade for them.

 

Sadly, the real disabled have been tarred with the same brush - the people for whom the benefit was fully intended for. No society that is decent should ever punish the genuinely ill or disabled, and these people should be fully supported by our taxes.

 

BUt for the people who use it as drinking money, the time has come to say "no more", they layabouts on x-boxes etc......

 

People say "well there are no jobs" or "immigrants take all the jobs". Well, during the boom years, had the layabout brits taken up the roles, then there would have been no need for the immigrants to come into the country to take the jobs. We brought up a lazy generation who felt that picking fruit from the fields for minimum wage was beneath them.

 

The fact is before 1997, factory jobs were fill by the white british, fruit was pick from the fields by young brits because it was not finacially viable to choose a life without work.

 

SO if the immigrants have taken all the jobs, then whose fault is that? the jobs needed doing, the job vacancies needed to be filled, and as the British felt that hard work was beneath them - employers had to look for people who wanted to work, so they looked abroad.

 

SOoner or later the chickens always come home to roost.

 

Keep the benefit for the most needy, as for the smackheads - cut their benefits