Reply to: Changes to incapacity benefits

[IncapacityBenefitClaimant]

What ?

So the plan is new claimants for incapacity benefits will only get the full amount if they are a)deemed totally unable to work or b)go to training/interviews based on what they CAN do. If your disability doesn't prevent you from working, and you don't attend training, you only get unemployment benefit rather than the higher incapacity benefit.

The idea seems like something CUKers would be in favour of - hitting back at scrounging chavs - but somehow I'm suspicious any Labour initiative will get widely praised here... comments?

I am currently on Incapacity Benefit and receive a total of £75.40 per week, with this money i am expected to pay all the same bills as a single working person that earns on average 25,000 per year,i receive a total of £3,920 year,

I am not a "scrounging chav" as described above but a human being with all the same costs to pay as the average working single person recieves more than 6 times the money than me.

Do you think this is fair ?

[dinker]

What Labour say and what they do are two different things.

[Board Game Geek]

Surely CUK deserves some merit and funding from the NHS ?

After all, we do a grand job providing warmth, compassion and tolerance to several people who would otherwise run amok in the public domain.

If it wasn't for CUK, some of these people might be attending trendy parties somewhere near you and torturing guests with their pedantry and carrier bag collections.

Three cheers for CUK, saving the planet one geek at a time !

[Cyberman]

Maybe such people just die, and it's attributed to starvation or drugs or suicide?

No.... they become MPs

[d000hg]

I havent heard of depression in third world countries that keeps people off work.

Maybe such people just die, and it's attributed to starvation or drugs or suicide?

[DodgyAgent]

I think you misunderstand the effects of depression... people suffering are sometimes physically unable to get out of bed, if they were forced into work they'd just sit and stare at the screen all day. Actually, maybe they'd fit right in!

I havent heard of depression in third world countries that keeps people off work. I am not sure that the rest of society should accept that they should pay to keep people just because "they are too depressed" to get out of bed. It is a tough world out there and I bet there would be an awful lot of "depressed people" out there who would suddenly discover a work ethic if benefits were withdrawn.

[Bagpuss]

I have the feeling spin is making a comeback.

Yeah just like the Boomerang

[TimberWolf]

This is precisely why I think that this initiative is 'spin' !!

I have the feeling spin is making a comeback.

[Cyberman]

How does that work then I thought the recieved "wisdom" here was those on benefits vote Labour?

This is precisely why I think that this initiative is 'spin' !!

[Bagpuss]

Luxury, it was wooden lungs in my day

[Bagpuss]

opposition

It's been obvious to anyone with a brain cell that NL have moved people off unemployment benefit on to the sick so they can claim they are reducing unemployment.

...

That trick has been going on since the late 80s. The difference being the current government were doing it as the economy expanded which is rather silly.

[ratewhore]

The snot goblin has got to cut spending somewhere, so why not start with an easy target, the sick. The government has been running a very effective spin campaign that all those on sickness benefit are malingerers. None of them are ever going to find an employer who will take them on when there are an infinite number of fit, young migrants to do the job.

It is just a spending cut by stealth and a good way of masking the actual rise in unemployment.

opposition

It's been obvious to anyone with a brain cell that NL have moved people off unemployment benefit on to the sick so they can claim they are reducing unemployment.

All NL should be shot in the head. Starting with Hazel Blears...

[HairyArsedBloke]

At this point, I stopped reading and my imagination just took over. Fit... young... mmmmmmmmm

Exactly! Who do you want working for you; a bit of eastern euro totty or some sick, poverty-worn chav?

"get 'em back to work", my

[NotAllThere]

...an infinite number of fit, young migrants ...

At this point, I stopped reading and my imagination just took over. Fit... young... mmmmmmmmm

[Bob Dalek]

And if that doesn't work, tell them "pull yourself together"?

Then sacrifice them to appease the gods to bring the economy back on track. Well, worth a punt, anyway.