What some have been asking for, but others have feared.

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/3c7zxz8

Thousands of letters will go out this week to recipients of incapacity benefit.

Will this be what the country needs or will it prove to be a failure?

[alleath]

Aog
I take it that you have retired after a life of dedicated work for the community and are in good health. I also assume that no one you know at any time have through no fault of their own had to claim any benefits.
If that's because you or they are proud and have the choice to live off savings rather than suffer the indignity and loss of self respect ?
That would be a marker for a typical middle class Tory voter.
Target the inner city 'chavs' that have never worked by all means, but as Andy said 'prawn net'.
"Maybe you doth protest too much"
Is that English in use today?

[sandyRoe]

Housing benefit is 'means tested'. If someone has modest savings they wouldn't get it.
This looks as though a lot of people who really are ill are going to be put through the wringer because of a few cheats.

[alleath]

As jack said earlier sandy, I agree totally.

[B00]

well then blame the cheaters ,not the people who are trying to get us out of the crap this country is in.

[anotheoldgit]

/// Maybe you doth protest too much"
Is that English in use today? ///

Why be so confrontational? You know very well it isn't.

But if you are truly ignorant of the phrase, it is a slight interpretation of a line from one of Shakespeare's plays.

[sandyRoe]

But the aim here doesn't seem to deal with fraudsters. It looks as though they want to reduce the number claiming this benefit. Someone who was ill as a result of a lifetimes work in heavy industry might be deemed fit to work. They could no longer do the tasks they once did, but they could work, for example, in a clerical job. That they're not trained for such work is neither here or there.
We're seeing the true, savage, face of the Tories with this legislation.

[B00]

so you have a better solution do you Sandy?

[alleath]

I accept the proposals have been sensationalised by the media and just how this is to work is still speculative, but I still suggest it would be far better to review local councillors salary's - those on £200k pa+ for example.

[B00]

Agreed, don't see why they can't address both issues- do you?

Or is it because you feel more sympathy for one type of theif over another?

[alleath]

Are benefit claimants thieves?

[B00]

the ones who have lied to get those claims are- yes. You have another name for them?

[alleath]

No, of course not.

[B00]

dont get me wrong, im not saying all who claim IB is on the fiddle, im sure the vast majority aren't, but i find it hard to find a more suitable name than "thief" for the 32% found in Burnley who were capable of working, but wewre claiming it instead.

[daffy654]

The medicals should not be performed by 'health professionals' that have never met the claimant. Information should be asked for from the claimant's own GP or consultant.
I saw a snippet of one of these assessments on the news today, it involved asking a woman to move her head from side to side and then lie on her back and lift each leg a few inches. She also was asked to raise her arms and walk from one end of the room to the other. She was then deemed fit to work.

[jackthehat]

I feel no sympathy for thieves, wherever they be.
The trouble is that with sensationalist headlines and 'drives' like this, it only tinkers at the edges...........re-arranging deck-chairs on the Titanic.

The entire Benefits system needs over-hauling; top to bottom, but there also needs to be a change in the perception that 'most' claimants are workshy, feckless scroungers.

Pretending that there are actually jobs for these people to take up is a deceit.
If you shift a chap/ess from IB because it has been decided that s/he is fit for work (one of the people in Burnley, say) and that person is unable to secure a job because employers offering these reduced number of jobs prefer someone more able-bodied...........what then ?

[alleath]

Precisely what I said earlier jack, couldn't agree with you more.

[B00]

How can you get more able bodied than able bodied?

What I mean is, if someone is taken off IB because they're deemed capable of work and they then apply for a job like everyone else has to, are you saying they're less capable of doing the job than the next perswon who's never been fiddling, sorry, I mean claiming IB?

Yes I agree Jack, it probably is a small thing but at least its an attempt, better than the nothing we've had so far- right?

[jackthehat]

These people aren't being moved from IB because they are 'able-bodied' they are moved because despite any sort of infirmity, their 5/10 minute interview with a stranger has flagged them up as able to do 'some sort of work'...........
If I was an employer I'd certainly want to employ someone with NO frailties/infirmities and so it's unlikely I would pick one of these candidates........

I'm not sure it is, B00..........there's a lot of heat and noise generated by these schemes for very little real end product. They simply shift the 'numbers' (who happen to be real people) from one place to another to massage the figures.
I'm all for a radical change, but this ain't it and it smacks of hitting the most vulnerable, first......

[B00]

well we're gonna have to agree to disagree then Jack ;-)

[jackthehat]

Fairy 'nuff..........:o)