Most incapacity benefit claimants are faking!

[donuticus]

Quite. Especially as they 'justify' scrounging by claiming to do voluntary work.

 

If they can do 'Voluntary' work, they can do paid work also.

 

Often voluntary work is the only kind of work people can get. Fewer than 4 out of 10 employers would consider employing someone with a history of Mental Illness. Until we find a way to do something about this many people who previously worked are now confined to a working lifetime "scrounging".

 

I don't doubt that some people play the system. However while such blatant discrimination exists it is unfair to solely blame the claimant.

 

Source: http://www.mind.org.uk/campaigns_and_issues/policy_and_issues/employment

 

Can I also recommend to people tonight's Inside Sport on BBC 1 at 2245. Examing Mental Illness in professional sport, it features interviews with Marcus Trescothick, Frank Bruno, Neil Lennon and All Black Rugby Ubion player John Kirwan.

 

Hopefully this programme will be another step to breaking down the barriers still faced by those with Mental Illness.

Edited November 25, 2009 by donuticus
Add source link.

[TeaFan]

I think the OP (and the article) was about claimants who are "faking it", not those in genuine need.

 

Whether they're faking it or not, the figures for those in receipt of such benefits (whatever they were called at the time) have trebled since 1979.

 

Now the two main explanations I can offer for this are:

 

(a) We as a nation are getting much sicker overall.

 

(b) Both political parties have found it expedient to allow benefit claims to gradually shift over from Income Support and into the various forms of incapacity/disability benefit. Nobody bothers too much about the numbers on disability benefit, but the unemployment numbers have a higher profile and are politically sensitive.

 

Using Occam's razor, I can only deduce that (b) is the more likely answer.

 

BUT, the numbers of new claims fell steadily from 1996 onwards (see presentation that I have now added the link to). So in other words the Tories were shunting people off unemployment benefits onto IB, but this seems to have stopped being the case for the last 13 years. So it was already being brought under control. The largest group of new claimants was those with mental health problems, and there does seem to have been a sharp increase in the numbers of people in the UK experiencing mental ill health. It even prompted the present government to put lots of money into the IAPT programme, putting mental health workers into GP surgeries. Someone from IAPT in Sheffield told me that 50% of all people who go to their GP do so for depression or anxiety!! FFS!

[LordChaverly]

BUT, the numbers of new claims fell steadily from 1996 onwards (see presentation that I have now added the link to). So in other words the Tories were shunting people off unemployment benefits onto IB, but this seems to have stopped being the case for the last 13 years. So it was already being brought under control. The largest group of new claimants was those with mental health problems, and there does seem to have been a sharp increase in the numbers of people in the UK experiencing mental ill health. It even prompted the present government to put lots of money into the IAPT programme, putting mental health workers into GP surgeries. Someone from IAPT in Sheffield told me that 50% of all people who go to their GP do so for depression or anxiety!! FFS!

 

My dear Teafan, are you currently studying for a PhD in naivety? You are correct in your assertion that the largest group of new claimants has been in the stress-related illness category. Have you considered that this is the easiest kind of illness to fake or exaggerate? It is much harder to fake a broken leg (but easier of course to fake a 'bad back' etc). I seriously doubt whether the 'epidemic' of mental illness to which you refer is unrelated to the benefits system in some way or other.

[Golly Gosh]

I don't know too many that turned round one day and decided to become alcoholics. People drink for many reasons what about those who started drinking to blot out abuse or who drink due to the loss of a partner or a child? People all cope in different ways some choose drink and drugs. While I agree there are no doubt some people who have found a way of playing the system many more are genuinely in need of help.

 

The fact people would begrudge these people £87 quid makes me despair for humanity.

When we have MILLIONS of people claiming £87 a week and those £millions come out of the pockets of hard-working taxpayers, I despair for the hand-wringing do-gooders who think we should just turn a blind eye to the lazy good-for-nothings who chooose a life of scrounging instead of working.

 

The welfare state should protect those who genuinely cannot work - a few hundred thousand in total. Even Tony Blair admitted that there should be less than a million people on incapacity benefits. We know that there are well over a million professional scroungers/liars in this country who will, hopefully, soon have their fag and booze money reduced when they are reassessed.

[Golly Gosh]

Someone from IAPT in Sheffield told me that 50% of all people who go to their GP do so for depression or anxiety!! FFS!

Indeed - they should be told to get a grip and stop wasting NHS resourses.

[Halibut]

Indeed - they should be told to get a grip and stop wasting NHS resourses.

 

Depression can lead to years of misery and ultimately death. For someone in the grip of clinical depression being told to 'get a grip' is as much use as telling someone dying of cancer to pull themselves together and stop wasting NHS resources.

[Lotusflower]

Depression can lead to years of misery and ultimately death. For someone in the grip of clinical depression being told to 'get a grip' is as much use as telling someone dying of cancer to pull themselves together and stop wasting NHS resources.

 

I fear you're wasting your time on this individual Halibut. A bit like casting pearls before swine.

[Plain Talker]

Indeed - they should be told to get a grip and stop wasting NHS resourses.

 

Depression can lead to years of misery and ultimately death. For someone in the grip of clinical depression being told to 'get a grip' is as much use as telling someone dying of cancer to pull themselves together and stop wasting NHS resources.

I fear you're wasting your time on this individual Halibut. A bit like casting pearls before swine.

 

 

Or, indeed casting bridges before trolls?

[Drongo]

I fear you're wasting your time on this individual Halibut. A bit like casting pearls before swine.

Perhaps, but at least swine capable of sorting their own lives out, not so weak-minded as to need to give up and look to others for help at the slightest hint of personal challenge.

We mollycoddle people today, making the weak even weaker - they would broaden and strengthen if they learned through solving their own problems.

 

If some don't make it, that's just natural selection and a very good thing that is too.

[Plain Talker]

Indeed - they should be told to get a grip and stop wasting NHS resourses.

 

Considering 1 in 4 of us are likely to suffer mental health issues at some point in their lives, I think this is a very disingenuous comment.