tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post6055391396961982849..comments2023-12-11T08:49:46.305+00:00Comments on Dizzy Thinks: Brace yourselfUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-80101302288694483902008-02-21T21:08:00.000+00:002008-02-21T21:08:00.000+00:00Shame on you for associating your royal Toryness w...Shame on you for associating your royal Toryness with those druggy-stroke-junkie types.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-19623778486077463462008-02-21T16:17:00.000+00:002008-02-21T16:17:00.000+00:00As you say, there are very few 'invalids' who are ...As you say, there are very few 'invalids' who are too badly disabled to work.<BR/><BR/>I used to work for a bloke who was hideously disabled. No legs to speak of, one working arm and a spine as bent as an MP's expenses. Yet he steered his electric wheelchair onto the train every morning and went to work in the office like the rest of us.<BR/><BR/>The doubling of incapacity benefit costs since Labour came to power is a consequence of using IB to hide the true extent of unemployment in Britain. I know people who are long term unemployed and they've all been advised to 'go on the sick' by staff at the job centre.<BR/><BR/>In the absence of a workfare scheme, people forced off incapacity benefit will just return to other benefits. They won't suddenly decide to get a job.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-42494831377459630912008-02-21T14:43:00.000+00:002008-02-21T14:43:00.000+00:00Oh, the Government do sometimes come up with good ...Oh, the Government do sometimes come up with good ideas, even though some of them are nicked from the Conservatives (and rather obviously at that).<BR/><BR/>It is delivering those ideas that tends to be poor, by and large; and sometimes it appears that the stated policy was never intended to be put into practice anyway -- at least not in the stated form. Genuinely good policies tend to alienate large sections of Labour's traditional voters...<BR/><BR/>I can vouch for the fact that working at a supermarket, including on the check-outs, has nothing wrong with it. It is a vital part of modern society, and I certainly enjoyed my three years doing it as part of my work at the local Asda.<BR/><BR/>I also worked on the Produce Dept, and can state that lugging pallets stacked higher than one's own head height full of heavy items such as swede, and then putting them out (with rotation of existing stock) is a good way to exercise!<BR/><BR/>I did that every weekend for over six months, before replacing the weekend Greeter when he left. It was a great time; and even though Council work eventually became so great that I had to give up my employment, I still look back fondly on those times.<BR/><BR/>I have always tried to work, and found that the weeks in between jobs could easily have become a slippery slope downward into idleness. That is a dead-end kind of existence, and one I for one would not recommend to anyone.John M Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06251285057595626917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-27022513477491102742008-02-21T10:52:00.000+00:002008-02-21T10:52:00.000+00:00A huge proportion of those on incapacity benefit s...A huge proportion of those on incapacity benefit suffer from bad backs and/or depression. The diagnosis for both these disabilities largely depends on what the patient tells the doctor. Should the doctor say, 'I don't believe you. You are perfectly able to work.'? Hardly fits the image of the caring profession.<BR/><BR/>No, the only long-term solution is to ensure that a man in work earns about twice as much as he would get on benefits. <BR/><BR/>Young men and women who have left school unable to read or write should be treated as 'intentionally unemployed' and lose all benefits.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-40915216204256660692008-02-21T10:23:00.000+00:002008-02-21T10:23:00.000+00:00DizzyAnother factor here is whether the government...Dizzy<BR/><BR/>Another factor here is whether the government should switch money currently spent on invalidity benefit and spend it instead on subsidising the employer to take on the disabled person.<BR/><BR/>If it costs an employer an additional £2,000 per year to provide modified equipment for a disabled person to do a job equally as productively as an able bodied person, then better it pays that amount as a subsidy rather than the incapacity benefit.<BR/><BR/>Whether that subsidised person should be in a mainstream employer or a sheltered employer such as Remploy (at a higher level of subsidy) is then a whole other debate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22202011.post-76108776823071982502008-02-21T09:40:00.000+00:002008-02-21T09:40:00.000+00:00It is really important the benefits available do n...It is really important the benefits available do not come close to what can be earned through working. The closer the two become, the less likely people are to get off their backsides.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com