Should sickness/disability benefits be conditional on adhering to treatment (UK) ?

[Cheshire]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ts-saying-sanctions-helped-them-10460351.html

Just appalling

 

[worldbackwards]

 

[Valentijn]

The Department for Work and Pensions has admitted making up comments from supposed "benefit claimants" that appeared in a leaflet about sanctions.

The leaflet, which has now been withdrawn, included positive example stories from people who claimed to have interacted with the sanctions system.

In one example, titled "Sarah's story", a jobseeker is quoted as being "really pleased" after a cut to her benefits supposedly encouraged her to re-draft her CV.

"It's going to help me when I'm ready to go back to work," the fabricated quote reads.

Another, by a benefit claimant supposedly called "Zac", details the sanctions system working well.

But in response to a freedom of information request by the Welfare Weekly website the DWP said the quotes were not actually real cases and that the photos were not of real claimants.

. . .

In March this year Parliament's Work and Pensions Select Committee said there was evidence that sanctions were geared towards punishing people for being unemployed and might not actually help them find work.

The MPs said there was evidence that the benefit cuts for unemployed people caused more problems than they solved and might be "purely punitive".

Previous widely-criticised decisions include people being sanctioned for missing jobcentre appointments because they had to attend a job interview, or people sanctioned for not looking for work because they had already secured a job due to start in a week’s time.

In one case a man with heart problems was sanctioned because he had a heart attack during a disability benefits assessment and thus failed to complete the assessment. . . .

 

[worldbackwards]

I wonder if there's a leaflet for this one (from the bmj study)

My ‘advisor’ said I needed to see a psychologist because I was tearful and anxious after having my JSA cut for 4 weeks despite having a young child to look after by myself. When I said I did not trust anyone who finds it acceptable to starve others as a punishment, he told me that I was paranoid and again, needed to see a psychologist.

 

[MeSci]

I wonder if there's a leaflet for this one (from the bmj study)

When I was unemployed, I benefited hugely from being put in the stocks and pelted with rotten fruit, then hung upside-down by my toes and attacked by a pack of dogs.

I'm now head of a multinational corporation, earning a six-figure sum providing torture equipment to North Korea and other great countries. Just the kind of job that everyone should be striving for, not forgetting to channel their earnings through offshore bank accounts so as to avoid paying tax.

I don't know how to thank the DWP enough.

EDIT - six figures is all I am earning officially...

 

[MeSci]

 

[worldbackwards]

I did hear that he was very appealing to "older" women...

 

[MeSci]

I did hear that he was very appealing to "older" women...

My love is of the pure kind. Can't be bothered with the other stuff these days.

 

[mermaid]

Luckily some of the psychologists are on the side of their patients though....

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...t-devastating-impact-of-cuts-on-mental-health

“It feels a bit crass trying to work with someone on their depression or anxiety, when that depression or anxiety is well-founded because they’re at risk of losing their home, or not being able to feed their kids.”

 

[MeSci]

'Scuse me for plugging my platonic boyfriend. (The comments are interesting too.)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ng-his-benefit-sanctions-regime-10461193.html

Jeremy Corbyn blasts Iain Duncan Smith for 'truly shameful' fake quotes promoting benefit sanctions regime

He told The Independent : "This is truly shameful. The punitive benefit sanctions regime is impoverishing some of the very poorest unemployed and disabled people, driving more people into deeper poverty.

"It is a damning indictment that civil servants are now being forced to make up quotes to cover for the failed political agendas of ministers, after the numerous debacles of Universal Credit, the work capability assessment, and the delays facing disabled people trying to get personal independence payments."

 

[Indigophoton]

Luckily some of the psychologists are on the side of their patients though....

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...t-devastating-impact-of-cuts-on-mental-health

This is a really good article. The attitude of the British Psychological Society on this matter sounds incredibly....sane.