Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
There's no doubt that the geuniely sick and dsiabled can be stigmatised but I'd have thought removing the malingerers from the lists and putting those who would seek to do likewise from trying in the first place ought to reduce that stigma. If the Blue Badge scheme was such that it was impossible to abuse, then I believe the vast majority of people wouldn't have a problem with those who use it. It's the abuse of the system which hurts the genuinely sick/disabled a) because they're treated with suspicion and sometimes worse by people who don't believe they're genuine and b) because the resources wrongly taken by those defrauding the system are no longer available for the genuinely needy.
IMHO HMG has a duty to reform the system to make it fairer for those who really need it. Sadly, that'll involve reassessing a lot of people but there's no way around that. All we can hope is that common sense prevails and that the real effort is put into sorting out the dubious cases as opposed to those which are clearly in no doubt.
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In a perfect world we would have a system that can weed out the cheaters and still be fair to those who need it, however it seems noone can find a method to do this without a sledgehammer, this will and is ultimately kicking off people in genuine need of help. These people I expect simply sign up for JSA instead (without ability to find work), this will be an escalated problem when JSA gets tightened up some more as the lack of work related activity will come to the forefront.
I think you have to have been part of the system (a claimant or ex claimant) or have personally known/dealt with claimants to understand how wrong the changes are, to people who have had no experience of it, the changes may seem perfectly legit but they not, they are deliberatly designed to kick needy people off as to save money and gain public favour. If it were a choice between ensuring everyone who needs the help gets it easily (it shouldnt be too hard to successfully claim, remember these people are ill), but some slip thru illegally and making more scammers caught but some in need get nothing, then the former is far preferable. The former taxpayers pick up the bill whilst the latter the most vulnerable in soicety pay the price.
The medicals for a start are too short and swift and maybe irregular to give a proper accurate result, as said earlier if someone is seeing a consulatant and especially over a period of many months then that is a strong sign something is wrong with them, consultants treat their time very valuably and will discharge patients who are deemed to not need their help, there is cirumstances where someone wont be seeing a consultant so isnt all black and white but certianly if someone is there is no need to waste cash on medicals and appeals for them.
For what its worth medicals are very expensive to supply, atos origin get billions a year to do services for the government, appeals also cost a lot of money and these new assessments as you may guess appeals have gone through the roof with more than half of claimants winning the appeal. If someone ever wins a court case and compensation over these new rules then the government will then potentially lose big time as there would be a domino affect from that. Atos have been using nurses or even admin staff to carry out some medicals as well.
I also note a change of mental thinking on sickness and benefits.
IB had specific long term needs of claimants in mind when it was brought in (by a tory government I should add), it has a long term rate which pays more than JSA, in addition to age addition payments (further top ups for younger people). JSA is deliberatly paid out at a very low level as a way to discourage people from wanting to stay on it, its not really an amount someone can live off on the long term, those who manage it tend to either be living somewhere else where someone else pays the bills or also have children and get more generous child related benefits. IB of course is something that has to let someone survive on it long term so has always paid out more (on the long term rate). This universal credit will treat both benefits the same, and whether you off work between jobs with short term needs or have a chronic condition that will last for life keeping you out of work, you will get the same financial help, the reason been the government now is pushing out the mindset that there is no one who needs long term sickness benefits, they want to believe there is no such situation and that everyone can work with only short term illnesses. This is a worrying path that scares me.