I would love to see this happen.
I can not believe it though.
May I refer you to this post explaining that not being "severely disabled" (ie needing practical assistance frequently throughout the day and night) is not the same thing as being 100% fit and healthy and capable of working full-time. There's a lot of inbetween.
If I was capable of working full-time, or indeed doing any activity full-time, I would not have left the fairly well paid, good career ladder, job that I enjoyed doing before I got sick.
As for Benefits and Work - I've used them. The fee for using the resources was something like £16 for a year. And yes, the advice included things like not taking your 'best' walking stick to the appeal because it would be counter-productive. It also discouraged people from trying to 'cover up' their difficulties in an effort to preserve a little dignity - if you had trouble using the toilet, could you explain the trouble you have to three suited strangers? Many people fall at this hurdle because although they have the problems, they're too embarassed to discuss it. But I didn't see anything which encouraged faking or exaggerating. Mostly it was just advice about what was relevant and what wasn't.
Whilst I agree with the majority of this post, Mary is quite right about B&W, I have always understood them to be one of the few advice agencies who attempt to be both completely independent and reputable. In the back of my mind I'm sure I remember them having problems with pressure being applied by politicians when organisations like CAB changed to take parts of their funding direct from the govt thus removing any ability to remain truly free from the political agenda. I've used their guides to assist in filling out forms before now and there is only advice for genuine claimants, as Mary points out to try and explain to people that they have to be honest about intimate details no-one usually discusses. Their forums also require registration and are well moderated, on occasions I've viewed them they've been full of posts from people with terrible health problems being denied benefit they are rightly entitled to.
http://benefitscroungingscum.blo...-ib50-
form.html
This post is an example both of the kinds of things claimants must detail as explained by B&W
Frank Field is spot on, only when there is a flat rate of benefit will fraud be discouraged, the use of Disability Living Allowance is the correct way to ensure disabled people are provided for, but the rates would have to increase if there was a single allowance. (DLA is intended to cover the additional costs imposed by disability such as extra heating, laundry or care costs) It's also got an official fraud rate of only 0.5% overall.
Ultimately as other bloggers such as Clairwill point out the problem with all these suggestions is that they don't affect the fraudsters who are always one step ahead of the system, but they do terrify genuine claimants and put pressure on already vulnerable people.
BG
Doing something about employment legislation to create a few more jobs would be too joined-up to ask for I suppose?
Agreed Mary. Not sure I would call depression and social phobia not being "severely disabled" who makes that choice? Who knows what my life (or lack of) is really like? But I can be damned sure Medical Services will make me feel even more shit and lie on the examination summary to get me off incapacity benefit. Where is there support for people with mental problems? I can tell you there are hardly any. Politicians fucked up incapacity benefit for those who are really sick. I hope none of you well tax paying people never need it, it may not be there for you when you do.
I will probably be using Benefits and Work, as last time I went for a medical I stupidly as well as possibly subconsciously wanted to remain with some dignity. Along with this and the fact Medical Services fixed the procedure so that it made things really difficult to win my case. It wasn’t until I went to the independent tribunal that I got a fair hearing, and they awarded me 14 points (needed 10) instead of 7 hat Medical Services gave.
"Migrants - including those from the EU - will not be eligible for incapacity benefit until they've worked here for at least 6 months"
Eh? So the message is "Come to the UK, work 6 months and then claim incapacity benefit for the rest of your life"?
Or am I missing something here ???
Yes, I remember a previous attempt to get private contractors to supervise "work". If they recorded someone as arriving half an hour late then it made meeting their targets more difficult. There was wholesale collusion in all sorts of unproductive behaviour that neither "clients" nor staff wanted recorded.
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