U.K.: Too fat to work (Acne, depression, stress, fatigue etc. are also popular "can't work" reasons)

The Times (U.K.) ^ | November 19, 2007 | Richard Ford and Sam Coates

[Stoat]

Too fat to work

 

 

 

Richard Ford and Sam Coates

 

Almost two thousand people who are too fat to work have been paid a total of £4.4 million in benefit, it emerged last night. Other payments went to fifty sufferers of acne and ten incapacitated by leprosy.

Billions of pounds is being paid in benefits to people claiming to be unable to work because they suffer from depression, stress, fatigue and unknown or unspecified diseases.

The full list of ailments of the 2.7 million people claiming £7.4 billion in incapacity benefits, obtained by using Freedom of Information laws, will fuel suspicion that it is being used to keep them off the official jobless total. It will also fuel the debate over whether British workers could have been hired for more of the one million new jobs taken by migrants since 1997.

Frank Field, a former Social Security Minister, said last night that too many people were working the incapacity benefit system to avoid work. “It is a racket, which governments have allowed to exist for far too long. I do not blame people for working the system, it is the job of politicians to stop them doing it.”

Related Links

• Obesity: ‘same scale as global warming’

• Scientists find 'genetic cause' of obesity

 

 

Mr Field added that because job seeker’s allowance is lower than incapacity benefit, there was an incentive for people to try to be classified for the higher benefit.

The number on incapacity benefit has more than trebled since 1979 but in recent years it has been broadly stable at about 2.7 million. In the past 12 years, however, there has been a dramatic shift in the illnesses for which people are being given the benefit: 40 per cent now claim for mental health problems compared with just 20 per cent in 1995.

Mr Field said: “The big change over the last decade has been into illnesses which largely defy a clear medical classification: depression, dizziness and such. It is a move from the tangible illness to the intangible.”

The complete list of the 480 different illnesses and complaints for which people received incapacity benefit in February were released by the Department for Work and Pensions. More than £2 billion was paid in 2006-07 for mental health complaints, including £518 million to those with what are described as “unknown and unspecified” diseases.

Overall more than £1.1 billion was paid to people suffering from a depressive episode plus a further £276 million to the estimated 116,000 claimants with “other anxiety disorders” and £122 million to the estimated 50,000 suffering from a “reaction to severe stress”.

A total of 15,600 people received benefits for “malaise and fatigue” and a further 8,100 for “dizziness and giddiness”. The figures disclose that 4,000 claimants had headaches, 2,700 migraines and 1,890 suffered from eating disorders. About £100,000 in benefits went to those with acne and a similar amount to 60 people with “nail disorder”. Nausea and vomiting cost £2 million in benefits for 900 people.

Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said last night that rigorous checks were in place before someone was granted incapacity benefit. “No one is entitled to incapacity benefit automatically on the basis of a diagnosis,” he said.

“Currently, there are many people sitting at home in the belief that they are unemployable because they do not think their illness or medical conditions can be catered for in the work-place but this is just not the case. Many people with such conditions are perfectly able to take up successful careers, if the right support is in place. That is why we are changing the system to focus on what people can do, not what they can’t.”

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Many incapacity claimants are clearly taking advantage of the good nature of their GPs. There is a huge difference between not being able to work and not feeling like working. All of us sometimes don’t feel like working but we make the effort and put in the hours.”

Incapacity benefit is available to anyone under state pension age who cannot work because of illness or disability. A person becomes eligible after they have been on statutory sick pay for eight weeks. The amount payable ranges from between £61.35 a week to £81.35 a week, compared with £59.15 jobseekers allowance.

The employment and suport allow-ancw will replace incapacity benefit next year in an attempt to get more people into work. A revised health test will focus on a person’s capability rather than incapacity for work.

[Romneyfor President2008]

Thanks! Yeah, I know there’s good news. But I kept seeing all the ones about liberals and Muslims in UK. LOL

[reformedliberal]

Actually, looking at a screen all day for years can be a cause of dry eye. So can normal aging and wearing hard contacts for decades. It can also be a side-effect of refractive surgery.

This is real and it can be devastatingly, miserably, uncomfortable, but many people can still work if they get anti-glare screens, anti-glare glasses, remember to blink and use eye drops every couple of hours.It can make driving fairly unsafe at times, though.

Restless leg is also very real. I have mild instances of both. They come and go. I have never sought a diagnosis and have just managed them on my own without meds, mainly because I just hate to take any medication. I work for myself and neither has ever kept me from working, but they are real conditions that can range from mild to severe.

While there are slackers who milk the system, it is difficult for me to believe someone would even try to survive on $2k-$8k year just out of laziness. Perhaps I am naive.

[Drew68]

Is there anything good coming out of the UK? Can someone please post some? LOL

Here's some very good news coming out of the UK:

Led Zeppelin: Genie's Out Of The Bottle [Full-Scale Reunion Tour Likely]

[RipSawyer]

“I believe that “chronic fatigue syndrome”, which was a popular one in the late 80’s/early 90’s is a joke now. It seems doctors don’t buy that one anymore as a good excuse for disability. But i could be wrong. It’s just that i don’t hear people claiming to have it anymore like i did then.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I think it is more often referred to as “fibromyalgia” now and it seems to be a real disorder, some people have problems that seem laughable to those not suffering from them. I know that I have walked around for months at a time in the past with agonizing back pain and now I have very little problem with it even though I am much older. I am able to lift weights at age 63 that would have been unthinkable for me 20 years ago. What made the difference? I can only speculate.

[Gorzaloon]

I’ve been noticing a lot of negative threads about the UK. Is it “bash UK week”? LOL

Probably just a week with bad news in the Brit papers, and there is usually plenty of it. They have a subprime implosion also, for example. In today's Daily Mail we see:

"Desperate first time buyers take on third job to afford home"

"Brown to outline tougher rules to cut carbon emissions"

"Youngsters having treatment for drug abuse up by a fifth"

Is there anything good coming out of the UK? Can someone please post some? LOL

Stilton. :-)

Seriously, there is frequent optimistic news about Exciting Medical Discoveries, but I always suspect these are for domestic consumption, to give the NHS sufferers hope.

Yanks are basically Anglophiles, but it seems every day is "Bash America" in certain segments of their Press. There is plenty of bad news everwhere to go around.

[uncitizen]

Are you sure that fibromyalgia is the same as chronic fatigue syndrome? Chronic fatigue syndrome was just being tired all the time. There were no other symptoms. Now maybe since then they’ve wrapped it up under the fibromyalgia umbrella. But it sounds like there’s a lot more there there with fibromyalgia.

[joeystoy]

Oh... I forgot...

Malingerers of the world, unite!

At the risk of seeming insensitive, while there are legitimate medical conditions that cause chronic fatigue and other debilitating symptoms, many, many people use these hard-to-diagnose maladies as excuses.

I come from a family of malingerers who suffer from a wide variety of impossible-to-diagnose "diseases" that range from agoraphobia (too lazy to leave the house) to slow metabolism (not enough will power to resist that third helping of pie and ice cream).

To a medical professional who spends a scant five minutes with any of these "patients" the easy answer is some obscure disease. It is both insensitive and politically incorrect to offer the common sense cure... get up off your A$$ or push yourself away from the damn table.

These suggestions are left for us--family and friends who truly love them. As a result we're the ones who are ridiculed and accused of insensitivity.

BTW: The family members I'm speaking of also still smoke cigarettes. If cigarettes are addictive then cigarette smokers are addicts, correct? Why doesn't the ADA demand reasonable accomodation for sufferers of this disability?

[Bogtrotter52]

“Many many people are on SSDI for amazing reasons.”

Tell me about it. I worked in the field. Long ago the government ruled that alc/substance abuse were no longer reasons to allow benefits. There was a mad scramble by social workers and shrinks to get their clients reclassified as having ANY mental disorder to keep the monthly checks rolling in. The most commonphysical reason I saw however was back problems. I recall one guy sitting across from me telling me how he could no longer work because of his bad back, the pain, etc. Then he stopped and said “I don’t sense a whole lot of sympathy coming from you.” I smiled and said nothing as I shifted my position a bit in my wheelchair. LOL! One of my most fun things to tell people on line who are complaining about back problems and being on SSDI is this. “So let me get this straight. Your back problem is so bad that you cannot sit behind a desk and work. But you can sit behind a desk yakking on the computer for hours every day. Have I got that right?” For the record, I am a paraplegic and have never even collected unemployment, let alone SSDI.

[Stashiu]

I have a wife on SSDI due to fibromyalgia. The adjudication process was neither swift, nor easy. I did manage to laugh when a “physical exam” form came back dated, signed, and completely blank except for her personal contact info, signed and dated by a physician she had never met, BTW.

I am sure that some folks manage to work the system. I think the process tends to weed them out.

[television is just wrong]

lol, wish he would.

[television is just wrong]

lol, wish he would.

[Stashiu]

Oh, and a bit off topic. When the doc’s were trying to figure out what the heck was going on with my wife, they resisted the fibro diagnosis, as one doc said “You are not the hysterical type!”.

Anyway, I had suggested to my wife that she keep a daily log of activities and meds. The pain killers and anti-inflamatory notes were useful as they were PRN. The administrative law judge remarked “I don’t understand why this was turned down twice.” Welcome to my world, I said.

[Free Vulcan]

OK, the leprosy sufferers...you can stay home.

[Bogtrotter52]

“I think the process tends to weed them out.”

You would think so.....but here’s the rub. If a person is rejected they can appeal. And a really good percentage win on appeal simply because the system does not want to fight them. But you are correct, the process is indeed long with alot of paperwork and questioning that borders on the “And how long have you had your dog?” type. Nowadays you even see ads on tv all the time for law firms that specialize in getting SSDI for clients. That fact alone places the whole system way high on the “time to scrap it” list and come up with something better. The conclusion I have reached after having seen it all firsthand for 12 years was anyone who says they are unable to any work at all for any hours a day......is b.s.’ing. Oh, i do think some people need assistance, but 100%?....naw. Besides, work is therapuetic. I am sure that people who don’t have more problems and live shorter lives.

[RipSawyer]

My wife has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and it seems that it is just chronic fatigue syndrome with additional symptoms. The doctor presses on certain pressure points and if the patient responds with obvious pain it is considered fibromyalgia.

[Stashiu]

I worked in human services for about a decade. I left the direct service arena because I did not like how it affected me. Some folks burn out, others develop a very hard heart.

I spent a few of those years doing voc rehab direct service. You can teach most anyone to do something. However, many can’t do it on a sustained basis or at a level that someone would actually hire them for. THAT is the employability issue.

[Billthedrill]

I tried the leprosy excuse on my boss. He told me not to drop body parts in the coffee and to type with my other foot and I’d be fine. We call him “Mr. Sympathy.”

[Stoat]

The new one that really gets me is “restless leg syndrome”.

 

[Bogtrotter52]

“However, many can’t do it on a sustained basis....”

I have found that while many can’t do it, there are just as many who just flat out won’t do it.

Here’s a laugh for a break from the serious. I can recall when some of our cards somehow made it into the local jail. Soon we were having people come in every day who claimed they had a disability that was an impediment to employment (one of the first questions we would ask). They would claim that since they just got out of jail no one would hire them. So their being a ex-felon was a disability. LOL!

[Stashiu]

Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up.

When I worked in a Drug & Alcohol rehab, I used to give the aftercare briefing to those finishing a 28+ day stint. I had one young girl ask “How many relapses am I entitled to?”. I was speechless for a few seconds, then I said “How many do you think you can live through?”. This young girl was prostituting for drugs when she came in.........oy!

Professional victims...........