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Fit for Work on BBC Sounds
Hi guys, is this a new program or a repeat? It’s fascinating- nothing new for us, the welfs, but well covered, I think. I really like it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001mck1
Hi guys, is this a new program or a repeat? It’s fascinating- nothing new for us, the welfs, but well covered, I think. I really like it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001mck1
According to our colleagues Alan B and Margaret its a new series Jo.
Thanks for the heads up ... here’s the write up:
For 30 years, governments have tried to get disabled people into work by toughening up benefit rules. Part of the motivation has been to cut the welfare bill, but it’s also been framed as an attempt to stop disabled people “languishing” on benefits.
But the policy has had tragic consequences, particularly for people with mental illness, who have felt coerced and pressured, as the department for work and pensions has deemed them fit for work. Many - maybe hundreds - have taken their own lives.
According to a former chief economist at the DWP, “it’s one of the biggest social policy failures of the last 20 or 30 years. We caused an enormous amount of human suffering. We achieved very little, we didn’t save any money and it probably cost more than it would have if we hadn’t done anything.”
In this series, Jolyon Jenkins investigates how the policy came about, starting under the government of John Major, which turned for advice to an American private insurance company that became notorious for unlawfully denying the legitimate claims of policyholders in the US.
Its very well researched
There is a recurring theme in those cases where the claimant committed suicide following a failed WCA and that iss housing benefit was aparently terminated.
If that’s the case then LA’s are as culpable as the DWP given that termination of a passporting benefit is of itself not syufficient to provide the basis for a superseding decision terminating HB.