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HAVE YOUR SAY

SHOULD WE CRACKDOWN ON SICKNOTE SCROUNGERS?

Scroungers are refusing to work because of 'stress'

Monday June 9,2008

By Macer Hall Political Editor

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(60)

THE number of jobless claiming handouts for being “too stressed” to work has soared by 800 per cent under Labour.

A record 51,790 claimants pick up stress-related incapacity benefit and cost hard-hit taxpayers £122million every year in Britain’s sicknote culture.

The payments – which have soared from just 5,700 before Labour came to power in 1997 – reflect a growing awareness of illnesses linked to stress at work, insist officials.

But critics suspect many claimants are workshy scroungers malingering at the taxpayer’s expense.

The figures – revealed only after a Freedom of Information request – will fuel growing concern over the £12billion annual cost of sickness benefits handed out to around 2.7million people.

Tory Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling said: “It’s no good the Government leaving these people to remain on benefits for the rest of their lives. We need a firm but fair approach that gets them back into work.”

Claimants can qualify for incapacity benefit if they are diagnosed with the medical condition “reaction to severe stress”.

* Do YOU think we should crackdown on sicknote scroungers?

* Should WORKSHY scroungers be allowed to malinger at the taxpayer's expense?

*** HAVE YOUR SAY NOW! ***

I DISAGREE

30.06.08, 5:48pm

The sad thing about sicknote scroungers, is that most of them are a result of, & have been created by conditioning, I think it's what is known as "learned helplessness", after a certain period of time, say 6-12 months of being on benefit, some people become uncomfortably comfortable with being there, & feel that attempting to achieve anything better would be a threat to their comfort zone, & even pointless, because of say what the teacher told them at school ie "you will never mount to anything, or how easy it is to get a criminal record, & that you cant get a job flipping even burgers, with a criminal record. the system puts people in a situation where they are torn between biological needs of having children, & living an existence to pay tax, no wonder people are growing up without a direction, but the system will help you with that, talk about fullfilling one's potential.... It's well known that the system needs a certain level of unemployed people to enable facets of the system, such as work agencies, the job centre, & work based training facilities; also the system needs a level of sick unemployed, to enable categorisation. The problem needs to be there, to enable the system, without it there would be uncontrolled mass unemployment, if every person in this country was cultured & conditioned the same, who would be leader? This isn't about the blame game, the fact is, there are those who are genuinly unable to work, through health related matters; & there are those who are & have been on sick benefitss, through say drug / alcohol dependancy, which is another facet of the system, so many drug agencies ready to help & treatment centres, in this country charging astronomical prices for services that are free ie 12steps. the amount of money wasted in this country, & all that can be done to justify it is to blame the poor, blame the ones in the system,, have to be seen to be moaning, cause it looks like im doing something about it then.

• Posted by: strutter • Report Comment

WE ARE ALL SICK OF THIS GOVERNMENT!

28.06.08, 11:52am

When did we cure the sick and the dying? Are they really all scroungers? Wow!

They are all on the sick with stress because they live next door to the local family from hell who you are not allowed to comment on because they are foreign, young, old whatever and can commit crime day and night with little interest from the police. We live in a society where we are now more at risk on our own shores than at any time when we were officially at war.

• Posted by: lisaj • Report Comment

THE SCROUNGERS PARADISE.

23.06.08, 1:06pm

I've just got back Macer Hall's article. Anyone who reads the news based on known facts, not the type of salad dressing of left wing propaganda machines, knows that labour throws our money around like confetti - always aimed at either the people who are liable to vote labour, or the sort of lost cause that grabs headlines for the wrong reasons. There are many scroungers in our society, many quite professional. Including the said "depressed" types. Did'nt anyone tell them that having a labour government which has a habit of bankrupting the U.K. quite regularly, leading to the old begging bowlbeing trotted out is depressing in itself?.We do not have a born right to having a life of constant laughter and fun. Depression is as natural as joy, and both bring a value to the middle ground. Working is an ethic of responsibility, not for people who may either wallow in self pity for others to pay for, but to be a useful and valued member of this country. Of course there are genuine cases where help is a godsend, and the best of luck to the social conscience behind that system. But the article is simply pointing out the constant abusers, causing one hell of a drain on our diminishing amount of labour reduced cash

• Posted by: bluenote • Report Comment

MACER HALL POLITICAL EDITOR - ARE YOU REALLY QUALIFIED?

21.06.08, 1:19pm

Macer Hall,

You seem to have "had your say" and found the answer to your own question on "sicknote scroungers" your words not mine. Why bother asking for the public opinion?, the "leading" context used in this article and the way it has been phrased is absolute drivel, a pathetic attempt to use "spin" and misinterpretation on what is a very important subject of which you obviously no nothing about, articles like this damage your News Papers reputation and journalism as a whole, if i was your Manager you would be finding out "first hand" what the welfare state has to offer.

Express "Have Your Say - article? on "Sicknote Scroungers" Monday June 9,2008 By Macer Hall Political Editor

• Posted by: Chris_Hickman • Report Comment

"SCROUNGERS NO = POLITICAL FOOTBALL YES".

20.06.08, 12:23pm

Britain seems to have changed for the worst, i can't help but feel that the majority of people have lost their way and need to take a long hard look at what the important things in life are about. The vunerable in our society have become an easy target for the "gutter press" i.e(sleazy Red Tops, etc) who rely on this kind of issue to sell papers and too generate discontent in order to "unite the brainless" ("dey ar livin like kings aint dey") under the banner of a noble cause? these kind of people do not posess the ability to think for themselves and are "easily whipped into a frenzy" of hate and disgust towards anything put in front of them, especially the unemployed and vunerable who they are unreliably informed are "stealing their hard earned money", this form of contagion leads the spineless labour goverment to react true to form - inadequately, to "be seen to be doing something" in order to quell the enraged "brainless" who have been led like sheep to reach only one conclusion from media sources who tend to "make the news and not tell it".

As we know the press are powerful and have the potential to destroy goverments, therefore hightened media attention on any subject brings about "knee jerk reactions from self serving spineless politicians" who use the opportunity to score points with the voting public by using the welfare state as a "political football" to reasure the "Brainless sheep" that their ("penny is not being used in vein to support the ammount of undeserving unemployed and vunerable in our society") this reasurance comes at the expense of the genuine and vunerable
"majority not minority" through continual victimisation to appease the "brainless".

I accept fraud does occur and it needs to be dealt with, but not at the expense of genuine claiments, and not to appease the "brainless Sheep".

(Q) If the unemployed are continually branded by the "media and society" as scroungers, lazy, useless etc, do you think this false portrayal as social inepts will make them more attractive as potential candidates by employers or will it make their unemployment situation reciprocal?

In todays day and age nobody has a job for life, your contribution to the welfare state should be seen as your insurance policy so if you do unfortunately become unemployed or fall ill (No one knows what future holds) you and your familly will be supported, do you want to give politicians the ability to erode that safety net when you might be next in the unemployment line?

This is the "over-egged" Headline for this story:

"A record 51,790 claimants pick up stress-related incapacity benefit and cost hard-hit taxpayers £122million every year in Britain’s sicknote culture".

In my opinion this is the type of spending culture that needs addressing....

1st Example:

Gordon Brown went on American TV to boost his profile and gave 100 million pounds of "hard hit tax payers money" to an asian country for Mosquito nets".

2nd Example:

The goverment spent 175 million pounds of "hard hit tax payers money" getting 17 drug addicts of heroin".

These examples are not at all exhaustive.

British society, its values and principles are being slowly diluted to a point were people are becoming disposable and were materialism and self aggrandisement is king, familly values take a back seat and were people seem to be losing track of the really important things in life, the things that make you truly happy.

• Posted by: Chris_Hickman • Report Comment

SCROUNGERS

16.06.08, 5:58pm

This government needs to get its own house in order before they attack the public over sick notes. What is more important someone having a sickie or someone who is claiming thousands and thousands for second homes, taxis, food, tv licences and anything else these greedy M.P.s can drum up.

• Posted by: Tip • Report Comment