Reform UK - A symptom of all that is wrong?

You need to do some reading regarding the mental health state of the Nation, especially amongst young people.

eta the BBC program also said that mental health issues is ‘the new bad back syndrome’.
Horrible for genuine sufferers and an easy ‘I can’t work’ excuse for people intending to live off benefits.

Sunak’s suggestion that young adults are over pathologising everyday anxieties appears ill-evidenced. Louise Murphy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, notes most claims by 16- to 25-year-olds relate to ADHD, autism and learning disabilities.

Helen Barnard, director of policy at the Trussell Trust, said many older people had both physical and mental health conditions — and were not off work because they were depressed but “because being ill, off work, struggling to get support and facing financial hardship is depressing”.

Analysts cite worsening health among the population — linked to longer NHS waiting lists — as one of several factors that could be driving the increase.

The cost of living crisis could also prompt people who previously felt claiming benefits was not worth the hassle to apply, noted Tom Waters, associate director at the IFS. It was also “plausible but far from confirmed” that tougher conditionality for jobless benefits was prompting people to claim more generous incapacity benefits instead if they were able to.

In November, the OBR said that plans announced in the Autumn Statement to tighten incapacity benefits would save the Treasury £1bn a year but boost employment by just 10,000 — while an expansion of therapy and job support could bring 40,000 people into work.

The government is set to publish details of a stricter regime for disability benefits. It is also rolling out local pilot schemes that integrate job and health support, branded “WorkWell”. But an existing job support scheme, targeted at disabled people, is being scrapped. 

Barnard said there was some investment in the type of health and job support that was needed but that ministers were pushing a “really damaging” narrative, implying that people were “showing up as long-term sick . . . because they’re not making the effort”.

The Trussell Trust had seen more disabled people using its food banks because they were unable to afford essentials — even the bus fare to attend hospital appointments, she said, adding: “We need a social security system that allows you to get better.”[/b]

Can I provide some other perspective and analysis, courtesy of that well-known socialist woke rag that caters to layabouts and idlers, The Financial Times?

The whole article lays out that there is scant evidence of the 'sick note culture', given how few sick days UK workers take on average, that sick notes are being issued at about the same rate they were in 2019 and only about a tenth of them are for mental health reasons. The rise in disability claims likely has as much to do with incomes not keeping up with living costs. And the vicious circle of a society that does a number on mental health while refusing to do anything useful or productive in helping or improving peoples' mental health.

Evidence that this surge in disability claimants is holding back productivity or denying the workforce labour is, at best, scant and contradictory. ONS data is contradictory, showing strong workforce participation and a large 'tail' of illness/disability in working-age adults after the pandemic. Of course, that 850,000 number of adults who say that long-term illness is keeping them from work could have something to do with the course steered during the pandemic, which was almost laser-guided to do a number on both physical and mental health by cyclically forcing people into work to get infections and then cooping them up at home to get depression and anxiety.

I don't want to run afoul of copyright/copy+paste rules, but the final paras are also very pertinent:

It was the BBC that broadcast and narrated the item, Not a broadcaster I would associate with back Conservative narratives. I am also puzzled by how we now have a reported 2.5 million on long term sick leave.
The Governments proposals to help people back into the workplace includes compulsory validation checks by independent contractors. Seen this before in around 2000 when tick box validations into severity of disablement was used. I recall this well as one of my brothers was called in for such a check over.
So it’s not a new problem at all, separating the genuine from the malingerers is never straightforward. I think the term ‘let’s see what you can do, rather than what=you can’t ‘ carries weight.
Soon all this will be on the Labour Government, haven’t heard or read anything as yet regarding the issues.

Bag of ste yourself mate.

You know nothing about me and mine.

Bag of ste yourself mate.

You know nothing about me and mine.

To be fair you do ooze "considerably richer than you" vibes.

Comes across as you've done OK so everyone else should be able to do so too and if they haven't it's because they didn't try hard enough.

Is there an election yet?

I can't figure out why people expect any party to have a manifesto published when there's no opportunity to vote for it yet.

What cause? I won't be voting for anyone. Flopping over to Labour because the Conservatives have messed up and then flopping back to the Conservatives when Labour mess up some more is just insane.

I'm sure Kier Starmer is an intelligent man but he has no plan (or is not willing to reveal it) so what exactly are people voting for in Labour?

It'll be interesting, I live in a Tory safe seat that has voted the same for decades. The seat of Sutton Coldfield will be as good a litmus test as any.

I believe that political parties reflect society, it's high time the people of the UK reflected on themselves and looked around at what they are creating because the current conversative gov is a manifestation of that, so are the Reform party, the SNP and of course the lunatics in charge of the asylum in Wales.

There have always been a few fringe idiots walking the corridors of power, but we now have a situation where every governing cabinet in the land is rammed full of them. They are in power and merrily making a pigs breakfast of it and it's our fault that they are there as we decide, but we've got to the point where too many people think it's always someone else's fault zero personal responsibility and they love that.

Keep everyone arguing with each each...divide and rule as they say, there is no longer any room for a decent centrist government to come in and govern for all the people, as the people won't allow it.