A new disability test aimed at ending Britain's "sicknote culture" is not about punishing people, Work and Pension Secretary Peter Hain insisted today. ...
The Government says the new medical test, to be introduced in October next year alongside the new Employment and Support Allowance, will assess what an individual can do - rather than cannot do. ...
"This is about giving people opportunities because you are better off in work, the evidence shows that."Mr Hain said: "We know that many people want to work - work is good for you and your long-term well-being and we don't think it's right that in the past people were effectively written off.
"We want to work with people to get them back into jobs and help them stay there.
"Currently, there are many people sitting at home in the belief that they are unemployable, with no life choices or long-term prospects because they do not think their illness or medical conditions can be catered for in the workplace.
"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 I have introduced the new assessment. It will not only accurately identify a person's physical and mental ability, it will offer advice on the type of help and support a person may need so that they can find sustainable work. ...
Mr Hain said it was "nonsense" to suggest that someone would be able to claim incapacity benefit simply because they were overweight.
I am sure that when this new plan is implemented Britain will still have a much more humane Social Security disability program (or should I say programme?) than the United States, but the language used in defending this is so eerily similar to the language used in the United States that I find it depressing. There is the same talk of promoting what people can do instead of concentrating upon what they cannot do and of giving "opportunities" to the disabled. It is all defined as "helping" the disabled. There is no way to describe this as anything other than bull, whether it is the United States or the United Kingdom.
The cheap shot attacks upon the obese and those suffering from acne are especially bothersome. Mr. Hain can easily ridicule giving the concept of giving some moderately obese person disability benefits -- when the ridicule is done in the abstract. Could he so easily ridicule a real 500 pound woman who is in agony because of severe arthritis in her weight bearing joints? He can ridicule the idea of disability benefits for acne in the abstract, but could he so easily ridicule a real person suffering from an extreme case of acne conglobata?
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