Now then...do exercise or have your benefits cut ??

grizzly1911

Conrad wrote: »

!! I walked 6 miles round trip to school !!!!!!!

.

Bet your mum was glad of the child benefit, what with all those shoes to buy.

Naive please;)

CLAPTON

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

Benefits need to be raised to afford healthy food and cooking lessons given.

Yes it's a shame that the poor can't afford TVs as there is virtually wall to wall programs on how to cook there : divert winter fuel payments so that the poor can have flatscreens asap.

N1AK

michaels wrote: »

Good to know the Tories are the party or individual freedom and responsibility isn't it. Anyone remember the the compulsory exercises in Orwell's 1984? And to think I thought a Tory/Lib Dem coalition would be a step back from totalitarian govt

Individual freedom is not going to the state and asking them for benefits. There is nothing inherently Orwellian about saying that you must accept certain responsibilities in return for the money.

What would be your preference then: a) Allow people to become morbidly obese while the government happily funds their lifestyle and does nothing about it? b) Refuse to give obese people any benefits at all?

RevolvingDoor

Again, as nobody answered this before. What about people who have worked all their lives and are forced to go onto benefits for health reasons and are then told they might have their benefits cut if they don't carry out government-ordered exercise?

Also what about obese working people, aren't they costing the taxpayer too, or is that okay? Would people be happy for their salaries to be garnished if they were overweight unless they did exercise prescribed by their employer?

It seems from the comments that it's more about punishing those on benefits and demonising poor and overweight people, not any real worries about public health.

N1AK

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

I am appalled but in principal I support it. Benefits need to be raised to afford healthy food and cooking lessons given.

I'm all for making cooking lessons available, and finance lessons as well; however the idea that people can't afford healthy food is nonsense.

I bought 5 bananas on a walk at lunch today: £0.55p. That's 5 bananas for the price of a can of coke or a chocolate bar. Rice costs pennys per portion. Chicken is the cheapest meat and healthy. A tin of sliced carrots: £0.14p. Squash is massively cheaper than any fizzy drink or alcohol. Yoghurts are much cheaper than most other pudding options.

Cost is completely unimportant when it comes to peoples ability to eat healthily. Some people misunderstand what healthy eating constitutes but then comments like yours supporting the idea that eating healthily costs a lot don't help.

ILW

RevolvingDoor wrote: »

Again, as nobody answered this before. What about people who have worked all their lives and are forced to go onto benefits for health reasons and are then told they might have their benefits cut if they don't carry out government-ordered exercise?

This is about doctor recommended exercise, not the government.

N1AK

RevolvingDoor wrote: »

Would people be happy for their salaries to be garnished if they were overweight unless they did exercise prescribed by their employer?

It seems from the comments that it's more about punishing those on benefits and demonising poor and overweight people, not any real worries about public health.

I think this is a reasonable point. Ultimately I think the view is that someone who isn't asking for money from the government should not have the government proscribing what they can/can't do any-more than possible.

That balance changes when they are asking for money from the government (effectively asking for money from other people). Is this measure ok within that context? imo probably but I will accept that the motivation may not be as selfless as they would like to make out.

ILW

wotsthat wrote: »

Don't expect your self-help book (Fat, Lazy and Poor - Just East Less and Exercise More) to fly off the shelves.

Could be a whole series.

The next will be "Stop making excuses and sort your bloody life out".

Wookster

Part of the problem is that the NHS patches up people no matter how they take care of themselves. There is often no incentive for folks to take good care of their bodies as they know someone else will pay for their treatment.

I really think that its time the NHS started withholding or charging folks for treatment where they have been consistently negligent in the care of themselves.

Gentile

ILW wrote: »

Cannot do any harm.
Just legislating to make the doors of McDs and Greggs narrower would help too.

I dont want my local gym to get clogged up with ugly overweight obese benefits dependent MCdonalds addicts, thank you very much.

They cannot get off the sofa to make a cup of tea, fat chance they have of going over to the gym and running a mile on the treadmile.