Panorama disability scam

Teahfc

miduck wrote: »

I have a theory on this. Most other European countries have much stronger communities than we do - so when things are tough, financially or emotionally, they support each other. These countries have a tiny amount of mental health issues compared to us. It shows through in the European communities that have settled in the UK - they don't access mental health services to anywhere near the extent that Brits do.

Old Eastern block countries sent their mental health citizens into orphanages or prisons and kept away from society to prevent disruption. When the wall dropped, these prisons were opened and the patients could be anywhere ? Even the UK :eek:

Mids_Costcutter

BigAunty wrote: »

Apparently, the UK is the sick man of Europe with a much higher level of sickness/disability benefits than many other countries - anyone know why this is? The city I currently live in has sickness/disability rates high above the UK average and academics still don't understand why it is so.

The high levels of obesity in the UK with all the related disease / disability issues will almost certainly be a factor. As of 2011 the UK had more obese women than any other country in the EU and UK men came second only to Malta: well done Malta!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15901351

evenasus

BigAunty wrote: »

Apparently, the UK is the sick man of Europe with a much higher level of sickness/disability benefits than many other countries - anyone know why this is?

Maybe because the UK pays higher benefits.

clemmatis

leveller2911 wrote: »

Indeed, he glared at her.........Still have no idea if he was genuine or just swinging the lead.........Personally I think most people suffer from anxiety and depression,I know I do but its how you deal with it.

Some people who suffer from anxiety and depression are seriously ill. Whether someone can "deal with it" will depend not only on them but on the nature and severity of their illness.

scootw1

He looked fine when he was taking the pictures. Surely if he can do that he could do freelance photography?

Dunroamin

miduck wrote: »

I have a theory on this. Most other European countries have much stronger communities than we do - so when things are tough, financially or emotionally, they support each other. These countries have a tiny amount of mental health issues compared to us. It shows through in the European communities that have settled in the UK - they don't access mental health services to anywhere near the extent that Brits do.

I agree, but another reason is that many other EU countries offer only means tested benefits for people with disabilities and often no more money than someone who's unemployed gets. This gives less of an incentive to label oneself as disabled.

rogerblack

clemmatis wrote: »

Some people who suffer from anxiety and depression are seriously ill. Whether someone can "deal with it" will depend not only on them but on the nature and severity of their illness.

Severe depression has a worse outlook than many 'serious' diseases - some heart attacks, some cancers.

rogerblack

On my personal experience with the work program.
I have been on the work program around 14 months.

As I understand it, the work program provider will have been paid several hundred pounds for taking me on.

So far, the total contact from the work program provider has been one, approximately 2 minute phone call.

There may have been a short one page letter before this, I forget, and am not going to look through my files, which are somewhat disorganised.

At most 10 minutes work (including skimming my file) - for £600.

To be fair - in some ways I welcome this treatment - it would be considerably difficult to undertake many activities, and I question if I can do meaningful work without unreasonable levels of support.
(Basically take over all housework and other tasks, so as to completely free what limited energy I have for work)

Yorkist

Disability statistics in Britain ARE high but no one seems able to find out why. I doubt there's any single factor that accounts for all cases. Nearly 20 yrs ago a friend had a teaching placement in Holland. On his first day he was amazed to see children sitting in adjustable chairs at adjustable tables and mentioned this. The staff were amazed! "But children are different sizes and they grow, if they all have the same size tables and chairs then they will be damaged and get ill' was the reply. If you haven't been in a classroom since you left school you may be surprised at how small a lot of the equipment is for some very big children! Could this be a small part of the desperately bad figures for back problems in the UK?

rogerblack

Yorkist wrote: »

Disability statistics in Britain ARE high but no one seems able to find out why.

Primarily because the DWP are spinning their !!!!!! off trying to obscure the figures.
http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2011/08/why-are-there-more-dla-claimants/ may be informative.

In short - the population is getting older, so disabilites of age are becoming more common as a fraction of the whole population.
The population is growing, and some immigrants are entitled to benefits due to working in the UK, or other factors.

An increasing number of child claims are happening, leading to an increase of claims as these people move into working age.