I have been reading the headlines over the last few days with a sort of wry resignation. Check out an article here to get a grasp of the ‘issue’. Apparently, our government are only just ‘discovering’ that many incapacity benefit claimants are actually ‘fit to work’! The Scots, it appears, are the worst when it comes to making false claims.
Now, I have blogged on this issue before, so I won’t go over old ground but I suspect the problem is even far worse and more endemic than the figures suggest. The problem for us is that we are now operating within a ‘culture of entitlement’. These ‘benefits’ which were originally made to protect the poor, oppressed and downtrodden in our society, are largely being squeezed dry by every blagger who knows how to claim, counter-claim and appeal every decision going. The system is laughable.
Of course there are two sides to everything and I am certain that there are many people being unfairly demonised by this kind of reporting. People who do have genuine disabilities and mental health concerns. That is why this stuff really annoys me. Because it is usually the deserving who miss out and the con merchants who prosper! I for one love it that claimants have to ‘work harder’ (pardon the pun) to ensure that their claim is not bogus. I have had debates in the cafe with people incandescent with rage that their benefit is being ‘downgraded’ because they have been passed fit to work who have then wandered off to do a bit of graft ‘cash in hand’ without any sense of irony or shame whatsoever!
I realise that this is a big area for discussion with many grey spots but at least it is getting it out there into the public forum. I would say to shame people, but that does not appear to be the case with many of those who I work amongst.