The coalition are extending their Burnley pilot scheme on cutting the Incapacity Benefit bill by £7bn to the whole country. This means doctors will no longer be able to sign people off work, instead non medical staff will administer a questionnaire which will determine whether your ill or not with questions such as "can you reach your breast pocket?", "can you pick up a £1 coin?", "can you lift a mug?". So far the pilot scheme has found "fit for work" individuals with serious disability and often terminal disease eg one chap with both stomach cancer and the need for a heart bypass operation. 40% of cases are being fought with appeals. The govt says it has no responsibility to get the process right before applying it nationally. Incidently the only evidence advanced to support the idea that there is widespread abuse of this benefit is that 7% of the working population are on it...of course they forget to mention that this figure includes not only the temporarily sick but the entire disabled population of working age unable to work.
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