Age UK predicts 200 pensioner deaths PER DAY this winter. Is Iain Duncan Smith happy now?
The Grimmer Reaper: If pensioners die in their thousands this winter, Iain Duncan Smith stands to profit from it. [Picture: Daily Mirror]
Pensions are the most expensive part of the State benefit bill, taking up more than half of his budget. With the state pension at £110.15, he stands to save £137,467,200 per year, without having to lift a finger. The energy companies will get the blame, with soaring bills making it impossible for senior citizens to heat their homes.
This is a much better deal, even than the one he engineered with Employment and Support Allowance, in which at least 73 people have been dying every week because of poverty-related health or mental health problems brought on by DWP decisions, ; people on ESA for longer than 13 weeks get £100.15 per week, meaning a saving of only £380,169.40 per year.
Make no mistake – any pensioners who die will be counted as a “positive benefit outcome” in Smith’s twisted DWP world. The man himself has been described as a social Darwinist, meaning he expects natural selection to decide who lives. Survival of the fittest, the ones who make the smart decisions and do what they must – and the Devil take the hindmost.
The figures on pensioners come from a survey by Age UK that says more than three million older people are worried about winter heating, with nearly six million admitting fears about the rising price of energy.
“Cold temperatures can be very dangerous to older people’s health as they not only increase the likelihood and severity of flu, chest infections and other respiratory problems but they also raise blood pressure which puts people at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes,” the Age UK article states.
“This winter, 24,000 older people may not survive the cold weather – that’s 200 deaths a day that could be prevented. Contrary to public belief, about half (41 per cent) of all excess winter deaths are due to heart attack and strokes.
“Age UK’s new research reveals that whilst many older people are worried about staying warm at home, many are unaware of the severe health implications of being cold.
“Almost a quarter (22 per cent) of older people don’t realise that a number of serious health problems are made worse or brought on by the cold and this rose to 29 per cent amongst people aged 80 and over.”
Does Iain Duncan Smith know that?
“Less than one in 10 people aged 65 and over in the UK are aware that strokes can be brought on by the cold in winter, with only 14 per cent recognising that the cold can impact on heart attacks,” the article continues, so it is doubtful that he does. Iain Duncan Smith is 59.
Does he know that “living room temperatures should ideally be kept at 70F (21C) and above whereas bedroom temperatures should be kept at a minimum of 64F (18C)”? Probably not. He’s probably got someone to work these things out for him.
Besides urging older people and their friends and family to be prepared this winter, Age UK is also calling on MPs of all parties to support investment to boost the energy efficiency of older people’s homes and help them keep warm.
It would be welcome to see Iain Duncan Smith helping out here. It would also be a surprise.
That is why it is hard not to imagine Iain Duncan Smith salivating at the thought that 200 pensioners a day might die of the cold this winter.
We live in a sick society. They know what’s going on, and still do nothing. How much lower can they go.
I’m fifty seven and hardly recognise the country I live in now. Everything seems so harsh and everyone uncaring. This isn’t just down to IDS and the current crop of unconscionable lying Tories but Labour too. One of the first things Gordon Brown said in a speech in 1997 when Labour were elected was, “I’m going to shut down the something for nothing society”, which set the stage to separate the needy into the striver and skiver categories and this demonising of people on benefits was used subsequently as a justification to really stick it to the undeserving skiving poor whenever cuts, or curbs, or sanctions, or punishments, or things like workfare became the norm: the argument was that the skivers were living the lives of Reilly, sponging and leeching of taxes paid by striving “hard working families” and so deserved everything nasty that happened to them.
Where we are now is as much New Labour’s fault as anyone.
New Labour dug and laid the foundations; the Tories raised the walls.
Of course, New Labour was a right-wing neoliberal party, masquerading as the opposite.
Strivers v skivers rhetoric fails completely, of course, when faced with the realilty that there are five unemployed people for every job and the government is preventing job creation with its Workfare and Work Programme schemes.
If you count just the NMW entry level type vacancies that the unemployed are applying for, then the ratio is more like 35 unemployed per vacancy, and that’s not counting the EMployed applying for the same vacancies.
It doesn’t matter how many hours searching, how much sanctioning, how many £bns wasted on making people “work ready”, it makes no difference – the schame always fails and the maths always wins.
its called greed brought to by the tory party yet they blame others for it even fiddling the bank figure with a carnie inside
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL.
Reblogged this on Benefit tales.
“…about half (41 per cent) of all excess winter deaths are due to heart attack and strokes.” The biggest cause of which is the physiological and hormonal effects of prolonged stress on the arteries.
The policies of both New Labour and Coalition have caused older people huge anxieties for financial security, meeting the need for food and warmth and keeping a roof over one’s head: so both parties bear the major part of the blame: the remainder lies with the media for fanning hate and derision and causing unnecessary fear for older people.
If we were a civilised society we would respect and honour our senior citizens through fair government policies and in everyday life..
Personally i consider the present stance of the governement as a declaration of war upon the poor the disabled and the elderly.
Sadly at this time there is NO pint looking to an alternative “party” as they are presently cut from the same poor quality cloth, so the answer lays elsewhere,
The end result being none of the present political “parties” existing.
Another answer is for a new political movement that is about COUNTRY and not personal profits of a few elite.
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