Could this idea save the so-called ‘welfare’ reforms?
I’ve had a thought – and it moves me to ask: could this idea save the so-called ‘welfare’ reforms?
It came to me after watching last Thursday’s (March 20, 2025) edition of the BBC’s Question Time, in which most of the panellists seemed desperate to avoid addressing the elephant in the room – the fact that the Labour government’s planned changes to the benefit system won’t work.
The reason they won’t work is that the plan is to push people off sickness and disability benefits and into jobs – but there are no jobs to push them into.
I have devised an answer, and you can learn what it is in the video clip below. I look forward to your comments:
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If Government had started training programmes, and subsidised Medical degrees years ago sick people would not have to wait so long for treatment now and would be in a better position to take up employment. In the area where we live ( and so do you ) there is only one job my grandson can apply for. And I have to wait 4 weeks to consult a GP. I think your ideas are good.
Thanks for the endorsement – and I think everybody here knows how bad the waiting times for seeing a GP are. I made an appointment in January, attended it in February, had to have tests done and am still awaiting the results.
I know someome who has never had a job, and lives on ESA and disability benefits. She is intelligent and well- educated, to post grad level, but has heart problems, autism and OCD. She would like to work and has done voluntary work. She is also a talented writer who has been published in anthologies, but never made money from it.
She has been on at least three courses to teach her how to get a job. (She told me what I had done wrong in my CV).
However my incorrectly laid out CV showed details of actual work history. A matter of greater importance to potential employers than whether it used the DWP recommended layout.
At one of the few interviews she ever got , she was asked if she had ever had a problem with another person and how she had dealt with it. She simply couldn’t answer because as she put it “I didnt know what they meant”. Needless to say, she didnt get the job.
In the right environment, with understanding colleagues, she would be capable of doing a very high level job, but the employer would need to not only see her potential despite her interview technique but alsoaccommodate her limitations as well as use her abilities.
Any role which involves dealing with people is potentially problematic.
Maybe the DWP should look at working with employers to create safe working evironments that can accommodate people’s disabilities, instead of trying to motivate disabled people to do things they can’t.
You make excellent points – especially about trying to make people do the impossible.