Actually after being on many years you don't even need a note every year! I was told in the mid-90's that I didn't have to send in any more Dr's notes. You just attend DWP medical interviews every two years. So it's taken out of the GP's hands.

 

God no wonder most on incapacity benefit are fraudsters or exaggerating their conditions

 

All someone has to do is sponge in good health for 2 years and then once every 2 years hobble into a GP surgery, pretend they are in agony and hey presto lots of free money for another 2 years

 

The system is pathetic <_< :rolleyes:

 

 

God no wonder most on incapacity benefit are fraudsters or exaggerating their conditions

 

All someone has to do is sponge in good health for 2 years and then once every 2 years hobble into a GP surgery, pretend they are in agony and hey presto lots of free money for another 2 years

 

The system is pathetic <_< :rolleyes:

 

No, the interviews/medicals are held in DWP premises, Euston for London, and NOT GP surgeries. They're nothing to do with your GP.

I don't care how many people they employ, it's not an excuse when their employees don't have the luxury of fiddling their accounts to avoid paying tax or put money into offshore accounts, the average worker is taxed at source... Can't stand these rich c**ts taking the p*** anymore than I can stand chav and pikey dole fiddlers, between them they cost the working classes billions......

 

There is nothing to stop someone who is poor becoming wealthy or at the very least have a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

 

You can buy a company off the shelf for less than £30, all you need is a bit of drive and determination and you can run your own business

 

The poor are largely poor because they don't have the ambition to break out of poverty and instead are happy to live in their taxpayer funded comfort zone

No, the interviews/medicals are held in DWP premises, Euston for London, and NOT GP surgeries. They're nothing to do with your GP.

 

Yeah but I could quit my work tomorrow, fake a bad back or fake depression or pretend to be agrophobic and within a week or 2 I am rolling in free money when in reality there is nothing wrong with me with 2 years to work on how I am going to fake the next medical

 

These medicals should be every 3 months or even better random on the spot visits by a DWP doctor to the persons house where they have had no time to prepare for faking.

 

There is nothing to stop someone who is poor becoming wealthy or at the very least have a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

 

You can buy a company off the shelf for less than £30, all you need is a bit of drive and determination and you can run your own business

 

The poor are largely poor because they don't have the ambition to break out of poverty and instead are happy to live in their taxpayer funded comfort zone

 

I AM a taxpayer you nerk..... And I am far from well off... I don't cheat the system, so you tell me why the f*** myself or any other person paying their fair share into the system should tolerate anyone else scamming the system either by benefit fraud or tax avoidance....

The rich are only rich because they made their money by exploiting the labour of the working class Proletariat... They get rich off our backs and then conspire with our so-called "democratially elected" representatives to shaft us even more, feathering their own nests and ensuring the poor stay poor forever....

THAT is the reality of the Capitalist system...

And now because of these bast*rds and their greed I have to tolerate my public services WHICH I PAY MY f***ING TAXES FOR being destroyed....

I am honestly sick of people like you making excuses for this system... Bad enough we have to bail out these lousy Capitalist scum, but having our public services torn apart is frankly something we should not tolerate.....

There may be a recession threat but at least their sorting the benefit cheats out eh? My mum has had all of her money stopped even though she's been signed off work for 8 months and every doctor and physio she's seen has said she's not fit for work. But she can stand up and pick up a cup so actually, she is fit to work. GOOD ONE DAVE

 

In fairness, this "toughening up" of the benefits was started under the old government, it's not something that's been done by the new one. I believe about 70% of people who get told they're fit rfor work have that judgement overturned on appeal - so the taxpayer actually wastes MORE money, because they have to fund the appeal process and then, 7 times out of 10, they have to carry on paying the incapacity benefit payments in full anyway.

If there were not so many people fiddling the sytem then genuine cases would not be tarred with the same brush, my opinion is that at least 1/2 on incapacity benefit are trying it on and that 90% of claimants are capable of some form of work so genuine cases get inconvenienced because of the chancers.

 

Anything to back this up at all? Or are you just going on right-wing tabloids?

 

Scientists estimate around 1 in 20 people will suffer from serious depression at some point in their lives in this country, but less than 1/20 of the population are on sickness benefits (and, of those that are on them, not everyone is so because of depression), so there's actually a lot of people out there who are seriously depressed but don't claim the benefits they're entitled to, instead just trying to keep on with a stressful job (and probably making their health worse in the process). Your right-wing rhetoric doesn't work I'm afraid.

Anything to back this up at all? Or are you just going on right-wing tabloids?

 

Scientists estimate around 1 in 20 people will suffer from serious depression at some point in their lives in this country, but less than 1/20 of the population are on sickness benefits (and, of those that are on them, not everyone is so because of depression), so there's actually a lot of people out there who are seriously depressed but don't claim the benefits they're entitled to, instead just trying to keep on with a stressful job (and probably making their health worse in the process). Your right-wing rhetoric doesn't work I'm afraid.

 

According to official figures there is 2.6m people claiming incapacity benefit, excluding school kids, uni students, retired people that is probably around 1 in 8 people of working age.

 

I am anything but convinced that someone depressed for example is incapable of work, work would surely give them a stimulus (being around people, getting out of the house, doing something productive), someone who is depressed IMHO is capable of admin work, of computer related employment etc

 

The only people that have a strong case to be unavailable for work are people who are blind, people who are mentally retarded, people who are quadraplegic, they all have valid reasons why they can't be productive members of the workforce.

 

Others are capable of admin work IMHO

I notice that the lefties/liberals have kept very quiet about the MASSIVE fall in unemployment with over 50,000 off the dole queue, just about the single biggest fall since records began and a further sign after the 1.2% growth that the private sector is booming.

 

But hey doesn't suit your agendas of talking Britain down ;)

Unemployement is a lagging indicator.

According to official figures there is 2.6m people claiming incapacity benefit, excluding school kids, uni students, retired people that is probably around 1 in 8 people of working age.

 

I am anything but convinced that someone depressed for example is incapable of work, work would surely give them a stimulus (being around people, getting out of the house, doing something productive), someone who is depressed IMHO is capable of admin work, of computer related employment etc

 

The only people that have a strong case to be unavailable for work are people who are blind, people who are mentally retarded, people who are quadraplegic, they all have valid reasons why they can't be productive members of the workforce.

 

Others are capable of admin work IMHO

I've always thought volunteer work would stop depression, but admin work, really? :lol: Isn't the so called 'office rat race' one of the biggest factors behind dissatisfaction with life in the modern age?

I've always thought volunteer work would stop depression, but admin work, really? :lol: Isn't the so called 'office rat race' one of the biggest factors behind dissatisfaction with life in the modern age?

 

In a nutshell.. I don't know a single person who works in an office who is happy with their work.. Mainly because of how managers treat them more than the actual work itself...

 

I always find it a bad joke that we live in a democracy supposedly, but tolerate a virtual dictatorship in our workplace..

 

Working in an office and being happy to work there is entirely dependent on the people you work with. On my placement year at university I loved the office I worked in and the managers and team members were so nice. However, the job I have just recently left was conplety miserable due to my manager being a complete and utter wankwr who did not have two brain cells and the office manager who was the biggest bitch I have ever met in my life.

Another excellent article from David Blanchflower, the only person to foresee the recession etc. etc.:

 

 

Slasher and his pals are talking us into a recession

 

 

The role of a minister is to do no harm –– and yet the members of this coalition government seem intent on badmouthing Britain into economic crisis.

 

 

On 24 May, George Osborne said in a speech that the coalition was aiming "to boost confi­dence in the economy". Sadly, that has not happened. Far from it - there has instead been a terrible collapse in business and consumer confidence. And I place most of the blame for this on the gang of four: Osborne, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, all of whom have talked the British economy down at every opportunity.

 

This coalition government did not campaign on a wild cutting agenda - indeed, the Liberal Democrats campaigned actively against it - and was given no mandate to implement one by the British people. It made up a story that cutting was essential if Britain was not to become like Greece, unable to borrow a penny again. That story is simply not true. The government continues to borrow at low rates, and even when there was talk of a Lib Dem-Labour coalition there was no spike in the cost of borrowing.

 

Big mouth strikes again

In its haste to score political points by blaming all the country's ills on Labour, the government has imperilled the recovery still further. Crazy talk of the need for austerity has made a recession inevitable. "We are shaping the economy of the future by promoting a pro-growth agenda," Osborne said in a speech at Bloomberg on 17 August. Not so far, you're not.

 

Consumption, in particular, is going to fall as fear of unemployment begins to bite. Sales in the second quarter at Asda were down 0.4 per cent, compared with 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the first such decline since 2006. Andy Clarke, Asda's new CEO, has talked of a new "age of austerity".

 

Meanwhile, the Bank of England's agents reported: "Many contacts thought that consumer sentiment had softened, and that shoppers had begun to reduce expenditure in response to expected changes in taxes and concerns about job security." And despite figures showing that the German economy grew by 2.2 per cent, thanks largely to exports to the US and China, the second quarter of 2010 is likely to be the high point, as the world's two biggest economies have started to slow once more, which will inevitably have an impact on UK growth.

 

The most egregious example of badmouthing the economy was the damaging comments on 11 August by Chris Huhne, who, unlike the other members of the gang of four, has some background in economics and should know better. In a reprehensible press conference with the Tory party chair, Sayeeda Warsi, Huhne unwisely declared the economy to be "bankrupt" and, later, "shattered".

 

This is unadulterated nonsense and can only do harm to Britain's economic prospects. No wonder the Lib Dems' poll ratings are plummeting. My bet is that Huhne will be the first Lib Dem to leave the government, before even Vince Cable. It would have been better for the British people if Huhne had resigned in the spring when details of his affair became public.

 

Another example of a politician's comments damaging confidence was a remark made by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Justine Greening, who ludicrously described the UK economy as a "basket case" during a debate on the Budget in June. It's shameful. The role of a minister, like that of a doctor, is to do no harm. In future, Greening should engage her brain before opening her mouth.

 

The evidence for my claim that the coalition government has successfully driven confidence down is presented in the two charts below. These are based on what the consumer has been saying recently in surveys. The first chart plots the most recent data available from the Nationwide Consumer Confidence survey. Four series are plotted: the Consumer Confidence Index itself; the consumer spending index; the expectations index; and the percentage of people saying they expected there would be not many jobs available in six months' time.

 

http://images.newstatesman.com/columns/blanchflower-graph-20100823.jpg

 

http://images.newstatesman.com/columns/blanchflower-graph-20100823.jpg

 

It is worth noting that all four indicators have slipped, especially the jobs data and the spending index, since May 2010.

 

Confidence trick

The second chart plots data from the monthly surveys undertaken for the European Union by the analysts GfK. They are also the source for data on the fear of unemployment, which has also jumped since May.

 

Three series are plotted here: the Consumer Confidence Index; respondents' views on the general economic situation 12 months hence; and views on each respondent's own financial situation 12 months ahead. All three indicators fell from around February and then dipped sharply again from May, just when the leaders of the new government started talking the economy down.

 

The two charts tell the same story - consumer confidence is plunging fast. Business confidence is also collapsing. The business expectations indices from the purchasing managers' indices surveys covering services and construction showed record monthly falls in June. The indices remained weak in July.

 

Generally, steep changes in the expectations index are followed sooner or later by changes in actual economic activity. The Bank of England, in its Inflation Report for this month, also confirmed that "a number of surveys suggested that business and consumer confidence is slowing".

 

In his speech at Bloomberg, the Chancellor claimed that "the actions we took in the Budget have removed the biggest downside risk to the recovery - a loss of confidence". The data does not appear to be consistent with that claim.

 

**

 

Still think the economy is "booming", Craig?

Morgan Stanley Says Governments Will Default

Ask Not Whether Governments Will Default, but How

 

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36402437/MS-Default

 

 

 

Another wake up call for many.

Morgan Stanley Says Governments Will Default

Ask Not Whether Governments Will Default, but How

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36402437/MS-Default

Another wake up call for many.

 

Yep, it's definitely a smart move to listen to the advice of the people who helped cause the financial crisis, rather than listening to people like Blanchflower who saw it coming.

the private sector is booming.

 

O RLY?

 

 

Economy suffers slowdown as double dip looms

 

Economists fear the dangers of a double-dip recession are "growing alarmingly" after the release of the latest "grim" survey of business confidence in the service sector, and evidence of collapsing order books in the construction industry.

 

As the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee prepares to meet for its next session next week, the news adds to the pressure on the Bank to resume its programme of "quantitative easing", the direct injection of money into the economy.

 

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) reported yesterday that business sentiment remained "historically low", with pessimism about jobs driving the reading sharply down. The CIPS services index fell for the second month running, from 53.1 in July to 51.3 last month. Although suggesting a marginal expansion in services activity in coming months – the reading being above the benchmark figure of 50 – the trend is clearly downwards.

 

Adding the most recent results for manufacturing and construction shows the CIPS composite index, representing the vast bulk of the economy, suggesting that a marked slowdown is coming. The weighted average of the three indices declined further in August from February's post-recession peak, dropping 1.8 points – the largest decline since November 2008. The increase in output signalled in August was the weakest since June last year.

 

With thousands of jobs due to be cut in the public sector in coming months, the private sector seems ill-prepared to take up the slack. Service sector companies reduced their staffs in response to the continuing slowdown of new business growth in August, and the rate at which jobs were lost was the strongest since last October.

 

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, which conducts the CIPS survey, said: "Our model is signalling a GDP increase of 0.5 per cent for the third quarter, meaning the second quarter 1.2 per cent surge in GDP will represent a peak in the recovery cycle.

 

"Disappointingly, the rate of job losses in private sector service companies has picked up sharply again to the highest since last October as companies remain worried about the outlook.

 

"Confidence about the year ahead has failed to recover from June's record drop, with public sector spending cuts and the looming VAT hike in January creating uncertainty over the future direction of the economy." (*i.e. measures introduced by the Coalition)

 

The disappointing survey came on the day the Office for National Statistics published gloomy news for the construction sector. Orders for the building trade plunged by 14 per cent in the second quarter, with few parts of the sector escaping the pain. The slowdown in the property market is again feeding through to the builders, while actual cuts in local authority and central government spending on housing and infrastructure is beginning to make their presence felt. Private housing orders in the second quarter of 2010 fell by 24 per cent compared with the previous quarter, and infrastructure orders were down by 22 per cent.

 

The results suggest that the strong second-quarter growth of GDP published by the ONS – recently revised up by 0.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent for April o June – may have significantly overstated the robustness of the recovery.

 

Economists are becoming increasingly downbeat about the prospects of the economy. Alan Clark at BNP Paribas, said the CIPS survey was "grim reading" and "reinforces the likelihood that the economy will begin to contract in the not-too-distant future".

 

Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics added: "The three major sectors of the economy are now slowing sharply in tandem. The dangers of a double dip are growing alarmingly."

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business...ms-2070141.html

Edited September 4, 201014 yr by Danny

O RLY?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business...ms-2070141.html

 

Typical you though Danny, you seem to spend your time searching the net for bad news and ways of talking this country down, it is almost as if you get a kick out of it, you never seem to report any news that is talking Britain up or is good news about the country as it doesn't fit your agenda

you never seem to report any news that is talking Britain up or is good news about the country as it doesn't fit your agenda

 

That's because there isn't any.

Typical you though Danny, you seem to spend your time searching the net for bad news and ways of talking this country down, it is almost as if you get a kick out of it, you never seem to report any news that is talking Britain up or is good news about the country as it doesn't fit your agenda

This is news that's available for all to see who read The Independent - nothing you really have to search for. There has been nothing worth talking the country up about since the 1.2% growth - all signs since the Budget show it's doing no positive effect.

 

It's very revealing how you have no proper argument against the report!

The upcoming financial collapse