UKs treatment of disabled people

[G.Elias]

Not sure i'd even call it evolution, i can't think of the word or term used for going backwards in time but it feels like that .

[G.Elias]

The DWP which is the department for work and pensions,responsible for social security in the UK,has been forced to release updated Employment and Support Allowance(ESA) mortality statistics,ESA is paid to people unable to work due to illness,disability etc.
Some statistics of the number of deaths related to people having their social security stopped and their deaths soon after.

https://welfareweekly.com/dwp-forced-to-...it-deaths/

[barq2]

Not seen the Ken Loach film just yet barq, keep meaning to watch it then think it would make me depressed,esp dealing with them at the mo, all those forms and questions at medicals seemed to be there to make a person fail, its all become so nasty and demeaning, your right,more like Victorian Britain nowadays, wait til this universal credit is rolled out all over, its going to end up with people desperate for money spending what they receive for rent on other stuff they need, evictions will rise, streets fill up with yet more homeless, sometimes its like they want us to fail and end up on the streets with no social security, heartless.
Yes, when did SS become 'benefits' ? All dressed up but with never anywhere to go, that government minister who replaced IDS lies to parliament about universal credit,about suicides but no action gets taken against her, if i lied about claiming SS you can bet they'd be down on me, throwing the whole damn book at me, this government is getting away with so much that no civilised country should be allowing to take place, shame that there is so many voting for these bad lot, beats me as to why working class folk actually vote for them, may as well make the rope, tie it into a noose and kiss their asses goodbye, what a place we have become.
Hopefully, better days will come.

Being a Ken Loach film the politics are pretty obvious - you know what you are going to get. Even from a dramatic perspective there is a very obvious "Chekov's gun" that you know will go off before the story ends (I don't think that's too much of a plot spoiler). My feeling was it had been written for people with little or no knowledge of the situation - essentially to raise awareness. If you're living the social security nightmare then watching the film probably has less value (it won't tell you anything you don't know) and might be depressing. I think there are times when having your story represented on screen can be empowering, but it really isn't that sort of film as it doesn't end happily.

What "Daniel Blake" does is absolutely nail how sinister the system has become. It goes beyond the meanness and absurd assessments to show the many ways in which people are dehumanised. It isn't just that the system doesn't care, it is actively working against those it purports to help. And when you dehumanise people, things that were previously unthinkable become thinkable. History tells us this is a very slippery slope.

I share your amazement at how many working class people seem to vote against their own interests. Or to take a specific example, raising tax on inheritance would bring in a lot of money. It taxes unearned money and redistributes from the very rich to pay for the infrastructure that made them rich in the first place. Yet most people are against inheritance tax, even when it would only affect inheritance over £1m (i.e. a tiny percentage of people - and almost definitely not them). I suspect a lot of people secretly aspire to be that rich so don't vote for higher taxation due to a belief they'll make it big one day. Perhaps that's a nice dream to cling on to, but I see a lot of friends voting against themselves and the services on which they depend. I know someone who is on dialysis and the NHS keeps him alive. He wishes the NHS had more resources and sees that the doctors and nurses are stressed, yet he votes for a political party that doesn't properly fund the NHS. I really struggle with understanding that. It is his right to vote any way he wishes, but I still think it is unwise of him!

Hopefully better days will come and we will look back on this as a "rough patch".