# Here we go - Cuts



## tracey w (Oct 20, 2010)

brace yourselves, here it comes...........


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## Caroline (Oct 20, 2010)

I am a low level civil servant so watch this space...


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## FM001 (Oct 20, 2010)

An expected 83 billion of public spending cuts and 500,000 job losses as a result, and yet they claim they want people of benefits and in work...........but where are the jobs coming from!  Toby.


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## Robster65 (Oct 20, 2010)

Selling 'Big Issue' to each other ? 

Rob


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## tracey w (Oct 20, 2010)

Very worrying times for all.


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## Caroline (Oct 20, 2010)

I plan to see what's on offer locally. I could end up shelf filling in Tescos or Sainsburys!


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## FM001 (Oct 20, 2010)

It's a safe bet that the impending cuts to health, education, public service, policing and armed forces will not be felt by the multi-millionaire Con-Dem government ministers or their families.  Toby.


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## rossoneri (Oct 20, 2010)

toby said:


> An expected 83 billion of public spending cuts and 500,000 job losses as a result, and yet they claim they want people of benefits and in work...........but where are the jobs coming from!  Toby.


Well with getting people off benefits it does not necessarily follow that they are going into work, they are making it more and more (and unreasonably IMO) difficult to continue to get benefits.  I was talking to someone on incapacity benefit yesterday, she has serious health problems and yet she has just had a benefits health review and scored zero points, meaning she will now be expected to seek work.  Knowing some of the problems she has had and continues to have I can only say that this is crazy.   

Still they will need to employ some folk to handle all the admin that these redundancies will create.


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## novorapidboi26 (Oct 20, 2010)

rossoneri said:


> Well with getting people off benefits it does not necessarily follow that they are going into work, they are making it more and more (and unreasonably IMO) difficult to continue to get benefits.  I was talking to someone on incapacity benefit yesterday, she has serious health problems and yet she has just had a benefits health review and scored zero points, meaning she will now be expected to seek work.  Knowing some of the problems she has had and continues to have I can only say that this is crazy.
> 
> Still they will need to employ some folk to handle all the admin that these redundancies will create.



Something seriously wrong with the review system if someone with significant health problems scores nothing..........

My job may also be under fire as an emlpoyee of Glasgows Land and Environmental Services, my hopes are pinning on the amount of retirements that are happening, this time next year it will be a completely different office.


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## Robster65 (Oct 20, 2010)

It is slightly scary that the ones making the decisions have all had priveleged upbringings/education and wouldn't really know what it's like to be 'normal'.

I know they have advisers and don't just make wild stabs in the dark but I wonder if they'd been brought up in a normal working class family and gone to a comp and had to find a job for a few years whether things would be as they are.

That applies to pretty much all politicians btw, not just tories 

Hope the global situation eases and pulls us out of the mess a bit sooner. Sorry to all who are in precarious positions.

Rob


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## rossoneri (Oct 20, 2010)

Blimey just had a chance to look in more detail at what has been announced today, must say it does not look good.  Just for my friend, the appeals process to reverse the decision for her losing Incapacity - now called Employment Support - Benefit is said quite a long slow process, quite a few months.  If she is successful she will probably lose it again soon afterwards because now there is a 12 month limit for anyone with assets, savings or an earning spouse - I think she has a little money saved from when she sold her house to help her cope when she first became too ill to work.  
Have to say I find this quite upsetting despite it not affecting me directly, well not yet anyway, and my friend is just one case and almost certainly there are many more who will be even worse off than her.



novorapidboi26 said:


> Something seriously wrong with the review system if someone with significant health problems scores nothing..........


I have been told that on The One Show yesterday (Tuesday) they had a young bloke who was suffering quite badly from Parkinson's and he too had scored zero points on a similar assessment.  I have not seen it yet but when I finish work tonight I may try and look it up on the iPlayer.  I believe he had successfully appealed, hope he has no assets, savings or spouse!



Robster65 said:


> It is slightly scary that the ones making the decisions have all had priveleged upbringings/education and wouldn't really know what it's like to be 'normal'. ...
> Rob


I occasionally have to drive through Eton.  If it is during the day then you normally see the boys walking between classes in what appear to be Edwardian school uniforms and their teachers in their University gowns.  Seeing this and large numbers of American and Japanese tourists taking photos normally leave feeling that I driving through some sort of bizarre theme park.  Judging by the way that the school folk, especially the teachers, seem intent on putting their lives at risk each time they cross the 20mph narrow road I am driving on I think you're right, an insight into 'normal' life is sadly lacking.


Caroline said:


> I am a low level civil servant so watch this space...





novorapidboi26 said:


> My job may also be under fire ...


Best of luck to both of you and anybody else whose livelihood, prospects, education and health might be put at risk by today's announcements.


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## Estellaa (Oct 21, 2010)

i'm actually really worried as to what i'm gonna do after college, it looks like getting into uni is gonna be a real challenge :/
damn tories go away.


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## ThunderBolt (Oct 21, 2010)

Not wanting to cause any undue worry, but I've been on IB for a good few years now. Not strictly for diabetes but more as a result of it. And even more for not behaving myself I suppose. 
I've just had an appeal hearing earlier this year after mine was cut. Start to end took nearly a year. The actual hearing took 15 minutes which included 10 minutes waiting time. It's - in my opinion - largely down to the doctors who aren't even doctors doing the examinations.  It's been a horrible year to put it politely but making the exams better would fix a lot of problems and I'd feel a lot easier in myself when the next one comes. 

As just one example of complete unsuitability the medical professional (I use that phrase very loosely) who did my 2nd exam didn't have a clue what retinopathy was... It's on my forms. Read it y' lazy beggars!


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## FM001 (Oct 21, 2010)

ThunderBolt said:


> As just one example of complete unsuitability the medical professional (I use that phrase very loosely) who did my 2nd exam didn't have a clue what retinopathy was... It's on my forms. Read it y' lazy beggars!





It was my understanding that the people who carry out these assessments are qualified doctors, so it is unbelievable that they didn't know what retinopathy was!  How can these people make a full and accurate decision on someone's capability to work when they are lacking in knowledge of certain medical conditions and complications, no one would expect them to have a full understanding of diseases or conditions such as a hospital consultant, but surely in medical school they must have come across the term 'retinopathy'!  Toby.


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## Copepod (Oct 21, 2010)

toby said:


> It was my understanding that the people who carry out these assessments are qualified doctors, so it is unbelievable that they didn't know what retinopathy was!  How can these people make a full and accurate decision on someone's capability to work when they are lacking in knowledge of certain medical conditions and complications, no one would expect them to have a full understanding of diseases or conditions such as a hospital consultant, but surely in medical school they must have come across the term 'retinopathy'!  Toby.



No guarantee of what type of healthcare professional - even ATOS, which carries out the assessments admits - see http://www.atoshealthcare.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=253

However, I would expect anyone carrying out an assessment to have heard of retinopathy and even if they hadn't, they should be able to interpret retinopathy as a disease (pathy) affecting retinas.


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