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UK: How The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) Is Drafting In Doctors To Promote Iain Duncan Smith’s Warped Ideology
by johnny void
Are you working hard enough? Are you sure? What if you get sick, or have an accident? Are you prepared to go to work anyway, even if you don’t think it would be good for your health? What if your doctor and boss agree you could do something other than your usual job instead of malingering at home? Like making cups of tea all day, or cleaning the bogs, or any form of work your empoyer can dream up to force you not to take time off. Because that is now the chilling reality as the DWP attempts to inject Iain Duncan Smith’s warped ideology into the NHS.
Last week the DWP issued patronising new guidance to GPs on when they should issue a Fit Note. Doctors are warned of the dangers of ‘worklessness’ and told they must consider “the vital role that work can play in your patient’s health”. According to the department, “the evidence is clear that patients benefit from being in some kind of regular work”.
This is an outright lie. What the evidence says is that on balance most people might be better off working but the beneficial health effects depend on the nature and quality of that work. In the report on which the DWP’s claims are based – a paper incidentally commissioned by the DWP themselves – the authors actually warn that “a minority of people may experience contrary health effects from work”.
This study – called Is Work Good For Your Health and Well Being (pdf) – has formed the basis of government policy ever since the Labour administration launched the despised Work Capability Assessment for out of work sickness benefits in 2008. It features a reasonably wide-ranging review of the evidence of the health risks and benefits of work and concludes that work, on balance, is better for most people’s health than unemployment but with important caveats. These findings have been consistently misrepresented by politicians who have used them to claim that any kind of work is good for health, and that this applies to everybody.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=4382
