Probably the most honest summary sentence of Britain's Benefits System...?
And we all kind of know it, but no one can quite bring themselves to say it out loud, but the simple truth is that far from supporting vulnerable people through crises such as addiction or mental illness, the state increasingly opts for the cheapest, laziest approach: approve the payment, file the paperwork, and move on.
Except, of course, it’s not cheap at all....
The Rise of "Cheque-and-Forget" Welfare
5,000 people a day are now cleared for sickness benefits. These levels fare ar higher than a decade ago. Alcoholism one of the accepted causes, but often no treatment route will be attached. We give them money, not help. And once someone is signed off, the system has no real mechanism to bring them back.
Britain at least used to pretend to have a rehabilitative welfare model. Now, with labour shortages filled by immigrants, the economic incentive to reintegrate the sick and vulnerable has all but vanished. Human beings have become administratively inconvenient. The welfare state has become a hospice ward for those it no longer sees as economically useful.
Blaming the individual is easy, but this is an institutional failure above all. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently warned that long-term sickness claims have reached record highs, driven by a combination of mental health issues, long-term conditions, and a system that doesn’t even attempt early intervention
Final Thoughts...
We need to get a grip on this, and fast!