Born Free

This is the thing Treacle Worshipper people can be fit and healthy one day, have an accident the next day and life will either never be the same again or it will be a long time till they're back on their feet. You just don't know and most people aren't always adequately prepared financially for accidents or illnesses. It's not due to the fact that they can't be bothered, a lot of people simply can't afford insurance cover or they won't bearing in mind how corrupt and slimy those companies are when 6 times out of 10 they'll find any excuse not to pay out.

My partner found himself unable to work after an accident, he has a buggered shoulder. The DSS tried to get him back to work saying he could work with computers. Wap wap oops that was his job and he can only lift his arm so high before it dislocates. He demonstrated it to them quite nicely to prove the point. Their wee faces dropped a mile.

Anyway he was given no help whatsoever from the government for 6 months. No money, nothing. The small income I had was barely enough to keep us, it was hell.

Fortunately for us he had taken out accident and illness insurance for 2 years prior to the accident. They didn't pay out for 7 months but at least now he has a regular monthly income which is far less than he was used to but it's better than the pittance the government offered. They didn't even call it incapacity benefit, it was a made up benefit called "incapacity based income support". The DSS claimed he hadn't paid enough in NI contributions which was bollocks as he had been actually paying double what everyone else does.

There was some new system introduced I can't remember exactly what it was but quite a few million people's NI files were lost, he only found out about it by accident. This is what caused the DSS to claim he hadn't paid enough in. Despite it being their fault they wouldn't let him backdate his claim.

This is the joke, you'd think people can get millions but the truth is joe bloggs gets hardly anything in any benefit unless it's long term disability payments, I think that pays the most but even then they give with one hand and take away with the other. We damn well pay it in while we're working and it's not exactly peanuts. To get it back off them when we need it is not an easy task.

The other scandal is that my partner still pays both the employer and employee part of the NI contributions as well as tax on his insurance income. The government still has to take a cut.

The other disappointing thing for him was his last appointment with his surgeon. After exploratory surgery they've found his shoulder is inopperable, there is nothing more they can do. The consultant was disgusted with his level of treatment to date saying that if he had been properly diagnosed at casualty and sent immediately for surgery, they might have been able to do something. As it stands the consultant said when he starts to fully lose the use of his arm he has to go back to hospital and they'll try to give him some mobility although it will be minimal ie he will be able to move his arm up and down or side to side but not both.

Some people would indeed prefer to see the likes of yourself and my partner kicked even harder when they're down.

Fortunately they're in the minority.

meritocrat

I doubt it. Though it's funny to see someone believe they can know someone from what they post on an Internet site.

Gurdur

Most of us recognise some need for integrity; we don't make statements we don't believe in, and what we say online represents what we'ld say offline.

Of course, there are also trolls who like to hide behind cyberpersonae, but most of us just don't agree with suchlike behaviour.

Dr. Retard

But what do political opinions have to do with opinions about what to do in your daily life? They might be remotely connected by common principles, but emphasis on the "remotely".

Gurdur

*yawn*
Surely a good philosopher recognises that personal emotional imperatives and values often lie behind political and philosophical stances ?
Therefore one can often deduce the one from the other.


And your "remotely" is an unsubstantiated assertion.

Plus it's off-topic, a strawman and etc.

Dr. Retard

Yeah they often do, but they needn't. So any 'deduction' is an invalid one. Putting deduction aside, you can at best draw some tentative empirical conclusions, with the help of observations about humans in general. But at worst, it turns into idiotic stereotyping.

Nothing wrong with unsubstantiated assertions, so long as you expect the assertion to be pretty plain to everyone -- e.g., people don't like it when their children die. And I thought it's pretty plain that what the state ought to do and what I ought to do are pretty different matters. Should I be arresting criminals and trying them in my basement? You probably agree: No.

Off-topic? How? (Uh oh! Unsubstantiated assertion!) Strawman? How, and of whom? (Yet another!)

Jat

If you can't be honest in what you say than what you say is not worth anything. All we have ever given you is our honest opinion.

Treacle Worshipper

alli,
I'll PM you my reply, 'cos it went rather off-topic.
TW

Born Free

And a darned good reply it was as well ta chick!!!!

Loren Pechtel

Originally posted by alli
This is the thing Treacle Worshipper people can be fit and healthy one day, have an accident the next day and life will either never be the same again or it will be a long time till they're back on their feet. You just don't know and most people aren't always adequately prepared financially for accidents or illnesses. It's not due to the fact that they can't be bothered, a lot of people simply can't afford insurance cover or they won't bearing in mind how corrupt and slimy those companies are when 6 times out of 10 they'll find any excuse not to pay out.

An awful lot of people want the higher standard of living they get from not buying insurance.