Re some are too ill to work, ccccccccccccccccccccccp there are obviously some in that category Jean but I really don't think there are 2.5 million genuine disabled persons in this country, the number built up under this Labour Govt., who are getting disablement benefits. If so, the N H S has been an absolute failure. And I appreciate not all disablement claimants are " homegrown ", indeed my initial Iraqi friend himself is of that category, self induced and for which he has largely lost my respect and gets the rough edge of my tongue, but he still clings to me as a friend. He has been here for 10 years now, has never worked and paid taxes, unbeknown to me, in his early stages he started on drugs which eventually took their toll, made him suicidal, was put into " secure accomodation ", was there for 2 years almost, the cost of which must be horrendous, eventually let out, flat now supplied by taxpayers, as all other costs, he still does not work, on disablement ( depression ) benefits but drives around London in his father's car ( he in Basra now lecturing at University ). Costs us a fortune. He brought a friend Fouad several years ago to see me, had told me re Fouad, was disabled and on benefits, given flat etc in Finsbury and all other bens due to his disablement but when he and Fouad came to do some work for me I saw nothing wrong with Fouad except some scald marks on his neck, and said so to my friend after they had left. I was then told when Fouad was young in Syria, he was scalded by boiling water and when of working age as there are no disablement bens in his own country, he came here to get ours despite the fact he started fulltime working, initially in a dry cleaners and then delivering the Evening Standard in bulk by van. Then there was the Iraqi doctor who was here for training as a doctor for the Iraqi army but when the Iran-Iraq war broke out in erly 80's he applied for asylum here and has lived on disability bens and every other imaginable to this day. Nothing wrong with him then, or now, doesn't OFFICIALLY work, so who signs the disability forms I don't know but since I have known him he has got through 3 wives ( consecutively ) and sired many children, all of whom have to be paid for. I would love to be in charge of Welfare in this country and I guarantee the costs would plummet.
Tony Price ● 5986d