Moving the goalposts

 

Not for the first time since the coalition came to power we are told that all is well and the unemployment figures are down..for the third successive month..so we are supposed to believe that the governments Nazi style attack on the sick and elderly forcing them to work is working and that its good for the country..although somehow I cannot see David Cameron going to work at over 70.

However, I think we are supposed to ignore or at least not worry about the media admitting that the claimant count for Job seekers allowance is UP..now perhaps we are, indeed I think so, supposed to be a bit dim ..like trying to add up two and two making five and not realising something is not quite right.....But would this little anomaly have anything to do with the number of sick people being forced off sickness related benefits and on to job seekers allowance. Indeed only last week at my signing on the jobcentre adviser ,when I pointed out to her that my GP is issuing medical certificates
( now called fit notes) saying that i should not be working at all, nodded in agreement when I remarked, expecting to be carried off to the Tower for treason against the state..that it is no longer your GP who decides if you are sick or not but the government...and on that point the government will not be in the least bit bothered by the looming doctors strike since they will consider doctors a pretty disposable commodity...saving us loads of money in salaries and administration costs of course.

The other aspect , well one at least as I am no statistician, is that the unemployment figures are being bent and made to look like they are improving while the truth is that many people are being forced to take part time work, which then considers them employed...The part time work may well be all that they can get but it has a comparison with something i learned when i did a course in housing  and supported tenancies some time ago..being homeless does not just mean having nowhere to live, it can also mean your home not being secure because you cannot afford it, which is my own position. Being forced to take a part time job because it is all that you can get very often results in being forced off benefits because you are only just over the benefit entitlement limit, but in no way having enough income to live on and pay your bills..and it has been stated in the media this week that many , many people are in work yet living at poverty levels, levels at which the government of course is trying to move the goalposts by changing the definition of poverty....

Valerie