More than 4,000 alcoholics are claiming full-time disability benefits in Greater Manchester – landing taxpayers with a £10m annual bill.
Just in Manchester alone!
They show a total of 4,220 people were claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB) or Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA), where alcoholism was listed as the main `disabling condition’.
The weekly bill to the taxpayer for benefits paid out across the region is between £250,835 and £373,490. Disability benefits are state handouts aimed at those who can’t work because of disability or illness and are worth up to £84.50 a week. They unlock further benefits, such as support with council tax and housing bills.
On 18 October 2007, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that certain benefits, including disability living allowance (DLA), carers allowance and attendance allowance, were exportable to other EEA states.
So stay permanently p*ssed, register as unable to work because you are permanently p*ssed, and you can then move somewhere more salubrious and sunny, where the tax payer funded alcohol is cheaper, and relax – no need to worry about work.
A spokesman for Addaction, Britain’s leading addiction charity, said: ‘Alcoholism is certainly an illness. It is hugely debilitating.’
Not as debilitating as supporting alcoholics is for the tax payer.
Please will someone ask their MP to enquire as to the total amount tax payers are shelling out to support alcoholics nationwide?
Edited to add link I was too stunned to include in the original piece…..here is the link to the FOI request which got this information….
Anna is the landlady of the Raccoon Arms. She lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France and still takes a keen interest in British politics.
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If anybody needs me for anything …………. I am learning how to get drunk enough to be classed as an alcoholic! …………. I shall spread the word to everybody I know. They will be so grateful not to have to work 70 and 80 hour weeks anymore.
Hang on Coco, I’m coming to join you….mine’s a large one…but enough about me!!
WTF?
I’m moving to Spain in that case.
Is it still April Fool’s or is reality really more insane?
Great stuff Cato! …………. I have hired a couple of coaches and containers already. Don’t forget your tooth-brush and your national insurance and medical numbers ……….. Oh! And your favourite sun-creams and HP sauce.
Looks like I had better hire some more coaches. I wonder if we could charge our flights and relocation costs to the DWP? I am thinking of going where Freddie the Banker going. Should be out of the way of prying eyes wherever it is he fancies!
Not an April Fools joke Plato – I searched for two days for something suitable for an April Fools joke – all I could find was more genuine insanity……..!
As it happens I have personal knowledge that this can be true, my ex-brother in law has been on this scam for 20 odd years – but even so, I hadn’t realised that it was so wide spread – 4,000 in one town!
I want the National figure if anyone can get it……..
And then of course there are the registered drug addicts.
Of course as a registered alcoholic or drug addict, as well as great benefits, you can behave criminally to your heart’s content and Magistrates, generally, will come over all soft and cuddly when dealing with you.
I’d try it if I liked either drugs or alcohol, sadly I don’t. Ah me!
The other option is to start taking drugs ……….. Same benefits!
646 MPs have spent
The MPs Blink. Still the MPs ……… because drunks cannot really be held responsible ……… Whereas the MPs ……….
“because drunks cannot really be held responsible”
They can’t? Surely its a mitigating factor at best.
Katabasis
……….. Personally I would give every alcoholic a pick-axe ……… and get them out in the fresh air digging the roads. Male or female ……… with no upper or lower age limits!
interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMMxomYvMoA
Tried to watch your link Blink ……….. But after about 5 seconds it said. ‘Sorry video no longer available.’ ……… and disappeared. Must have been too interesting for us all to watch.
Blink ……….. your link is back.
A cousin of mine became an alcoholic. He received extremely severe injuries in a road accident. He recovered (against the expectations of the doctors) but was in terrible pain for the rest of his life. The doctors prescribed him painkillers that did not work and steroids that made things worse. Eventually he decided to self-medicate with alcohol. It worked, but he eventually became an alcoholic.
It’s not always a conscious effort to become an alcoholic.
You are not wrong here Matt. I have seen people go the same way with Bell’s palsy, trigeminal neuralgia and kidney stones etc. Usually due to lack of investigations, botched operations and extremely poor prescribing by doctors. I have also seen people drink themselves to death through not being given psychological help and counselling. Shocking.
Genuine disability I have no problems with, the disable have never been better off. I object to people being called disabled by self-inflicted means, they call it
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