In what may yet be the most controversial of government cuts, MPs are being advised to consider forcing cancer patients, many of whom are terminally ill, to undergo medical and back-to-work assessments in order to receive government welfare allowances. Charities throughout the UK are incensed by this latest move on the part of government and are lobbying to put a stop to it before it actually goes before Parliament for a vote.
As many as 30 assorted cancer charities alongside cancer experts are asserting that cancer patients are already experiencing enough stress with the treatments they must undergo and to subject them to devastatingly stressful assessments is, in plain terms, cruel and unusual punishment for being sick. Many of these patients are valiantly fighting for their very lives and to add unnecessary stress to the equation is simply preposterous.
Amongst proposed measures most upsetting to critics is the fact that David Cameron is adamant in his plans to cut as much as £94 weekly from the ESA (employment support allowance) which would directly affect more than 7,000 cancer patients who are now receiving up to a £100 maximum.
Further, government intends to punish cancer patients if they don’t get well quickly enough by limiting ESA to 12 months. It is no wonder oncologists, cancer experts and cancer charities are outraged at the prospect of denying benefits to critically ill patients because it took them longer than a year to recover from a potentially fatal disease.
In the end it all boils down to politics and money as the parties are leering at each other across the table in regards to proposed changes and which party suggested what. The proposed changes which would require stressful face to face assessment interviews are expected to save a total greater than £1.2 billion, but at what cost to our humanity, critic argue.
Chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, Ciarán Devane, is on record as saying that the government should not be making it more difficult on cancer patients as this is the hardest fight many of them will ever have to face. Government’s response is that receiving benefits is forcing cancer patients to a life of benefits and joblessness. Having the last word, Devane countered with a mention of government’s clear disregard for the physically punishing effects of these debilitating treatments.
