Obese people losing benefits

2essie

How do you feel about this? One council in the UK is proposing this.

I suppose anyone on benefits usually has the time to go to the gym and membership will be free but should we force this on people?

What are your views?

Edited to add Councils want to force people to go to the gym and become healthier or they loose benefits

logdunne

It is an interesting proposal that i doubt will ever amount to anything. Has sparked a few interesting debates though.
I agree that people who are overweight should take responsability for losing that weight, and that obesity causes large expenditure in the health and social care system, however they will never get away with cutting benefits/increacing council tax of people who refuse/do not have motivation/education enough to lose weight- If it was ever put in place they would need a far more thorough checking system than they currently have to ensure patients follow docters advice and actually excercise at the gym, and probably have to involve mental health services to a degree to ensure they arnt penalising people who are suffering mental illness.- it will cost far more than it saves.

Vailara

I'm not sure exactly what they are proposing. Are they offering free gym membership for obese people, then cutting benefits for those who don't attend the gym often enough? I can see all sorts of problems with that, including monitoring it. Going to the gym isn't the only or best way to lose weight anyway (exercise tends to be pretty ineffective on its own). Why should an active obese person have benefits reduced (if they don't go the gym), but not a sedentary slim person? What about child care costs? The gym isn't going to be fun place if it's overrun with people who don't want to be there but have to go or else they'll get their benefits cut.

Supposedly, benefits are supposed to bring people up to an acceptable minimum income. I'm really wary of any proposals which would cut them to an unacceptable level for people who don't comply.