Obese people face benefit cuts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/03/obesity-benefits-cuts

I think this is a fantastic idea, but I am disappointed that ministers want to take a "carrot and stick" approach. In my opinion, there should be no financial carrot, the carrot is their health and livelihood. Instead it should be all stick, and not just sticks, but brutally beaten with batons.

If you cut payments to the obese, of course they will try and protect the amount of food they buy, so you need to cut so much that they cannot afford to buy as much food. If they were less obese, maybe they'd commit a crime, but alas, they are physically incapable of going out robbing.

Afterall, they let themselves go and should take personal responsibility.

Fat people don't bother me or my environment, but smokers do.
They should leave the fatties alone and go for the smokers.
Smoking costs the NHS more than poor diet so why don't they go for them?
Oh wait... cant make a massive tax revenue stream from the fatties.

Fat people don't bother me or my environment, but smokers do.
They should leave the fatties alone and go for the smokers.
Smoking costs the NHS more than poor diet so why don't they go for them?
Oh wait... cant make a massive tax revenue stream from the fatties.

I agree with the sentiment regarding smokers but the reality is that smokers generate more money in tax revenue with their habits than they cost in healthcare over their lives. But there is far more at stake than money here. Frankly, smoking should be illegal. It'd be far harder to do it if shops weren't legally allowed to sell the stuff and importing it was very difficult. How on earth we can sit idly by and watch people consume toxic chemicals on a regular basis, killing themselves in the process, is beyond me. Imagine what the food standards agency would say if a food existed which was as poisonous and addictive as smoking? Somehow I think it'd not be for sale for very much longer.

I'm leaning towards the idea of giving people tokens instead of benefits. Such tokens could be budgetted for people, and food tokens could be designed in such a way where they were not able to be spent on things like alcohol, cigarettes, or unhealthy foods. It reminds me of the rationing days of WWII, where people actually had healthy diets. I'm all for helping people who are socially deprived (even if such is by their own doing), but we need to be sensible about how we help them. Simply throwing money at situations has failed. People without the skills to budget, eat healthily, or look after their children properly are not going to do so whether they have money or not. It annoys me that my taxes fund people on benefits to smoke, eat like garbage (thus furthering their plight), all whilst bringing their children up to do/be the same and continuing the cycle.

What right do you have to tell people what they should or should not do with their own body?

Fat people don't bother me or my environment, but smokers do.
They should leave the fatties alone and go for the smokers.
Smoking costs the NHS more than poor diet so why don't they go for them?
Oh wait... cant make a massive tax revenue stream from the fatties.

The fact that tax payers money goes towards them when they messed up their life? Sure they can do what they like with their own body, but they should use their own money to do so, as well as use their own money to fix the consequences.

There are plenty of irritating human behaviours.. I'm sure I've read before that if one smokes 10 cigarettes a day for life he pays 2x the cost of care for someone who has contracted lung cancer or something. Can't we just tax all unhealthy activity?

According to that logic everyone on benefits has 'messed up their life' as their relative poverty is the reason they get money from state, not their weight.

There are far more reasons why people may be on benefits other than them messing up their life due to a lack of self control...

What right do you have to tell people what they should or should not do with their own body?

We should be legalising drugs not banning them.


What a repulsive, authoritarian idea. Straight out of the puritan SNP policy handbook.

Yes, I know that. That also applies to obese people on benefits as well. They aren't on benefits because they are obese which is the assumption that you seemed to be making in your first post.

Dear me, are some people not aware that some people have lower metabolisms than others? I can eat anything and never put weight on but others put on so much weight by eating the same things.

Then the solution is to privatise the NHS and cut welfare dramatically if you're so concerned. Limiting a person's liberty is never the solution.

What right do you have to tell people what they should or should not do with their own body?