Letters: Covid was a chance to reset. So why are we still working until we drop?

A Big Issue reader says Covid offered an opportunity for rethinking our economic model.

Covid questions

The even bigger question, for me at least, is why have we collectively gone straight back to business as usual so soon after the Covid pandemic? It’s almost like we’re doing the same things all over again but trying harder. It’s still all maximum profit for minimum costs or outlay, trying to get perpetual economic growth out of finite resources, and trying to make trickle-down work despite knowing that it always fails. People are off work sick more because increasingly they’re measured against productivity and output and expected to work harder and longer.

This is nuts. First and foremost, work is a social activity. Secondly, all human relationships are variable. There are no absolute human relationships. But it seems that all our economic models are absolute, rigid and inflexible. So if you keep pushing people to be productive and keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing, eventually some people will crack and start developing health issues.

We talk about people who are economically inactive and not working, and many are sick, but how many of these people are actually burnt out through years of being pushed to be productive and hard working? How many people in the benefits system, sick or not, are actually burnt out and unable to work at the same level of productivity as they were before?

Why is there such opposition to working from home? I thought that this was one of the benefits of the Covid lockdowns, people discovering that they could work from home. I know it doesn’t sit well with our domination culture and the widespread control freakery that goes on in many workplaces, but it does have significant environmental benefits.

u/ElvishMystical, Reddit

Dream on

I was just reading this morning on my news app: The Sun news says: ‘Millions on benefits can STILL get top-of-the-range BMWs & Ford Mustangs worth over £50k despite Labour’s welfare cuts’.

This makes me so angry, making out disabled people are living the dream. In this article it does not mention that if you do choose a really expensive car then you have to pay thousands towards it and then pay monthly with the payments from PIP. 

There are also cheaper cars with no deposit but people still pay for it out of the PIP money like a lease. You can’t get a second-hand car on disability – if you could then I’m sure more people would have one.

Why are they getting such bad press? No wonder taxpayers are angry. It’s about time they knew the truth about how most poor disabled people really do live.

Jackie Tipping

Brexit wrecks it

Can you please flag up that merging the contributory Employment Support Allowance (ESA) with Jobseeker’s Allowance JSA affects chronically ill people living abroad? I live in Portugal and am disabled with no chance of returning to work, but under these plans I will be moved to unemployment insurance which is time-limited. I cannot claim universal credit (UC) from Portugal so what are they putting in place to stop me losing over £7,000 from my income and throwing me into extreme poverty?!

They need to make the UC health element exportable or have a level of ESA that is protected for chronically ill people.

I cannot export the mobility part of PIP already, which is unfair as I have the same mobility problems as people living in the UK!

I believe they are breaking the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement by withdrawing this exportable incapacity benefit for the long-term disabled.

Sally Ann Brown, Portugal

• Long Covid cases 50% higher in most deprived households than in the richest
• ‘Being alive is utterly exhausting’: How Covid forced people out of work and onto benefits
• We must learn from Covid and ensure that disabled people are never again neglected

Parent trap

My child is 14 years old and I have been fighting for an EHCP (education, health and care plan) for two years. At the minute my child is in a school that can’t meet her needs. She doesn’t get any kind of education. The local authority is aware but totally ignores us. I found a special independent provision with available places but the local authority refused to send an EHCP for consultation and made us wait for four weeks for an early review. 

There is a risk of significant self-harming and a lot of dangerous situations that have already happened. As a parent I’m broken I feel trapped, disappointed, frustrated. I had to give up work. I’ve lost an income, can’t afford holidays for my children, and am stuck in unemployment and in a consistent fight for everything. Is it fair? 

Alex

10Foot tall

My mate at St Paul’s who sells Big Issue said last Friday he had two copies [of 10Foot’s takeover issue] left and some guy said, “How much do you want for them?” Jokingly, he said £100… and the guy paid it!!! He was over the moon. Thank you big man, thank you Big Issue for letting my man take over your mag and thank you to all the vendors for selling it. Life is gooooooooood!!!!

@tomone48, Instagram

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