Obese benefit claimants face heavy threat
Author: Jim Pickard & Sarah Neville, The FT |
Alex Thomson was quoted in response to potential approaches to public health once responsibility for it transfers to local government.
Overweight or unhealthy people who refuse to attend exercise sessions prescribed by doctors face having benefits docked under proposals to be put forward by a Tory-run local authority on Thursday.
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Alex Thomson, chief executive of Localis, the think-tank, said that the idea was “localism in practice” and should be allowed to have trials.
But Mr Thomson said the policy seemed to discriminate against those who chose to exercise but not at council-owned facilities. “And even if you check in to the pool how will they know if you just sit and have a latte in the café instead?” he said.