Health secretary Wes Streeting has announced a trial in which unemployed people, as well as some people in work,  will be offered weight loss jabs with the intention of making them more employable.

Announcing the move in the Telegraph, Streeting told the paper “Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

He unveiled a £279 million investment from pharmaceutical giant Lilly, collaborating with the government in a project “that includes exploring new ways of delivering health and care services to people living with obesity, and a five-year real-world study of a cutting-edge obesity treatment.”

It is clear that the main focus of the project is to look at whether health interventions can lower the benefits bill, however.  Streeting claimed that “For many people, these weight-loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS.”

The trial will be taking place in Manchester and will look at whether being given the weight loss jabs will reduce workplace absence and increase the chances of being in work.

Benefits and Work would be pleased to hear from anyone invited to join the trial.

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 6 days ago
    Medical decisions shouldn't be about getting a job. It's something for doctors to advise each individual on the risks of side effects vs. the risk of not getting treated.
    Whether the NHS should provide it for free or not is a government decision.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 6 days ago
    From personal experience those "weight loss," drugs can only be prescribe after specialist counselling, because if you do not follow the instruction given by the expert nurse, you can have some VERY nasty side effects. The policy could kill people. (Seriously.)
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    How to make loadsa money:
    1. Invest in companies that make, promote and sell ulta processed foods, especially to children.
    2. Invest in companies that make, promote and sell drugs that alleviate the effects of regularly consuming ultra processed foods.
    3. Invest in politicians that make laws which allow and/or even encourage the above.
    4. Apply pressure on the politicians - that now owe you - to support more of the above and you might one day be able to persuede them to make a range of benefits contingent on taking a range of expensive drugs paid for through the NHS budget,
    5. Stash your profits in a tax haven.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Well, good luck Wes Streeting because this will NEVER happen! I've been on the waiting list to see an endocrinologist and get Wegovy or Ozempic since August 2023, and every 3 months or so I get a text asking me if I'm still interested in seeing an endocrinologist, I click yes and continue to wait.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 11 days ago
    Everyone, please please Google the side effects of these treatments, which include pancreatitis and diarrhoea.  They are a treatment, not a cure - stop taking the meds and you put the weight back on. Studies all paid for by manufacturers, so of course the results look like a miracle treatment!  Also, you have to use a diet plan and exercise, just same as if you would minus the “weight loss” jab.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    Another gimmick. We don't have the drugs, the money, or the NHS people to fulfil this ridiculous notion. Unfortunately the message to some in society is that overweight people are getting benefits and this will make them targets for the ignorant.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    It's disgusting.
    Surely this goes against all human rights 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    Nothing will come of it, except some pharma company will be £200+mil richer.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    They seem to be working as always on the lie that we are all lazy scroungers who are obese through doing nothing.
    How will weight lose drugs help those with mental health issues or physical issues who aren't overweight.

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    I’ve tried everything possible over the years to lose weight and I can’t work because I have a medical condition that effects my immune system my cardiologist referred me to have these weight loss injections because of the extra strain my weight is putting on my body which isn’t by the way anything to do with overeating but not being able to move around and various medications /steroids etc but willing to try anything the upshot is I got a letter from the weight loss injection clinic on the nhs saying even with my referral the wait time to be seen is currently 3 years!! Yes 3 years! So if this injection is going to be offered to the unemployed to help get them feeling and able to go back to work will they too have to join the wait list behind people with a medical need or will they get pushed to the front in order to get them off benefits and into work? 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 11 days ago
      @Sj Like you, I have struggled with my weight. After trying what felt like a million and one diets i was referred to a weight loss program. I waited 14 months for my first appointment with a doctor who told me the weight loss injections would be good for me as a pre-diabetic with heart problems. Another 18 months down the line , after speaking with psychologists, dietitians, physiotherapists and attending a bariatrics surgery presentation I was told that the NHS cannot provide what I need. My only way of getting thd injections was to pay privately,  which is about £200 monthly 🙄 . Needless to say, that is out of my price range.  Three years wasted and hopes shattered.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    When I, along with a group of about 10 other people,  visited the local NHS obesity centre in March of this year we were told that this injection was no longer available to nhs patients as the NHS had been outbid for the contract and therefore were unable to get a supply even for the diabetics who were the original intended target sufferers.  The advice on that particular day was intimated to consider going abroad for weight loss surgery as it was a lot cheaper than having it done privately here!

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    Overeating can be an unhelpful coping strategy for an underlying mental health condition. More mental health support in a timely fashion would do more good, as would tackling mental wellbeing in schools. 

    Employers need to be taken to task for discriminating against larger people; fatism needs to be a protected characteristic. People need to stop berating others for their size; it is counter-productive. I speak from personal experience.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    I had weight loss jabs before I had weight loss surgery and had growths appear on my thyroid which resulted in surgery to remove one half   At the time they were banned in USA due to rats growing nodules on throats but it was safe in Uk ! , they said it was a coincidence ….i used injections for 6 months and lost about a quarter of a stone plus the pharmacist Kept telling me how expensive they are !!! My weight loss hasn’t made my arthritis /carpal tunnel/brain cyst/fibromylgia/tinnitus/anxiety/ptsd etc etc go it enabled me to have a hip and knee replacement and will still need more surgeries in future but I certainly couldn’t work still 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    The reasons for obesity are complex.  What we are seeing here, and the real pathology, and wider context, is the toxic narrative that has helped to hasten the downfall of this country.  

    For forty years a series of scapegoats have been manufactured by politicians; single mothers, unemployed, young people, homeless, and so on.  There have been quite a few.  Always the least well numerated;, the ones they deem ‘unproductive’ always those who are the least likely to line the pockets, or have the ear of politicians.  we have been crudely manipulated to believe we don’t deserve care or respect unless we are productive and fit exactly into the box they have assigned for us.  We see services diminished and cut back; and we are increasingly primed to expect less and less for our taxes.

    Note the language;  It is disciplinarian and couched in compulsion.  Bullying and coercive,  It is ‘a kick up the backside’.  Not difficult to believe that unemployed people are being used as guinea pigs in a lucrative medical trial.  It chooses to infer that those who are obese and happen to also not be working are lazy.

    It could all be so different.  Why not treat people as valued citizens, if they are offered slimming solutions, that this be done in a positive pro-patient way?

    This kind of  narrative framework is deeply embedded now and damaging to the body of the British people.  It uses stereotypes to create what is in fact abuse.  This systemic abuse degrades and diminishes people en mass.  And abuse, as we know, leads to lasting damage.  To an additional devaluing inner dialogue.

    As for myself: I am overweight.  On paper I work less than half the week.  The truth is somewhat different.  I am overweight because there is no time for exercise / self care. I work long hours for little pay.

    I find the presentation of this policy deeply troubling.  This new government doesn’t have to carry on with the devaluating policies of it’s predecessors!


  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    I have a BAM score 3.1% (Severe) and it is hell to live with. I am taking tablets but it really dosen't seem to be helping, plus i am overweight. Do we know when/if this injection will be availiable to us with BAM ?  I really feel this would help me with the BAM and weight loss as I really struggle with coping with the BAM

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    Hmmm, so treating obese people rather than helping poor people to eat.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
     this again is not true, it was a silly comment made by someone on the TV and if it to be offered it will be by a doctor and nothing at all to do with the DWP
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    The majority of obese people are obese because of other health issues not being addressed. Plus these jabs are not something you can stop taking once you've started. So that's our government selling us off as lab rats to big pharma yet again!
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 2 hours ago
      @Diana I started 3 months ago on Wegovy (through NHS) - my only worry for myself and others is that you can be left with masses of excess skin which would still reduce self-esteem. 

      If excess skin removal were combined, I wonder how much better the person would feel about themselves and the motivation it would give to keep to the same weight. 

      I would feel despondent with the excess skin when stopping. I will try to save for it. If integrated, I think it will help many more people.

      I have the Oviva app.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 12 days ago
      @Wendy 1. You can stop these drugs easily. It is recommended to titre up and down rather than stop suddenly. They aren't for life. 1-2 years maximum depending on how much weight loss you need to lose safely.
      2. All medications are rigorously tested and these are still subject to rigorous checks .
      3. There no enforcement. You can choose to take them or not.
      4. Having lost 18kg on a glp in six months with some manageable side effects I can speak with a little knowledge (and a lot of research). I still have long term health issues, what I do not have are the side effects of extra weight to deal with on top and a great deal of improved self esteem. 
      5. These drugs have been around for several years. Treating diabetes quite successfully.  
      6. Being at reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease, and dementia, with fewer joint problems is something I welcome.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    First let them establish if they actually work or do more harm than good.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 days ago
    Simply unethical. I've written to my MP ... AGAIN!

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