Fcuking madness….
Taxpayers slapped with £321m bill for benefit claimants’ smartwatches and wobble boards
Demand for Access to Work gadgets spirals amid rise in social media ‘sickfluencers’
The taxpayer bill for a benefits scheme funding smartwatches, wobble boards and sunlight alarm clocks to help people stay in work has surged by more than a fifth in just a year, official data show.
Spending on the government-funded Access to Work scheme – which can hand claimants nearly £70,000 a year for equipment and support, including work coaches, noise-cancelling headphones and Apple smartwatches – jumped to £321m in the year to March.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, the bill for the scheme has jumped by 22pc compared with a year earlier amid a rise in advice from ADHD “sickfluencers” on social media. It means spending on the scheme is now almost double what it was before the pandemic, when the bill totalled £154m.
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Fcuking madness…....[more]