A report published by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) and Westminster City Council (WCC) has generated lots of stories including:
Obese who refuse to exercise 'could face benefits cut' (BBC)
Fat benefits claimants told to go to the gym or face having have handouts taken away by local councils (Daily Mail)
Fat benefits claimants told to go to the gym or face having have handouts taken away by local councils (Daily Mail)
The news outlets have taken one paragraph of a report containing numerous suggestions and run with it. The paragraph states:
Welfare
Linking welfare measures to behaviours that promote public health. Re-localisation of council tax benefit and housing benefit combined with new technologies provide an opportunity for councils to embed financial incentives for behaviours that promote public health. The increasing use of smart cards for access to leisure facilities, for instance, provides councils with a significant amount of data on usage patterns. Where an exercise package is prescribed to a resident, housing and council tax benefit payments could be varied to reward or incentivise residents
There are obvious flaws in the reporting:
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