| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 3:22:43 AM | Smokers in deprived communities in one of Scotland's major cities are to be offered £12.50 a week to quit, it has been announced.
NHS Tayside hopes the £500,000 pilot scheme will help 900 people in Dundee stop smoking over the next two years.Participants in the new initiative will be offered £12.50 per week credited onto an electronic card which they can redeem in their local supermarket for fresh food and groceries, but not alcohol and cigarettes.
They can take part in the programme for a maximum of 12 weeks.
Those taking part will receive nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) through their local pharmacy, where they will have to do a weekly carbon monoxide breath test to prove they are still smoke-free.
Participants will also receive social support from Dundee Healthy Living Initiative (DHLI) where they can access smoking cessation support, physical activities and other lifestyle advice and support. This new incentive scheme is a partnership between NHS Tayside, Dundee City Council and the Scottish Government and is launching in the autumn.
Do you agree with this scheme? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 3:31:11 AM | Damn, I wish I hadn't used my own will-power to quit smoking now...
I may take it up again, should this scheme be successful and implimented in the East Midlands...!
What a load of b*ll*cks. Where is this £11,000+ a week coming from, the tax on cigs? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 3:33:58 AM | its a joke right? you risk heart disease, lung cancer but you need a £12.50 per week inducement to give up and statistically increase your longevity?
I cant believe people are paid good money to come up with this crap! | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 3:40:34 AM | I don't think this is such a bad idea. I've certainly heard worse...
£11,250 doesn't seem too much to prevent 900 people from getting heart disease or lung cancer. How much does the NHS treatment of a patient diagnosed with one of these conditions cost the UK taxpayer?
All the rest of the support, and NRT is available already FOC. | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 5:45:15 AM | Grizley...
I can't give a person by person cost of treating someone ill through smoking but i can tell you that the NHS pays approximately £1.2 billion a year treating smoke related diseases.
That might seem a lot but currently 10% of our total NHS budget is used to treat Diabetes related problems.
The tax on cigarettes raises in excess of £10 billion a year for the government. Sadly this and previous governments have made tobacco a cash cow and they now want us to all give up and are scratching round for ways to replace that revenue.
So is shelling out further monies the answer?
Why do we seem to have the thinking that bribing people is a good idea lately?
Commit a crime and we will send you off on safari or something if you behave. Play truant from school? Right well we will pay you to turn up.
We seem to have got into a cycle were we encourage people to abdicate responsibility for thier own actions whatever they may be. | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 5:48:33 AM |
£11,250 doesn't seem too much to prevent 900 people from getting heart disease or lung cancer. How much does the NHS treatment of a patient diagnosed with one of these conditions cost the UK taxpayer?
A better solution to me would be to make them pay for their own treatment seeing as it's self-inflicted. | |
|
| Money for nothing??
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:04:27 AM | I'm not saying it's the perfect solution, I'm just trying to be open-minded. When I opened this thread and read the OP's post, I expected most peep's gut feeling would be to say that it was some joke offering people money to stop smoking.
Bribing people to do certain things has been around since year dot. It's not a new idea. Money is one of the strongest incentives of making people do what you want them to do. How many times a week do parents use a bribe with their kids? How many salespeople would sell anything if it wasn't for commission? How many students would get B's and not A's if it wasn't for a parent's bribe? If someone wants to do something, what better incentive than offerring them something they also want if they stop? There aren't many people out there that wouldn't mind a bit of extra cash... | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:04:30 AM | Hmmmm given sufficient food tokens for 50 fags a week and the availability of people/shops who would take advantage of this.... How stoopid are these people who come up with such hairbrained schemes.... I say bring on the tax free fags.. Tax the people who don't smoke so that they pay their way in society...
Ruffy | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:05:03 AM |
A better solution to me would be to make them pay for their own treatment seeing as it's self-inflicted.
if you are a heroin addict you get help to come off drugs, so why not..?
if you are morbidly obese you can get help with weight comtrol...
if you are an alcoholic you get help to give up the booze..
i dont smoke .. never have .. but i think its only fair if one gets help why shouldnt another group....? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:05:22 AM | This make me very angry if it is true. I saw both my grandmothers die from cancer brought on by smoking. It put me off it for ever and I will never smoke myself.
So kind of makes me cross that people who have chosen to take a drug which is proven to be addictive will now be paid by the government to help them stop.
Where is my payment for all the years I have had to breathe in other peoples smoke if I wanted to go into a pub, nightclub, snooker hall, restaurant, or anywhere else like this. To say it is discriminating against people who don't smoke would be the worlds biggest understatement.
Of course from there are we then going to start paying people addicted to illegal "recreational" drugs to get them clean as well? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:06:50 AM | Wasn't there talk recently of paying people to lose weight too? It's all a bit iffy in my opinion; if a health problem is self inflicted (smoking, obesity, alcoholism, drug usage etc) then I don't see why I should pay my hard earned money to dig these people back out of the hole they buried themselves in! Presumably nobody held a gun to their heads and forced them to eat/smoke/drink/dope themselves to oblivion....so why do we have to use taxpayer's money to solve the problem??
It's like hillwalkers who have to be rescued because they get into difficulties and they're not properly prepared for the hike...they have to now make a contribution towards the cost of their rescue, why not apply the same rules here??
I'm not Miss Perfect; I do have bad habits (although I divorced one of them!) but I'd be quiet willing to pay for treatment for my addiction to sex if NHS couldn't fund my rehab...
 | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:11:53 AM | | I would think that in quitting smoking you would be financially rewarded anyway, 20 cigs a day =£35 per week. Is £12.50 a week, on a card to buy groceries going to give that much more incentive, I doubt it. Yes I am one of the social lepers in that I do smoke, my solution would be to increase the smoking ban (must be nothing more annoying than trying to leave somewhere only to find that the doorways are jammed with us smokers) and putting money into community/social events where smoking is not allowed. Non smokers and ex smokers are going to get irate because their point of view will be "why the heck should those nasty smelly smokers get rewarded for giving up something I have never done"! | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:16:35 AM | i always thought the NHS was there for the whole population to enjoy health cover.. are we to now pick and choose who gets the benefit of it based on how healthly they have lived their lives...
wat about the girl who has skin cancer cos she has spent every yr sunbathing does she have to pay herself cos it was self inflicted..?
or the guy who takes up jetskiing and breaks his shoulder, is that also his responsibilty..?
do i get a few quid back cos i only had 1 child and mr and mrs jones down the road had the benefit of maternity care for 6 kids...?
surely if its to the benefit of the health of even a small percentage of the nation that is wat the NHS is for....? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:24:27 AM |
Where is my payment for all the years I have had to breathe in other peoples smoke if I wanted to go into a pub, nightclub, snooker hall, restaurant, or anywhere else like this. To say it is discriminating against people who don't smoke would be the worlds biggest understatement.
Duh... you chose to enter environments where people smoked freely... Your choice.. there have always been places for non-smokers or people who objected to the smell and consequences of smoking... Usually outside where us Tax payers are forced to go by a freedom of choice inhibiting law.
I manage on 25g tobacco a week, sometimes a little more especially if I go to a PoF meet.. Cost to me approx £5.00 (6-8 rollies/day). I think that this pays approx £4.20 in various taxes/levys etc.. So how about you non smokers paying an extra £250+/year in tax to support your NHS??? I ask this as that is what it will cost you... minimum!!!
Ruffy | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 7:52:55 AM | I like your comments Ruffy Tuffy Womble Basher!
This is what gets me about non smokers, they bang on about smokers should give up since you don't like what it smells like when you go out, so ok, they banned smoking in public places, now you want us to quit smoking all together! We pay for it with our health & wages. You non smokers don't exactly pay for it in your taxes do you? We pay for our "mistake". The amount of tax the government gets from the tax on the tobacco we smoke pays for everything you have free like the NHS, if we all packed up tomorrow, you'd be complaining about having to pay more tax! Where does this end?
To give up smoking, a £12.50 payment per week for 12 weeks isn't going to prompt many to quit, especially if like me, I DON'T WANT TO QUIT!! I smoke tobacco, 1 x 50g pouch per week. which is about 25 rollies per day, equivalent to about 14/16 cigarettes per day (minus thousands of chemicals). I LIKE smoking, I ENJOY a nice rollie after my meal, I LOVE a smoke on my breaks at work, but now I have to stand outside like a total outcast just because non-smokers don't like it. Bear in mind that everyone at my workplace smokes, but because of the stupid law we all have to go outside to smoke, we were all very happy smoking inside, it upset nobody, now people walk past our work, and doesn't it look a mess with everyone outside smoking! And we pay thousands out in tax to stand outside. Wow, thanks for that one. Hows about all beer drinkers go stand outside, after all this smells & causes illness & I don't like beer, so you go outside, forget that people who drink beer (and every other type of alcohol) pay crap loads of tax on the beer to be able to stand and drink it, bog off, go outside! Now all you non smokers who drink beer, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like that, you only like the smoking ban because you don't smoke.
And anyway, back to the OP, whats to say they won't use that money for buying tobacco anyway, all they have to do is use the £12.50 on the card to buy some groceries & use regular shopping money to buy tobacco. Durr. Ok so they do a weekly test, how accurate is this test anyway?
And the people who say smoking causes illnesses that are self inflicted, oh just whatever. How far are you going to take this? How's about everyone who drives a car, if you have an accident you pay for all you're treatment costs too? After all you chose to drive the car and you had the accident, so therefore it is self inflicted! What about years of treatment afterwards for these self infliced injuries/illnesses, maybe you should pay for that too! Whatever!  How ridiculous.
Paying people to give up smoking won't work with many of them, not in the long term unless they really want to quit. They'll probably just do it for the (small amount of) money.
And breathe.... | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 8:04:40 AM |
i dont smoke .. never have .. but i think its only fair if one gets help why shouldnt another group....?
Absolutely. Anyone who wants to quit should get free access to all the support they need. I'd fully support them getting free nicotine patches, etc. But they shouldn't get rewarded for not smoking. | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 8:25:26 AM |
And the people who say smoking causes illnesses that are self inflicted, oh just whatever. How far are you going to take this? How's about everyone who drives a car, if you have an accident you pay for all you're treatment costs too?
Not a great analogy. Driving is perfectly fine for your health. It's the crashing that's bad for you. If someone is purposefully crashing, then yes, they should pay for the treatment themselves. But a slightly better analogy, someone who spends every weekend doing some kind of extreme sports. Yes, I'd also say they should pay for their own health care if they're injured as a result. If something you're knowingly doing something inherently dangerous for kicks, then the buck should stop with you. You should have to pay for your own health insurance.
And for what it's worth, I fully support people's right to smoke. I have the occassional one myself. | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 8:34:28 AM | I DON'T WANT TO QUIT!! I smoke tobacco,
then dont ..!!!!!!!!.... . no one is saying you should be forced to quit....
but why deny some others an opportunity to quit if they want.. and if this method helps .. then good | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 11:57:15 AM | I understand what everyone is saying about how people should get help to quit. Like Alcoholics Anonymous and things like that. I totally agree and that is fair enough.
I also take the good points made about how the NHS is there for all and how we should all be allowed to use it. Very true and again fair enough.
But unless I have misunderstood this, smokers are going to be able to claim this almost like some sort of benefit and be paid £12.50 a week to try and make them stop smoking. That is not right at all. | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 1:51:18 PM | November Babee... I think you possibly didn't quite catch what I was saying, the government and most non-smokers want the smokers to quit, whether they want to or not, but don't realise that all the non smokers will have to pay alot more tax out if we did all quit. I was basically saying that I don't like that it is assumed that all smokers WANT to quit and shove it down our throats about quitting. And to quit and not to smoke again has to be something that you really want to do, otherwise it won't work, £12.50 per week isn't going to make you want to quit.
I don't want to quit because I like to smoke, but I don't think I would want a "benefit" to help me quit even if I wanted to, since the health benefits would outweigh the financial benefits, surely? (oooo almost sounded like a non-smoker for a moment there, hehe) I don't really think £12.50 is much of an incentive unless you really don't earn very much money or whatever.
As for my previous analogy about the car accident, ok, so wasn't a great one, but hey, its still a choice we make, and I don't really agree with it being perfectly fine for your health since it causes pollution & accidents. Don't get me wrong, I drive. I just meant that I think people are taking it to far when they say that self inflicted illnesses should be paid for by the sufferer, so I took my analogy a little further. Its just a bit silly, after all, what do we pay taxes for. I don't really like that people who take drugs should be able to get free help that I pay for to get off them, but then I'd rather them get the help to get drug free than kill themselves taking them, and what about the stealing they do to provide money for their habit? If you said they had to pay for their treatment, its like asking them to steal your TV or car or something to pay for their treatment, because how else would they get the money for it?  | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/21/2008 11:24:53 PM |
November Babee... I think you possibly didn't quite catch what I was saying, the government and most non-smokers want the smokers to quit
i understood exactly wat you were saying...
you are saying you dont want the option to quit.... fine .. dont ..
and you begrudge helping to pay for others to quit.. a bit selfish i think...
if the option to quit is there and some smokers in poorer areas think this would help them .. which is after all the original post if you read it .. then why should they not take this option... to you 12.50 mat not be alot of money, but if you are on benefits, 12.50 could buy you a few days shopping, add to that the 5-10.00 you save by not smoking and if you are a single person this could realistically give you quite a bit more money to your weekly budget...
ive never smoked.. i dont care wether you smoke your head off or not.. but if a person decides to quit and to them the financial benefit and also being involved in a support group, helps.. then should this not be tried out...? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/22/2008 1:22:59 AM | Well £12.50 is a small amount BUT giving a small incentive is actually better than a larger cash one. That's based on psychological research (please don't ask me to dig up the references just now lol). In cases where people are offered a large incentive as part of a program to change behavior, the incentive itself becomes the focus as oppose to the behavior change, so when you remove the incentive, the behavior will revert. Small incentives act as an additional boost but are not important enough to become the focus of the initiative.
The NHS is faces a ticking time bomb re population demographics. Because of low birthrates in the next 15-20 years for the first time your going to have more older people than younger and because of alcohol use, obesity and smoking that larger group of older people are going to be sicker. Something has to be done NOW to try and head that off and believe me £12.50 a week is a hell of a lot LESS expensive than the cost of trying to care for those ill people. It may seem unfair re personal responsibility, but as health care is a group-based issue at the national level, group based decisions have to be made. So we're basically paying for their risky, personally irresponsible behavior now when it's cheaper rather than later when they are old and sick.
I really don't think people want to live in a world where:
1. there's no health care for some - I've been there (US) and it sucks
2. someone tries to build in a system predicting an individuals risk due to certain behaviors and then tries to tax individually according to risk scores | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/22/2008 4:55:53 AM | This is so goddamn ironic of the government.
They are all but happy to tax the hell out of cigarettes and make a tidy profit, but then tell the public that cigarettes are bad, and that they should quit, yet remain adament on their sales.
You cannot make money from something that you are telling people to stop doing! I really do not follow the government's massively contradictory logic on cigarette and alcohol policy.
If they really wanted to crack down and stop the problem they would just outright ban it (make it a Class A, B, or C drug), but they don't - why not?
My theory is that cigarettes and alcohol are the government's means to control the population, as in to wipe out the older generation; the over 65's who are retired and not contributing to the state, thus only becoming a burden due to illness e.t.c.
By keeping ciggarettes and alcohol around, the government kills two birds with one stone, they generate revenue through massive taxes and also bump off the drains on the state.
Schemes like this are only ways to disguise the government's ulterior motives. By keeping cigarettes around, but making them seem immoral, the government can sit happy aquiring money through their taxation, without a public uprising that the government aren't doing enough to help addicts.
Thoughts? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/23/2008 2:08:43 PM | Ha Ha, nice thought Ignite about the government using smoking as a way of controlling the population!!
Sadly the truth is that they have made tobacco a cash cow for the coffers and as has been stated have no viable way of replacing the tax tobacco generates without raising income tax by 3p in the £ for EVERYONE.
My main gripe is how can i LEGALLY buy something that i can't LEGALLY consume anywhere?
And the damage my cigarettes do are to my health only (because i have consideration for my non smoking friends and family), but other things like alcohol can have an unhealthy impact on many people health.
I am never liekly to crash my car and kill someone because i have smoked too many cigerettes (unlike a driver drink driver).
I have never felt i want to hit someone because i have smoked too many cigarettes (unlike a drunk).
I have never not turned into work because of over consumption of cigarettes (can all those who castigate smokers swear they have never thrown a sicky because of a hangover?)
And i have never mugged anyone or burgled someones home to feed my habit.
And, more importantly, my family are not going to be left with any mental scars because i smoke. My ex brother in law however, who was an alcoholic left plenty in his wake on the whole family.
I just think we need to start getting a perspective on things and leave people to make thier own choices in life. Why does the government feel they need to exert so much control over our lives? For gods sake they can't put thier own house in order so what gives them the right to try and impose on us in this manner? | |
|
| Paid to give up smoking.
Posted: 6/23/2008 2:35:23 PM | | Its supposed to be a free country if people want to smoke ,then they should be allowed as for the millions spent on treating smoking related illness millions go on people who have never done a days work in their lifes ,and it nobody smoked at all all the people who do work would be taxed even more ,the goverment have 2 faces cos they get millions in tax from cigs | |
|
Home
login 
