ronialive said:
could stack shelves at Tesco if I could not work as a nurse.
While shelf stacking at Tesco is probably sufficiently demanding as to be at odds with your surgeon's advice, there are a great many people who have been on long term incapacity benefit because they were unable to do the job they have been doing.
Your case is transient (hopefully). After recuperation and physio, you should be able to return to nursing. If not, there are other jobs you could do. You should never have needed to go onto long term benefits, the NHS should be treating patients like you in a timely manner (is it NHS sick pay rules that have forced you onto the benefit?).
Many of us do jobs we don't want to do, or that we think of as beneath us, but that is life, I'd jack my job in tomorrow if I did not need the pay check. We need a system that acts as a safety net for those who are unable to do
any job and for short-term incapacity and unemployment, but does not allow people to remain on benefits indefinitely when they are capable of working, just not in the job they trained for.
Last summer we saw what people with disabilities, some quite severe,
can do if they set their mind to it and many people with disabilities go out to earn a living every day. Is it fair to ask them to pay their taxes so others can sit at home rather than finding a job they
can do?