In MetroTalk: A reader has a noble idea – would you play the EuroMillions for a slightly higher chance at a smaller prize? (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Why not change more lives with life-changing Lotto amount?
Once again my hackles are rising at the thought of just one person/family winning a bizarre amount of money.
One ticket scooped the jackpot of £177million in Tuesday’s EuroMillions National Lottery draw (Metro, Thu).
Nobody needs £177m to have a good life. How much better it would be to spread the winnings and, say, 20 people received almost £9m each?
There should be a formula that sets out how many winning tickets share the prize money, based on the total – the higher this is the more people share it. Merry S, Hampton
Labour factoring in mental health into ‘back to work’ policy
Proper accommodations for mental illnesses and neurodiversity will help keep people in work (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Work and pensions minister Liz Kendall says mental health provision will increase in an attempt to get some of the 2.8million long-term sick into jobs (Metro, Wed).
It’s so refreshing to have a government realise you can’t just punish sick people back into work.
Labour’s focus on mental illness as a driver of long-term unemployment represents the best social security policy we’ve had in years.
My only worry is that it doesn’t go far enough. The epidemic of poor mental health is a public health emergency and the government should declare it as such.
Furthermore, as a society we need to make proper accommodations for people with mental illnesses and neurodiversity.
These people enrich our communities and workplaces by offering fresh perspectives and different ideas.
Some progress has been made but a massive lack of acceptance and necessary adaptations remain – as evidenced by the inability of these people to enter the workforce.
To an extent, the more we invest in mentally ill and neurodivergent people – both in money and effort – the more we will get back in our society. We must realise what the government has – that you have to speculate to accumulate. Sharon, Manchester
I faced discrimination when I applied for a mortgage in the 70s
Richard (MetroTalk, Wed) defends the view that it is much harder to get on the property ladder now than in the 70s.
He said that back then, the average home cost four times the average annual income but that today the average home costs 8.8 times the average annual income.
In 1970, my husband and I took out a mortgage, towards which only nine months of my income was taken into account.
Shortly afterwards, under the Sex Discrimination Act, that practice was discontinued so the whole of a woman’s income was counted. This led to a meteoric rise in house prices, meaning that in order to repay the mortgage both partners needed to work. That was a big societal change. Helen B, Bristol
If the state of NHS dentistry is Labour’s fault – why didn’t …read more
Source:: Metro