Overweight parents to be paid to walk their children to school

The UK is poised to invest over $50 million to reduce the statistics of obesity in parents and help them to improve their health and fitness levels. The cash will be used to launch the ‘healthy towns’ campaign, and follows publication of a report warning that nine out of ten British adults will be overweight or obese by the year 2050.

Manchester is a very unhealthy city according to the United Kingdom health authorities. In fact it is one of the most unhealthy cities in the UK, with the lowest male life expectancy, and the fourth lowest female life expectancy in England. One of the major health problems is obesity, and the way in which being overweight effects a person’s overall health, including the risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. This is why Manchester has been chosen to pilot the healthy towns scheme, which is sponsored by the government and is aimed specifically at fat parents. 

overweight help

Whatever the root causes of their obesity, parents in the United Kingdom may now qualify for overweight help in the form of free healthy food, or free sports equipment, or membership of their local gym. These measures have been proposed by the British Government to help solve parents problems related to how to loose weight, and reduce the ever growing overweight statistics.

New proposals due to take effect in 2009 will allow obese parents who choose to walk their children to school to receive special benefits and rewards, under the new plans to tackle the obesity epidemic in Great Britain.

This may also help to reduce the growing number of cases of obesity in children, whilst helping the childs parents at the same time. Going for a run could also be an earner. Joggers would swipe their cards at machines in parks and collect points given in accordance with the distance run. Machines could be placed in schools and at stations so parents and commuters could swipe their cards, although details have yet to be finalised.

cash for exercise

Those who attend exercise classes to help keep fit, or attend slimming clubs to help lose weight would also be eligible for the above rewards, which would be collected using a points scheme based around the established supermarket type loyalty cards. The points earned could be used to buy healthy food, sports equipment or workout sessions at the local gym. Participants could earn even more rewards by actually losing weight, depending on how much they lose. If the trial proves to be successful in reducing overweight issues, it could be rolled out across the whole country.

There are some critics of the new scheme however, who have stated that payments amount to bribery, and that the scheme is wide open to fraud, because points would be given just for turning up at various locations. Matthew Elliot, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘This whole scheme is so dubious because there is clearly potential for abuse and fraud. It would be so easy for someone to hop out of their car for a second to go and swipe their card, enabling them to claim they had walked to school.’ He went on to say ‘Healthy people pay enough tax already without having to bribe the obese or put cash into the pockets of fraudsters.’

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