Monday 7 June 2010

NHS is backing Weight Wins to pay dieters to shed weight

As regular visitors may have noticed, this is a 'scrap book' blog without any particular editorial line, and that this particular article is not actually death-related, but...

a) Can they not think of anything better to spend taxpayers' money on?
b) People get paid for losing weight and keeping it off for a period of time. There does not appear to be any liability to repay if they weight is later put back on. Can anybody see a loophole here?
c) 'Weight Wins' - sounds like a fakeprivatecompany to me.
Paying people to lose weight could be ‘the best single weapon in the war on obesity’, a study claims.

Dieters who earned money for hitting weight targets lost more than double that of dieters in a control group. The NHS-backed scheme, called Weight Wins, has now paid tens of thousands of pounds in ‘air miles for dieters’ in a bid to tackle obesity.
Cash is offered for every pound lost plus a 50 per cent ‘bonus’ if the weight stays off for several months. Participant choose how they want to lose weight and are given advice by NHS dieticians.

Rewards range from £80 to £3,000, depending upon the length of plan and how much weight needs to be lost. Some 745 dieters lost more than 6.3kg (1st) on average – more than double that of traditional dieters, who lost 2.4kg (5lb 4oz).

‘Long-term financial incentives could be the best single weapon in the war on obesity’, said Weight Wins founder Winton Rositer. The company makes money via a monthly fee levied on participants or sponsorship by their employer, insurer or local NHS trust. The latest results were independently audited by the University of Hertfordshire. At least a third of US companies said they offer, or plan to offer, financial incentives to help staff lose weight.
Source: The Metro

2 comments:

AntiCitizenOne said...

So if you were say a fit person you could say put on some weight then get some money from your fellow taxpayers for losing it??

I wonder will this be a big a "success" as the payments to asylum seekers to leave?

Mark Wadsworth said...

AC!, surely, nobody would be that cynical? Thin people never become fat (again) and ayslum seekers would surely set up a 'new life' in their home country with that wodge of taxpayers' finest?