To be shocked that over half a million people under the age of 35 are out of work due to long-term sickness

I think life for youngsters now is much tougher than it was even 10 years ago. The qualifications needed for the most basic of jobs (with poor remuneration) are extraordinary. The chance of buying a house is very remote. I understand a lot of pressure on young people can lead to very poor mental health. However I think blaming the NHS for everything (as PPs have done) is unfair. The NHS is chronically underfunded and understaffed. Not many people want to train to work in it because it is tough. Also if so many people are off sick, who does everything think will staff the NHS?

I've had MH problems since 13. I have always worked in some capacity.

Well there is, because you are providing for yourself because you can, rather than expecting others to pay for you because you choose not to work.

This is where I have an issue with benefits- not with people who can not work but with those who choose not to because they can be handed more money for not working.

its not the nhs stopping the person from working though is it? The employer could still recruit them

and the fact OP thinks an illness and disability are two separate things says a lot about their understanding of disability.

I have always been well and worked full time until this year when I badly slipped a disc in my back. The NHS gave me morphine for two days and sent me home with a shrug and ‘backs take two years to heal’ - luckily with private medical care, surgery and physio I was able to continue my full time job within a month - left to the NHS I would needlessly have joined that statistic

Why haven't you (or Davies 24) reported these people?

Exactly the same where I live. It's like stepford wives because everyone has the same mobility car, they can all walk to Weatherspoon and bingo though.

Oh my you just happen to know every single trope that the Conservative MSM comes out with.

In the meantime in the real world, I was told I could easily work with a condition that in their own words meant I "could not sit or stand for more than 10 minutes at.a time and transitioning between the two was difficult". Think they thought that I could work laying on my bed, so good knows what employment they thought suitable.

That's not even counting the comments about how I can't be that bad because I drive. I'd love them to be in the passenger seat when I can't go on the route I've very carefully planned over the previous 4.days.

i can assure you M.E is not self diagnosed, my son has had this debilitating illness for almost 15 years, stole his childhood, what child wants to spend 23 hours in bed a day for years and years.

Totally this. My early 20s Dd has multiple chronic health issues. Ehlers Danlos syndrome, fibromyalgia, POTS, endometriosis, had multiple pulmonary embolisms last year. She’s in constant pain, seriously anaemic, smaller than a size 4 and losing weight all the time because she’s in agony when she eats. She’s seriously fatigued.

for every one of these conditions she’s been fobbed off and discharged, no treatment, no nothing. Maybe if someone looked at her holistically she’d be less ill?

she does actually work but I do wonder how she manages sometimes. Her current employers seem supportive but she’s only 6 weeks into a new job so we will see.

her last job spent the last 18 months trying to get rid of her as she had so many shifts she couldn’t come in for. Sadly for them but luckily for her she’d been there two years with no sickness before she got ill. So then she had much better employment rights. But an ex manager there told her how all the managers used to sit in meetings saying “how can we get rid of x”. So it’s hard to hold a job down. 🤷‍♀️. Plus they never paid her sick pay even though they should have done. When she questioned them about this they reckoned she didn’t work enough hours to get sick pay.

Well, it looks as though the government intend to sort out the problem they think exists: 🙄

https://www.cityam.com/government-announces-new-2-5bn-programme-to-tackle-long-term-sickness/

Well, yes, illness is not the same as disability, although some illnesses can result in longer term disability.

The social model of disability has been favourable amongst disability groups/charities for a number of years, but it relies on employers accommodating it.

Ah yes I was told as I was partially sight impaired I was still legally allowed to drive and only people who were fully sight impaired couldn't drive

The assessor was clearly confusing partially sight impaired with 'can only see out of one eye'

I did try to explain the difference but apparently I know nothing about it, despite being the actual partially sight impaired person who has been under specialists since I was 18 months old 🙄

Nothing like a Christmas Eve benefits bashing thread to really get us into the festive spirit!

What do you think a "long term illness" affecting someone's sight (one of the stats in the article) is if not a disability?

There is plenty of overlap between long term illness and disability

I am not shocked, in my area at least it seems to be relatively easy to get yourself on disability payments for the rest of your life for dubious "mental health" issues.

I can go down to my local Wetherspoons at 10am and many of them will be down there. I know loads of them,

There's a guy on disability who deals cannabis on the side.

There's a guy who gets around on his red disability scooter, parks it outside the pub, walks in and is perfectly fine. Seen him on the dance floor on the weekends 😁

I know a bloke who's in his early 40s who's literally never worked a day in his life. He went to university and after that he was on disability for "anxiety". Granted he does seem slightly socially inept but he's a nice bloke and perfectly capable of coming down the pub and socialising.

My best mates mother doesn't work because of "back problems".. but she's fine walking the dog and decorating. She has a "disability vehicle".. a brand new Volvo.. My mate is on the insurance and he gets to drive it which he is made up with 😂

Quite a contrast to some places in the world i've visited where people with limbs missing are on the streets working, selling food etc.

It's a piss take.. but hey ho. Live and let live.

As you've clearly never been through a benefits interrogation assessment you'd know that you need proof. And even with proof and evidence it's ignored.

In my case they told me there's no medical reason why I can't drive. Except I'll never meet the minimum standards for driving. I was also told there's nothing wrong with my ears and I didn't need to be under a consultant. Because you know the NHS refer people for fun. She then asked what my hearing impairment actually means.

How do you get proof of you've self diagnosed?

Mental Health was never really 'properly funded' but the difference is, 'awareness' has exploded now. And not always in a good way. You see it on here all the time people advising someone to get 'signed off with stress'. TikTok, Instagram all romanticising 'anxiety and depression' it seems cool to have it.

That aside I also think the figures are meaningless without being broken down. A lot of them could also be neurodiverse young adults for whom MH issues are co-morbidity but not the cause.

There could also be people who are 'out of work' but, say SAHM who are not part of the labour force.

My son works and has decent job in IT at25 - however he certainly struggles a bit with the facts of lack of affordable housing, ( he works in London) the fact him and his lovely girlfriend who earn £64k between them struggle to even fit affordability criteria in London (and she's London gal with some caring responsibilities too) - the general getting by !

When a woman has fibroids, endometriosis and adenymyosis, and waits on average 8 years for a diagnosis. During which she will be in excruciating pain, experience flooding at random moments, be anaemic, and be a victim of medical gaslighting with professionals telling her it is all in her head; what exactly part of that is social??

Interesting how many posters are blaming the NHS, which again shows that there is a mentality that disability is medical and needs to be fixed or cured.

Disability is actually social. The social model of disabilty. Yes we have impairments but we don't need to be disabled by these impairments.

What disables us is barriers in society that prevent us from working - inaccessible public transport, lack of accessible parking spaces, no accessible toilets, inability / unwillingness to offer flexible working or WFH, lack of disability awareness particularly on what constitutes a disability, negative attitudes about disability (eg you're not disabled unless you use a wheelchair), too many disabled people being offered low paid entry level jobs and employers thinking 'box ticked' but never considering them for promotion or higher level roles.

A big shift in employer attitudes is needed, most adjustments cost nothinng at all, indeed if you follow employment tribunal casess, many employers are losing discrimintion claims for refusing WFH as an adjustment. This is often due to the fact the job was done remotely during lockdown. So unless a role was a keyworker role, employers have less defence againts WFH if taken to court.

One of my sons friends is 22 and has non verbal autism. He collects trolleys at a Morrisons. He had such a struggle to get a job. Just no one would employ him or give him a chance. He sometimes makes strimming noises. In the end he did work experience for a week at Morrisons and they took him on after. He just has to be out in all weathers though. His Mum has to drive him to and fro every day but he is so proud of the wages he earns.

a 44% increase in just four years.

This is the stat in the article that I find shocking, tbh. A 44% increase since 2019, that’s massive.

Clearly the pandemic has something to do with it. My DD (18) and her peers seem to have bounced back from it now, tbh, we know one person whose MH was severely affected and she’s much better now than a year ago. She plans to go back into FT education next year. I also have a relative who developed Long Covid in 2020, but she was able to return to work this year.

So I wonder whether the 2023 stats are skewed as ppl are only now recovering from the pandemic? They might drop significantly next year.

Thank you for such a kind and compassionate response, I've had a long term neurological involuntary movement disorder that was caused by some prescribed off label antipsychotic after a head injury and it's been so hard to keep going with trying to work etc. A lot of my family don't truly understand what it's like to be let down by the body that I trusted would be ok for the rest of my life.

As you so aptly said, we are all trying our best to carry on, yet feel like we've become a burden and we don't offer any further value when we can't work as we used to. It's a rum do, as my dad likes to say.