Should I report my cousin's benefit fraud?

Yes.

We plough £££ into mental health as it is, and none of it makes much of a difference. How much have you had in the way of therapy/meds/appointments? Has it significantly helped you to the extent you can now work?

So the solution is to cut them? Being in poverty does not help MH.
There needs to be more help for MH out there, more so for children and young people so they can thrive and not end up as revolving door patients as they get to adulthood.
The crapness of NHS MH care and CAMHS, and the benefits system, is not the fault of people claiming it. As the saying goes.... don't hate the player, hate the game.

I agree and I do help a lot of people with PIP forms. and I do understand the criteria. Sadly I think we will see them become a lot harder to get awarded, the criteria will become stricter.

I’ve been hospitalised for MH reasons. I had a 6 week stay. I still don’t think benefits for mental health issues are remotely sustainable unless for the most extreme cases only.

Also, someone "legally insane" (and again, this is not a real thing anyway) would have been judged so after extensive forensic psychiatric assessments as part of a court case... and someone judged to be so, would end up on a hospital order.... and guess what... you don't get PIP when you are in hospital (or prison for that matter).

Your true colours are showing. You think people with MH conditions are are not worthy of support. They are the "wrong" sort of disabled.
Come spend some time on a MH ward (I have spent far too long in them), and tell me that even half the people there could be better if they just got a job.
And "legally insane" is not a thing, apart from in films.

@XenoBitch Why not answer then? The way I see it is everyone is responsible for their own actions, they can’t just pretend to be a helpless puppet of the state. I could put in a claim for PIP; I actively choose not to, and I’m not wealthy at all. The state can only deal with what we give them, and if millions of people are doing what they can to get out of work, that leaves our country in a dire state.

There’s talk of PIP being removed for MH conditions, I’m not sure if it will happen but I hope it does (bar people so unwell they’re considered legally insane) because allowing disability benefits for moderate MH issues has opened a floodgate that is draining the public purse.

I know someone like this, only she claims fraudulently for her child. For people saying it's practically impossible, it's really not if you have enough of a determination to do it.

I find it disturbing that you even have to ask that.

Not at one of the most vulnerable groups of people in Society, that would be a start.

Who exactly are you proposing we ‘get angry’ at?

Folks are exasperated at the wrong people though. They bitch on here about their hairdresser's dog's walker's aunt, with the hyperbole about the £K they get in benefits, their free cars etc, and forget the reason they get that money to begin with. They just think it is handed out no questions asked, and that people willingly give up work to claim it. They post with the aim to get people angry at individuals, and not the people who make the policies.
They should be looking up, not down.

And "housing expenses paid" can't be used as mic drop either. Not everyone on UC claims it (I don't). This means that I am on less than NMW compared to someone who is working. So yes, it does rile me when people think everyone on benefits is raking it in.

🙄

I have come across a few people who have used them but none have had a positive outcome. It seems to be more just tick boxes with no space to explain difficulties or upload medical evidence. One person didn't even seem to be aware she was applying for AA for her mum ( I think she thought she was just ordering the form or something) until a rejection letter dropped through the post a few weeks later. It is a very much shortened form than the normal one.

Just to be clear I haven't reported anyone !

My friend's autistic son is an adult, and he gets higher rate mobility because of his autism.

He is highly reactive and utterly phobic about any sort of flying insect, to the point where he just bolts if a fly or a wasp so much as heads his way. Consequently, he can only go out if he's strapped into a wheelchair.

Whichever changes may or may not be brought forward, they will not be impacting someone as unwell as OP’s “cousin”. Being suicidal is a very serious consideration to be kept in mind.

I am actually looking forward to Labour announcing once, and for all, what they plan to do with certain benefits. The uncertainty, and the amount of scaremongering I have been exposed to lately, can be pretty unnerving. At least knowing for definite what they will be doing, should quell some people's fears.

Someone with a mental health PIP award, would know there is no “chance”.
It is virtually impossible to evidence fraud. Even less likely that someone not close to the claimant could evidence this. Walking alone, shopping, holidays, partners, smiling, 5 star restaurants, and other silly things mentioned earlier, don’t really cover it.

Sorry if this really upsets disabled people enviers.

My friend's son uses most of his for exactly that. And it's therapy that he probably wouldn't need had he not been languishing on CAMHS waiting list for 6 years before he got any help, during which time he got immeasurably worse, and he was out of education for most of it.

If the government want to reduce the "benefit bill", they should consider investing in MH services for children and young people, so that their MH problems are addressed before they become entrenched and, often, end up being unable to support themselves financially.

Scaremongering.

You can’t discriminate against disabled people in that way, it would never fly.

As someone who is fighting the system to get PIP, which I absolutely need for an incurable chronic condition (as well as anxiety and depression), absolutely report if he is boasting about getting it fraudulently. Actions like his make it much harder for people who genuinely need the financial support to get it. It is incredibly hard to get but some people know exactly how to play the system.....
FWIW I reported someone for benefit fraud, as it was openly being discussed around the family. I was appalled.
If people don't have the sense to keep quiet about their fraudulent activity, then there is a chance it will catch up with them....

I think that's vanishingly unlikely, because of the risk of suicides and hospital admissions by those who have significant MH issues and wouldn't be able to manage without it.

I've never heard of any of my clients being asked, either.

I can't even think of at what point they would be asked, tbh. It wouldn't be asked at assessment, as they wouldn't necessarily be getting it at that point, and reviews are mostly a paper exercise and don't involve being interviewed.

The online application is a trial thing and only possible in certain areas.

Sadly, none of them are in the counties I work in.