Are other full-time working families finding there is nothing left?

Yeah i use to think like that until my organs started failing and I ended up with brain damage. Life has a way of being unpredictable like that. People have this picture in their heads of what people on benefits are like 5 kids living in a council house never worked a day in their life and claiming thousands in benefits. This is very rarely the reality. People on benefits usually have worked their whole life until something horrific happened to them. We all pay in as anyone of us may need it someday. And i would never begrudge a person with a terminal illness, a severely disabled child, or someone fleeing domestic abuse financial help.

im not disagreeing: but there are plenty of people who can put on how severe the impact is on them or their child

Maybe there has also been a rise in people who are severely disabled by their autism?
I can only speak anecdotally but in my LA we have two special schools for primary ages pupils and two for secondary aged pupils
All four have doubled in capacity for admission, s due to rising numbers of children with complex disabilities, this has been over the past 10/15 years.

Thanks for answering that, it seems there is such a difference in nursery provision and that’s not fair. Our private nursery seems really good, with decent SEN experience and enough staff to children ratio to accommodate. I hope you manage to get some full days going forwards

The people I know who are autistic and claim PIP were claiming PIP long before they were diagnosed (which in my social circles are middle aged people). They still had the same difficulties, but they didn't have a name for them, or they were diagnosed with something else.
Not everyone that is ND is getting a diagnosis to claim benefits. No one does, because you don't suddenly become disabled once you have been assessed and diagnosed with something.

I honestly think the rise in claims is due to the cost of living and UC not being enough. People are claiming PIP to pay for bills, when it was never intended to be for that.

Good for you I was the same, and then had a disabled child ,hes nearly 16 but cognitively he functions at about 2/3 years
Sometimes life doesnt go to plan.

I worked my whole life too until I had a disabled child.

Sometimes you have no choice.

They will have to have proof of what they are saying, and its not an out of work benefit anyway
There maybe a huge increase in claims but that doesnt necessarily mean there isxa huge increase in peoole being eligible.

No , I’ve worked my whole life and would never expect others to pay for me , I wasn’t raised that way . Benefits / welfare state was never even a thing when I was growing up and I never saw anyone do anything other than work .

Yes I agree but judging by the huge increase in claims it seems most are saying their diagnosis prevents them working otherwise why claim at all .

You think people on benefits aren’t stressed about finding enough money to pay the bills or put food on the table? How little you know about what living on benefits is actually like.

Completely agree, well put!

Again its not about diagnosis
Its about how the diagnosis impacts a person.

He goes to a school nursery every day for three hours. I wanted two and half days so I could work more/get more rest but they felt he would find it too much. He attended a previous private nursery until lunch time and he didn't like it. I feel now he could probably give a full day a try to prepare for school but they won't say yes to that which is annoying. Most of the SEN kids seem to do mornings or afternoons.

My son is four with mainly a few single words he knows and isn't potty trained yet.

People know that . It’s just the rise in claims due to autism / anxiety have sky rocketed .

It's also worth keeping in mind that other disabilities also exist and PIP/DLA doesn't automatically mean autism and/or ADHD.

Lots of people may think they hsve autism/ ADHD ,but that doesnt prevent them from working or make them eligible for disability benefits
The same with mental illness being in work may well help somone with mild anxiety and depression
But it's not going to help somone who is floridly Pyschotic
Some people with severe and enduring mental illness will never be stable enough to work.

@x2boys We have just written very similar posts!!

If someone's life is massively impaired so much so that they can't function - absolutely, they can't work. But if they just find things a bit tricky or difficult or stressful then that is just life. On a recent documentary, there were young people that clearly just found things difficult but they were all on more money on benefits than someone on minimum wage working full time. I'm no expert but none of them displayed any different traits to many of my own. I know I could be signed off given what I have been through and my own issues but I just couldn't do that as it wouldn't even occur me to live off someone else's hard work when I can work myself.

I'm one of those autistic women who weren't diagnosed until menopause hit - there are quite a lot of us!

I have worked since I was 15, including 27 years in primary education.

For me, diagnosis doesn't mean I stop work or claim any benefits, it means that I can understand myself better, and forgive (if that's the right word) myself for the things I used to really beat myself up about, especially when younger. I have found being diagnosed to be an incredible relief.

My point is, increased diagnoses of such conditions doesn't automatically mean more people claiming benefits.

Being ND maybe more prevalent these days but again its a massive spectrum there are people being diagnosed in their 40,s and 50,s who have always worked ,had a family etc
Its not the diagnosis that prevents someone from working its how the diagnosis impacts them.

i agree.

i suspect that if I listen to what is shown on tiktok and instagram, I have both autism and ADHD. As does my husband and daughter. except; I’m not sure that there is actually anything “wrong” with us at all: we are just slightly different from how some others function (as are thousands of others). I think people are being incorrectly being diagnosed as having conditions, when they are just being human. There are of course people who genuinely have severe due to autism where they cannot communicate etc, but I really think that these are completely different conditions

both DH and I manage to work full time, I’ve also had significant mental health issues in the past, and have recovered: being back at work helped a lot. People who can work, really need helped into the workplace.

👏👏👏

If being neurodivergent is so common these days, how are we going to continue as a society if lots of ND people don't work? That simply won't work. We can't have millions of working age people relying on a dwindling number that do. Although that is obviously already currently happening. But if the million young people not working now, never work, what will happen in the future? Obviously they won't have children if they are so ND that they can't work. Or if they do have children, won't they be more likely to be ND too or see their parents not working so they won't expect to?

Genuine question, will the nurseries not take your child? We have children being reviewed for autism at the nursery my kids go to, and the staff are amazing with them. However I have heard of some nurseries being a bit more difficult