7.4 million people claim some form of disability or incapacity benefits

[MidnightPatrol]

Given the various back and forth of discussion on the reduction in disability and incapacity benefits, not much data on the debate has been shared - it’s a mainly emotional debate.

So for context, the figures:

• 7.4 million people claim sickness benefits of some kind
• The total number of claimants has increased by a third in five years (up 1.8 million)
• 1 in 10 working age adults claims, and 1 in 12 school aged children
• 1.2 million people aged under 25 claim sickness benefits, a rise of two thirds in 5 years - 1 in 15 claiming something
• 4 million adults claim sickness benefit of some kind, up from 2.8 million in 2019. Two thirds of that increase is people under 50.
• 2.5 million people claim UC health benefits, up 500k people this year alone - in 2019 less than 500k people claimed this
• 1.8 million have no requirement to look for work
• Sickness benefits for working age adults are expected to cost £70b by 2030 - a third of the cost of the NHS

The NHS used to work really well. Until it was run into the ground.

The alternative would be a system like America has which tends to me that if you can’t afford health insurance, you die or you end up in a crazy amount of debt for life and lose your house.

What is ‘failed’ in this context?

There is non-stop criticism of all childcare / childcare benefit support.

Yes one poster did say something along the lines of no amount of money can make someone better so basically what’s the point of paying genuine claimants

No, it worked until we all started living longer, abusing our bodies and messing our brains up.

No, there are other models out there. Personally I like the look of the Dutch system and think it's the direction we should take.

No to mention the free taxi service to and from school.

Rather than simply knocking those that make it through the arduous claims process it would be of more long term use to look at the causes.

One example, ACEs predisposing to long term physical and psychological consequences and loss of employment eg diabetes and kidney failure. Look at which year SureStart centres were closed and count forward. The cost of closing preventative measures is felt in the long term not the short term.

Or you could look at increased diagnosis. There’s a lot of ill-informed knocking of increased understanding and diagnosis of neurodivergence. Let’s compare it to stomach ulcers ~1990s. Everyone knew they were caused by stress and the only way to manage them was to retire and drink antacids. The scientist who said he’d found a bacterial cause was called a kook. He had to drink a bacterial broth on film to prove it. Now everyone tested +ve for H.Pylori gets antibiotics and death from stomach ulcers has plummeted.

Causal routes are never as simple as the headlines (tax-exile owned not contributing to this country) make out. Knowledge moves on despite people resisting change through fear. Prevention is far far better than cure but costs more in the short term.

You’re talking nonsense. That doesn’t match my experiences whatsoever.

If anything, people are told to be cautious and not to overstate anything.

All there seems to be on here is multiple threads about the same thing and some posters getting overly excited at the cuts and others making their jealously public over their sisters friends mum who had an inhaler prescribed once and now gets a motability car plus has 7 children with adhd getting dla and it’s not fair

Would you work for free? Would you provide somebody with a service for nothing, rather than being paid, because they have value beyond making you a financial contribution?

A big chunk of the increase are for 60+ people who would previously have received state pension earlier so not be eligible for out of work benefits

Yes there are other models but they would involve higher taxation I’m assuming? Which nobody in the UK seems to want.

You mean, which we have. 1% of the highest earners pay 30% of all income tax. We have the highest tax burden since WW2.

Not my experience either, though my experience is DLA rather than pip.

Everything on the DLA form had to be backed up by evidence from medical professionals.

Yet on a recent thread about a girl who had to leave her private school and was getting a taxi to a state school at a cost of approx £8k a year everyone was saying how it was fair enough for the parents to do that . I expect not an isolated case either yet you resent a disabled child having school transport ??

You actually can decide what your taxes go to to fund through democracy. That's how it works. If the general population decide that the level of benefits paid for illness and disability is too high then they will vote in parties that will change this.

Also, you were once a child so almost certainly have benefited from child benefit and schools. You have nothing to be resentful about! You are simply repaying the money that was spent on you by the state.

It reminds me of the poster who was always telling people that if they were poor it was their own fault and then when Covid hit, they expected the government to pay more than everyone else was getting to keep her business afloat 🤣

It’s really interesting that you know this level of detail. I never once discussed DLA with the kids schools.

Figures for prevention being cheaper than cuts
Edit: image under review

So everyone who started claiming since COVID is faking it? Or am I faking it?
Shall I just drop down dead from starvation because I'm not well enough to work?
This is a supposedly civilised country where billionaires pay fuck all, low waged pay everything and the sick and disabled are branded liars and penalised as workshy scum. Get me the fuck out of here.
I can't believe I voted for these cunts thinking they cared about people like me.

Unfortunately that’s not what people want to hear, is it?

Funny how nobody has any actual evidence of these people having successful claims with made up forms and no medical evidence.

Let’s do a bit of broad brush maths to highlight the sums we’re talking. It’s not a few hundred quid here or there.

A family with 2 children both on DLA and in special school whose parents are out of work (v common set up around here) will get the following.

DLA - minimum of £800 pm for both (that’s if they don’t get the higher rate)
Carers - £320 pm
UC - Likely 1500-ish… if not more.
PIP for 1 parent - £400pm
Special school - £8,000 pm for both kids (ish)
Taxis - let’s say £500pm at the lowest end

That’s 11,500 per month. That’s £138,140 per year. On one family.

Of course, this is 1 type of case and 1 type of family. But there are a lot of families out there in pretty much exactly the scenario described above. Even taking away the special school and taxis, that’s £36,240.

Does this look remotely proportionate given people earning 23k will be taxed to contribute to this? And on a mass scale?

There is undoubtedly an issue.

I personally know plenty of both 100% deserving and 100% undeserving cases, and a few who sit somewhere inbetween.

It's an awful form to fill out too, as well as chasing for supporting letters. It's the last thing you want to do when your child is seriously unwell in hospital but it's what you have to do to get even a chance of support.

Lets not even start about having to wait 3 months before I could even start a claim just in case my child's cancer improved during that time. 🙄