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

If your concern is truly dealing with 'objective' data, it might be useful to look into some of the contect behind the rise in these figures ...🙄

As your child was still in hospital the form was probably not suited to your case.
The questions relate to experiences, coping mechanisms etc. It would be almost impossible to fill out these forms before you had witnessed how your child would live after being discharged.

They would also need even more evidence for medium/high rate care
What more evidence can you give beyond family account, a peads report and school report?

"Its clear many people will have less money but it’s also clear the country can’t pay the bill"

do you and @MidnightPatrol work in the same office? 😄

How about acquiring the revenue, that our country needs, from the multinationals etc. that "somehow" manage to avoid paying taxes?

https://www.taxwatchuk.org/seven-large-tech-groups-estimated-to-have-dodged-2bn-in-uk-tax-in-2021/

At least 50 percent of the boys in my son's class are disruptive and struggle to listen. They are 7! I simply won't accept that all of them have ADHD. Loads of kids take longer to mature and aren't a great fit for the classroom environment, yet I think the school would provide 'evidence' for an ADHD DLA claim if required.

Again, you can write all you like to try and increase the chances of an award but it will be meaningless without the evidence to back it up
As already stated, the word 'evidence' is poorly used. We are not talking DNA or video recording that are as close to 100% proof. We are talking about anecdotes of accounts and quick assessments, which often are inaccurate and misleading.

For some context though, your article talks about avoidance of £2b of tax.

The projection by No 10 for welfare claimant growth, is an increase from £65b today to £100b in five years.

@IAmNotASheep
“Which is another , although agree linked, issue.
The NHS is crap and needs more funding and reorganisation. That needs money but the very people that need nhs support aren’t getting that support because there isn’t any money whilst benefits are being paid out
So
Cut the benefits bill
Use the savings to support people with the nhs”

My point is that the NHS are incredibly inefficient - I’ve posted before about this.

A huge organisation like the NHS should be able to have the bargaining power to pay for pharmaceutical supplies and stationery at rock bottom prices.

Instead they pay more than you or I do, for basics like aspirin, dressings, paper Etc. And far too much for items that they then don’t take back if the patient no longer needs them (E.g. crutches, walking frames, wheelchairs, unopened packs of incontinence aids, unopened sealed suction bottles for fluid drainage - these ALL go to landfill).

Sir Philip Green was given the Health Czar role some years back, but quit when he found that some idiot had committed the NHS to purchase reams of printer paper at £10 a pop for the next few years.

Stop this repeated this pattern over all NHS purchases and you would soon get a huge chunk of the deficit back!

I don’t know @MidnightPatrol do you work on the floor above or below me. Oh no. There is no floor above or below !
Perhaps you’re hiding in the broom cupboard, or at the top of the scaffolding with your phone in one hand and a bag of concrete in the other …apparently we are in cahoots 🤣🤣🤣. You’ll find me hiding in the portaloo 🤢

re getting revenues from multinationals etc
You could start a thread on that if you like ( this is about welfare payments ) but promise I’ll get @MidnightPatrol off that scaffolding and we’ll grab a couple of mugs of builders tea and settle in for a chat
😁

This.
I wonder how many of those qouted in the statistics are claiming sickness benefits whilst waiting for an operation or even just a hospital appointment to diagnose their condition in order to begin effective treatment. We are too quick to blame the victim and not the system which is failing them.

jesus wept. There are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people out there who meet the threshold for the 'disabled' descriptor who get up every single day and go to work. A huge proportion of those people are able to do that because they receive PIP or their parents receive DLA.

I have a disabled child. He qualifies for middle rate care which means I qualify for Carer's Allowance. He is no less disabled - and needs no less care - just because his condition can be managed by his teachers enabling me to work.

He still costs me a fortune. And I am still awake at 3am on a frequent basis helping him. We manage. Many with his condition don't. Many are having to attend school several times a day to ensure their child gets the medication and support they need.

People with disabilities are not stupid. They're not lesser beings. They don't need to 'get skilled' any more than the average person. They do need people to understand that disability is a real thing, that the impact is real - whether that be frequent medication, regular hospital appointments, a need for specialist equipment or anything else. Being disabled is frequently expensive - conditions are managed by a whole host of therapies, medications, specialist diets, etc etc that are not available on the NHS or through social care. Families are going all out to provide what they need so their loved on can live as average a life as possible. The number of people who begrudge that is beyond me.

Day to day anxiety is not the same is GAD, which is an anxiety disorder, anxiety so out of control that it is disordered. It is debilitating and nothing at all to do with being a bit shy, or worried about something in particular
I know very well what GAD is, on a personal and familial basis. It's something that you don't cure but learn to live with as you face it and learn to cope through self-teaching.

There are no miracle cures. It's very hard work but it's very rewarding too and becomes easier and easier.

Sadly, too many lack the resilience to face it and instead crave a miracle cure from professionals who just don't have it. Medications can do wonders, as does cognitive therapy, but getting additional money if anything is giving people of false sense of comfort to retreat into themselves rather than continue to combat it.

It wasn't necessary to wait for discharge to fill in the forms. There's even part of the form that asks if the child is in hospital, I simply ticked yes.

And written down by the claimant

I accept that of course and I’m sure that’s normal procedure.
However
It makes filling it out very difficult
If you haven’t experienced something how can you possible write about experiences.
Perhaps that’s another area that needs reviewing

Depends what the child's care needs are.

Not every child receives DLA due to ADHD/ASD.

"welfare claimant growth" fgs @MidnightPatrol the majority of our population who NEED extra help, are not just numbers on a government spreadsheet.

It is NOT acceptable to penalise our most vulnerable to balance the damn books.

The NHS should be privatised which they are slowly doing. They have outsourced hearing checks and ear syringes to private ear specialists. I listened to a woman on the radio talk about her chemo treatment and still having to work in order to pay her mortgage that's hard. UC don't help to pay the mortgage. The way things are moving and shifting in this world and how AI will take over most jobs I can forsee a lot of deaths in the future. Pip and UC can't pay for everyone to sit on their arses.

Do you think you can't experience anything in the hospital?

My son wasn't discharged for 308 days...

Elsewhere another poster who delusionally describes themselves as “a good person” seems to think disabled kids just shouldn’t get an education that meets their needs because they are not the “taxpayers of the future”.

Drowning in kindness over here

Exactly. This is where 15 years of Conservative government gets you. The current government are trying to sort out the very much worse off and sick society which has been left behind.

One in six women have had to leave the workplace purely down to endometriosis. I have endometrosis but thank goodness have not had a flare up of symptoms for ten years. I was treated quickly when I got the diagnosis but it can be so debilitating and misdiagnosed- it takes some women years to be taken seriously. I couldn't work when the symptoms were at their worst, I was in agony and thought I had a stomach ulcer at first.

What more evidence can you give beyond family account, a peads report and school report?

That depends on the individual’s circumstances but could include evidence from other professionals such as EP, specialist nurse, OT, SALT, physio, social care…

surely the claimant - or in the case of DLA - the claimant's carers are best placed to describe the impact their condition has on their daily life?

Or would you rather it was just told to a doctor who then writes it into the form? Cos time spent doing that is time they're not seeing patients.

Portage ( pre school) i have evidence fr8m the disability team ,disability social worker ,reports from his respite x2 ,
Aa well as EHCP,,IEP,etc.