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

And this will increase hugely once Boris's 5 year period expires this year for indefinite leave to remain for low skilled workers coming in. This is estimated to add another £61billion net cost to the taxpayer with respect to the last three years of low skilled workers coming in, over their life times (figures from the OBR). The estimate increases to £84billion assuming they bring average 1.39 dependants.

1 in 12 children requiring extra funding due to a disability or illness sounds very high to me!

What makes you think it sounds about right?

I do think seeing stats is important. I would like to see a break down by age, category of disability eg physical/mental, part of the country claimants live. It would also be useful to understand why this seems to be much worse in the uk? Is it the extra benefits?

I dont think anyone who for example has a degenerative condition or a physically disability should have to keep ‘proving’ they are sick. These people need to be on a different ‘package’. However the massive rise in mental health conditions in the young is worrying. People are always saying there’s no NHS support but what are people doing to help themselves? Also if they receive pip why isn’t this being used for counselling? If you were that unhappy surely you’d do anything?

On a last note and I’m prepared to be flamed as I don’t know the detail but some things seem to essential ie help with nappies if your child has a condition that means they soil however getting money and perhaps a car when you have anxiety and don’t want to go on a bus seems excessive (imo). Where does the ‘making life easier’ start/stop.

The problem isn’t whether or not there are people faking claims, there will far more with genuine needs. The problem is that there are not enough people paying in to keep paying out as much money as they do. Take the population as a whole (the 100%). Take out the retired, those pre 18 and those in higher exucation, those on long term sick or unable to work. That leaves you 33.86million people working (Uk labour statistics.) You need to earn 41k to be a net contributor. It is a very small percentage of the population that are, and the number people relying on these benefits is getting higher. Ageing population. More unemployed. Greater immigration.

You cannot just keep raising the taxes on this small percentage earning above 41k as they are now struggling with COL. Increased taxes on businesses mean they either close/stop growing or move abroad as a tax dodge. Something has to change.

And yet it’s the pensioners who are criticised for costing too much!

The reality is that even if everyone currently on benefits genuinely needs them, the system has to be affordable. If it isn’t affordable, even people who genuinely need this support can’t have it. As a society we have to decide who to prioritise.

I absolutely agree with the comments that fixing the NHS and massively cutting waiting lists, as well as joined up thinking with social care, is needed at the root of this. I spent years on disability, in daily pain, and with very limited mobility. I needed a surgery, but the waiting list was years, then COVID happened, and there were also concerns about a post op care plan (major recovery) when I was a single parent without a support system.
Fast forward (and this is much abbreviated) but I was able to get my surgery done privately, and within a few months I had gone back to uni, was working part time, and no longer claiming benefits. There must be thousands like me, and most aren’t fortunate enough to have the outcome that I did.

Do people need medical evidence from professionals for every type of benefit claimed? I know people that get PIP need lots as a friend claimed plus I have read about it on here.

five years

What happened 5 years ago? Covid.

The uptick is the consequences of the pandemic - Long Covid and other sequlae to the virus itself, all the people with chronic and acute conditions who didn’t get treated due to lockdown, and the onset of, or exacerbation of existing, mental illness.

Yes. I was a full time primary school teacher until March 2020 and I think I had less than 5 days off sick in nearly 20 years. I then got Covid, which turned into long covid and I’ve not worked for 5 years (I can’t even leave the house).

On top of being so unwell, there is the stress of the amount of money I receive not being enough. I never thought I’d be someone who would need to claim benefits, but I am still so, so unwell after 5 years. I walked out of my classroom one day in March 2020, expecting to be back there the next day but became very unwell and have no idea when I will recover from long covid (but constantly hoping today could be the day).

I have a child who will grow into an adult that will highly unlikely to be able to work at all. He never developed cognition beyond a toddler. I have an older child who is also autistic, but no learning disability. You’d think he’d be able to work in the future (and I truly hope he can lead an independent life both financially and in every other typical way) but right now do I believe that is a longterm possibility? No. Not because he’s autistic/adhd, because many people who are ND are working, but because I know how the condition affects many people and that both the education system and workplace environment are still embarrassingly bad for understanding needs and adaptions.

This government and this attitude from the general public that ‘must stop disability benefits and force people into work’ is going to crash, burn and in a few years time cause a colossal health fallout for our country. It’s building a tower on a foundation of sand, so many nuances need addressing for a future where the many young people who are being recognised as disabled are able to flourish without inevitably breaking down. And neurodivergence is going to become more prevalent, it’s hereditary and the traits become more apparent with every generation. So unless ND people stop having children, this is the future we’re facing and education/economic structures needs to change very quickly to adapt. You cannot force those with disabilities to fit the typical expectations of education and work with simple threats of taking away their means of living.

Yes. Claimants provide medical evidence from anyone involved in their care (eg GP, hospital consultant, psychiatrist, support worker, etc). They will also have to have a medical assessment by the DWP. It’s a gruelling process, and many are turned down, even when their own medical team supports their claim.

Just anecdotally really. That equates to roughly 2 children in a class. That to me sounds like a normal number of children to have some degree of learning difficulty/disability/illness. My son is autistic with learning disabilities and requires a fulltime 1-to-1 at school(will hopefully be joining a SEN school at some point) and is entitled to higher rate care. There’s 1 or 2 other children with similar needs in his school. I assume based on this there will be others with less challenges but who still are entitled to lower rate DLA which is based on much lower care needs and equates to less than Child Benefit each week.

fair point. - I was a school governor though in this case, which I should have mentioned.

Agreed. It's notoriously gruelling.

If it was such a piece of piss, we'd have successful claim rates nearer to 90% of the population, surely? And there would be no need for mandatory reconsiderations and tribunals, let alone the repeat cycle of reassessment and review.

Also, the DWP and its contractors do quality check samples of PIP claims and their outcomes. It's a legal requirement of government's own 'best value' and 'fit for purpose' fiscal tests, a concept around since Thatcher.

Sorry to hear about your experiences Blossom; its a horrendous illness to experience. I've had another relapse and my legs are so painful; I can't even kneel as I wouldn't be able to get up. I've given up thinking I will ever recover now and not sure how to move forward in life. All this disability hatred is horrific to hear and I'm very disappointed with West Streeting fueling this (I used to really like him as well). Lets hope medicine can find some solutions for us.

Right, that may be the case. According to some posters, just filling in the form, and saying whatever, lands them an award just like that. I do not believe that to be the case.

Yes, but the disability benefit bashers on here don’t like the facts to get in the way.

Yes. Why is covid the elephant in the room.

I went from vaguely ill pre covid to a wheelchair user after getting ill with covid. Not because of long covid but because of how much worse it made my chronic condition. Thankfully I can still work and I don't have the energy to claim benefits so I don't. But it's mind boggling that noone wants to talk about the impact of the pandemic

Yes. Why is covid the elephant in the room.

I went from vaguely ill pre covid to a wheelchair user after getting ill with covid. Not because of long covid but because of how much worse it made my chronic condition. Thankfully I can still work and I don't have the energy to claim benefits so I don't. But it's mind boggling that noone wants to talk about the impact of the pandemic

My medical evidence (printout of my GP records, hospital records, Consultants' letters, copies of reports, tests, radiology scans, etc) was a pile about three inches thick.

Every single item was numbered, indexed, catalogued and cross-referenced by me into my answers to the general and descriptor-based questions.

I still 'needed' two assessments, lasting 2hrs 20 mins and 1hr 45 mins, before I was awarded the PIP award have today (ongoing).

Absolutely standard, going by various advice websites.

What do you think OP’s point is?

Do you think these numbers are sustainable?

Universal income is the solution perhaps? In another couple of decades there will be millions more out of work by automation and AI anyway. The concept of every person in a 65 million country “needing” to work to keep things the cogs turning is already a hugely outdated concept (with some countries already for example successfully moving to four day weeks). Might as well get it up and running now.

What is universal income? I have never heard of it. Who pays for it if everyone is on it?

Worked with people with ill health to try and get them back into work, several of them have no reason to not be working

They don’t want to, and live very nicely on their extra benefits for “ mental health issues”

There are lots of ill people who genuinely can’t work, because of mental health, but a significant amount of people make it up.

Some people are too frail in the mid 60’s to work, but still have to try, to be honest, some of them shouldn’t be made to, and should be retired.

Its the younger people, and middle class claiming for perfectly well children with imagined issues.

They know who they are, their friends have told them how to claim, their children do well at school, and there is nothing wrong with them.