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 you’re hoping for Labour to be as cruel as possible towards vulnerable, disabled people I think you may be disappointed because this is not their brand of politics. Whatever they do will be more progressive than anything David Cameron or the rest of the Tories did.

I think Labour are quite clever because they need to make sure that they get re-elected for the next term and to do this they need to be moderate. Nothing currently suggests that the Conservatives are going to be electable again anytime soon - not many people want them back.

They said in earlier posts that someone who has kids, a relationship, goes on holidays etc should not be able to claim disability benefits because if you can do those things, you are not disabled enough.

I met my DP at a MH support group. So if I can go to a MH support group, I should not be getting benefits for my shit MH? Laughable. That is like saying you should not be able to claim benefits if you can get to your hospital appointments.

Carers allowed actually comes out of UC.

I disagree. I think they’re going to make quite drastic cuts, and they’re doing it early to let the dust settle before the next GE. Otherwise they’d kick the can down the road a few years, and deal with it after the next one.

I think it’s not what happens here. You are trying to shoehorn something into this discussion that’s not relevant.

Where are the jobs?

Actually I agree.

I’d love a genuine discussion that revolves around HOW we can help disabled people work.

As I said earlier, I think the proposal to let people try out working without sacrificing their entitlement if it doesn’t work out is brilliant. It’s a positive policy that focuses on enabling rather than punishing.

The difficulty is that the starting point for many posters is that anyone with a MH disorder is a shirker and that they could work if they could only be bothered. That means that there’s little genuinely productive conversation because it just circles back to “you just need to get back to work as there’s not enough money.”

I think being able to WFH can make a very big difference for disabled people. I don’t know what else could be introduced but there must be some measures? We need policies that incentivise employers and enable disabled workers.

I haven’t heard any official comment on whether they’re looking to improve MH resources. It would be great if so but treatment for MH takes time so wouldn’t have an immediate impact.

My very big fear is they’re just going to employ a shedload of inexperienced “work coaches” who won’t actually be able to change anything but will just harangue disabled people who are out of work.

I don’t claim PIP (although I am autistic and have ADHD) and I work full-time around caring for three people (self-employed). So I’m not defending myself here, but I know how badly these systems are run and the unhelpful, inflexible attitudes that are often shown to claimants.

I guess we just have to wait and see what’s announced but IIRC there was a court judgement that said they can’t simply slash benefits to save money. So will be interesting to see what “help” is going to be given to disabled folk.

You’re not allowed to even do that now.

Do you know how UC works? Claimants have work coaches and if they don’t fulfil their looking for work commitments, their payments stop. End of story. And they get the benefit cap applied.

Announcement at 2.30 tomorrow I've just read.

My very big fear is they’re just going to employ a shedload of inexperienced “work coaches” who won’t actually be able to change anything but will just harangue disabled people who are out of work

I think you may be right because this is what happened under Gordon Brown’s government.

Not when disability comes in, and I would be interested to know how many families on UC this applies to.

Well I imagine the collective orgasm from those so over excited about making the sick and disabled suffer will be measurable on the Richter scale

It happened in the 80's and 90's as well people throwing their walking sticks on the floor and saying fuck em. They had to go to work back then. The problem is we don't have the money and this had to be done anyway regardless of who is running the country.

I'm on UC and not required to work but because my son is disabled, not me. I had to give up my job when he was still seriously ill in hospital because I had no other choice.

Now he gets DLA and I care for him.

LSE
are making guesses in that report. Nothing more.

Moneyweeks article is based on actual Intel by Henley Global. They deal with property and citizenship issues for the wealthy moving countries.
So
They have the actual figures

Better than LSE guesswork obviously

They won’t extend the benefit cap to families affected by disability. If they did the social services bill would be astronomical within a short time.

So… the crux of the issue is that you feel disabled people ought to be punished.

i have said this on other threads but i have definitely noticed a subset of society with disabilities who have internalised ableist attitudes.

I agree with this quote from a disability advocate;

If you agree to your own inferiority in order to get a seat at the table and have people respect you, then that’s not going to work.

Anyone with a disability deserves societal support - that’s a level playing field. People lucky enough not to be disabled don’t have nearly as many barriers.

Just watching the news. Someone who was on benefits now in IT complaining that they got no help on benefits, just told to get a warehouse job. This sort of shit really passes me off. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working in a warehouse and how dare he look down his nose with his 'this job is beneath me' 'better off on benefits' attitude.

People are always saying and have always said we don’t have the money. It’s a good way to keep the little people in line.

Ok, then tell me where the 40 billion comes from to prop up the welfare state over the next 5 years? Let me guess, tax the rich, because the LABOUR PARTY haven’t thought of that..?

I can understand the frustration of this man though. Imagine being a nurse, going to the Job Centre, and being threated with sanction for not apply to get a supermarket job... knowing full well they will look at your CV and not call you for interview as that supermarket job will just be a stop gap, and they want someone who will stick around.

My DM has a cleaning company and she is put off by graduates, as she wants reliable staff who stick around.

You think? Have you actually looked into it? The UK's corruption index has tanked in recent years. The influence of the wealthy is absolutely a documented problem. There are reports on transparency international if you're interested. These are the things that really threaten us as a society and should be in the forefront of our minds, imo. Not disabled people FGS.

www.transparency.org.uk/publications/cheques-and-balances-countering-influence-big-money-uk-politics

Well, that completely depends on what his qualifications were- and if he had the physical fitness to be lifting boxes all day. If I had an MSc in computer science or ten years experience in writing software I probably wouldn't want to be getting a warehouse job when I was clearly qualified for something else.

Yep. Just look at the other thread running atm - poster hasn’t worked in years but horrified at the thought of ‘menial’ work as he or she considers themselves far too qualified for that. Uh huh…

Above post was for
@CentralLimit