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

One of the problem is that like most assessments, it is based on a tick box exercise and if you know how to write the supporting statements so that it tics the right boxes, you get the award.

More and more people have gained experience in the 'right way' to phrase things and offering their support to claimants. Some organisations do this on a FT basis.

It's not about providing a actual account of how people are affected but about saying things in such a way to get the maximum points that can't be challenged.

It's almost become an industry with more and more claimant's now approaching these people for help.

100% agree.

I'd also point out that some of the DC with EHCPs will go on to be able to earn their own livings, and many of the children who receive SEN support will also have independent lives - they're struggling with maths or literacy, and sometimes can be helped really significantly. If you can give a dyslexic child two terms of an hour a week and bring their reading age up by 2 to 3 years, you can be confident that they'll cope at secondary school and also probably have the tools to help themselves later on. The confidence they gain from the massive improvement in their work is also part of it.

But we did have parents who were desperate to get their DC diagnosed with something when the children were absolutely fine in school. Which is not, by any means, to have a go at the parents who move heaven and earth to get an EHCP for a child who really needs one and who benefits immeasurably from the help that comes with it.

But these countries have doctors that actually try and cure people with IVIG or monoclonal antibodies.

People in the UK are left to rot. I’m on loads of international Long Covid groups. Doctors elsewhere will try stuff. In the UK we don’t get anything.

Agree.

Thanks for this, it was a very good idea to start the thread with the (shocking) stats - so people don’t just rush in with their accusations of wanting workhouses or to see starving pensioners.

I would like to add, that a thorough review conducted showed no convincing evidence that the rise in benefits has been caused by waiting lists/long covid.

25% of people in the UK have some kind of disability, so that's a lot of people not claiming.

Fraud is not the same as exaggerating symptoms.

Fraud for this purpose means, for example, somebody claiming on behalf of someone else and pocketing the money. Or using false identities.

It doesn’t mean Kev who said his fibromyalgia is crippling but manages to renovate his house and go to pubs regularly.

It’s not spin to say that the bill is currently unaffordable. You’re right there is the option of cutting other things to pay for welfare. Personally I think defence and public order are the number 1 responsibilities of the state so I wouldn’t cut defence, police, criminal justice. If you are taken over by Russia/China and/or your society is so chaotic that private property cannot be safeguarded and personal safety is minimal, no one is going to be able to pay for education, roads etc. But it would be legitimate to say we want to prioritise welfare and cut education spending, or elderly care or something.

I think everyone agrees that welfare needs to have checks and balances and that if it is too easy to claim, people don’t go back to work when actually working would benefit their health. Clearly you also need to decide what level of disability should make you eligible. The question is what system is needed to create this optimal balance and what can the taxpayer currently afford?

Thank God, our economy would collapse if they did. Which shows the scale of the problem.

I a disabled. Just wrote a post about my life as I’m so worried but can’t face getting flamed on here so deleted it all.

Well - not every disability requires additional government support.

I think that probably needs to be a key question too within the governments thinking - what actually needs additional financial support, and what does not.

On an individual basis the claims may seem small - but times that by 7.4 million and it’s suddenly a very big number.

Having a disability of some sort doesn’t necessarily mean you need to claim additional financial support.

I have no proof and no stats to back my words up. Simply anecdotal evidence of a few people I know. And my opinion is that there are too many people who know how to jump the hoops and they do, and there’s a culture of ‘why should I work for minimum wage when this other person gets paid for not doing much’.

And controversially, with mental health, some physical work in nature that brings sense of achievement, may help so much more than medicine and isolation at home. Why are we not looking at those types of things as part of the solution.

i don’t blame them,what is the point in working,all the money goes to someone else,everything goes up in April!I don’t claim anything by the way,I work.

Was just about to ask this. Would be interesting to see the comparisons from other similar countries on long covid.

The waiting lists aren’t helping, I’m 18 months into investigation and due to get an op date but that’s within the next 6 months. If I didn’t have an understanding employer I would have lost my job
Not able to get PIP

I'm honestly shocked you think it's right and normal that 1 in 12 children would be considered so severely disabled as to need financial support 😳😳

That's absolutely ridiculous. Some minor costs parents will simply have to hear for themselves, bit like if your child needs a bit of extra help to keep up in maths so you pay for some tutoring, there are lots of costs parents will have to find themselves. Some kids wear their shoes a year, others grid out of them constantly and their parents have to buy new all the time.
Some kids are fussier eaters and their parents end up perhaps with higher food costs.

Life isn't fair. The government can't afford to completely cover off every one of life's inequalities.

1 in 12 children in the UK is NOT severely disabled come on.

I have severe Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. I've been on DLA for 15 years and never had a physical assessment and been given an indefinite award. It's life affecting but I wonder why some have had checks,people worse off, missing limbs etc and they're having to be assessed every 3/5 years.

If I was PM, I would introduce the following changes:

1. Ring fence certain conditions. Downs Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy and so on - entitlement for life, never to be reviewed again.
2. Halve PIP and DLA
3. No claims for mental health unless accompanied by a severe learning disability (not just dyslexia for instance), or the person has been sectioned in the last 6 months
4. No benefits for anyone who quits their job. They would have to prove redundancy.
5. Give large companies tax breaks to offer 3 month placements to the unemployed who claim their CV is so bad they’re unemployable. Hotels, supermarkets etc

The aftermath would be brutal for about 10 years, but the alternative would be worse. We have generational claimants, ‘anxious’ single mums on benefits raising ‘anxious’ children, all on PIP and DLA. If this looks bad, wait til the primary school lot now are adults.

What about savings elsewhere? 2.9 billion pounds for Ukraine! How about half that figure Keir ,and half for people on pip or whatever.Many people suffer from MH issues and it is difficult to hold down a job.Saying he stopping benefits is cruel and unrealistic .Most people who can work do . Also where are all these jobs? He also wants to make cuts in CS and NHS does he have more jobs then? This lot are getting worse than the ToriesFFS!

Why on earth should they get yet more benefits at the expense of our (already depleted) national security?

I'm not saying that defence isn't important, but if your own life is unaffordable and intolerable because you cannot afford any kind of decent life, through no fault of your own, you may well be questioning what 'could potentially happen' there is to be worth protecting and defending anyway.

It isn't even just defence; there are loads of other government pet projects that do/have cost billions. How much did we squander on HS2, just for one - whilst also aiming for Net Zero, which would mean that the frequent travellers who would have benefited from saving time in their long daily commutes would also thus be actively discouraged from seeking more sustainable and local working situations?

It isn't sustainable. So what do we do?

I think all state benefits should be based on financial need of the household, and people with savings shouldn't be paid benefits.

I don't think young adults living at home and not working should be able to claim benefits like PIP/UC when their household doesn't need the additional income.

(I am disabled and have been through the PIP process.)

I was talking to my sons lovely girlfriend this weekend - both my son and his GF have ADH but are incredibly hard workers , are medicated and don’t claim anything- she comes from a rather dysfunctional family and was telling me that her aunt actively seems to ‘want’ to get her 4 kids diagnosed constantly and get them labelled even though as my sons GF says they really are perfectly average neurotypical kids. She has no idea why this is but her 2 theories are 1 - money - easier access to help/benefits etc. 2 it excuses her from actually having to get back into work herself ( kids all over 7) as apparently she hates working at all.

im actually pretty social minded, but nothing she said suprised me - and sadly I think there are people who do think like this and use the MH card totally inappropriately and actually stop people with deep seated MH issues from getting the proper care and treatment needed.

Oh, and no household should take in more than 23k in benefits per year, that should be a hard ceiling.

Dozens and dozens of these threads. Will someone please make it stop? I have a child with severe OCD. I am not going to provide a breakdown of the costs, but it is very very expensive to look after a child with mental health needs. Especially when he is not at school and I am caring for him so, ya know, not earning. I am sure he will improve over time, but in the meantime it’s handy to be able to pay for the extra costs involved without ending up on the street. I think some posters on here would prefer that.