1,000 new PIP claims per day?

[flashbac]

Is this true? (From someone who is naturally cynical of government info.)

If it is, is there something else behind the statistic? Is it because people have to reapply or something like that?

This is from the government website:

"Monthly PIP awards have more than doubled since the pandemic, rising from 13,000 to 34,000 - a rate of around 1,000 new claims per day, or the population of Leicester every year."

I find the statistic unbelievable.

But they aren't breaking the law. I think of it as the same Tax Evasion versus Tax Avoidance; Benefit Fraud versus benefit maximisation. The are working within the system but the the system needs to change. Similar my father now no-longer getting his Winter Fine-wine Allowance the system needs to stop giving money to those who don't need it.

did you know the dwp would save millions if they means tested attendance allowance & pip for those in retirement. Maybe this is half the problem.

Edited to add the post I was replying to!
“Do You think there’s anything unusual about the number of claimants increasing by 50% in 5 years, and that number of new claimants continuing to accelerate?
Is that something worth exploring - and is there a question as to the affordability of such a scheme if people are claiming in it in far higher numbers than previously?”

I think it’s been predictable for years that this would happen.
It’s difficult to say exactly what is going on without figures showing who is included in the increase - eg is it young adult school leavers caught up in the mental health crisis facilitated by schools? Is it the large number of people with long COVID? Is it people whose chronic illnesses and mental health are exacerbated by the cost of living?

Of course it’s worth exploring, just like everything else failing under the hands of our government (from over the last 20 years).

It would be refreshing if it was investigated in a way that could lead to actual beneficial change (like “why are more people disabled now”, “why are children not coping in school” and “why are so many people mentally ill?” which would hopefully lead to “how can we better prevent chronic and mental illness” and “how can these people recover?” rather than the usual approach that demonises the vulnerable and pits the rest of the population against them, and the usual over funded campaigns that entirely miss the point again and again, whilst again blaming the vulnerable.

If they're claiming fraudulently, they're breaking the law. Saying they couldn't work at all, while going to the gym daily to lift weights. Although that story is a bit odd as it is, because the criteria for PIP isn't "can you work or not".

It's not comparable to the WFA, your father in law wasn't fiddling his income to take him under the threshold. The criteria was changed and he either fell into it or he didn't. If someone is actively lying about their situation to claim benefits they otherwise wouldn't be entitled to, it's fraud and illegal.

They could also save money if they hot decisions right the first time and weren't reassessing those of us who live with lifelong disabilities

The DWP do not publish data on nationality. They do publish data on ethnicity.

an MP did make a FoI request for nationality and the response was that it would take too long to collect the data. (It’s not asked on the form but you have to have entitlement to benefits to get past the screening interview).

they’d have to start asking everyone another question and even then the data would be very delayed. (Like decades).

Obviously not, but more education regarding having children, their disposition to have any conditions you and your partner may have and the cost that will come to you, your child as they get older and the government.

Strongly encourage those who have had a child they that cannot afford to go onto a longer term birth control that they can’t forget to take.

Also more controversially, the more money we throw at struggling families, free school meals etc is going to encourage those in poverty to keep on having children because it’s not really costing them anything. The benefits cap on 2 children came way too late but that was a start. Obviously it would be unethical to take the current funding away but the government needs to take control, see this as a dire situation that they’re currently throwing money at and ensure this is a short term solution and not something that we’re going to keep funding indefinitely.

Why are we not providing food vouchers as much anymore and giving these parents direct money through benefits. A £50 supermarket voucher valid for food only is obviously a much more sensible solution than trying to make schools fund even more childcare and feed children whose parents won’t. A loaf of bread, a bag of apples and peanut butter for a week of breakfasts for 2 children would cost less than £3 and I’m not sure why the focus is not on putting affordable, healthier foods into households with children.

I wonder if a lot has to do with wait lists
from memory gynae in my area has a wait list of a year, that’s just to be seen let alone operated on. Wales my friend said you’re looking at 7 years for endometriosis diagnosis and surgery

I was lucky to have a work that was fairly understanding but I was nearly sacked under capability

If they needed "reasonable adjustments" to be able to get school qualifications, there's every chance they'd need "reasonable adjustments" in the workplace too.

I'm totally with you. I despair when I hear that the government (whoever they are) has announced measures to make disability benefits harder to claim for, or that they're cutting this or that.

Why on earth aren't they trying to find out why so many people have disabilities.

Some will be lifelong. Some will have happened suddenly. Some will have developed. What might be done to lower the latter, if anything?

25% of the population is a huge amount. How many of these are children, working age adults, pension age adults?

Making people with disabilities jump through even more hoops to prove themselves isn't a long term solution.

If they're lying, then it's fraud, whether tax or benefits.

Tax evasion is lying, tax "avoidance" is planning using legal means. Very different.

I would imagine the crumbling NHS and the aftermath of the pandemic.

I have a chronic illness, probably for the rest of my life that was brought on by Covid. I have had very little help from the hospital clinic and they have now discharged me - not because I am better but because of the absolute flood of new cases.

But the diagnosis is irrelevant. I’ve had cancer twice and aren’t eligible for PIP. Only if you are deemed terminally ill with fewer than 12 months to live is it automatic.

Also, PIP is not an out of work benefit. You can work full time and get PIP. All the comments about “getting people back to work” show that people don’t understand.

not sure that's the case. She requires tutoring so that she can keep up as she struggles to absorb the information because she's easily distracted and overwhelmed. If she couldn't absorb the information required for a job, it wouldn't be the job for her? School won't allow her to focus on one subject of interest, she has to take 10 GCSEs some of her choosing, most not. Tutoring isn't going to be an option in the workplace.

I haven't read all the replies so might be duplicating what others have said. But I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and when I began reading forums, Reddit etc. online I was blown away by the number of people applying for PIP. There was a lot of people - in my opinion - twisting the requirements to suit their situation but seemingly completely overlooking the fact that they weren't actually affected badly enough to justify a benefit designed for people who need support to live independently. Many of them in full time employment.

My executive function skills are dogshit. I struggle to eat properly - in the sense that I find it impossible to meal plan, cook, etc etc. As a result I mainly eat pre prepared sandwiches and salads and eat shit like crisps for dinner. But do I need PIP?! Not a fucking chance! But the number of people applying for it based on this kind of thing really pissed me off.

For tribunal generally people gather more evidence together than for the initial form. You also have 3 experts in different fields compared with one person doing the initial assessment.

Who's to know what they can afford though? Anyone can have a child with a condition that may or may not burden the NHS.

If you think people are having children in order to take advantage of £17.25/week in child benefit and £2.60 a day (term time) of free school meals. I think you're living on another planet. Free school meals isn't money in parents pockets is it.

What infuriates me is that if I'd got quicker medical help I would never have had to have claimed PIP at all. I waited 5 months for an MRI scan. Another 6 months to get on a waiting list and kept being refused for lsurgery because I was anaemic. My GP was utterly useless. In the end I had to fork out 2 grand on iron transfusions privately by which time I was totally bed bound and got much worse, had my surgery and had to fork out another 4k on carers and private physio or I would have been in a wheelchair for good and not able to work again. I made myself better by using all of my savings and by the force of my will. That is not the worst of it my treatment was appalling from egi ning to end.
How do people cope when they can't afford any private help. PIP has not covered what I paid out. It's a drop in the ocean.
I'm going back to work in my nhs clinic next week. No thanks to the NHS. I also have a blue badge for the next 2 years which will help no end.

I'm one of these new claimants since covid. Covid played a big part in my mental health decline and breakdown. I've actually been really lucky and had a lot of support from the NHS. But I'm apparently spending the majority of my time in active psychosis. I'm not alone, my MH nurse says it's quite common.

I think the response is that means testing adds extra costs

I just wanted to add years ago I worked for HMRC in Working and Child Tax Credit and I was blown away by the stats about how many benefits are under-claimed, based on stats that were known at the time. I am a firm believer in social security, a big proponent of an improved safety net (I wish we had a universal basic income) but my personal experience with PIP specifically has been seeing people take the absolute piss. But they genuinely seem to believe they need/deserve it? It's a whole weird new mindset.

Just to be picky, that’s 80% of disabled people not claiming.

Aren't they still testing the universal income thing? The test group have been getting it a while haven't they? Is the 2 year up yet?

It's this. There are loads of sources now that tell people exactly how to word the form, exactly how to describe symptoms to maximise their chance of being awarded pip.
You see loads of online sources urging people to exaggerate, essentially. Tell people to always describe their worst day even if that worst day only happens once a year 🙄🙄

Just as a devils advocate...if you're eating a diet of shit. You are likely to end up costing the state through healthcare in the future. Is there an argument that prevention is better than cure, if you could be assisted with help now?

Perhaps not the best use of a disability benefit, granted. But if it's available for things like this (I have no idea if it is or isn't) then I'm not sure we can expect people not to claim it. The issue if you don't think this is a good use of state money is to change the claiming criteria, not blame people for claiming what's available.