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.

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.

Most people who win at tribunal do so with no additional evidence.

It does beg the question if we should use a 2 or 3 person panel to do things from the beginning.

My DD's first ever PIP assessment (switching from DLA) was done by a physio who openly admitted they'd never even heard of narcolepsy.

Does it help you do things like get to work?

Well.it's a massive spectrum.My autistic son is 15 non verbsl.at a special school for children with severe and profound learning disabilities,challenging behaviour functions at around 2/3
He gets high rate care and high rate mobility.

You make an interesting point. But I don't need money deposited into my bank account to help me eat better. Some kind of ADHD coaching maybe? I have all the knowledge I need, I know what I'm supposed to do, it's the putting it into action that's the problem. And paying me money isn't going to help. If someone who was genuinely physically unable to eat normally needed to pay for some kind of meal replacement or a person to help them - sure, give them the money to fund that.

I think changes to the criteria are what's required. I understand the perspective of not blaming people for claiming what's available but it's the wilful twisting of situations to fit the criteria or exaggeration etc that bothers me. I think there should be an intrinsic will not to overblow your needs to get something just because you CAN.

No sitting government will ever do this, but it might be prudent to introduce the idea to people that living standards for all are dropping. It's slow at the moment, but the younger generations are the first in a long time, as a group, it's impossible to discuss society matters on individual cases, where their standard of living is going to be lower than the generations above them.

Secure jobs, secure housing, accessible health service and a welfare safety net, they have all but gone.

This is living standards for all, across the board.

Whatever benefits (and of course state pension is included) are paid out will be frozen and more difficult to access, the job market, especially for youngsters is much more precarious now, housing costs, again for those just starting out in life, are crippling, stunting even. People can't access healthcare services until it becomes a crisis because the healthcare service is already dealing with so many cases that have already reached that point there is no room for early intervention.

It's fine saying invest more, but what you also need is trained up man/womanpower as well. And trained individuals take years. There are tens of thousands TA vacancies at the moment, so even if a child should have additional resources at school if they need a person to provide them they are just not there, with the best will in the world.

News article today, how ChatGDP is taking over many graduate entry position jobs, how is this going to pan out?

Everyone needs to be realistic that our standard of living and our children's standards of living are going to be very stretched during their lifetime.

Everyone is going to take a hit in one way or another (individual stories aside).

If there is ever a time to build up resilience in the younger generations at the very least, it's now. Graduate jobs have fallen by 25% ish recently, employers are going to take on graduates that don't need adjustments, they are, they will want the easiest employees, not ones that are unreliable or need their own space or office or can't catch a bus in or loses it if a train isn't on time.

And we are all, more or less, for most of this, on our own.

Who does and does not get PIP right now is a drop in the ocean to the huge societal adjustments that are heading our way. Climate change is making food much harder to predict, our energy costs are directly related to stability in the middle east, that's why everyone is invested in the present war. People here are more quick to anger, selfish, unwilling to help each other out because everyone wants to keep everything for themselves.

It's really not surprising PIP claims are going up, and it's not surprising that the government is trying to rein them in. This is going to go on for years, whomever is in charge.

I didn’t know I was autistic until well after I’d had my children, and I didn’t know my children were until after they were born. This applies to most autism families I know.

My neighbours didn’t know they had a genetic disorder until 2 of their children were diagnosed with a life limiting illness because of that genetic disorder.

No birth control is infallible or 100% effective.

We’re dealing with humans here, not rats in a laboratory with an ability to control their every move.

This is exactly the issue. The coaching into getting an application accepted.

I applied for Access to Work (and ended up withdrawing from the process because of my aforementioned dogshit executive function skills) in the hope of getting some funding for ADHD coaching specific to my workplace/role. But all the advice I read online was encouraging people to ask for iPads, standing desks, noise cancelling headphones, etc etc as if maximising the amount of money spent on you was the aim, rather than getting your needs met.

I read this and thought that if some random person did get some extra money through PIP, they could buy help for their executive functioning problems.

My friend gets a disabled student's allowance (DSA), that has gone on some equipment, a mentor and some software, all of which helps with her executive functioning.

So if a person with those problems which affected their diet and meal planning were to get PIP and use it for ongoing mentoring and software or whatever it may, down the line, reduce their risk of other health problems associated with a poor diet.

I also had the thought that perhaps PIP could in part be more like DSA which is allocated to the student, but the student doesn't get cash, they just have agreed things allocated to them from the allowance.

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.

This is an interesting point. My DS is quite ‘severely’ autistic (for lack of a better word) and goes to a special needs school etc. It was a big shock but since his diagnosis I have recognised a lot of traits in my husband and, to a lesser extent, myself and think we would both meet the criteria of neurodivergence. So there was always a high chance of having an ND child we just didn’t know.

But then of course having awareness would have meant both of us being diagnosed pre-children and I don’t know whether that would be a good thing.

We absolutely won’t be having more kids because I’ve read about the very increased likelihood of further ND children once one of your children has been diagnosed. I only found this out online though, it was never something that was discussed at appointments or anything so I wonder how many people are unaware and are surprised to end up with 2 autistic children.

Yep I agree. It's so depressing though to think about.

I don’t understand the point of PIP for things like anxiety tbh, I had pretty shit anxiety had to pay for my own therapy, PIP wouldn’t have made any difference to me to be frank, plus I continued working through panic attacks etc.

Lots of people are claiming it because it’s there imo. It’s free money, make anything free and people will try to obtain it. I just don’t believe all these people genuinely need it.

Not always. School environments can be particularly difficult for autistic children. The uniform, the sounds, smells, the wide curriculum etc.
adults will opt for work environments that suit them best. So working in a shop is different to working in a library, is different to working remotely, is different to electrics.

School is one size fits all and often trying to shove square pegs into round holes. Work you find the job that fits you

There are other things in place for that type of thing like as you say Disabled Students Allowance, or Access to Work, or support through employers or universities etc. When I look at the requirements for PIP it just screams to me that it's designed for situations that are far more serious.

"I also had the thought that perhaps PIP could in part be more like DSA which is allocated to the student, but the student doesn't get cash, they just have agreed things allocated to them from the allowance."

How much money would that cost? How would it be decided whether something is a disability cost? And if we did this for pip you have to do this for other benefits

The PIP would've covered the costs of that therapy. Something you wouldn't need but for the fact you had diagnosed anxiety. That's literally the point of it, to cover the costs of having a health condition that people without a health condition wouldn't incur.

One example would be that anyone who couldn't afford to pay for therapy as you did then PIP could be used to help pay for it.

Why then don’t we just offer therapy through the NHS subcontracted to local therapists instead of cash? It would mean that only genuine claimants would be using it. You could offer a fixed subsidy, say £75 an hour.

Fantastic idea and its so frustrating that therapies that used to be freely available on the NHS are now unobtainable (or require insanely long waiting lists) for many people because of cuts.

Haa haa if only this happened. My child gets DLA.
We don't get any therapy from NHS and waiting lists are so long for appointments that we have to wait far longer than we should for routine appointments they need.
Education has failed child so badly they have no not attended for 18 plus months. The LA provide nothing and keep insisting child can attend mainstream despite acknowledging this will result in likely suicide attempts but that's ok as we are on a CAHMS waiting list

I agree.
The underlying problem is that normal/basic wages don't pay enough to live on, and in the face of that we have people at the top getting ever richer- no wonder people try to game the system!

I also had the thought that perhaps PIP could in part be more like DSA which is allocated to the student, but the student doesn't get cash, they just have agreed things allocated to them from the allowance

That only works if people use their PIP for set things from every payment.

So that could work for DD4's physio as that's a set cost every month (although not completely as it's term time one place and another outwith term time).

It doesn't work for the movable costs - some months £30/40 is spent on parking. Other months it pretty much all goes on parking if she's having a surgery or a stint in hospital. After a surgery she'll sometimes have extra therapies in a hydro pool or the likes.

If one of her aids breaks we often have to pay to replace it - what happens if the vouchers given that month are for physio and parking, but we need a wheelchair repair or splits replaced?

If her usual respite place is unavailable and we need a different one the cost is different.

Dd4 is a child so gets DLa atm instead of PIP but the principle is the same - it's a contribution toward the extra costs of her disabilities.

I didn’t say NHS, I said privately with a fixed subsidy from the government. Find your own therapist you are happy with (I think choice is important, my psychologist suited me, I had a bad time with drugs and she didn’t try to prescribe me any which I appreciated).

We do it with other things, we regularly send brits abroad for surgery.

If there is that much of a crisis with MH then really it’s the only way to get waiting lists down and ensure compliance (most people with MH issues avoid treatment until crisis point in my experience).

You still.need evidence ,you can put in as many claims you want and believe me on the F
DLA face book group.I'm on people try and claim.for very tenuous reasons ,it doesn't mean they will.be awarded though if they don't have evidence a
Even people with diagnosed disabilities with professional evidence to back them up don't always meet the criteria for an award.

Anecdote, not fact. My daughter got to crisis because there was nothing. Even in crisis there was nothing to help.

The system is not currently funded enough to mean anything other than crisis intervention (for adults)