Are ADHD benefit claims and work exemptions becoming too widespread?

[JoyousOpalLemur]

This was the top story on LBC this morning.

The number of people who get benefits for ADHD so they don't have to work has gone up by a staggering 40% in just the last two years.

The taxpayer now funds more than 100,000 people to not work because their ADHD makes work too difficult for them.

About 40% of them receive the top rate of daily living and motability allowance - £194 a week - and that's on top of several other benefits. Those who receive this do not have to look for work. This is now costing the taxpayer billions of pounds per year. Most of the beneficiaries are young people.

This is absolutely bonkers!

I know someone very well who receives these PIP payments for ADHD so she doesn't have to work. She's got a lovely flat in London that most people her age couldn't afford.

Her main argument is that her ADHD means she can't work, because it's "literally impossible" for her to follow time and transport rules - which means she never turns up on time at appointments, and often will call about two hours later saying she thought the appointment was a different time, and she's got lost finding it and is nowhere near.

That is true - she does do that a lot. However, she also goes on holiday several times a year. And I've never known her to once fail to make the holiday. Her track record of getting to the airport at the right time appears to be 100%!

This isn't party political - the Tories started this, Labour have made it much worse and Reform will almost certainly mess up trying to sort it out. And I'm not saying ADHD isn't real.

But this is clearly nuts, terrible for an economy and totally unsustainable.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/adhd-pip-claims-no-work-requirement-100000-9qlcpsqws

Pip is a benefit for people who work and people who don’t work.

i’m just here for the deletion message

NO!!!!!

Hope that’s a clear enough answer to the question for you OP

Would you like to live on a max £194 a week? And 60% of the claimants are on significantly less than that.

40,000 people who are getting £194 a week is a drop in the ocean compared to the 43,400,000 working aged people in the UK. Does those people just have ADHD? It often coexists with other disabilities.

I’m more concerned by companies like Amazon who not only don’t pay any tax in the UK but the UK government pays them subsidies.

Why do you think the numbers have soared in the last two years?

Do you think this is sustainable?

Do you think it's good for young people to be given money to not work, knowing that this is not sustainable and at some point in the future that money will have to be taken away?

PIP is not related to job seeking, it’s a benefit you can claim to help with your needs, whether you’re working or not. No question during the PIP application process is related to work.

Some people with ADHD really struggle, others can manage. I can’t believe people who can work would prefer to live off benefits.

PIP does not exempt someone from looking for work.

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Do you know what’s unsustainable for the economy OP billionaires taking out, ‘gaining’ 40 - 50% returns on wealth on an economy that at best is growing 1%, somebody getting £800 every four weeks is the least of our worries but the ultra wealthy will make sure you’re not looking at them stealing everything while pip service users eat crumbs with their often unpayed carers

That time of the week again is it?

I think PIP needs big reforms and hopefully that will come about with the Timms report findings and recommendations. There needs to be a lot more support for people with disabilities to find and stay in work. I do work in this area but even so I am genuinely shocked at how many people have barely worked for most of their lives. I do understand that PIP is not an out of work benefit.

Oh ffs. Can't read the article btw and pip IS NOT AN OUT OF WORK BENEFIT

why do you want the thread deleted?

Amazon employs 75,000 people in the UK, and contributes £6.5 billion to the UK economy.

The subsidises it receives are things like tax relief so they invest in the UK.

Surely the first thing a government should do is go after the people who are draining the economy, not improving it?

Hi Op

I also listened to LBC this morning and can't believe some of the reasons given for people on PIP. Of course there are genuine claimants, but there is no doubt there are many people who just can't be arsed to work.

I think the government needs to overhaul the waiting time between diagnosis and treatment. Most people, myself included, benefit from medication and can work but currently there can be a few years between getting the actual diagnosis and starting the medication unless you pay privately.

Pip isn't the benefit to replace employment, ESA is. Most People claiming pip work.

More like that time of the day!

so fucking tedious, this shit stirring nonsense.

Now that you mention it my sisters next door neighbours cousins dog walker is on PIP and she gets £485737285 every week and she drives a motability Ferrari that she replaces every 3 years, she’s hoping the Timms report is going to suggest that people on PIP get yachts next

All I've done is quote what was said on LBC this morning, provide a link to a Times article and added my own personal story.

If you want to censor the discussion, Mumsnet might not be the most effective starting point.

Often ADHD is the only diagnosis a person struggling to function can access. I initially got 6 points in my first PIP assessment on the basis of my ADHD alone. By the time I got it to tribunal I'd finally managed to get an ME/CFS diagnosis too as I"d been struggling with that for decades too but it hadn't been taken seriously by the NHS. Once I'd got the money I used it to access further private medical care and found out within a few years that I was actually living with a dozen odd other medical conditions (a mixture of physical and neurological) which was further evidence for the fact I am a totally non functioning human being. I'd imagine others are in the same situation. Living with many conditions they know nothing about because the NHS hasn't bothered to investigate much,

Pip is personal independence payment. It is paid regardless of enjoyment status. It is a recognition that being disabled is more expensive so is a benefit paid to help people pay these extra costs.

I'm glad you think it needs reform so I can stay in work. I've been in work over 40 years, I've had a stroke, I have parathyroid issues now. I can barely get myself through the day, let alone work. But you want to take pip away?

Do you believe everything you read and hear? A basic fact check would have let you know that you’re wrong about PIP exempting people from work.

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