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

Report her then ?

So pip increased under their watch and they’re trying to blame others, okaaay.

Agree

report people if you think they are lying @Theolittle about their conditions
but
Those are fraudsters not the disabled
A very different category of people !

As a country we should support those who have disabilities
and all those who are vulnerable

So disabled tax payers shouldn’t have help with their disability that keeps them in work.

You said they had 14 years
They didn’t did they

You made a mistake and I’ve corrected it with research

Tories were the ones who introduced pip

Another day, another depressingly familiar MN benefits-bashing thread.
I don't know why I bother repeating this since the OP and other similarly tedious posters never seem to take it on board but PIP is not a means-tested benefit. One can work full-time and still receive it. PIP is not preventing your friend from working. Hope that helps but if it didn't sink in when you were told this the first few hundred times I doubt it ever will.

read the intel
are you seriously saying the Conservatives caused this

Mind blowing

So what ???

You don’t think we should support the disabled ??

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is generally considered harder to get than Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

the two primary reasons for this difficulty are:

Strict Functional Assessment: DLA relied heavily on self-reported forms and medical evidence. PIP introduces a strict points-based system that requires a face-to-face or telephone assessment with an independent healthcare professional to evaluate your ability to complete daily tasks.

Focus on Independence: DLA was primarily about the amount of care or supervision you needed. PIP is about your independence and whether you can complete 12 specific daily living and mobility activities (even with the help of aids or adaptations).

As a disabled person I'm well aware of what pip is

So the fact the Conservatives introduced a system which is widely regarded as harder to claim through
debunks any point of blame on the Conservatives along with a pps misguided issue with timelines

Excellent

The highest rates of DLA can be difficult to get too.

I'd say one of the main cost of having ADHD is the private prescription charge and medication costs given the NHS have closed their waiting lists for assessments in some places and there are apparently waits of between 4 to 10 years in parts of the countries where the waiting lists remain open. The NHS completely refuses shared care in many places so many people are forced to go private to get the meds that help them function and in some cases keep them in work.

ADHD meds typically cost £25 - £150 a month for the drugs alone, depending on the medication and the dosage according to various ADHD websites eg adhdclinic.co.uk/prices/. There is also a private prescription issuing fee of around £20 - £45 every month. Many people also have to undergo regular reviews as a condition of their continuing treatment (eg their ADHD doctor may insist on a review if they start on another medication for another condition) and there is a costly titration process to go through when finding the right drug and dosage and these appointments can cost £200 to £300 a session. It's not cheap having a condition the NHS often refuses to treat.

I think it's understandable to have concerns about the rising cost of disability benefits, but I'd be cautious about drawing conclusions from individual examples.
ADHD affects people very differently. Some people are able to work full-time with the right support, while others have significant difficulties that affect multiple areas of daily life. Receiving benefits like PIP isn't based on having a diagnosis alone, it's based on how a condition affects day-to-day functioning.
The holiday example also isn't necessarily a fair comparison. Someone might be able to manage something that's planned well in advance, highly motivating, and often supported by family or friends, while still struggling with the routine demands of getting to work consistently every day.
That said, it's reasonable to ask whether the benefits system is identifying the right people, providing enough support into employment where possible, and ensuring assessments are robust. Ideally, the focus should be on helping those who can work to do so, while continuing to support those whose conditions genuinely make employment very difficult.
It's a complicated issue, and I don't think it can be reduced to "ADHD isn't real" or "everyone with ADHD can't work." The reality is somewhere in between.

Except there is no rise in disability spending. It’s still the same % of the GPD that it has always been…

I think the reason you get people coming on and accusing other posters of wanting to take their wheelchairs away though is because any tightening of the criteria to try to restrict awards for ND and mental health conditions automatically tighten the criteria for everyone with physical disabilities too because the criteria used are the same for everyone. Every claimant is assessed on the same functional abilities - ability to cook a basic meal most days, ability to wash and dress most days etc, ability to plan and carry out a journey etc. If we do manage to create a system where only, say 5% of people with ADHD are awarded, a huge number of people with physical disabilities will end up losing their awards too as a direct result. Some people genuinely will lose their wheel chairs hence why so many of us with physical disabilities are terrified of any talk of tighting criteria. Many of us are barely getting by as it is.

Motability cars aren’t owned by the people who drive them.

you get to lease them for three years in return for paying your PIP.

as others have said but I’ll shout because you clearly didn’t hear

PIP IS FOR DISABLED PEOPLE whether they are in work or out of work.

She’s allowed to lease a motability car and work in fact that’s one of the aims of motability - to give disabled people the ability to move around so that they can access jobs and healthcare etc.

what next, complaining that people who can’t walk get to rent wheelchairs from a motability?

I agree with you. I wonder what they'd do if you gave them job opportunities and slowly tapered away their benefits bit by bit till it went to 0. They'd learn to deal with it.

I think there's a difference between someone who has MND, cystic fibrosis, cancer, chronic pain and someone who is just a bit ND

One of them is a young man who has never worked, barely leaves his bedroom and gets the equivalent of 30k take- home a year. It’s not helping him! He needs therapy, support to do volunteering, training. Not this.

@ChevyCamaro or even better he needs proper healthcare?

I mean I don’t what that young man is struggling with. But I know many disabled people are hindered by the lack of healthcare. From access to appropriate treatment and consultant, to physio, OT, counsellor/psychiatrist etc….
Ive seen people struggling for years to be able to get to the bottom of their problems. And in the mean time they get worse.

But I think it’s essential that we accept some people will never be able to work. They might be able to get out of their bedroom or even their house. But still be unable to work.
And it should be ok. No one should only be judged on their capability to work.

"just a bit ND"? You either are or you're not

PIP isn't an out of work benefit.

Should disabled people not be allowed socialise? My DD works, and socialises and has Ehlers Danlos. She doesn’t claim but I wouldn’t blame her if she did. Half her wages go on taxis to get her to work and back. She is in constant pain and permanently exhausted. She can only afford to work because she still lives at home. Her disability severely curtails her lifestyle so if she meets up with her friends now and then good for her. Hopefully it reminds her that she’s a bright young 22 year old even if she is trapped in the body of a frail old woman.

I don’t need a job opportunity, I have a job. If they take away my PIP I won’t be able to get to work because I use my mobility element to lease a car so I would have to give up my job.

Has your DD looked into access to work? They can help with transport costs to and from work