Why are ADHD benefits in the firing line?

[FunStork]

I've been seeing this a lot recently.

Feels like the media is very much against ADHD benefits claims.

Why is that the one that seems to be getting all the focus?

Another one from BBC Verify tonight:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24ym9yd8p6o

Is this an orchestrated campaign?

What child wants to go to a special school just to play football?
You sound ridiculous

You pay for the private diagnosis and in many cases it's money well spent and you can earn it back in benefits pretty quick.

GP is recently said they sign off anything they are asked to with regards to sickness because they simply don't have the time or resources to delve into them. It was on the news. So the medical evidence here could well be based on what a motivated person tells the doctor.

Evidence from hospital Consultants, about treatments being undertaken, is that just taken on the word of a patient also?

Its the funniest things ive heard.

I work for a very large multi academy trust with the central inclusion lead. Noone is quickly getting sen school place to play football in my large area and im aware of a very large number of school refusers from a professional perspective and not a personal 'i have a mate and...'

We do have a football based sports programme for people disengaged from education but its limited and lots of the attendees have traumatic events which is why they go (like dad died, they had cancer and recovered but lost confidence. That kind of thing)

I didn't say that wasn't the case. I was just responding to explain that claimants don't automatically get switched from DLA to PIP. They have to make a separate claim for PIP.

This is very much worst scenario and depends on where you live in the country. Lots of young people can afford a decent flat share.

It never should be better to claim disability benefits than to work for those without severe disabilities.

We have to live in the real world. Currently these positions are being filled by people from other countries that want access to our NHS and other benefits. This is well documented. There is absolutely no evidence that they are any more engaged or skilled than people from the UK that would be doing the job due to having their benefits withdrawn.

Both groups are doing the role due to economic necessity or opportunity . Neither has a burning passion for care.

And do you think most people get them? Have you also not seen the reports about how easy it can be to get a diagnosis through some of the private clinics? There was a good panorama about it.

I am not against people who need them getting benefits. But the system is open to abuse. Not engaging further now as you clearly have an axe to grind here.

This, the nhs should fund this. If the person is able to work then welfare benefits shouldn’t be needed.

Actually it doesn't have to be either/or

There are plenty of us who fully accept the conditions are real, while also recognising that too many who can't be bothered to parent their children latch onto it as an all-too-convenient excuse

According to the NHS the % of the population with ADHD hovers around 6%, but even allowing for under-diagnosis that hardly matches thhe colossal number we hear from who claim to have it, and as long as benefits are so readily available that's not likely to reduce

Anyway....

There have been lots of Freedom of Information. Requests that have proven that some clinics have a conversion rate from referral to diagnosis of 95-99%.

But comparing cancer to ADHD is like comparing apples and bananas. I would suspect that cancer rates might have also increased for different reasons and this doesn't make the comparison any less absurd.

There is nothing subjective about cancer, the severity of the illness or the treatment that you have to endure in order to recover from it therefore there would be few people who would disagree with giving benefits for it. Despite this I would argue that there is still injustice for cancer sufferers. They can still end up very financially disadvantaged and even losing their homes.

ADHD whether you want to admit it is a highly subjective condition. It comes with different extremities. It almost never renders somebody completely unable to work and we're fast approaching a point that 10-20% of kids in any classroom are diagnosed with it. It is simply not feasible to render 10-20% of society unfit to work due to something that yes might make life harder but definitely doesn't render them completely useless.

As pp have said I don't think dishing out disability benefits is a realistic or beneficial solution for anyone. I think we need to look more at how we're bringing children up and what support they're getting in the early years. I think we need to make schooling more accesible for all. I think we need to look at more holistic ways of managing ADHD (there is evidence that none-medical treatments such as mindfulness are very effective for example) and I think we need to put more ownership on the individual to manage their own destiny rather than encouraging learned helplessness. Life isn't always easy and it definitely isn't always fair. All the benefits in the world aren't going to change that.

Yes I've seen them, but then with so many offering the service, often for around only £500, they're not going to keep their rackets going if they fail to come up with the goods

PIP dont take GP evidence very seriously becsuse its all patient/ mum says

Because they are ridiculous.
we can’t afford paying people PIP which is not means tested just because they have ADHD

Well it is certainly true that there isn’t a sharp and clear divide between ND and NT, so there is clearly going to be some debate in the diagnosis for a few people who happen to be around the border.

However, saying “ND means people’s brains are wired differently…. It’s all nonsense” is certainly highly debatable and probably incorrect and the “different wiring” and other physiological and chemical brain differences have been found in scientific research. If you want, I can dig out some reports/paper on this. The trouble is, the differences are ‘on average’ so doctors are not in a position to do a brain scan and use that to diagnose ADHD .

I have gone through the ADHD diagnosis myself. I have described some of it in another post. The clinicians that do it are highly trained and know how to cross check what you say. It’s not just a case of telling them that you are hyperactive and then they take your word for it. Apart from finding out your life story, they also look at other aspects of your health that are not included in the diagnostic criteria to see if they are typical of ADHD too. Eg I was asked about my periods.

Comparing significant disability due to ADHD with buying glasses and dying your hair is actually offensive. You only get an ADHD diagnosis if a clinician judges that you have significant and pervasive difficulties. ADHD is not a trivial diagnosis. It’s no coincidence that people with ADHD are often unable to hold down a job, end up with addiction problems or in prison, are more likely to be a victim of domestic abuse and are at far greater risk of a long list of mental and physical health problems eg depression, diabetes, migraine, ME/CFS etc

What happened in the old days? Did people have ADHD? Did they end up in prison or being transported? When I was at school, I don't remember anyone with ADHD. We did have a boy who used to pushed ball bearings up his nose, but we just ignored him. And he passed his 11 plus.

What’s does this have to do with ADHD which is the topic of this thread?

A previous poster was saying that anyone who had a job and did sport shouldn’t get disability benefits.

You defend these threads like a hawk and consistently don't believe what others say. FWIW, I have a family member who gets PIP, highest rate mobility, a motability car etc. They get this because their parent knew how to fill in the forms for another family member who genuinely needs all the help they can get. Once you know what to say, it's job done. A bit like getting past the AI in recruitment. If you know the buzz words to get past the bot gatekeeper, you're through to the next round. Both those family members are getting the same awards, same amounts. One of them will never be independent, the other one lives a normal life.

Your situation does not make not other people's experiences false. If you don't think that the system is wide open to abuse, you are, I'm sorry to say, very blinkered.

I think they should get NHS funded wheelchair rather than PIP. It literally makes zero sense to do it through PIP!

I couldn't agree more. Well said!

That was absolutely not what I said. My post was about someone who functions as a manager and leader of people, is doing a degree and competing in a sport who is also claiming that their life is so affected by ADHD that they need PIP and a motability car.

Of course people with disabilities can compete in sport and hold down jobs. But I don't think you can both juggle FT work, a degree and a challenging training schedule and also claim that you have brain fog, lack of focus and other symptoms of ADHD so badly that you should have hundreds of pounds a month. It just doesn't stack up.