To think Katie Hopkins has officially lost the plot and special needs children do have genuine medical disorders

[Arnie123]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/katie-hopkins/why-must-everything-be-a-medical-condition_b_3751096.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

I know she is just a gobby professional troll but this time she has gone way too far. So special needs don't exist and it is just crap parenting? Unbelievable

Mild autism is a phrase that narks me off.

Autism labels are not awarded on the basis of behavioural difficulty, and studies show the perception of severeity of behavioural difficulty does not vary between Asperger's and Autism. Indeed, of my two sons the one with AS is far more challenging.. to teh extent LEA may have to send ds3 out of county for comp as theyc annot risk DS1 carrying out his threats about what will happen if they share a school!

Mild autism tends to refer to Asperger's but that's wrong. I'm not saying that severe autism is the same as Asperger's, of course not- that would be stupid. But Asperger's is not by nature of label mild. Indeed, there are many psych issues that can be linked to AS and these can lead to a higher rate of suicide, eating disorders etc.

Mild autism is a phrase used by those who have no clue. Some people on the spectrum have less severe symptoms than others but that can vary across time and diagnostic category.

My DS would not get DLA based just upon a diagnosis of ADHD. ADHD does not cause any issues beyond a need for support in the classroom to help him access the curriculum and treatment to help him focus on the work....I don't give it in school holidays as he doesn't need it then.

He gets DLA based upon his diagnosis of autism which is far more of an issue and means he needs help to be safe, to manage his daily needs and his difficulties at night.

ADHD doesn't cause this..his autism does.

Evening all
Apologies for the delay in getting here..
This is my child - myths busted

I generally hear the term mild autism by professional service providers as a reason why budgets are stretched, I do not recall a parent with a confirmed diagnosis ever use the term. I would wonder if a person would get a diagnosis of asd if it was mild or if they would get asd traits.

As far as I'm aware mild autism is not a medical term, its a term used by people to thick to get beyond visible disability when thinking about disabilities

Are schools doing more to educate pupils about SN?

I went to secondary school with a boy with aspbergergers and we were told it was a form of autism and he needed a TA but his meltdowns etc were never explained to us. He didn't really have any friends until year 10 and I think if his situation had been explained to us we would have been better, able to socially interact with him.

Further DLA/PIP info for those who are interested.

Being in receipt of it has no impact on the award of any out of work benefits at all so having it in no way means you will be classed as un fit for work.

Being a dwp accepted carer does not prevent you working(for dwp reasons) it just prevents you earning more than £100 pw.

Almost all the fraud involves not declaring a improvement in needs as opposed to making up a condition.so people starting off with high needs due to a confirmed condition but when it improves if it does not telling.

The other high group of fraud risk with DLA is usually not strictly speaking fraud its more a understandable error because it relates to people reciving the benefit on behalf of someone who dies not informing quick enough this usually relates to one or two or rarely three payments and is not a intentional fraudulent act but it gets lumped into the figures.

As do none claimant responsible issues like admin error even taking this into account the official figure is less than 1% of claims are fraudulent.

The reason why the forms are the way they are is because they are designed that way to actively detect fraud and trip fraudulent claimants up. Several questions are used to check up on previous answers.

It has the highest refusal rate of any other benefit (excluding Jsa dismissal or intentional unemployed sanction but that's not a refusal really its a delay) and the highest medical tribunal and appeal acceptance after refusal this strongly implies that many are refused because its easy to do so but when sent to the independent tribunal its proven they should have been awarded.

DLA also has no impact on obtaining an exemption from the under occupancy HB rule (often referred to as bedroom tax) in order to obtain an exemption the person whom the exemption is awarded for HAS to be a child as adults have no disability related exemptions,you have to be able to provide medical evidence of night time care needs and disturbance to the child expected to share ( meaning the exemption is not actually for the disabled child its for the other child) this medical evidence has to be provided by a doctor who has seen the child recently as well as that,you need to evidence it from someone who is aware of the actual night time issues (most GP's do not come to your house at night time) such as a carer (formal) or a residential placement. There is also no obligation to exempt you only to asses you. It does not matter if you get DLA or not.

There's no such thing as "mild" autism. If an individual is high functioning, which is the correct term it only means they are managing better and this most likely is because they have less symptoms than a lower functioning individual, however the symptoms they DO have will be significant and need as much intervention and understanding.

There's some right dipshits on this thread.

Why is MN so often "late"?

Lack of staff, or because they like a thread to kick off sometimes to make MN more "interesting"?

Because they prefer 'opinion'. Never mind the psychological 'kicking' some of us get, and the fact we've begged them to stop it, they prefer 'debate'.

Oh and also - every time I see TIMC on social media I make damned sure that I mention that whilst the campaign is a good thing to raise awareness please do not ever think Mn is a supportive place to come to if you have a child with disabilities, then listed some of the examples why. At the moment it's the disabled loo threads.

The really sad thing is most times I do this I 'meet' another parent who has left this site for those exact same reasons.

It's really awful, isn't it?

There will always be arseholes. But as the parent of a child with a disability, I find MN a supportive place on the whole.

You should really add that that is your opinion only and not true for everyone.

You may speak for some, but not for all.

I actually find it useful. It keeps me on my guard and well aware that the majority will treat my children like shit and hurt them through ignorance given half the chance. Helps me to go in feet first in situations where I might wonder if I should give the benefit of the doubt.

Fact is none of the dipshits have been back to say ok I am wrong. They PREFER to think the way they do about these kinds of SN, they don't actually WANT to be educated and I have seen that over and over again here on MN. Knowing that people don't give a shit and are slagging us off here AND in RL has helped me develop the hide of a rhino and my dc needed me to do that and not be pussy footing around.

I'll agree to disagree with you, AmberLeaf. Outside specific SN boards there's a lot of ignorance.

As I say I'm finding a fair few other posters who have left here got he same reasons.

I know there is a lot of ignorance, but there is also support, I have been in many a 'debate' on here and it is never just parents of children with disabilities on the same 'side' as me.

Lots of posters here who are unaffected by disability have stood up to be counted.

I acknowledge and appreciate that support.

There is a lot of support on MN SN until you upset one of the clique then it's all guns blazing regardless of truth. I also feel MN SN has gone a bit downhill since defining no need for SN children who are of adult age and the new section of SN chat which I really don't get, isn't it not just the same as children?

Anyway you will always have ignorant people as well as those who's morals and ethics are inconsiderate whether they are NT, disabled or parents of disabled children.

Sock, where are you getting your figures from re: DLA fraud. I'm not doubting it's a hard benefit to get by the way, I'm just curious as it differs from what I've seen.

This govt report gives a DLA fraud rate of 0.5% last year www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/222892/fem_1112.pdf

Link www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/222892/fem_1112.pdf

Thank you! Sadly I think we will soon see a huge spike in DLA "fraud" as PIP reassessment comes into play. For recent claimants this shouldn't mean much, if any change, but for some 127000+ people who's claim hasn't been reviewed in 21yrs (and was often awarded with little or no medical evidence) there are presumably going to be penalties for failing to notify of a change in needs etc.

Can they do that? The pip assessment is different than the DLA one, so they surely can't say 'your pip award is lower so you must have been fraudulent with your DLA claim'

but for some 127000+ people who's claim hasn't been reviewed in 21yrs (and was often awarded with little or no medical evidence

Why do you think they were awarded with little or no medical evidence?