To think that a 23k benefits cap will drive some families in the SE

[Minifingers9]

... Into destitution?

I live in a pretty unappealing and comparatively cheap part of greater London but you can't get a 3 bedroom rental for under £1400 a month.
If we lost our jobs we wouldn't be able to live on 23k a year as a family of 5. Not when 15k of it was going on rent.
Why don't they have regional benefit caps?

SeenSheen - I am disabled. My condition is anything but spurious. But 30 years ago, people like me who are often housebound, would have factories delivering materials for piecework to our house, to do at our own pace. This kind of work has disappeared.

SeenSheen do come back when you have some sort of contribution to make to the debate, dear.

By "spurious sounding conditions", what are you referring to exactly?

Oh here they are - on cue!
Lets try to pretend that no one ever thinks this and that no one anywhere ever takes the piss in this caring Mumsnet utopia.

Morage I am not referring to your response by this, nor your condition.

Well bad backs appear to be a favourite as does stress/depression. Again I am referring to people that play the system with these as they are notoriously difficult to disprove.

It is true though that the numbers of people who receive disability benefits has soared.

What sort of conditions are you talking about?

X-post.

Any opinions about Autism and ADHD?

That would be due to an increase in population and better diagnosis.

Seen, 1) you cannot claim dla for having a bad back. 2) You obviously have no experience of depression. How dare you assume that people with depression are milking the system because it can't be proven, it's spiteful, nasty and bullying to put that on an internet forum where vulnerable people are exposed to your shite.

Yes and I don't know how we stack up against other nations with that?

How dare I assume that anyone is milking the system...? It is exactly this type of argument that got us into the situation we are in now.

Similarly, the figures are fairly freely available for Europe.

It is true though that the numbers of people who receive disability benefits has soared.

This was posted by somebody with a genuine disability. Is anyone going to be outraged about that?

I didn't say anyone Seen. You specified bad backs and depression. DLA forms are long, involved, repetative and invasive and you don't get an award without back up from a consultant. Fraud for DLA stands at 0.04%. That's the DWPs own figure and includes mistakes made by the DWP.

Not just an increase in diagnosis. I know people who were disabled in the past having conditions such as epilepsy. But many people kept a variety of disabilities hidden because of the stigma. And there were more flexible options for work, even though these were low paid. These have gone.

I pulled a couple of examples out of the air because someone asked.

Fraud figures can surely only relate to detected fraud?

Also local authorities would keep people on who became chronically ill in the past. There was greater flexibility for someone who could no longer fully do their job. Now local authorities get rid of you quickly.
The workplace is far harsher to people who are disabled and chronically ill.

And remember with serious ongoing mental illness, these people would have just been in institutions. Now they are not. They would not have been expected to find employment in the past and would not have been counted as unemployed.

seen the forms are grim. The figures are low, and no, they are a combination of predicted and detected fraud, the fact that it is so low demonstrates that it is hard to defraud that particular system. Yes, we've all seen programmes in which people have defrauded the system, it happens, but rarely, which is why these things make the news. The majority of the folk you seem to seek to denigrate as fraudsters are in pain, living lives that are made so much harder, not by their disability, but by other people, people who choose to disbelieve them, people who are jealous because they seem to have 'something for nothing', people who want them to justify themselves. People who think that reasonable adjustments, such as wheelchair spaces on the bus, or the use of accessible lavatories should apply to all, not just those who are actually in need of these facilities. With the rise of diagnosis and good medicine there has been an equal rise in the bullying of those with disabilities. It is deeply unpleasant and really quite frightening.

I keep trying to tell my dh he could possibly claim DLA but he won't dream of it as he says he doesn't incur any extra costs. He is a chronic asthmatic which gets worse year on year, constantly out of breath on exetion and on increasing doses of steroids and other drugs. My db is epileptic, can't drive , holds down a poorly paid job which he travels forty odd miles to on public transport, and can have a seizure without much warning. He too won't claim, although i think e has some kind of discount travel card which helps with costs.

Good point, Morage.

In the past, my beautiful child who has autism, would have been sent away to an institution and would have died from disease or beatings long before he was of an age to be counted as a feckless workshy parasite.

These cases are real disabilities and absolutely not what I was referring to. There are fraudsters and there are also people who string it out,

The increase in whiplash claims/injuries following car accidents is in a similar vein.

LotusLight Going by your logic your older son shouldnt be picking up the younger ones from school He didnt choose to have them. YOU did!!!

I have a "bad back" and I get PIP for it.

Are you suggesting it's a fake disability? Because the massive form I filled in, with letters from my gp and consultant and the list of drugs I take and info on the surgery I've had, plus the extensive assessment by a doctor all seem to suggest otherwise as it was awarded straight away.

I've also got depression and complex ptsd but obviously that's fake as well. I don't need the drugs I take and when I have cbt sessions we just chat about what's on tv. They don't mind me having lots of drugs I don't need or wasting valuable nhs resources. Obviously.

I do wish you wouldn't assume dla and pip are just handed out if you call and say "I think I'm disabled, can I have some money?" It's an unbelievably long, frustrating process.

I agree with the theory that benefit for rentals should be based on regional differences. It is fairer on families.