About PIP overturn

[anxietyforever52]

I want to start by saying that I've suffered with anxiety for the past 22 years. At its worst I can't leave the house or see anyone. When I've been able to, I've left the house crying and afraid. I've called in sick when I can't face going to work, physically ran out of shops, doctors surgery, the school playground, ignored the doorbell, started smoking again as I thought it would help (yeah I know) and avoided pretty much all social or public interactions.

Yet I've continued to work when I have been able to, because I've been made to feel I have to, that facing my fears was a way to overcome it all, that counselling would help, CBT would teach me to overcome my fears, various medications would calm me down, self help books would help me see there is a future beyond anxiety. But they don't and I still live in fear day to day.

This is a genuine question. Why do people who suffer with anxiety, as I've seen on the news this evening, become eligible for PIP? Perhaps there is an element that if my GP had taken me more seriously, especially when I felt close to suicidal, that I'd have received the proper help I needed. I honestly don't know. But hearing the woman on the BBC news tonight saying she felt discriminated against has caused me to react. Yes, I agree mental health disorders don't carry a physical 'label', but neither do many physical disabilities, yet there are many people who carry on regardless.

DD suffers badly from anxiety despite it affecting her ability to work she was not awarded pip. It's really aimed at physical disabilities

In theory, anxiety should be "curable" with medication and psychotherapy, so I sort of see where PIP are coming from. Not that I agree at all with the system.

What are you getting at, OP? You don't think people with anxiety should get PIP?

PIP is an in work benefit. People who get PIP are still 'carrying on' as you put it, with normal life

It is a benefit that is meant to address the extra cost of being disabled, whether that disability is physical or mental, visible or hidden. It is an attempt to level the playing field.

@absentmindedwoman I get it, what I don't get is the scale. What does it take for someone with anxiety to be eligible? I say this as someone who has repeatedly sat in fear and tears with my GP, who, on the face of it appears sympathetic, doesn't tell me to get over myself, but doesn't actually offer the support to get referred to the right support to try and get to the root cause. I got 6 CBT sessions and that was it. Told that going back to work was for the best, though it was and continues to be the hardest struggle of my life.

I'm not saying PIP reviews for mental health anxieties is wrong or right, but, perhaps through my own experience, I am struggling to see how it qualifies.

Is it the system? Is it the GP's? Is it the support services available?

I truly don't know nor understand and apologise for my ignorance. I some respects, being eligible for PIP would have helped me enormously, but the flip side is maybe it wouldn't, if the additional support from the NHS hadn't been available.

Sorry, I'm seriously not trying to be controversial and I don't want to upset anyone. Perhaps it is a lack of resource/funding within the NHS, but anyone with mental health issues still has so much to give and rightly or wrongly, I'm not sure PIP is the right road to go down, unless the additional support is available.

Sorry, I in some respects *

Not being goady but have you applied for it before? If not why don't you try as you may qualify. The DWP can arrange for someone to visit you at home to help fill it in if you need it.
It says they are reviewing old cases so if you have been turned down already maybe you could look into this?

You can look up the descriptors for PIP online. If you feel you meet the criteria, there is nothing to stop you applying!

If you're eligible then the purpose is to help you live a fuller life with your disability. For example - someone who is too anxious to take the tube (panic attacks because of crowds, or from claustrophobia, or feels too anxious about getting lost if they don't know the route, whatever) can use PIP to pay towards taxis when they need to.

That's just one example of how a person with an anxiety disorder has an extra cost that a mentally 'healthy' person doesn't have - and how PIP can be used to meet that extra cost.

In my example given above, the person could be a valued employee who needs to take cabs to get to their workplace. PIP is not instead of working.

I'm still not certain what point you are trying to make.

so what’s the problem? Is it that you can’t get PIP, or do you not understand that it completely derails some people’s lives?

I don’t know where the anxiety ends, and the depression or personality disorder start,

But let me just explain my life to you, so maybe you’ll see how some others suffer.

It started with me not liking to go out some days, I felt mildly like I wasn’t good enough. When my daughter started school I quite quickly became unable to leave the house. I was just scared, it got to a point if I tried to force myself I couldn’t catch my breath, and at them times it wasn’t rare for me to wet myself.
I was petrified of people, I didn’t want to see anyone, but I was scared that I didn’t see anyone, and I was in a vulnerable position and I could be raped or murdered. More than once I hid from people, and started having full blown panic attacks.

I’m more than used to my breath catching in my throat- I often choke on food because of this. I often have chest pains that present as sharp and shooting and I’ve been to A&E thinking I’m having a heart attack. I get awful headaches, paired with numbness and pins and needles which is also very scary. I often cannot sleep because I am so worried about the smallest of things, I am constantly worried I am a failure which stops me from doing almost anything. I worry I am dying of cancer, aids, sepsis, or that DD has an incurable illness.
I have such anxiety about being around people I have no friends, I have no job that’s steady.
I am constantly scared that I will be evicted from my home if things are not 100% perfect. I worry inanely about the carpet. I worry inanely about the tiniest things.

I get the worst headaches and dizziness, I’ve been 100% sure it was that I was about to have a stroke, nope- anxiety again.

Anxiety is and has ruined my life.

I often can’t drive because I get it into my head that I’ve hit someone in my car, or that I’m going to cause an accident.

I wouldn’t wish this type of suffering on anyone, so please don’t question why someone may get PIP- I do, and the way I see it is if my mental health left me in any kind of fit state that I could work with any kind of stability I wouldn’t have even tried to claim the money.

Working full time is what £280 a week? I currently have £50, which id gladly give back to not live the way I do.

Sorry, just to clarify - of course some recipients of PIP don't work, and that's fine. The point I'm stressing is that it has nothing to do with being signed off long term sick, or unable to work.

Pip is supposed to be an in-work benefit, however the way the assessments are at the moment, you're expected to do nothing but lie in bed, crying tears of silent agony.

I get enhanced Pip for both elements and there is absolutely no way I could work. I can't leave my bedroom due to severe anxiety and PTSD, never mind leave my house and do a job.

Disabled people who have a long-term health condition (whether physical or neuropsychological) are eligible for PIP if they have difficulty with either one or both of the following:

1. Basic tasks of everyday living, such as using the toilet, showering/bathing, preparing food or communicating. This makes the claimant eligible for the 'Daily Living' component

AND/OR

1. Walking short distances or leaving the house. If someone has difficulty walking a short distance or cannot leave their home then they may qualify for the 'Mobility' component.

I receive the 'Daily Living' component of PIP for an anxiety disorder; I have severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which has completely ruined half of my life and the first 10 years of my adult life. It also meant that I spent several months as an in-patient in a specialist hospital receiving treatment for my condition.

@hungryhippo90, that is completely me. 22 flipping years of 'surviving'. Maybe I am angry at my health authority, I don't know. What I do know, especially where I continue to work, is that mental health issues have been acknowledged, yet not recognised. At least, when they might have been, in accordance with a company campaign to dispel it, we are, and continue to be, the elephant in room.

In some respects I guess I'm angry (my issue) that for years I've carried on regardless, and I guess I'm a little angry at those that have had the support I wish I had.

Honestly, I have thoughts of having failed as a parent because I couldn't do the the 'parent/child' stuff because of how debilitated I've felt, yet there's a part of me that is angry that I didn't get the support I needed.

@lilibey12 - what is the answer? Is it the area you live in, like the cancer/ivf lottery? Is it about the government not recognising the society/generation we have become?

I'm conflicted in my emotions and accept that is down to me. It all seems SO unjustified for so many people.

Sorry @lilabet2 - sausage fingers on phone

PIP is not mainly for physical disabilities in fact the high court has just made a ruling to make is easier for people with mental health problems to claim pip.

However the assessments are mainly horrendous, I am not going to lie. You will need some good support behind you. Try and find a disability organisation to help you fill the form in. The key words you have to remember are safety (can I do this safety or not) reliably (can I be relayed upon to do this) in a reasonable amount of time (so this would take a "normal" person this long and it would take me this much longer)
Those are the key words and phrases with mental Heath to use on the form and in the assessment itself.

Pip is not an out of work benefit, that is ESA which has differing eligibility criteria.

I receive pip and I work (a lot less than I did, but I still do as far as I'm able) because I'm self employed and do a computer-based job from home.

I have a permanent and life-limiting illness which severely impacts my mobility and ability to care for myself, hence I qualify for pip because that is to help with the additional costs of living with my disability. I don't claim esa because I can still work at the moment.

It's not the illness per se that attracts the benefit it's the impact on daily life and that needs to be substantial for a claim to succeed.

I agree there does seem to be a bias in 'favour' of physical over mental illness. The claim process is lengthy (5 months for my claim to be assessed and paid) and quite humiliating. The whole thing is horrible and I think designed to deter people from claiming.

As someone who has no experience of PIP. What is the extra expenses you have as a result of being anxious that requires benefits to overcome?

How could you distinguish your anxiety from someones else's who was just wanting more benefits?

Why do you think the state could have cured your anxiety given that you seem to have tried counselling, CBT, medications etc?

There are lots of reasons that having anxiety would cost you more
Having to have someone with you when you go out so you may have to pay for their travel. A lot of people need support just to get out the door
Not being able to drive due the anxiety so having to take taxis as can't do buses or trains
May need support at home to do certain tasks

How could you distinguish your anxiety from someones else's who was just wanting more benefits
You can't just suddenly say you have anxiety and fill in a form, you would need medical evidence and evidence of medication or therapy. You would need to show signs of anxiety in the assessment and that's not something you can put on (dispite what the daily fail says)
Honestly the pip assessments is a horrible
process, you are almost set up to fail

Have you ever applied for PIP OP? And if not why not?

If you claim and are awarded Pip, you could use the money to pay for the counselling you can't get on the NHS.

The reason you haven't had much help from the NHS is due to the government cut-backs causing lack of funding in the mental health sector. You must have read or seen this, it's been all over the news for months, with situations such as teenagers needing a mental health bed who have been sent hundreds of miles away from their families, because that's the only bed available.

Daily I tell people in work with disabilities to apply for ESA and PIp and universally they say, I am not a scrounged, I have worked all my life, I bet I wouldn't qualify I am not ill enough (when they are) I get by, there are people worse of than me, it's people claiming for every thing that has bought this country to it's knees normally followed with a chorus of my neighbours wife uncle claimed and he was in the Olympic swim team.
Disabled people have been so vilified that people with genuine reasons to claim don't and the system has been so doctored that some can't get the help they need. I claim DLA for both my sons and for years I wasn't aware I could claim, I did and they get high rate and mid rate now. I fear for when they hit 16 because there issue means they don't think they have an issue. they think they have a gift, they will never verbalise the problems they have because they don't understand their problems, they totally do not understand day to day help they receive because they don't see it as help. They are both articulate and intelligent but they don't even cook yet at 13 because they just don't understand cooking instructions. If it says 12 minutes at 200c on the packet then 12 minutes it is whether they see it is burnt or raw at the end. Discard the film... I'm not watching a film? Place not he middle shelf ... there are only 2 shelves? Place on an oven proof tray, if it's oven proof doesn't that mean it won't go in the oven? These are all things that you can't demonstrate in a test, as both would say if asked can you cook a pizza ...yes because to them they can cook it, just doesn't mean it is edible or they don't need constant supervision.