To be terrified about PIP?

[BobbyBiscuits]

I've tried to blank all this out for ages, but today it hit me when the government basically are saying I'm going to (they want me to) have my PIP cut off?
My main illnesses are severe depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder and severe anorexia. I've severe PTSD symptoms and also think I may have ADHD but have not been able to get diagnosed due to phobia of MH services since I got sectioned.
I now have physical symptoms also and severe osteperosis which I put on my last forms. But had no assessment for several years.
I'm praying this is BS from the Tories and they can't do it anyway as they'll be kicked out.
Or could labour still continue this assault against disabled people?
It would halve my already tiny income, other half is from ESA, and they could kick me off that too even though I can't do anything!?

What do people think?

Oh yeh! What an arse x

Is that projection affordable in your view?

I think a lot of the time this is done deliberately. Disability benefits are paid to mitigate the cost of living with a disability. It doesn’t do the government any harm to give the impression that they’re out of work benefits. Unless people have been through the system themselves they wouldn’t know the difference and confusing the two so that the overall impression is of lazy scroungers who won’t work makes it easier to push through the reforms unchallenged.

Why is a coffee van such a ‘ludicrous’ idea? I have a friend who does it, it works around her children, she organised her own hours. Is it that serving coffee is beneath you? Is hospitality not good enough for some reason? Totally understand if there’s some practical obstacle that makes it impossible (ie wheelchair use) but why the hilarity in general?

😂

The litany of excuses that are trotted out to justify these payments are beyond parody.

No, you've clearly not got that right in the slightest 🙄

You think there's a box on the form to tick if you 'like your local park' and if you don't you get free gym membership?? 😂

For quite a few disabilities it's the energy cost of doing several things that mounts up rather than any one element.
Eg I have ME/CFS.
I can't get public transport to meet people. I could get the bus to sit alone in a park, or I could get a lift to meet people, but both is too much and could mean a week in bed.

I can work, but only for a few hours and not every day as I need time to recover the energy cost of working.

On the days I work I cannot also do any of the other things I manage on home days. I cannot prepare meals, have a wash, clean the house, do shopping etc because I have used all my energy working.

I have a blue badge, which means DH can park closer to things so I can participate in activities more.

With the correct support, many disabled people can participate in a range of work and social activities, but govt has decided that because some disabled people can do a few things sometimes they can do all the things all the time. This is almost never the case in reality.

Giving people support and opportunities to work as and when they are able, and help when they are too unwell to work, is more effective than removing support and forcing people to work their way out of poverty despite unsupported disability.

There are ways to get more disabled people into various workplaces, but they require money, thought, and bespoke solutions. Govt is offering none of these and just wants to reduce the bill.

Additional costs that come from being disabled can include:
Reduced capacity for work
Need to use taxis as prohibited from driving
Needing to buy ready meals or take aways
Needing to buy adaptive clothing
Needing to pay for treatments and therapies not covered by the NHS
Paying for a cleaner
Paying for a gardener
Paying for a car

It's easy to see how and why the costs ramp up as part of a daily living cost when you simply absorb them as part of you way of adapting to life

A gardener is totally unnecessary, sorry. The entitlement of what the state should provide is wild.

Is it? Why? Are disabled people not allowed gardens?

Gym memberships are a possibility where it’s deemed it would benefit the client, but the cost doesn’t come out of the disability benefits bill, it’s footed by the NHS and is only considered where there is a clear indication that it would be beneficial.

I'm assuming you have no experience of autism. It is far, far more complex than 'preferring a taxi' or 'overcoming an aversion to public transport.'

The complete lack of understanding and empathy shown in the Green Paper is hardly surprising since it is signed by Mel Stride !

He who is also responsible for the reprehensible Loan Charge Scheme. A man who has no ideas who to improve or adapt anything. Mel Stride is the kind of Consultant who comes in and just does ten minutes work without thinking and declares i have saved Billions.

This without any knowledge about the issues involved, the related costs to health or the consequences to the individuals concerned.

YANBU. I’ve been offered a fantastic job in England, and am away to finalise getting a lovely house all being well.

I have a significant history of MH problems. For the last two years I’ve had a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a CPN. I’ve been seeing MH professionals since I was 16 but have had problems since very early childhood due to complex abuse and neglect.

In Scotland I qualify for adult disability payment. My MH is on the up at the moment but I still have bad days, I have a three page care plan and I’m on 4 medications a day prescribed by psychiatry as it includes two separate anti depressants.

ADP has meant I can afford the correct therapy and weekly trips to my GP for meds that they will only dispense weekly…

I realise I won’t be able to get PIP when I move down, no way with a job like what I’m starting - but I’m now panicking about what happens if my mental health plummets again? I’ve been in floods of tears over this as I can’t guarantee I’ll always be OK - I’ve been told my diagnoses are life long - and I don’t know what will happen to me if not.

Logical brain is saying hot foot it back to Scotland if that happened where help is guaranteed - at least here they trust your GP and MH team rather than put you through assessments with strangers who are out to doubt your every word.

I’m almost at the point of cancelling move just in case.

I think this thread is a perfect example of the effectiveness of what the government is doing. The announcements made recently by Sunak and his ill informed cohorts, have done exactly what was intended. “Look over here at what these lazy scroungers are costing”, so that you don’t look elsewhere and find out what else is going on at significantly more cost to the taxpayer than supporting disabled people. Divide and rule. Works every time - we fight among ourselves while they consider the taxes we pay to be fair game for feathering their own nests and those of their mates.

The figures bandied about don’t take into account unclaimed benefit - which DWP themselves say is significant, and it doesn’t take into account the significant amount of claimants thought to be claiming PiP at much lower rates than they’re entitled to because of DWP error, and the fact that claimants are so afraid of the unfair assessment processes that they’re too frightened to report significant changes in their condition.

Reduced capacity for work

• that seems to be very open ended and could mean anything.

Need to use taxis as prohibited from driving

• I don't think anybody would object to somebody with severe physical or learning disabilities getting taxis when there's no viable public transport. People that simply prefer not to use public transport, not so much.

Needing to buy ready meals or take aways

• Again. I can see how this could apply to the infirm, leaning and physically disabled. I don't consider 'burning the food and needing to order a takeaway' to be at all convincing.

Needing to buy adaptive clothing

• Sure. I'm happy to find that for amputees, etc, but not for sensory complaints - "i can only sleep on pure silk sheets. Give me a grant."

Needing to pay for treatments and therapies not covered by the NHS

• Perhaps. It depends what it is.

Paying for a cleaner

• For the infirm, learning and physically disabled.

Paying for a gardener

• Same as a cleaner, but with a maximum garden size - e.g. maximum of 10mx10m front and back.

Paying for a car

• Maybe.

Of course they are. Just not a state funded gardener.

I have second hand embarrassment for them that they actually wrote this.

So they have a council home which has been adapted for them and it comes with a garden. They can't manage the garden, then what? Their neighbours are mumsnetters and come online complaining about the weeds and rats? It then becomes a job costing thousands to remedy.

Plus he was wittering on, something about grab rails etc.. A bunch of clowns running the show, at present!

That's not their remit as its not an out of work benefit.

I'm not sure how many times this has to be said.

I have read people’s posts and there is a huge amount of ignorance about ASD.

The reason why a person with ASD struggles with a bus for instance is because they have different wiring in their brain. This might mean that they are hugely sensitive to being touched lightly and also to the sounds and the smells. The manifestation of this might be they squirm uncomfortably on a seat or refuse to seat. When my son had to stand he refused to he brushed against as people left the bus so he got off each stop and got on. The bus driver stopped the bus and refused to move until the ignorant idiots that refused to give him a seat allowed him to sit on.

When a bus is crowded my son will refuse the bus so he and his PA can wait for hours and get wet. Amongst other things this costs the state more money as the PA is paid an hourly rate. It’s cheaper to get an Uber

ifs not preferred - it’s necessary due to impairments in the brain. It’s a visceral pain that is unendurable. My son’s natural stance is to shelter at home. It has taken considerable work to keep him in the community. Were he not shelter at home this would intensify his needs as he would have resulting health conditions and mental health needs.

if people want to comment please actually understand people with levels 2 or 3 ASD.

If my son’s condition is not managed he will go into shut down - it’s happened twice and it’s scary. He looks like a gargoyle , he is not there / responsive and his face is vacant. he needed deep pressure and to he unwound slowly. We were in a shopping centre and stuck for an hour.
If the fear is too intense he will have prolonged shut down - this has not happened yet but he does have what is described as an hour or so here and there autism burn outs ( college notes) these are unnerving prolonged sleeps where he cannot be roused with tugging or shaking etc. This is due to the stress of life skills and managing very short bus journeys on his own in a quiet town as opposed to the city where he lives.

Sp please educate yourself. A shut down or burn out would require very high needs care and cost tens if not hundreds of thousands to care for him if prolonged as he would need everything done eg bathing, shaving feeding etc - it would possibly a high needs care in a mental health unit - which is over £100,000 per annum

So it’s not preferring a taxi - the taxi is that persons wheel chair.

Yeah, I guess you’re right. They are two completely different benefits, paid for different reasons.

It’s irritating though, when you do understand the difference, to hear all this nonsense trotted out.

It just causes division and aggravation. 🙄

Am I just being think, or will administering all this be way more expensive than the current system. And, as for offering mental health care...are we meant to forget that this should be provided on the NHS, and the reason it isn't is ... Tory cuts!
I guess Rishi doesn't have to bother about making sense now, as he knows his days in office are numbered.

A reduced capability for work does not mean 'anything'. It is a key component of UC for goodness sake!

Where have disabled people said they take a taxi because they just prefer it or eat takeaways because they keep burning their dinner or need pure silk sheets? You're literally just making things up to suit your stance! And it's laughable 😂