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?

I quoted them on the other recent thread. It may have been to you or another poster. It's the Government's own figures.

And you're not attacking people trying to spell things out for you?

Pot, kettle, black.

Spell what out? I’ve given you hard figures that prove that while corruption, tax evasion and fraud is a major issue, even if we recouped the money it wouldn’t be enough. Why can’t you address that?

No it's just inaccurate. Look it up on the other thread where I provided the figures/source.

There's an example on the bbc website of a young guy with autism wanting pip to get a third off rail fares because he doesn't drive

This is hardly exceptional. Millions of people don't drive. The cost of using public transport is a normal part of life for most people. Its actually usually cheaper to get public transport than it is to own and drive a car. I don't understand why this working adult needs 1/3 off their rail fares.

Lord knows I've wasted enough time trying to spell things out for you, and treat you as genuinely unaware of facts.

Because lies, damn lies, statistics, cherry picking, oh, a host of reasons really.

Please read my previous post where I highlighted a few things about truly finding accurate figures.

And other people's posts where they have provided information I don't have the bandwidth or time to find.

Obviously this isn't true for everyone. But if I travel I need someone with me. Why should I (or they) pay double the fare because my disability means I can't travel without assistance?

These are figures from HMRC! A civil service department. You can’t say they’re wrong or lying just because they’re not what you want to be true. This is getting ridiculous.

If you want to enable people with disabilities to work, you don't do it by taking money off them. You do it by giving employers tax breaks for providing adjustments, WFH and jobshares. You do it by having a robust health and education system that picks problems up early and mitigates them so that people can be their best selves. That isn't what the government wants, though. The benefits system has always been punitive and dysfunctional in the UK and it's been made worse, intentionally, for the last 14 years.

I wish people would stop quoting the daft figures around corporate tax evasion.

These are extremely one sided values often produced by tax authorities or campaign groups who make wild assumptions about untaxed profits etc.

The reality is the actual amount genuinely recoverable by tackling tax evasion is not going to go near what we have to spend if a huge chunk of the world cannot contribute at all by working and have to be supported by everyone else. Its already a given we'll support children, the very elderly, people with very severe disabilities etc.

We can't extend that to people who want to be able to swim at Bannatynes because its quieter or want pip funding for noise cancelling headphones. We need enough people working to fund all this stuff.

How convenient, everyone seems to bow out the moment I bring up the hard numbers.

Every time there is a story in the press or a thread here on mumsnet about disabled people being frauds/cheats/bone idle I feel under attack and as if I am hated. I feel I often can’t tell anyone I claim PIP because I will be judged.

This is me too and I'm sorry you're experiencing the same.

It feels like there's increase in hatred for disabled people. I won't get the mobility car even though it would make a massive difference to my life because I'm worried about people like the poster judging the blind neighbour. I have various conditions and don't leave the house much, I'm trying very very very hard to get out a bit more, I hear so many people slagging off someone they know who gets pip but has been seen doing a normal activity that they must be lying. I've got wider family who have this same attitude and it makes me less likely to ask for support from them because I know if I'm spotted going doing something normal I'll be accused of lying about the rest of the time.

It's like, some people think you have to be laid in bed in agony and never leave the house to be disabled, and if you dare do something like go to the cinema once in a while then it's used as evidence you can't possibly be disabled, but then there's also another set of people, who think that there's no excuse for not managing daily life tasks and will list all the conditions they have and say they managed to look clean and tidy, they kept their home clean, they never lived on takeaways and people with the same conditions must be lazy.

It's really shit and you're not alone. If you're anything like me it'll have taken you a very long time to post that too. Thank you for taking the time to do that.

Goodnight Adeline

Are you a qualified tax expert?

Can you provide links to where you found the numbers please they can be ready in context please.

Of course.

https://taxscouts.com/blog/how-much-is-lost-to-tax-evasion-in-the-uk/

No but HMRC are.

1 in 6 PIP claimants already work. PIP isn’t an out of work benefit. Ability to work should not result in PIP being shut off.

Mistress Sadly I must pass you back your coat for now... work beckons - thanks to PIP enabling me along with a fair percentage of the millions of other working disabled, to earn as much of my own living as I can!

Why the constant goadyness? Some of us have to work!

So it supports work in only about 17% of cases? Not that there’s a ‘right’ figure as such, it’s just ‘support to work’ is given as the main reason for the benefit existing on here (or one of them).

No it's £35 billion. Gov figures.

Although that was 2 years ago so likely higher.

If the Autism causes significant disability and qualifies for PIP, the benefit would open the gateway to other discounts and concessions meant for disabled people. To make their lives easier. It doesn’t mean those concessions are paid for by the tax payer, or even the benefits system itself. To qualify for PIP for a mental health condition alone would indicate a severe level of disability and it’s this benefit along with child DLA and AA, which would qualify someone for a disabled railcard. As is the whole point of this thread, disability benefits are meant to offset the extra cost of disability - of which travel is one. Many disabled people who work are on low wages. Many disabilities mean that the person cannot travel easily or alone, so the railcard is invaluable in helping them and their carers to be able to afford to take part in society, and live and work without their disability disadvantaging them. As far as I’m aware the only people who qualify for a railcard without the PIP requirement are those with epilepsy, profound hearing disabilities and blind people.

The tax gap has fallen considerably in recent years and actually isn't mainly driven by large corporates.

Its mainly small businesses its driven by. There's plenty of industry debate about whether the estimates are meaningful or are wishful thinking on HMRC's part. HMRC themselves rate the certainty or uncertainty of various components - lots are "very high" uncertainty including:

• the large business paye employer compliance gap
• the large partnerships tax gap
• the avoidance tax gap (marketed schemes)

The large business corporate tax gap estimate is "high" uncertainty.

These aren't statistics - they are estimates and are incredibly uncertain.

Disabled people, many who are incapable of filling in the PIP form, are not going to have the support to apply for grants. They are often too poor to spend on extra costs without going into debt, so a promise of partial or full reimbursement that may or may not be approved is going to result in most simply going without and then dying. Think of the diabetic who died because they had to unplug their fridge because of the COL crisis and so their insulin went bad. When you can’t even afford to keep your medication refrigerated, how are you going to pay up front for anything? When you are so run down you can’t even see this was a very bad decision, how are you going to have the mental capacity to navigate a grant application? How are councils and charities going to find the money, time and volunteers to assist disabled people to do all this extra paperwork? How many millions of disability funding will go to contractors to then process this extra paperwork? It is much cheaper for the government to simply use the research already available as to the extra costs of being disabled to set a cash benefit than it would be to run a grant or reimburse receipts or pick an item from a catalog, or any voucher system…more expensive with less benefit to disabled people- some private contractors will get rich off this though, along with any MPs or their partners that are shareholders.