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?

Whoever gets in knows that disability benefits needs reforming. It is getting unsustainable. What they do remains to be seen.

There are lots and lots of properly trained and excellent therapists if you are willing and able to pay privately. Actually the idea of people being able to engage a therapist of their choosing makes a lot of sense.

But I get very anxious and depressed when I have to work in an office, but I still had to do it for 30 years.

They will get vouchers that they can use in exchange for therapy.

They money saved from giving people cash will be used to train more therapists.

At the moment, people just get extra cash which doesn't help them and just encourages them to get sicker and sicker because if they improve, their PIP stops.

I also claim PIP and work full time (thanks to many reasonable adjustments). I get Lower Rate Mobility. It's made a big difference to me. I use it to pay for things I need e.g. public transport and taxis for distances most people can walk. My specialist dressings (which are a mobility aid) are expensive and the NHS can't always prescribe me enough - I use PIP to pay for some privately. I also use it to pay for my special silver socks which are expensive but mean I can walk further.

My condition and treatments mean that I need to replace shoes and socks much faster than normal as they wear out quickly - PIP helps to pay for this. I also am limited in what footwear works for me, I basically live in skechers, which aren't cheap as they enable me to walk further as they don't make my fragile skin worse like most shoes do. PIP helps pay for this.

PIP also means I can get a disabled person's bus pass and a disabled person's railcard which helps me pay for the extra trains I need to catch due to not being able to walk far.

What the NHS can help me with - specialist dressings, creams and specialist podiatry is great. It really helps. But the NHS can't pay for my shoes or my special socks or for my public transport and taxis. Life has been much easier since my PIP was awarded last year.

I don't think so. They want to get more people in to work, so they will be looking at people with MH issues who could work with the right help.

Most people who work and who get PIP have mobillity problems I think.

I really don;t think that people like you with physical needs have to be worried.

They want to help people with MH problems get back to work because just giving them money makes them sicker and sicker as they have no incentive to get better.

You can't get better.

YANBU. If the tories had their way, they'd let the most vulnerable in society die. Have you signed Scopes online petition, they are great advocates of the disabled and do pack a bit of a punch. I haven't worked due to my disability for going on 8 years, with several chronic conditions, some of which are mental health and some are physical health. I feel like I may have to be unglued from some railings sometime soon.

Can you really see this government prepared to pay going rates of 'private properly trained and excellent therapists?'

It will be whoever can't currently make a living at that level or similar, and can be bulk brought cheaper, in exactly the way that experienced more expensive teachers were pushed out in favor of cheap inexperienced early career starters, and Atos and Capita found 'medical practitioners' who were unable to get proper work, so took low wages and questionable conditions to assess disability claims.

Pip isn't about working. Plenty claim and work

"Don’t be terrified. It’s just more like an expenses system rather than giving over ready cash. If you need the funds are are spending them on things you need then it won’t make any real life difference to you."

What expenses will be covered? Who decides?

Yes, that is why I said that I don't think that people with physical disabliites (who work or don't work) need to be worried.

Therapy will be covered so that people with MH issues can get better. At the moment they are getting sicker and sicker because if they get better then their cash PIP will stop.

Lol you don't claim pip do you?

Will it include taxi vouchers for those of us to disabled to drive or catch buses to hospital appointments?

Im disabled. I need hospital appointments. But getting there is impossible

Well, it will be better than what happens at the moment where people on PIP with MH issues don't get better at all.

At least if they have some therapy, they might get better.

And that would be great if there was any chance that the vouchers would be set at a rate that would allow someone to pay for a private therapist.

But they won't be, because this is about cutting the benefit bill. It'll be just like housing - benefits won't cover the rent, so people end up cutting out other things and living in constant fear and poverty. Anyone thinking this will be benign is dreaming.

Labour need to invest in getting people into work (if they aren't already working) in a way that will allow people to sustain being in work. That means adequate health services, incentives for employers to take on people with fluctuating conditions, stronger legislation around reasonable adjustments. Maybe we'll get that, but we definitely won't get it from the Tories.

My DS gets PIP for a mixture of physical and mental health conditions, he gets higher rate for both components. He works part time. Take his PIP away and force him to go full time and he will end up not being able to work at all as his health will deteriorate - own goal. There will be very many like him.

No, but my husband does for a physical disability.

"Therapy will be covered so that people with MH issues can get better. At the moment they are getting sicker and sicker because if they get better then their cash PIP will stop."

There are lots of disabilities that won't be cured by therapy.

The PIP system is absolutely broken and illogical and absolutely needs a full review.

A close relative of mine gets the higher rate for both mobility and living for MH reasons. Mainly that they have such crippling depression and anxiety that they're unable to function.

Relative then promptly applied for a mobility car, sacrificing their mobility component to get a brand new car on the drive.

This is a person who, according to their actual assessment, is so hindered by poor MH she's unable to wash herself, make a sandwich or concentrate on anything for more than 10 minutes - much less leave home.

Yet she has a mobility car. With only her listed as a driver. NO ONE has thought to question this.

There may be some people who've struggled to legitimately get PIP but I suspect there are just as many getting it who shouldn't be.

Well, it will be better than what happens at the moment where people on PIP with MH issues don't get better at all

What evidence do you have for that?

Most people with mobility problems who work and who get PIP, have stories to tell of how they went from a double award that allowed them to work, to nil points overnight during a re-assessment, stopping them from working.

There is no rhyme or reason half the time regardless of solid medical evidence and visible physical disability, because of the scummy providers of assessment services, prepared to do what they're told for a buck, and how the system is randomly rigged.

Additionally: First they came for...

I agree that there are people who would benefit from (gentle) pushing into some kind of work (it's not always a case of laziness but often lack of confidence), but inevitably these kinds of "crackdowns" always result in some genuinely very disabled people falling through the gaps and being treated unfairly.

I use it for taxis to medical appointments for me and mum, food supplements, and grocery deliveries and for general living expenses to chip in to my household bills

I thought it had to fund direct expenses from disability rather than general life expenses?

I do agree with this. PIP is supposed to cover extra expenses associated with a disability, but the eligibility criteria are based entirely on how a condition affects a person day-to-day without any reference to extra expenses.

So somebody with severe allergies who needs to buy very specific foods might have extra expenses, but likely wouldn't qualify for PIP precisely because the more expensive food they buy keeps them healthy enough that their day-to-day life isn't much affected.

But the current rhetoric against people with mental health problems does worry me as I think genuinely needy people will be overlooked.