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?

The difference between pip disability and say short term depression or anxiety is in my house. For instance I was attacked by an animal abroad and treated both there and here and had compartment syndrome in my leg and a chunk of my leg eaten. ; that is not an exaggeration. Without doubt that was PTSD but as many people I struggled through, held down a high earning job and tried to get on with it. I got flashbacks and shakes, spoke to a leading expert who did the piper alpha disaster about PTSD and got exercises etc. I was having nightmare so spoke to a dream psychology and she told me what to do .
Years later I watch a motorcyclist die in front of me - have not been able to drive as after that became hugely anxious about driving and possibly injuring someone etc but it’s just one of those things. ( witness to the accident not the cause of ) basically the second event re triggered the PTSD - forcep delivery and an emergency situation re birth of daughter also did not help - but these things happen.

Other than some quite enhanced anxiety and fear of driving / being a passenger etc life is ok. I have pains in the leg from the missing piece of flesh and avoid certain dangerous situations. I guess that the most annoying thing is the fear of being in a car which sends people who drive me demented as I grip the seat. That does not and should not qualify for pip. It’s just life:

In contrast my son has this complex conditions with ASD SLi Motor etc and he just can’t function without support on a daily basis from soemone. He needs soemone to tell him where to be and how to get them and plan his life. He needs someone to ensure his well being and nutritional status. Someone to choose his clothes and make sure they are clean. As I’m writing this I’m just feeling the taxi driver about his collapsed curriculum - there is no suggestion he could manage that at aged 20.

Im not disabled - just slightly tarnished so would not claim pip but my son is . He needs support and frankly he will need to have things to do with his PA and not just a room to sit in all day etc

The poster said the colleague was getting 'higher rate' for physical problems as if it was a discrete category. I was just pointing out it isn't.

Yes, I think there is such a misunderstanding here.

You are contrasting your own specific experience of anxiety with your son's disability and finding they are different. That's fine, but it's misleading and inaccurate to suggest that this reflects the whole population.

Many disabled people will have less severe disabilities than your son. Many will be able to hold down well paid jobs, live independently and have families. They will eligible for PIP.

Other non disabled people could experience a short term bout of depression that hospitalises them and make them unable to cope with almost any aspect of daily life. In the short term their needs could easily exceed the disabled person.

I don't know why there is such a reluctance to accept this. Do you genuinely think the non disabled person's needs are somehow automatically inferior and therefore should be lower down the pecking order even though they are objectively more urgent and extensive? It seems almost like a form of gate keeping. If you aren't disabled then you shouldn't be entitled to assistance as this will dilute the support available to disabled people. It is an approach that lacks compassion and ignores the need to treat people as individuals

Hope you're ok 🌺

Do you mean the information that showed there are not loads of new people claiming PIP - they are just moving over from DLA?

No, there really isn't... As I explained, you can have short term clinical depression.

Well if that's what you think then it must be true. I mean seriously, I am accused of being goady and there are posts like this. I have already stated I have a disabled family member and actually have more experience with disability than this. I don't need to lay out my credentials though as quite frankly there is no way to verify who anybody really is anyway.

If we are going to band around what we think of people then I imagine you are someone that thinks I'm terribly ableist. This generally goes hand in hand with those that just can't accept that anyone with a different opinion has any experience of disability. People that disagree "must* be prejudiced and ignorant. Anything else brings about too much cognitive dissonance

One of the reasons is the erosion of other services. So children's centres would do a lot of outreach work, where all the centres have been closed that work gets pushed on to mental health services. On a longer term scale there will be DC that develop mental illness that could have been mitigated if they had had children's centres. So again pushed on to mental health.

Seriously is this a human?

No, I don’t think that, but every time anyone has tried to point out the impact of long term disabilities, you’ve argued.

If you have experience of disability, then I’m surprised you feel as you do.

But do you not think that most people will have some kind of back up plan for short term illness? Savings, insurance, help from family and friends?

Major depressive disorder is not usually short term.

And then there is the funding crisis with SEN( the 2 are often linked)…

And I’ve already pointed out that the benefits system supports other types of need.

The median duration of MDE was 3.0 months; 50% of participants recovered within 3 months, 63% within 6 months, 76% within 12 months and nearly 20% had not recovered at 24 months. Determinants of persistence were severity of depression and comorbid dysthymia. A recurrent episode predicted shorter duration

Long term is defined as over 12 months for PIP so it is clear that most episodes are indeed short term.

Well, exactly that's episodes. A chronic illness is usually made up of multiple episodes.

Ah, OK. I see where you’re coming from.

Clinical depression isn't always chronic, in fact it won't reoccur again for 40% of people who have experience a single episode.

I think the misunderstanding also extends to how mental health issues qualify for PIP. Clinical depression can be GP treated with first line anti-depressants, and in the main this would not qualify the sufferer for PIP. There is an high bar for MH conditions to qualify for PIP. Claimants would be expected to be in receipt of consultant led secondary care in order to qualify. This is regardless of whether the condition is short or long term.

For most people it is. And it's much more complex than your statistics suggest due to the high incidence of co-morbidities.

The way I understood your post, you said that the condition lasted less than twelve months, but the point is, that you can apply for PIP after three months and then it’s down to an assessor to decide whether the condition is likely to last a further nine months. Her condition may have been assessed as likely to last for the required time scale and therefore qualify. If the condition then resolved in less than that time frame she would have been able to let them know of any change.

I can only go on the available statistics. Obviously the majority do have a recurrence but a significant minority don't.

So are you advocating for there to be no minimum timescale ? Because if you are, then that opens the door to even more claims. For very short term needs disability benefits are not appropriate - sickness benefits address the need. There’s a difference between a health condition and a disability, by definition.

And you’re exactly right. It is a form of gate keeping. The assistance available to disabled people via PIP, child DLA and AA is being eroded and is under attack from this government. If the funding available is further diluted by the inclusion of those whose circumstances are addressed by other benefits where does that leave the disabled ? I really don’t think you have any clue as to how disability benefits are intended to work.

Yep. Try suggesting vouchers for child benefit and watch MN erupt !!

The average person has £11k in savings and over a third of adults have no savings at all or less than £1k. We are getting more lonely as a society and living further away from our support networks.

In short, I think there are many people that would struggle to cope financially if they were to develop an acute short term condition and didn't receive government help.