To be concerned about what Liz Kendall is up to with disability benefits?

[Locutus2000]

The Times reporting just how enthusiastic Labour are about targeting the disabled.

I can only hope they are getting the worst ideas out there first, if not I dread to think what is coming in the upcoming review.

I was confident Labour would at worst be no worse than the Tories.

I was wrong.

Free archive link here.

Exactly. By our early sixties most people are starting to end up with chronic illness/ joint issues etc which mean they can no longer continue to do their jobs so have to claim working age benefits.

I think sometimes this is part of the problem. I volunteer in a similar way and see people being awarded relatively high amounts in disability/sickness benefits. Great. Problem is, the people I've seen (young people) come from a poor area, their peers are working in hard, miserable minimum wage jobs and have significantly less spare money than they do. The benefits claimants are all ill with depression/anxiety etc have no incentive to get better as these minimum wage jobs are all that awaits them. I'd be depressed as well.

And it's not like when I was young, even with a minimum wage job you could buy your own home, have spare money to go out and be able to see benefits from your labour, not now, you can work all week and have absolutely nothing spare to show for it. We see the resentment all the time towards the working poor. Posters on MN slag them off and claim they aren't poor if their mums care worker dares to buy themselves a coffee from Costa once a week.

I’m hardly blaming everything on it. But it’s likely to have had an impact.

From full time factory jobs that they worked in until two months before their 80th birthday (in DMs case)

How do you know it did not have a negative impact? Both myself and DP lots our jobs as a result and now earn less. It negatively impacted us. But I do not use it as an excuse to drop out of life.

How soon we forget Covid and its long term effects - oh wait it doesn't exist now it's not convenient for the government.

Exactly. I read somewhere that GP's have a label for all these people living on sink estates with no prospects claiming long term disability benefits - they are known as SLS - shit life syndrome. So many people are victims of abuse and go on to have long term addictions and MH issues, no prospects, no real family support, living in shit housing. They stay long term on these benefits because the alternative is no better. It's a really sad state of affairs.

My mistake. Because you were so dismissive of its effects on others I thought you might not have experienced it.

Now I see you did and expect everyone who had negative impacts to be like you.

There will be many people who can't because of this and co morbid health conditions. It's not a blanket ADHD = can't work. There will be a large proportion who are I imagine seriously impacted.

Remove the ADHD and focus on those crippled by depression and anxiety. A fit for purpose service will provide hope of improvement for many I'm sure. Not all I accept.

As it stands, I have seen too many people sent home from hospital the day after a suicide attempt. With adequate services, how many people could be helped.

It feels like smoke and mirrors again.

Attendance Allowance doesn’t open the way to Pension Credit. If they were getting Pension Credit it was because their pre-AA income as a couple was less than £332 a week.

AA is not means tested, so it isn’t a “gateway benefit”.

Pension Credit however is means tested, and does act as a gateway to other benefits, since to receive it means you are on a very low income.

AA doesn’t have a face to face assessment, but to obtain it you need to demonstrate an inability to keep yourself clean, feed yourself, take medication. To get the higher amount, you need to show you cannot be left alone safely overnight. It doesn’t cover mobility, so you will be turned down if your application is based around being housebound and unable to shop for food.

They need to means test attendance allowance. MIL has almost £1million in assets and receives around £400 AA on top every month.

No it isn’t due to increase of claims for autism and adhd diagnosis as neither get you DLA or PIP and not having a diagnosis for either doesn’t stop you from getting PIP either. 4of us in my family have both autism and adhd. Only one has PIP.

There are all sorts of different situations. We cannot afford what is currently in place. We probably need more sticks and fewer carrots.

Yeah, disabled people and immigrants are to blame for the UK's woes.

Rings a few bells, doesn't it?

Crazy isn't it. I see this type of scenario on a regular basis

I agree with you. You can't make it very difficult to access the services that could ameliorate these conditions and then expect those with them to be well enough to work.

People also end up losing confidence when they spend a lot of time out of the workplace. That will happen to anyone, but we especially don't need that with young people who have never worked. It must feel so daunting when you've never had a job.

Criminal justice system sees a large percentage of neurodivergent men. Better they are helped than ending up in prison. Cheaper for society in the long term.

In some ways that could be a positive step. Often if there's a severe enough illness to be in a mental health unit they will have lost or not had employment. Discharge support is very limited, and getting back into society and having some purpose, routine and socialisation through appropriate work can be hugely beneficial to mental health, but actually finding employment can be a huge step to manage alone.
However, it would have to be appropriately managed and given as support not pressure.

My MIL doesn't. She puts it in the bank.

I was having this exact convo today with a relative! I said wait for it, the disabled are next

Of all the expenses why do I feel like there are other sources of loss that are far more significant than these groups.

There's nothing in my area that I'm qualified for currently. I'm doing a degree in cyber with the Open University that will hopefully open some doors though 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

That is a shame. If she can manage with out paid carers, she should be using it to treat herself.

Presumably when she does depart this earth, the beneficiaries of her estate will repay the amassed AA to DWP?

Absolutely spot on. But this is ignored and we still have swathes of people saying people want to make out they're ND for the fun of it. As we see on MN all the time.

As a parent of an ND child and now watching the struggles, plus all the threads on here, I see exactly how the above comes to fruition. If these people were able to be assessed ( you can't bloody get one) , get diagnosed and access help including even ADHD meds which may reduce self medication through alcohol and drugs, how many people would go down another road.

It's just gaslighting and sticking plasters on. And Daily Mail readers will froth at the mouth because they won't realise the true statistics we are highlighting as a huge factor.

@PandoraSox
Nobody on this thread is attacking genuinely ill and disabled people. There is no need to try and start a bun fight!

In that case she doesn't need it. I it's supposed to pay for the extra care needs that they say they have when applying for aa