‘Game the system’ disability benefits

[Tomatochocolate]

WTF
just read a bbc article about welfare reforms

Apparently ministers think that it’s an incentive to claim disability benefits as the incentive is no work commitments on UC. That claimants ‘game the system’

It’s a long process and really hard to get awarded dla or pip. It’s not just ticking a box that says ‘I’m too sick to work’.

AIBU to think this is just horrific

Perhaps less insistence on more attendance in offices than is really needed, and more jobs that are less than full time hours, could bring more people into work in some way.

I’m fairly sure this is where the people that help others game the system nonsense has come from. It isn’t at all surprising that online forums are helping people with applications when so many people that do need it are getting turned down.

Yes that’s my understanding, it’s not PIP that’s being targeted?

For every person “gaming the system” there be two or three people who are eligible but not claiming.

We could call it working from home or flexible working or something.

The Pensions minister says otherwise;

"With the latest estimates indicating that there were 3.5 million PIP claimants at the end of July 2024, the calculated numbers suggest around 17,500 fraudulent claims were made due to claimant error, 10,500 due to official error, and 28,000 due to overpayments"

3.5 million claimants is bonkers - even if none of them are fraudulent it needs looking at. And I do think there should be a threshold of income where you're not entitled to anything, sorry. If you're on 70k plus a year I don't think the govt should be giving someone £700 a month on top of their wage when there's people not getting enough benefits and using food banks. There needs to be a redistribution/rethink.

Unfortunately there will always be people who scam the system, and genuinely ill people have to fight for every penny 🤬

There's a lot of "but you can be on PIP and work! Lots of us on PIP are working!" on this thread, so I just wanted to chime in and say:

Lots of us are on PIP and can't work. That doesn't mean we're gaming the system. Please don't let them divide us further by suggesting you have the deserving disabled (the ones who are on PIP but "battle through" to work) and the undeserving (who are on PIP but "gaming the system" or "sitting on their arses"). It isn't an either/or situation, and desperation to prove yourself as "deserving" is often just shitting on those who society wants to see as undeserving.

You don't need to prove yourself to anyone. If you've made it through a PIP assessment and been awarded PIP, you need it.

In the dla forms you have to give the schools details plus I had to send off a lot of medical stuff (Physio reports, OT report , SALT report) they also asked our gp to do an assessment. It’s not easy at all. That’s why I started this thread as I just can’t see how there can possibly be rates worth mentioning of any kind of disability benefit fraud as it’s so hard to get in my experience?

Quite. The chances are nothing will happen. But it makes good headlines and the govt are seen to be doing something/thinking about doing something.

These people who go to gp a lot are then told they have fibromyalgia, 🙄 then they get a pip stick, et voila. You get benefits.

So you hate disabled people? And none of that says that they are fraudulent. I claim PIP because I am disabled. I work full time. It's fookin expensive to be disabled and this is a "benefit" to help people with the added expense related to being disabled. Just because someone earns a good wage you think they should have to be worse off because they are disabled? You are all heart.

'@CerealPosterHere
3.5 million claimants is bonkers - even if none of them are fraudulent it needs looking at'

The fact is 16.1 million people in the UK (24% of the UK population) have a disability according to government stats.

Do you have a magic wand to make their disability/long term health condition disappear?

This is a complex issue and there are many elements that need to be addressed to help those who can work back into work:

• long NHS waiting lists (so people get worse and/or are off sick from work while they wait for operations/care)
• the lasting effects of long covid
• the lack of willingness of employers to take on and keep people who declare disabilities/mental health issues
• the lack of flexibility in the workplace as demonstrated by the push from bosses against home working
• poor provision of mental health services.

But I guess it is just easier for some people to bleat about 'scroungers' rather than look at the full picture.

But how can they possibly know that there's zero fraud if the people who are gaming the system are so good at it they haven't yet been 'found out'? Genuine question.

If benefits are reduced for some people or they are forced into work they aren’t well enough to do yes there will be a saving on the welfare bill but they’ll then need more medical
care putting up the nhs bill so it won’t help long term ?

So good they can manipulate doctors and therapists and influence the results of medical
tests ?

Yeah that's not the way it works for the umpteenth time it's how the disability impacts a person
Someone could have a multitude of disabilities
But if they can essentially self care, cook and clean for them selves and navigate a journey independently, they ain't getting PIP.

They can be. Harder but not impossible. However that wasn't what i was replying to. You were trying to 'educate' me that there were more illnesses than depression and anxiety. Which I am more than aware of.

They just say they can’t. Especially the journey thing, no one can prove either way.

assuming these people exist (which I don’t believe they do or if they do it’s tiny amount) surely the amount of work and time and effort of doing this would be so high ? If they are so called lazy work avoiders they are doing a lot of work to avoid work !

They just say they can’t. Especially the journey thing, no one can prove either way.

Actually 'proof' lies in the evidence needed to meet the criteria.

Having done both dla and pip applications I feel that dla is actually a better system. Maybe they should revert back as the potential for the type of fraud you describe is slightly less

It needs to be evidenced by a professional. And I am not putting anything I can't verify into my report. And yes, I work with people with fibromyalgia diagnosis. A lot of them don't meet the criteria for PIP and we work with them for months/years so I am not going to suddenly write a report saying they can't travel independently when they told me a few months ago that they need to cancel an appointment because they are taking a solo trip to India.

We had to have gp assessment, the DWP asked them to assess certain things it was actually a very difficult process. Some questions were so irrelevant though (a lot about pets ??)

How would you prove you can’t for example cook a meal or plan a journey?

Your user name is apt.

How embarrassing that people still hold these views, despite numerous threads every single week on here, not to mention the vast expanse of easily available information elsewhere.