‘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

I understand the pet question is because they assume it means you can go outside, feed yourself because you can feed your pet, you can look after yourself because you can care for your pet, etc

@Julen7

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

I'm not here to do basic thinking for you.

I'm talking about people who exaggerate how their condition affects them in their day to day life. Close family members have done this for decades so I really don't understand this zero fraud argument.

That's what an OT assessment is for. I literally made hundreds of sandwiches and smoothies with patients on wards. You think it's all "fluffy activity coordinator shite" when, in fact, we make observations and assessments about your levels of functioning all the time. It's literally our job.

Well in that case I will have to assume you have no clue

I think it's pretty accurate- and a disgrace on those who genuinely are unable to work - I know2 people my age (63) both on their own who play the mental health card but are to be honest just bone idle, rarely worked since their teens. Both are perfectly capable of working but simply don't want to as they don't like being told what to do, one male, one female, strangely their mental health seems fine when out frequently with friends or on holiday - I am not a Tory/Reform voter either- just someone who gets annoyed that they have been allowed to 'game the system'

@Julen7

Well in that case I will have to assume you have no clue

I'm not the one posting stupid comments about PIP claims.

@richardosmanstrousers why not save all your venom for the govt who will be outlining plans for welfare reform next week

Not at all. I’m disabled myself and can’t walk far. I spend a lot of money every month on stuff I wouldn’t have to otherwise. At least one if not 2 physio appts a month at £65 a time, gym membership at £120 a month so I can swim and keep mobile. This month was an additional £300 for a rheumatologist appt as the nhs waiting lists are crazy. I know how expensive it is to be disabled believe me. But I can afford it so I don’t claim PIP. Obviously people who can’t afford it should get benefits.

I don't know how but they absolutely walk among us unfortunately OP.
My best friends girlfriend is on DLA because she says she can't walk and has just posted her third post OF THE DAY on Instagram on her journey in the gym to become a female weight lifter. I'm tempted to shop her to be honest but my friend would be devastated, even though she herself is getting resentful now.

No venom, just utterly sick of thick and outdated comments about disabled people.

On UC if you just get Limited Capability awarded, you don't get extra money. Although of course it doesn't stop that person applying for PIP.
Usually it's a paper application, and then a telephone call to finish off that assessment. Plus it depends what you've told/been to your GP about and made up too. Because then UC are looking at your records.
So to me, unless they are then doing physical assessments, this is how people can get away with it.

I know of people who have obviously told some lies. Because even if they ticked boxes on other questions and awarded enough points, so I guess the rest would not be important.
They have full mobility, and bringing up child cleaning cooking, going out at the weekend, so I don't see how if things like that were conveyed they would not be found fit for work.

A lot of them are addicts. If you are addicted to a substance or say you are addicted to a substance you are not expected to look for work. I'm not saying that's gaming the system as I know most addicts have had troubled lives but in my town there are an awful lot of addicts on pip.

There's only two ways that you can scale back disability payments. You can reduce the amount which is paid to each claimant or reduce the number of claimants. It's clear from the rhetoric that it is going to land on option number two, so a significant number will be expected to look for work.

You'd hope that the government could distill the lead swingers from the sick but the safe rhetoric is forming around the idea that it is better for disabled people, especially the young, to work to improve their health and life chances in any case.

This means that the actual health of the claimant is moot, because it is being sold as an act of benevolence that people will be told to look for work while employers are sizing up redundancies to account for incoming additional taxation and increase costs resulting from employment rights

Don't forget to say thank you.

No because for example as I now know. Fit Notes are being deemed as nothing, especially if you've had an assessment done.
They are also saying a GP's primary role is to treat etc, not to look at what functions you might have to make work possible.

I think GPs and HCPs are sometimes so worn down and overworked that it's easier to sign the forms than to fight a complaint.

I know a man who weighs 40stone and hasn't worked for two decades. His GP offered him a weight loss programme and advised that engaging with community services would be good for his MH. That person made a formal complaint about the GP. He openly jokes about how the GP will be "shitting himself" by the time he's finished with him.

Conversely I've seen people struggling to work with horrific rheumatoid arthritis, that is definitely being worse by their work, but they carry on and don't want to feel stigmatised by accepting benefits. 😞.

The few "scroungers" get everyone else a bad name, but the Govt needs to work harder to weed them out rather than taking a blanket approach that affects genuine people in need.

If you have pets and say you can’t make a sandwich, wash yourself I think it can go against you as they try and say oh well you have a dog so must be walking it/feeding it/picking poo up. With no consideration that actually it’s their partner who also does all the pet care.

PIP assessments do seem bonkers at times, I’ve read about people who say they have a car and that goes against them because it’s deemed if they can drive they can’t be that bad. Which if that was true why does motability exist?

Or they could stop wasting money on repeat assessments and stop appointing companies who just tell lies. The amount of people winning at tribunal is ridiculous

Ah yes, I'll get my autistic son out in the fresh air, that'll cure him!

Yes, you are right, they could, I haven't seen much talk of that though.

@Jabtastic

Exactly!
I was even told by a council worker to go to doc again, exaggerate, get medication say it's not helping, get stronger etc.

Yet with me because i haven't been at the doctors door about it all/not taken more medication( i really did try 3 different ones) one that left me with such bad palpitations. The other which weight just piled on, when they knew I had a high BMI already. This means to the UC that it's not too bad.

It just seemed like a lot of questions about pets !

Sorry I worked for years full time heavily depressed and anxious, having a job didn't solve any of it.
And then there are often more issues stress etc from work.

@Redruby2020 sorry typing with new nails on - I meant you can't just go to the GP and get handed money.

to get DLA for children you have to provide evidence of their disability such as a diagnoses letter and reports. You don't get anything from just filling out a form. Even with evidence you routinely have to appeal decisions. I don't know about adult PIP but i think its quite hard to 'game' DLA.
I also know a few parents who just cant face the forms as well as dealing with a disabled child and don't claim even though they are entitled and would probably get something.