To be confused by benefits cuts to the disabled and ill?

[AllyHayHay]

As luck would have it, I have not been in this position, but I do know of one disabled lady who has struggled. She was incredibly fortunate to already own her own home prior to her accident.

I am not what you'd call politically astute, but I have been reading about the proposed spring benefits cuts and wonder why people always discuss this ONLY affecting the sick and disabled.
I am also aware that there are many, many rough areas with families who have never worked, people who are struggling with addiction, prison sentences (their kids, spouse, etc) and these people never seem to be included in the Guardian articles and opinion pieces online.

Why would a system wish to make the life of a disabled person worse, yet ignore the growing issues of illiteracy, generational poverty and other issues which are going on in most urban areas just out of sight of the comfortably off?
Why not address the reasons that great swathes of people are living on benefits across the UK who are NOT disabled? I imagine this would drag up questions of why those issues persist - and no one in government wants to address that.

Since benefits claimants who are not in work of on the pension are a minority, are these cuts more of a populist tendency?

I think most people with a disability can do some form of work. It might not be exactly what they want to do or pay particularly well, but it’s still contributing towards their own income.

Reading some of these articles makes me think MPs dealing with these changes have no clue about the benefits system. The Times article is as clear as mud.
They need to give clear information and dates as to when the changes are happening.

The bit about PIP makes some sense, you'd have to score at least 4 points in any activity to 'qualify' so that means prompting in any activity won't qualify for payments

I think they are, by around 30%. But again that’s not confirmed yet.

Absolutely. I have autism and so does her brother. We both work and always have. Some people with autism are impacted in ways that make work more difficult and sometimes impossible.ND people are over represented in prisons, often have both autism and adhd, are more likely to suffer from abuse, serious mental health, bullying, crime, EDs, learning difficulties and a long list of other comorbities. All of which impact ability to work on top of the condition itself.

Good luck finding an employer who would allow me to work whenever I can because I've got another migraine or I'm shattered because of the side effects of my medication. And then there's the hospital appointments

Errr ok but “not what they exactly want to do”can’t mean seriously detrimental to health and progress as that costs us all more in the long run.

My daughter wasn’t even allowed to go to college to get the qualifications she needs due to “safeguarding” concerns by the college.

I get the feeling many people would say virtually any job presented to them would be seriously detrimental. If you’re able bodied, and haven’t been sectioned in the last 6 months, there shouldn’t really be a limit on what you can do.

We’re very lucky employment now is mainly sitting at a computer rather than doing anything very physical or dangerous.

I wasn't allowed to go because their "disability assist" team won't support me and keep trying to diagnose me with things I don't have

@ChilliLipswhere did you get the 30% figure

That has been apparent for a while now, tbf.

Why am I clueless. I’m disabled and I work. I have a seizure disorder.

Interested to know this too.

Totally agree

Autistic people are over represented and abused in hospitals. We have battled to stop my daughter from being unnecessarily sectioned and hospitalised and to have the tight treatment she needs. There are nhs departments dedicated to this.

She has still tried to kill herself multiple times when overwhelmed, self harms, self medicates and battles as an Ed- as do many ND people.

She cannot work yet and needs the right treatment at the correct pace.

Great give yourself a medal you don’t have the conditions or disability my daughter has.

I’d love to see the jobs catering for her needs, her EHCP and ignoring her history. Aside from the fact you lose EHCPs if you work. Thanks to her being let down in the education system as well as the NHS she has EHCP goals to reach by 25.

Quite.

I'm interested to see what job my husband could do. After all, according to this thread, the majority of disabled people can manage "a bit of work".

Do you mind if I ask what happened during her education?

😳

And your point is? I know someone with epilepsy who works. I also know someone with drug resistant epilepsy

This is one of the most common scenarios I see in my work as a benefits advisor. A lot of people not working and claiming due to anxiety/ not being able to leave the house etc.

It's not ableist. It is fact. There is a huge amount of disagreement amongst the scientific community about this. This is because our knowledge of the brain is still pretty rudimentary and we are guessing about so much. There isn't even agreement about whether Autism as it's known now is a single condition or a bunch of different conditions that have been grouped together under a single umbrella. You only need to look at the way that our understanding has progressed over there previous decades to understand this is an area that's subject to huge amounts of change and we have by no means reached an 'end state'.

The current rules around disability aren't definitive or permanent and nor should they be. They should flex as our understanding improves, technology changes and to reflect social and economic realities. Previously someone with poor eyesight would have been considered disabled but the invention of glasses has mitigated this. Previously Autism wouldn't have been recognised at all as a disability unless it was severe and extremely obvious.

So you can lecture, judge and pontificate