To wonder if all those gleeful about PIP cuts are going to welcome people with serious mental health conditions as colleagues and employees?

[Somethingthecatdraggedin7]

Given the amount of ableisism I see on MN I think the likelihood of people welcoming people with serious mental health conditions into their workplace is pretty low.
And yes, these people will very likely now be forced to try to work even though their condition makes it impossible. We are not just talking about some lazy twenty year old who expects to sit at home gaming due to his “anxiety” as many people seem to believe is the case. It will be people with significant impairments to social functioning.
Even if they get support to apply for jobs, and even if they then get the position (doubtful) how accommodating will colleagues or customers be if the person seems a bit odd, or gets adjustments workmates deem unfair?
This is going to be a total shit show.

What has that got to do with the initial suggestion that the new Thames crossing should be cancelled to save £5 billion to fund benefits?

This is our situation. PIP is literally the only thing our family claims, even though our household income took a huge hit because of my illness and me now working part time.

Meaning what?

Still waiting for that "engagement with the facts" that you were so desperately calling for @Wildflowers99

Do we know what the additional cuts were in the budget today?

I don’t know what the job market is like where you live but here on the South Coast there is a lot of competition for each vacancy. Where does Rachel Reeves think that all of these extra jobs going to come from in a weak economy?

And I mean this kindly - employers are more likely to recruit a candidate who is keen, confident, appearing fit and well, and with no gaps in their CV.

I have spoken to 4 people this week who will lose their PIP at next assessment due to these cuts. 3 of them have progressive, terminal illnesses. Because they only need prompting and supervision to wash or make a sandwich this week.

That's terrible, and there are going to be so many more.

Some of the aggressively healthy (and just plain aggressive) that post on this type of thread need to give their heads a wobble and start counting their damn blessings.

I think they just don't understand that very many of us were completely able-bodied... until we weren't. Illness, accident, whatever the cause. We were fine and then we weren't sometimes overnight.

We were in that situation when DH had a major coronary, and I was working. A year later, he hadn’t returned to work, and needed open heart surgery. He never recovered enough to go back to his previous self employment. He was on Incapacity Benefit, similar to ESA I think. We were too uninformed to realise he should have claimed DLA (now PIP) which would have helped. He eventually found part time, low paid work.

We sold our home, moved somewhere cheaper, got rid of a car. Some years later, he had further heart surgery. We’re retired, the good thing is he has survived against the odds. The less good thing is he has just a state pension, he had just started a private one when he became ill and it never amounted to much.

Hi @cannaecookrisotto, sorry to hear about your father's problems and the strain you both must be under. Is there not a Benefits section of your local Council you can help with an Appeal. What about your local CAB? Some of them have Benefit Workers who will do your appeal from the information you give and any supporting evidence. I don't know your dad's age but is 66 the earliest retirement date now? If he is nearing retirement age the Age UK may also be able to help. What about the Huntingdon's Disease Society? Can they not help? I will tell you how I got support if you can bear to wade through this.

I retired 2 years ago (72) due to sudden Bowel Cancer diagnosis and after the awful after effects of the operation to remove the tumour, lymph nodes, ovaries, cysts and part of the womb. As I am over the age of being eligible for DLA/PIP, the Nurse Practioner at GPs suggested I apply for Attendance Allowance and said she would support me. I tried to do it myself - I find the forms easy but very tedious and with repetitive questions throughout. I've suffered with rheumatism in my hands for years and years and also had previous carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists, so I find it extremely difficult and very, very painful to write by hand. What taxed me was that they ask for dates of diagnosis. I have so very many health problems from before the GP Nurse Practioner eventually referred me to hospital February 2024, where I was diagnosed with Small Bowel Cancer
(but I have always worked as it helped me both mentally as it kept my brain functioning and gave me a purpose and reason for still getting up in a morning and also physically as it kept me moving around). This is not the case for everyone but it has been for me, so please, please don't think I'm saying all people should be working, even if they are ill - I'm certainly not.
I ended up gettting all of my medical notes from the GP, and going through them at so many a day. There are at least 800 - 900 sheets and it took me ages to try and pull exact dates. I had rang the DWP on one occasion explaining it was taking me such a long time to return the forms because of this. The man who answered said they did not ask for dates, and it took ages and him speaking to another colleague before he acknowledged that I was correct. I asked for an extension on the date to send the forms in but he said only claimants could have an extension, I replied I was a claimant - I was in the process of claiming - he said no I wasn't as I hadn't claimed it yet, so I told him to forget it and I'll try and send it in that day or the next. (I was still up and down to various hospital appts and GPs and very much suffering with after effects and food intolerances I had also acquired due to the BC and/or the operation, so I was still busy and very, very tired all the time - literally exhausted).
To cut a very long story short, I missed the deadline and when the next deadline came up for the 2nd form I had sent for, I rang the DWP office again, to inform them that I could not make the deadline due to all the information regarding dates they wanted, as I had too much paperwork to go through and I was finding it all so overwhelming, and asked that they cancel any pending claim they had for me. The lady who answered the phone was lovely and she asked me to wait a moment because she was escalating the matter to her Manager. She came back on the phone and offered to come round to my home with a Colleague to complete the forms within a couple of weeks, which they did. They were very surprised as the form was completed apart from all the diagnosis dates DWP had requested - I explained that the form had been completed straight away but it was going through all the GP notes for exact dates of all the major illnesses I have (Ischaemic Heart Disease, (had a triple bypass some years ago), Angina, Asthma, COPD, Emphysemia, Giant Cell Arteritis, Arthritis, Fybromyalgia, Cervical Spondylosis, curvature of spine and discs in back are crumbling due to degenerative issues, borderline diabetes at each test every couple of months although I am only 8 stones so not obese and I suffer with severe depression, anxiety and extremely low mood episodes due to losing family and close people, also animal bereavements in Pandemic (lost my 2 dogs of almost 15 years who had multiple health issues that were deemed to be eventually untreatable in 2020 when I had to make a decision to stop being selfish and to let them go). What with not being allowed to go into work due to Pandemic and losing my only sources of comfort, I was ready to give up, there didn't seem any point.
By the time of applying for AA in 2024, I also had other issues with my health.
The DWP staff who answered the phone, and her manager/colleague, went through my medical notes and I don't know what they added to the form as they took it with them. Within a couple of weeks I was awarded AA at High rate of £104 pw. This has been a Godsend expecially towards travel costs as I use taxis to go to my hospital appointments as I get extremely anxious driving there as it is always busy and trying to find a parking space in the many overflowing car parks, so that I am not late panics me so much. I also get flumoxed trying to find the exit. I had an appointment on a Saturday and spent approx 30 mins afterwards just driving round looking for the exit and it was really quiet that day.
A taxi is £14 return and I often have 2/3 appts in a month plus GP appts where the parking is £1.50 but is easier to manage for me. I now can't walk as far as I used to as I am getting swelling and stiffness in my legs, so I need the car for even short journeys to the local shop, and with the high cost of petrol and rise in all of the household bills, the AA has has been a godsend. I used to take home £1,400 pcm in my job so still struggle as I'm missing that, but £400pm+ is a huge help. (Sorry to go on, but I don't get to converse much now with no work and nor the little socialising on dog walks I used to do, but can't any more, I end up waffling when I do have to speak to someone so I hope this makes sense)
Please, please don't give up as I feel that is what a lot of the DWP staff hope for (not all). Your dad should have been awarded PIP straight away at the high rate. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted and it is awarded soon. Take care.

@Alwaysalert I’m so glad you got some help. I hope you can also get a blue badge, that would make a big difference when you do use your car. You can contact your local Age UK for help with applications. I also hope you’ve saved copies of the info you put onto your AA application, it will make it easier when you reapply.

@Alwaysalert if it’s the same as dla the forms don’t have a deadline you have to meet as such. If you call and send for a form then they give you a date and if you return the form by that date and are awarded dla then the dla award is from the date when you first requested the form. If you don’t return the form by their deadline then you can still return it but dla if awarded will only be from the date they received the completed form and not your original date of requesting.

YANBU OP. I am so repulsed by the current government I cannot tell you. Who'd have thought Labour would end up persecuting the vulnerable, possibly even worse than the Tories.
It's so obvious the millionaires and billionaires need to pay much more tax. They can afford it, and will still be filthy rich. Making life even harder for people already facing significant financial challenges, through no fault of their own, is obscene.
I'm so glad I voted Green.

Well we have a few people already with poor mental health. One was admitted to a psychiatric unit 2wks ago.

No I don’t think it is simples at all. Why do all these people have mental health problems?
Shouldn’t this be addressed, it must be very distressing to have a mental health issue and just be given an amount of money to live on and that’s it?!

No practical help, counselling, assistance whatever is needed. I’d be more worried about untreated mental health problems and where that may lead.

I was listening to a podcast the other day and he was saying that wards used to be used for therapeutic effect. So people could be admitted rest, start the right treatment etc. Now they are primarily containment for very disturbed people so only admitted after a crisis point.

I suppose the physical equivalent is just waiting till that appendix bursts so you are going from crisis to crisis firefighting all the time.

I do think we need to invest preventative healthcare.

Tax the rich - so taking 40% is not enough - that's nearly half their pay - Just insane that people think we should increase this - what about all the cash in handers all over the country - it's ok for them to not pay tax at all and though the cash might not be huge amounts (but can be) they may already have pension income, rental income that takes them over the personal allowance (not mentioning those on benefits who work cash in hand).

DMIL was a psych nurse until the late 1970s. Big hospital, in a rural setting just outside the town. People with serious MH issues were there long term, but as said by @Lovelysummerdays they also had wards that were almost like rest homes. DF had poor physical health, it impacted on his mental wellbeing, he was in a couple of times for a few weeks. Then he’d come home and go back to work.

I was young, I didn’t really know until I was an adult what was wrong, possibly clinical depression. He died when I was a teenager.

@Slimbear the top rate is 45% and of course there’s inheritance tax too.

So we can just be a country with very high unemployment propped up by a few billionaires can we?

Well, that's kinda where we ARE at now.

The super-rich have brought up all the worlds resources and are selling them back to us at twice or three times what they paid for them.

Wealth inequality is causing so many problems. Society doesn't have to be this way. I sincerely believe there'd be far fewer mentally unwell people unable to work, if society was fairer and more caring.

@WoodlandLove but is that right? Surely society is more “caring” than at pretty much any time in the past and mental health issues seem to be ballooning.

It certainly isn't fairer, and no doubt you didn't include that measurement because you couldn't claim it is fairer.

As for 'more "caring" than at pretty much any time in the past', well, even if that were true it would surely be a reflection of the current level of need for caring?

In my view we're living in an environment which, amongst other crises, constantly gnaws at our minds with manipulative information mediated by audio/visual and sensory technology. It might serve you and interested others to downplay the impact of that on many, but that doesn't mean the impact isn't severe and disabling for lots of people.