To be sick of all the newspaper articles saying lies about DLA and PIP

[elliejjtiny]

To get any DLA or PIP you have to be significantly disabled. To get the higher rate of either part you have to be severely disabled.

A motability car is not free, it's rented. To get one you need to either be unable to walk 50 metres or have a severe learning disability, which is very difficult to get.

It's always happened but since the stuff in the news about changes to PIP it's got worse.

Articles in the newspapers claiming you can get a free car for bed wetting, which just doesn't happen. There will be children like my ds who get DLA because they have a number of problems including bedwetting but nobody gets high rate mobility for bed wetting on its own.

There are other articles about people claiming PIP and DLA for various minor sounding conditions and I am so fed up with it. I know from experience that the newspapers will have talked to people claiming PIP/DLA and twist everything they say to make them sound like a scrounger.

All these articles are giving off the message that anyone with any minor disability can claim loads of benefits.

We spend more on disability and SEN than ever. That’s a fact. Look around you - the reason councils are going bankrupt is because of the astronomical rise in demand for 121s, special schools places, transport, residential facilities, EHCPs… the list goes on. Council tax is now basically a social care tax, the average household is paying around £100 a month directly to social care. That’s not taking into account benefits and health services through core taxation - which in themselves are at record levels and increasing by £5 billion a year. We have the equivalent of the entire population of Scotland on disability benefits, and the cost has nearly doubled in 10 years.

How on earth is this indicative of an Orwellian state who penny pinches when it comes to the vulnerable?

I remember first seeing this parody 15 years or so ago, it is so funny. Posing with their “luxury cars” with the Audi/ BMW badges. I was baffled at the time how they managed to get so many pretend half-naked “fan-girls” to participate in the video - even though it was clearly a joke - but based on some of the comments here and the fetishising of such cars as “luxuries” comparable to a mansion in Belgravia, I do think that some of the posters here really should get in touch with Ogli G and see if he has any vacancies, then they can live the high life and lie on the bonnets of these “luxury” cars all day to their heart’s content. 😁

Here is some reading from the Guardian, who can hardly be described as ‘pro billionaires’. Please come back to me when you’ve actually read them. This debate desperately needs actual figures so here they are.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/30/councils-england-insolvency-risk-send-costs

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/03/a-ticking-time-bomb-the-neglected-crisis-of-send-education-in-england

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/12/mental-ill-health-is-behind-soaring-disability-benefits-bill-in-england-and-wales-report-says

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/17/children-disability-benefits-england-and-wales-resolution-foundation

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/07/sickfluencers-tiktok-disability-sickness-benefits

My son has just been awarded pip for his very severe mental health issues due to Childhood trauma, not that I should have to explain and the only help we got was a benefits advisor helping to fill in the form. He told her how his condition affects him and she put it into the jargon that they want to hear.
FYI it's not a new condition for him he's lived with this horrible cloud over him for 20 years. When he does finally take his own life I hope all you people who think everyone is playing the system will be happy. At least then he won't be claiming any benefits. I sincerely hope you don't have any relatives with poor mental health.

So maybe they need to change their tact and work out why so many people are disabled and why there is such a huge mental health crisis going on in this country?

You don’t sit back and watch people’s lives fall apart and do nothing - but this has been done for years. It’s not rocket science.
The most vulnerable have been systematically targeted, and the healthy majority have gleefully accepted it, because “personal responsibility”. It’s like saying Alan Sugar managed without O levels so why the fuck are we spending billions on education - could save a fortune there!

Children and disabled/vulnerable people need support and sometimes need extra measures in order to have any quality of life.

Many councils are going bankrupt because of badly invested public money, too many retirees on 100% retirement packages, too many hugely paid managers, money frittered on expensive climate incentives that in reality only benefit the already wealthy.
Local authorities routinely waste millions fighting parents instead of awarding EHCPs (which they inevitably end up having to do on appeal).

What is avoided at all costs is looking at why there is a problem. Why are so many more children not coping with school. Why is it now routine for teenagers to have mental health problems. Why is it that funds are poured in to ridiculous campaigns that don’t even scratch the surface.

The current culture of the UK, in schools, in every day life (I mean, look at any thread like this, disability, autism, schools, they all go the same way!) is creating and nurturing this problem. Until more people are in agreement the problem will get worse and worse.

It’s routine for them to have MH problems because their parents give them a life that’s utterly toxic. Endless gaming, tablets, UPF foods, a lack of routine, and being allowed to do what TF they want with the parents fighting any teacher who tries to discipline them. Very little fresh air, decent food, routine, socialisation. They all just blame it on Covid.

The government however cannot tell members of the public their parenting is shocking and even if they did, the parents would ‘fight them every step of the way to get what I’m entitled to’. And how dare they tell them what to do, they clearly just want to penny pinch and so blame the parents. Obviously 😳

What would you do about this? And can you post some figures to substantiate what you said about poor investment and pensions?

You made this example and the figures up tho.

How do you explain adults with Autism way before screens were a thing? And people like my friend who has 2 children. One is Autistic (as well as other complex medical issues) yet his younger brother isn't?

I think you are missing a huge factor in this discussion and that is that the participants are not talking on a level playing field or from the same level of understanding. It’s a bit like a 45 year old white male public school educated professional discussing what young poor black females experience and need. You are in a position of such huge privilege you need to think more carefully and be more delicate in your approach.

Get a basic understanding of the benefits you are discussing and the populations they serve. Understand WHY these benefits are there and what they might be used for? Think about why these benefits are being targeted and what the ramifications of that will be? If you feel exhausted and unable to carry so many dependents ask yourself what is the alternative? Ask yourself if you want to focus on these people or if there are better ways to raise revenue? Ask yourselves why so many people are disabled now and if that’s really “lazy bludgers” or if like the rest of the world we are seeing an increase in disability across all social strata and are on top of that carrying the broken by Covid?

Do a little thinking? Just a little?

Yes but people go to charities to get these forms filled in. If they haven’t been seen by a medical professional it may be a school or a friend writing the evidence. At my son’s school they sent about six boys in his year to CAMHS all came back undiagnosed but I suspect the school wanted them medicated and easier to manage like my son and so sent off reports. I felt this showed a lack of understanding in teachers about how this disability presents itself.

If DLA is refused you can do mandatory reconsideration and if still not happy go to court, apparently a huge number of decisions are overturned at this point 90%.

@Wildflowers99 if a private company had a problem with more and more of their staff being too stressed to go to work their business would suffer and they would either have to shape up or sink. That’s the bottom line.

Schools are doing measurable damage to children but the solution is to apparently to enforce more attendance rules, take away any flexibility in approach in the classroom that means more children cannot cope, that has created an environment where more children’s needs are unmet, where pressure is put on children from an early age, where more and more children need to apply for an EHCP, where teachers are struggling more than ever and leaving in high numbers, where more pupils are coming out of the school system so stressed they need support to work.

It’s not about shit parents, it’s not about some fairytale wish for an easy life, it’s about really horrible, traumatic situations in an environment that has been created in parliament by education ministers who at best know the public school system well (with small classrooms, money to support children who need it, wealthy families so suffering is often unheard of) or at worst by ministers who have no fucking clue how education should work for the masses. Implementing strategies and protocols that have devastated education.

But if you are lucky enough to have a healthy child who can thrive or cope at school then you have no reason to understand that, and you’ll come back stronger at me about these naughty children and their useless parents, and you will be blind to the changes in schools in the last 20 years which are flipping obvious to those of us whose children have suffered more and more.

If the councils are spending all their money on SEND funding then perhaps it’s about time someone actually looked at why. Humans haven’t changed, we’re still the same old mix that we always were and always will be. The school system has changed dramatically for the children within it. But no one wants to investigate how, or look at measures to improve it for those suffering within it.

I also know a woman who claims the maximum amount of PIP for both herself and her son. Neither of them are disabled. I’m sure she’s nothing like the norm, but it does appear to be very easy to abuse the system

I think there are different types of autism. Non verbal children with autism and severe LDs are very clearly disabled and not caused by screens or parenting. Very hard on the parents and they deserve all support.

But some people are diagnosed at 15 and their parents ‘had no idea’ they suddenly just became anxious and refused to go to school. I see a LOT of this in my line of work and tbh I think the autism diagnosis is actually obfuscating what is just SEMH problems and anxiety. The last thing these kids need is to hide away at home and be supported to do so.

What point are you trying to make? Everyone knows the education system is a mess, hugely underfunded and the support for children with SEND is appalling. It requires much more funding, for both children with and without SEND. What has this got to do with PIP (which is only provided to adults in any case and has nothing to do with education)?

“It’s routine for them to have MH problems because their parents give them a life that’s utterly toxic. Endless gaming, tablets, UPF foods, a lack of routine, and being allowed to do what TF they want with the parents fighting any teacher who tries to discipline them. Very little fresh air, decent food, routine, socialisation. They all just blame it on Covid”

Absolute bullshit. This entirely suits your narrative, but bears no resemblance to the many families I know who are struggling with disability. You’re projecting your bias on this subject.
Covid is know to have increased mental health problems so not sure why you’re scathing of that?

They can’t cope because their parents don’t do discipline or rules at home.

The answer isn’t to just remove all restrictions and allow them to do what TF they want.

How would society look in 30 years if we did?

How on earth is it underfunded? Do you want the entire country to do nothing but pay taxes to support SEN? Will you consider it ‘underfunded’ as long as money goes to absolutely anything else?

I suppose it was of course, only a matter of time, before the thread descended to a new and predictable low of completely unrelated and irrelevant attacks on autistic children.

I wonder where this obsessive hate of autistic people and people with ADHD happens to come from… it couldn’t possibly be that it’s a favourite topic of exactly the same inflammatory and absurd articles in the Daily Mail and Express, from where most of the posters who have irrational objections to Motability also happen to get their “news”, could it?

Im aware pd this but you still need a huge amount of professional evidence which includes reports from school as the child spends six hours a day there
And yes a friend or family member can wrire a report but it doesnt hiold as much weight aa a report from a professional
I actually went to tribunal as i didnt agree with the rates of DLA my son waa awarded and whilst it was over turned it is very obvious my sons needs are very complex
Those trying it on wont get anywhere at Tribunal.

Wow just wow

Ok then - explain this - I've got 2 siblings. Myself and one of them had Autism but the other one doesn't. We were all raised the same way

You can see Autism on MRI scans but it's not used to diagnose

A list of the people most responsible for encouraging this type of hate can be seen here dmg media | Leadership team - dmg media

Source?

Yeah of courss you do 🙄🙄🙄

I don’t hate people with autism or ADHD, I just don’t believe the concept of ‘neurodiversity’. I’m someone who could probably get an ADHD diagnosis based on my school reports and anecdotes of virtually everyone who knows me, but I won’t. I don’t believe that there are 2 types of brain, one being the ‘standard model’. There are many parallels between neurodiversity and gender identity, and the reasons I don’t buy completely into either of them are quite similar. Equally I don’t ’hate trans people’. I judge everyone I meet individually and my best friend and niece are autistic.