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.

Tribunals need evidence.

However, how is she getting enhanced PIP based on ‘cannot walk more than 200 meters’? The bar is set much higher for enhanced.

Tribunals need evidence

And yet she has this court decision which makes a completely false assertion about her level of ability.

The bar is set much higher for enhanced

Well she’s lied across all manner of aspects. She also claims not to be able to use her hands at all, to lift things etc, which is also false.

She also claims the full amount of PIP for her child- if I went into details of that fiasco it would be really outing.

@Wildflowers99 I invite you once again to provide us all with links to your medical research which prove that certain medical conditions do not exist despite them being part of the ICD and DSM, NICE guidelines etc and recognised in medical research for over 70 years in the cases of the conditions you have singled out for this and your - so far - unsubstantiated claims you have made that they aren’t real.

Are you going to provide any medical evidence for these ableist and disgraceful assertions trying to demonise people with certain disabilities that you don’t like and your pretence that their well-evidenced neurological conditions studied by medical specialists for the last 70 years don’t exist because you’ve got a severe case of Daily Mail brainwash (not that there’s usually much brain to wash in the first place when it comes to people who think that such publications provide factual information)? Are you actually going to provide some medical evidence to back up these assertions and prove that you’re not just being vile to a specific group of disabled people that you’ve taken a disliking to because other people, who are net contributors to the tax system - when you have admitted that you are not - provide additional support to these disabled people on top of the support that we provide to subsidise you because you, despite not being disabled, aren’t paying your way either and you’re incredibly jealous that we give them more than we give to you because they need more help?

I’ve been waiting for some time now for the evidence substantiating your fantastic claims, so please don’t keep us in suspense any longer. I’d love to see the medical evidence supporting what you’re saying as I’m sure you’re not just another bigoted, spiteful, unpleasant person trying to victimise disabled people. So where is the link to your medical studies that refute all of the medical evidence to date about autism? I genuinely want to see it.

But for the mobility, which has nothing to do with her hands, you claim she gets the enhanced rate yet her ‘status’ is ‘can walk no more than 200 meters’ - which much doesn’t qualify a person for enhanced mobility.

You still haven’t said how she has evidenced this though?

oh, and children do not get PIP, so again…

The claims you are making about her make no sense, as is usual for the ‘I know someone who…’ comments on threads about benefits.

come back when you actually know, otherwise stop making wild claims that cannot possibly be true.

She would not get enhanced mobility, from what you have put here. So she is not getting full PIP on everything!

YANBU although I don’t know how my cousin gets PIP for her supposed bipolar despite the fact she leads a perfectly normal life swanning around in a new car, canoeing, swimming, boozing, going on cruises and posting it all on bloody fb. Others get nothing whilst suffering several life limiting conditions. I think some people just know how to play the system.

Your Cousin sounds like she is living a full life. Good for her. Unless you are with her 24/7, then how would you know what she is going through with her bipolar?

Apilogies on the terminology, it’s DLA for her child. She claims both her and her son are severely disabled and claims the maximum available benefits for this.

I didn’t say her “status” is she can walk no more than 200 meters or that was the basis on which she has claimed PIP, I just said she has a previous court decision stating this- which she does (I have read it), and that this statement is false- which I know because I know her well and she is not only very able to able to walk but she is particularly athletic . This was just an example of her lies and her ability to manipulate the system. That particular decision was involving an argument concerning social housing.

The statements I am making may appear wild , but they are certainly true. You are not going to believe me and that’s perfectly understandable- there’s no value really of litigating this on an anonymous forum. I probably wouldnt believe it if I didn’t know this woman. But it is the unfortunate reality of things.

I presume @elliejjtiny who made the initial post and then hasn’t come back to comment at all is really very, very genuinely concerned about these issues, as they stated in their OP…

I personally am not worried about the changes at all. My child gets the highest rate of both elements of DLA and will remain getting them with PIP at 16 (hopefully they'll have moved it to 18) having scored 4 -12 points in all daily living areas and 12 on mobility. Those who are worried are generally those who know more scrutiny would show they are not high need.
The system definitely needs to change. How can someone who gets 2 points in six areas get the same amount of financial assistance as someone who has over 8 points in each? The costs of disabilities for the latter are astronomical.

Status/court decision whatever you call it. She has been deemed at tribunal to be unable to walk more than 200 meters. Yet you say she gets the enhanced award. This makes zero sense and does not happen. If you take a look at the criteria you will see that would not even get standard mobility never mind enhanced.

I have asked many times but you are unwilling to divulge how she has evidenced being disabled when she in fact is not disabled, so don’t be at all surprised when no one believes your wild claims.

weird you don't care about other disabled people, I have to say. I won't be affected by the changes to LCWRA, but I still care about it, because my friends and community members will be.

Who had ADHD 70 years ago? It was very rare until 10 years ago, then there was a sudden explosion. This is a bit like transgender ideology - people will send you studies they don’t really understand showing tenuous ‘links’ between X and Y which ‘need more investigation’, and assume that’s concrete proof of what they’re saying. Do I believe brains are split into ‘bog standard’ and ND? No I don’t. Do I believe that every individual has a slightly different chemistry and struggles with different things as a result of environmental and biological factors? Yes I do. But no, I don’t believe in ‘neurodiversity’ as a binary concept. And I don’t think ADHD is a condition which should need benefits. I could probably get a diagnosis myself, i fit all the criteria, but I don’t feel the taxpayer owes me £400-£800 a month given the changes that need to be made can be free. What I would even spend that on I have no idea. A good electronic diary with timers, clean eating, mindfulness, sleep hygiene and mental exercises to help me stay focussed really do help.

We’ve reached a point now where a condition, any condition, is a ‘disability’ and benefits follow as such. Which means virtually everyone will be eligible by the time the current lot of primary school kids are adults. You don’t seem to grasp the concept of money and the challenges for us that would pose. You seem purely focussed on the emotional and what you feel you should get.

Although tbf I do think it's wrong that there's no category for "unable to walk at all", because I can walk from bed to bathroom etc but get the same level as someone who needs a hoist.

If your child isn’t yet moving to PIP how are you getting these score numbers? If that’s just what you think they will get you might be in for a very nasty shock when the time comes to apply for PIP.

This!

Most of the people I know on PIP don't have 4s in the daily living part. So they will be made to look for work and loose a huge chunk of money. Most have not worked for 20 years or so. Some are scared to death about the changes, as am I as it will impact me too.

There’s a long standing assumption that the Amish don’t have autism.
Obviously this is bollocks, and when you think a tiny bit about it it becomes clear that the slower pace of life that they enjoy, with a very strong knit community, still using very traditional low-tech methods. All these things are likely to lead to autistic and ADHD individuals to have a valuable place within that community and are allowed to play to their strengths. They may not be diagnosed, but these ND people are still there.

70 years ago life was in incomparable to now. My elderly parents often marvel at the pace of life now, the speed, the pressure, the targets placed on young children. It’s a completely different world. Both my parents are likely autistic, both got the criteria, both managed well because life was much simpler.

Autism was there, the high functioning, spiky profiled, high masking type (which too many people don’t understand), but the world was much easier to navigate.

It’s nothing like trans ideology, which is built entirely on allowing feelings to take precedence over facts.

We’ve reached a point where life is so fucking hard for more and more people that they cannot manage. If this is a problem then we need to investigate and make changes so that people are able to manage once again.

But honestly, harking back 70 years and saying “nope, no autism there” is such a lazy, ridiculous statement and easily disproved.

I'm one of those people who you claim aren't high need.

My care costs me £50 a week. And then there's the other costs such as the extra electricity because I can't regulate my body temperature. Then there's the upkeep of l aids. Oh and one of my aids to enable me to read cost me £2500.

The RNIB have raised their concerns. Or are you suggesting that blind people aren't in need?

Was this the poster where she wasn’t working, her husband was also not working and claiming for anxiety, they were getting carers, PIP, DLA and UC, and ‘earning’ over 60k a year? Yes, people were very right to be annoyed. Nobody should get that
much in benefits - more than what 2 full time nurses earn in a year!!
Being empathetic and believing in disability benefits doesn’t mean ‘giving everyone whatever they want with no limit’.

Indeed. Although PIP isn't currently linked to ability to work, as I'm sure you'll know (just clarifying for those who don't - it will be in the proposed changes).

She goes to a specialist school with amazing support and preperation for PIP transition. She has severe intellectual and neurological disabilities (think an 18month old in a teen body). As I said personally I am not worried.
It's very disheartening to see the attitudes towards those who see the need for change. PIP is there to help with the cost of disabilities (not for being out of work) and the idea that all disabilities are equal is just not true.

Everyone is seeing "Benefits cuts for the disabled!" and panicking. There is still loads of more specific information to come regarding those who may lose their PIP and how that gap is going to bridged as they look for work or training.

As for the PIP assessment itself it has already been stated that this will be changed to have much clearer parameters of eligibility to try and eliminate the "pot luck" of which assessor you get.

These can be good changes.

Agree. If I had it my way people like your daughter would likely receive more than they get now, and I feel very passionate about proper caring respite centres for adults with learning difficulties. A friend has a severely autistic little boy and honestly seeing the effect it has had on her after only a few years is heartbreaking. She knows the teen years are yet to come. I won’t lie, I resent that the pie is made smaller by adults claiming for ADHD who until 10 years ago didn’t even realise they had it and have managed life ok until then. I feel as a minimum carers should get weekends off or a couple of days midweek but this will simply not happen with the current number of claimants and the payments reduced accordingly.

As I said- I accept you don’t believe what I am saying , and that’s fine - there’s not much a can do about it:

The fact of it all remains true.

As mentioned, the court statement was used in a previous argument about social housing - how she persuaded the judge to determine what he did, I do not know; I just know that she was able to do it , and yet it was/ is false. I don’t know the specific claims she has made in order to be deemed eligible to claim maximum PIP, I just know that she receives it despite being perfectly mobile/ able bodied.
Furthermore, I do know the details of how she has managed to claim disability status and benefits for her child (who I have known since he was a baby) despite there being absolutely no evidence that he has a disability (the preschool and a previous medical assessment also coming to this conclusion -ie that there is no evidence he has a disability) and it’s honestly awful.

As a result I do believe the government and others in their expressed concerns about the assessment processes for these benefits and their limitations , as I have seen for myself how they can be manipulated. Having said that I would never want a system that makes it harder for disabled people to claim benefits, even if this means that there are small numbers who are able to manipulate the system. Maybe that’s just the price we pay.

Yes it’s not lost on me that once one family member gets a diagnosis and claims, the same usually happens to the partner and then all the kids, one by one. Here it isn’t unusual to have 2 parents on PIP and 2 or 3 kids all on DLA. Think what an unusual situation that would’ve been 20 years ago yet it’s staggeringly common now.