Benefits explosion- where will it end?

[TheBlueKoala]

"PIP benefits explosion: Anxiety and depression handouts have nearly TRIPLED to £4.3bn since Covid - with autism and ADHD bill hitting £2.2bn and 'back pain' £1.6bn"

Something is not right here. When I have written before on here telling about people I know who claim for anxiety although they have rich social lives (funded by 440£ extra per month from PIP) I've had many people telling me that it's not possible etc. It sure is. How many 16 year olds are claiming PIP for anxiety?

Instead of benefits why not pay for therapy- invest massively in the NHS mental health support so that people with anxiety, adhd and autism can see a therapist regularly to help them. This would make a difference for tje individual and the society. Throwing out money won't.

AINBU- I agree with about
AIBU- No, extra money is always useful

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15510221/PIP-benefits-anxiety-depression-austism-ADHD-pain-Covid-Labour.html

Therapy isn't a cure. I've had years of therapy and I'm still autistic

Obviously autism isn’t cured by therapy but anxiety and depression can be helped , maybe enough to come benefits , which are completely out of hand.

I do agree with you and think certainly with anxiety and depression that therapy would be better investment in a persons future. From my limited knowledge of autism though I don’t think this is something that could be cured with therapy.

Benefits are completely out of hand and they definitely need addressing.

Years of chronic underfunding of MH services. It will therefore take years of investment to reverse this.

You don't get £440 a month just for having mild anxiety.
You're unlikely to get anything at all for mild anxiety.
Someone claiming that will have more complex disabilities & mental health needs - eg combinations of autism, ADHD, complex PTSD which is a completely different thing to 'anxiety'

FYI - I have schizoaffective disorder & have been sectioned in the past year, am under a specialist psychosis team. Also complex needs due to autism/ADHD & physical health. I claim PIP. I would say I have a 'rich social life' (not sure how you define that) I also rarely share my diagnosis with people. My colleagues for example think I have 'anxiety & depression'

I take medication for anxiety. It gets me out the door every morning and on my way to work.

I think more money should be invested in education for employers & work places around neurodiversity and anxiety/depression and money spent on ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make working life more accessible & attractive for people who feel held back by their illness or neurodiversity. Speaking from experience, when it comes to depression & anxiety, being given hand-outs long-term and not being able to experience the sense of purpose & fulfilment (and even just distraction sometimes) that working can give you only makes depression & anxiety worse.

This

Plus for younger people there is a fair bit to be anxious and depressed about!

I think a lot of this is presentational sleight of hand by the DWP.

They are deliberately taking cases with multiple disabilities and illnesses involved and categorising them simplistically to a ‘main’ issue label.

So my family member might well be in the ‘anxiety’ category, for example, but the actual underlying cause is perinatal brain injury presenting as unpredictable and aggressive behaviour - but yes, he’s also a seething mass of anxiety.

I could well be in the ‘back pain’ category, but I have incurable spinal degeneration as well as incurable psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis throughout my body. I’ve had every single session of therapy and physio available to me from the NHS. I’m on biologic injections. I’m still fucked.

We need to know urgently why so many more people are struggling with their mental health to the extent that they need PIP. What has changed in society to make life so much more difficult for so many people? I'm not convinced that it's all down to poverty and cost of living crisis etc because it seems to be affecting younger adults disproportionately.

I think there’s a fair amount of things for all generations to be worried about, at the moment.

Although, again, there always was. 🤷‍♀️

There’s no support for MH. I know because I’ve spent years trying to get it. I’ve been brutally honest with my GP in recent months only to be directed to more talking therapy which I’ve had plenty of already. I work but only part time. It’s all I can manage. I can’t see myself living beyond 50.. I’m in my 40’s now. I’ve tried a few different anti depressants and they all made me much worse. I think I’m autistic but no one listens to me so I don’t see the point in pursuing this. On another note, UC doesnt cover people’s rent and there is a big shortfall, jobs are hard to come by so I don’t blame people for applying for every additional benefit they’re eligible for. It’s either that or homelessness?

I also have chronic back pain so the government probably hate me.

Aha I knew this would be a DM thread. So predictable.

You could do with learning some critical thinking skills if you're going to read the DM. It's rage bait.

People always struggled. But we had mental health services (not a 2yr wait for six weeks of crappy CBT), work was less pressured and frankly, things like valium were handed out more often.

And if you want any back repair surgery whatsoever, the NHS rules are usually to gatekeep that to the bitter end and expect you to pay to go private.

How would a therapist help my severley autistic non verbal teen🤔
Awards of DLA are given due to need not diagnosis nobody is getting the highest rates of PIP for feeling a bit anxious.

It’s mobile phones, I think.

And the DWP deliberately plays into it by classifying complex conditions as ‘anxiety’ and ‘back pain’ in the first place.

Well, exactly. My family member with ‘anxiety’ could not be left alone with a therapist as he would probably either attack them or start punching himself in the head till he bleeds profusely, while screaming at the top of his voice.

I don't know where you think all these people with depression and anxiety are getting PIP from? My dd is autistic, and used to get DLA. She's been denied PIP twice. Nothing has changed, she's still autistic! It's really fucking hard to get PIP.

Yay, the daily benefit bashing thread.

It's going to be full of ill-informed idiocy as usual

Anxiety and depression has got a lot worse since the cost of living crisis. Money worries are behind a lot of it, as are untreated medical / dental conditions due to the state of the NHS.

A friend is depressed because she has to wait almost a year for the procedure that will fix her continence issue. Since it started she has been unable to do her job and has been let go. She cannot even leave the house. Her income has plummeted.

Counselling would help her, but it does not fix the root cause - an untreated childbirth injury. She needs benefits in order to eat and keep a roof over her head. I mention her situation because sometimes Daily Fail articles fail to give the necessary nuance.

Something has definitely gone wrong with not just the sheer number of people who have mental health issues but the extent to which they are debilitated by them.

I am always a bit sceptical when people bring up the current state of the world, as if the world hasn’t been in a continual state of war in one place or another since time immemorial. In many ways life should be a lot easier than it was for our ancestors, so what is it that is making it so hard for so many of us to exist?

I do wonder if the internet and social media mean that we now ‘know too much’, constantly being bombarded with news and information from all over the world in a way that our forbears never had to deal with. There’s a lot to be said for being blissfully ignorant perhaps!