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

Well then you wouldn’t need or benefit from my idea but maybe other people would given that lack of investment in MH services is commonly cited as a reason for the increasing benefit bill.

What mental health service provision would be effective in getting you well enough to work? If nothing would be then I guess further investment there would be nice but not cost effective.

I'm guessing that's because you have to actually spend the DLA on his disability needs rather than having it surplus to requirements because he costs the same as any other child.

Pip fraud runs at less than one per cent. I personally don't know anyone who games the system. And if people do - that's surely down to the assessor who made the decision - that's nothing to do with people who are genuinely claiming.

A miniscule handful. Yes some..but not a large proportion. I know one person who gets pip because they can't work a manual job. So they got a desk job. They don't work FT and just use wages + PIP to go galavanting around the country in their "free time".

If her condition has improved, a change in circumstances needed to be reported. It sounds like she was given a long award so no renewals have happened either?

> 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.

Because they still need to eat and pay bills whilst going through this?

I'd like to know where all my govt money is for being AuDHD if it's so easy to get it, tbh. And when we for some reason decided, once people - especially women - started being diagnosed after a lifetime of struggling, that they're no longer 'real' disabilities.

I find it unbelievable . However -

• Your link is DM - can you find a less bias source
• It is out of my control so I waste limited angst on the issue

This is spot on.

There is so much more pressure on people, in all sorts of ways, including social pressure to have a nice home, a decent car and a whole range of other stuff.

I'm old, and can remember the days when only the well off could afford that sort of thing. Society as a whole is much more aspirational, and those who can't afford those things feel left behind.

I have already had to point out once on this thread that PIP, the most commonly claimed adult disability benefit, is non means tested and can be claimed by those working full time. I hoped I would not have to repeat myself so soon, but here I am.
Your assertion that 'good' disabled people, which to you apparently means the working ones, are virtuous because they do not claim any benefits is deeply flawed. I think you will find this is demonstrably false.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been severely physically disabled since birth and also work full time. I am also, shockingly, a benefits claimant. PIP helps me to pay for vital equipment, technology, resources and support without which I would be unable to function day to day, let alone work or look after my family. I think you will find that most severely disabled people who are in work are enabled to retain their jobs because they also receive PIP, which can also pay for specially adapted vehicles where appropriate.
With all this in mind, it is not as easy to lump all disabled people into the saintly hard-working ones and the lazy, feckless benefits-scroungers as you seem to want to think.

That's standard advice. I think it's pretty reasonable that an assessor would want to know how someone is on their worst days. How can you weave a benefit claim out of fiction? That's not the same as having a fluctuating condition

There actually are people who end their Pip or lcwra claims because they don't need them anymore - but it's always the people who apparently game the system who are spoken about and criticised

I have anxiety. I get PIP. I also have MS and a damaged left ventricle. Your "evidence" is the Bigots' Bible, the Daily Mail. It isn't hard to see that they've looked at raw stats and counted all those cases with a diagnosis of anxiety or similar. I would be one of those cases.

Discounting other conditions where there are multiple, complex diagnoses (which is exactly what they've done) skews the data. Of course the Mail doesn't care whether or not their presented "facts" are accurate. They know that bigots will lap it up without pausing to do a little critical thinking.

What are you going to complain about when AI destroys the job market and most of us are on UBI? That people you consider "lesser" are eating food? Breathing air? In a world where resources will be at a premium I know who I would take from first, and it isn't the disabled. It's the useless, envious moaners who stand on the sidelines contributing nothing other than division.

I wonder if we know the same person as I know of someone that goes to disneyland each year. I am super jealous but their child is a nightmare to deal with not just for them but it's obvious to everyone

Highest rates of DLA for my son too.

We have holidays but definitely not Disneyland type holidays! I wish.

Holding my hands up, i gave up reading the thread so ihrtft.

Ds is has severe autism. He is currently transitioning to adult services (where his health and social care go from childrens services to adults). At the moment he gets the highest rate of dla/pip for both care and mobility and has done since he was three years old.

When he moves across to adults social care. He will have the majority of the care part of his benefits taken from him by the LA as payment for his social care. When he eventually moves into residential or supported living (we won't be able to care for him forever as much as i want to) he will likely have it all taken and be given a small allowance which the home/ house provider will manage.

For people with severe needs who do require very high levels of support removing dla/pip will make little change to them but it will make a big difference to the LA and possibly everyones council tax.

i appreciate this is different for those with chc

I wasn't talking about those people. I get it's a complex subject.

I've personally never squeezed any system. I got benefits that I was entitled to for a specific period of time. I've also paid plenty into the system

A therapist is not going to help someone with autism. It’s not a mental health issue. People with autism may have mental health issue just like anyone else, but it’s generally related to how other people relate and react to them

In addition, yes i do think that the benefits bill needs to be slashed somehow.

I really don’t think my comments are negative. I think I made some constructive suggestions. The q was how can the benefit bill be reduced. I guess your position is it can’t and it just has to keep going up and up.

In any assessment of a persons MH questions about suicide are going to be asked and they should be

What you would get out of being awarded the LCWRA is some more money right? And not being asked to look for work for a period. How is that ‘support’?

All I’m suggesting is would it not have been more helpful if as well as having the 18 months of not being asked to look for work you were offered a group therapy/ OT/ physio or other evidence based intervention in that time to actually help you? Rather than just some more money for a limited period.

I wasn't talking about people who had genuine need for it. I get it's a complex subject that needs care when discussing.

It's renewed every year as far as I know. She's quite cagey about the full details, I think she knows that we're not really on board with her getting benefits and using them to go to Disneyland, although we've never said that to her. She will occasionally give us an unprompted justification story (e.g. "Last week we went to the beach and paddled in the sea and forgot my phone was in my pocket. It got ruined and now I need a new phone, it's a good job my DLA covers that!" not mentioning that the phone was 3 years old and due a replacement anyway, or that accidentally ruining a phone once every 3 years shouldn't really qualify you for thousands of pounds a year.)

On the one hand, if she continues to get this much money we will save a packet when she goes to Uni. It will cover a substantial portion of her living costs. On the other, I do feel uncomfortable that she's getting money she doesn't need which is intended for people who really do need it.

My Mum had cancer and struggled to get LR PIP so it seems like a very weird system.

I’ve got DS’s LCWRA phone interview coming up and I’m absolutely bloody terrified that we’ll get someone who decides he can work. Someone perhaps like the PP who stated that people with ADHD just need to find a job that interests them and then it becomes their superpower. ADHD is just one of DS’s multiple complex diagnoses, but it worries me greatly that so many people have so little understanding.

You mean their child has disabilities - you're super jealous because they go on holiday once a year ? Do you think a holiday to Disney land compensates for having to cope with a young child that's disabled - the ableism on this thread is quite something.

It doesn't mean you will get the points for it.

There are also an awful lot of people working who have such high rents that their housing would be unaffordable if it weren't for UC.

Building loads more social housing would reduce the "benefits bill" quite considerably imo. I worked in welfare rights for years, and the biggest single item in most UC claims is housing costs. When it's hard to find a 2-bedroom home for less than £1,500 a month, as is the case where I live, it's no wonder that there are lots of families getting benefits that wouldn't if only they could get social housing.