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

Please take a step back here.

You are actually trying to rationalise using PIP funds on a luxury holiday abroad.

This is absurd logic. PIP is meant for day to day living expense. Not luxury spending.

Thanks for telling me. These people should be fully prosecuted by the fraud team.

We need to keep in mind that are talking here about spending not the number of claimants. This means that as benefits such as PIP are uprated each April the cost will go up even if the number of people were the same.
Since Covid the State Pension Age has increased and this leads to an increase in the number of PIP awards and the number of people on Universal Credit found unfit to work. Those who have worked for many years in manual or physically demanding jobs may well have back pain & musculoskeletal issues. They may also have chronic conditions that worsen with age.

Waiting lists for CAMHS have been outrageous for over a decade. The government in 2016 pledged to reach 1/3 of the most serious patients within 12 months. That left 2/3 of them not being seen. On top of the “non serious” patients not being seen. Currently the waitlist in our area for CAHMS is 2 years. You cannot even get a referral unless you have co-morbidities. The young person I’m mentoring went to the GP because of low mood and suicidal thoughts about 18 months ago. She is still awaiting a CAMHS appointment.

Children with mental health issues become adults with mental health issues. Unless we have massive injection into children’s mental health services, the number who are entitled to claim PIP will keep on rising.

PIP is very difficult to get and has almost 0% of fraud. You can’t just wander in and say you feel a bit low and get it. Stop targeting disability benefits and start targeting where money is actually being wasted.

No this isn't a "Gen Z want to be influencers". It's everything you said - lack of control of one's future which is exacerbated by those online comparisons. For example say we didn't have a COL crisis or housing crisis, I think there's still be a lot of anxiety and depression.

We have people online rating attractiveness for example. How are you going to put on your best for a job interview (or life in general) if you have been called fat 15 times this morning before breakfast?

I work with a 20 year old and she said very plainly that even in school people struggle to be themselves because there's someone with a camera phone ready to Snapchat them. So the anxiety of constantly being watched and judged is a huge deal. I'd probably feel the same in this generation.

Then why mention it? I am so sick of autism and ADHD being lumped in with 'mental health' and like all we need is a bit of healthy routine and the self discipline to pull ourselves together like everyone else just has to. Or like its self inflicted and we a just a bit too stupid to figure out by ourselves out that behaving normally gets normal results. (And yes, that is EXACTLY how people make you feel. Not in big ways. But in small ones. For decades). No one does that with diabetes or spinal cord injury, both of which CAN be a result of poor choices. As can mental health problems.

Not that is what people with mental health issues need either. But my point is this is viewing mental health as a transient and temporary flaw - primarily people who have experienced being mentally healthy for most their lives, and expect to be mentally healthy again - its within their innate capacity to be mentally healthy. Autism and ADHD are not the same - they are ALWAYS permanent. It's part of the diagnosis. They can only be hidden by enormous effort on the part of the person with them, or accommodated, supported and managed with a lot less effort by someone without the ability. I know NT's hate that because it looks like unfair 'perks' that they would enjoy, too. But the difference is an NT person has the capacity to manage them without a significant impact on their lives. And ND person BY DEFINITION doesn't. Never has. Can never expect to. The impact recedes when people accept and support it. So actually, to reduce this 'explosion' NEUROTYPICAL PEOPLE need to be more accepting and supporting. This....isn't what that looks like!

It's very, very hard not to come to the conclusion that NT's don't want to share any of their NT privilege, but also allow us none of our own, either. All my life I've been scrambled to more with less so that people with more aren't less inconvenienced by me, and told that I could do better and should try harder. It sucks, frankly and I'm bloody fed of up of it just now. It feels like I'm always different enough to be excluded and firmly blamed for it by NT peeps, but not enough to deserve any real help or 'unfair' advantages.

I do not get any benefits. If I did I would use them to pay for the executive function I lack, like a few hours a month admin support or a cleaner for half the hours I need to so that I can clean with them and stay on track. I know that sounds nice. I pay for those things anyway when I can which means I have less money that if I was not disabled. Who wants to swap me?

(I was interrupted and would like to add that I'm aware mental health problems are not necessarily a result of poor choices, or always transient. Just that they CAN be. But ADHD and Autism are NOT AND CANNOT BE)

Combination of things - but for the young in particular:

• 1) A severe lack of mental health services and support - which is desperately needed, but wouldn't be to the same extent if it wasn't for:

• 2) Mobile phones / social media

• 3) Lack of youth services and 'activities'

• 4) A Terrible education system with a curriculum that does nothing for those who aren't traditionally academic and puts far too much pressure on those that are which leads to....

• 5) Schools with too much focus on box ticking and ridiculous rules which give children no real room to figure out who they are and develop a sense of independent self. This goes alongside.....

• 6) Lack of respect for young people from some school staff and adults generally with an automatic expectation of respect back in return so kids can't effectively learn that respect is earnt not given.

• 7) The increasing lack of and unaffordability of university / housing / driving / travelling / entertainment opportunity exacerbated by Brexit
• This means that 6) is particularly insidious when it comes from adults who sneeringly go on about young people being 'snowflakes' while benefitting from their free / cheap university education and sitting in houses many young people can never hope to be able to afford and who are responsible for 'pulling up the ladder' behind them.

More generally there is:

• 8) Deteriorating public services
• 9) Increasing intolerance in society generally.
• 10) Increasing gap between rich and poor
• 11) Increasing child poverty
• 12) Scary geopolitical developments

Three quarters of people assessed get awarded LCWRA. I doubt you'll have a problem. try not to worry.

This.

I have physical disabilities, but also anxiety and CPTSD.

Do I fall into the category of claiming due to mental health conditions? Well yes, but also I have a shit load of neurological problems and mobility disorders.

I also work BTW.

Prioritise investment in health services and force employers to employ disabled people with the adjustments they need to be able to work successfully.

This is not credible. In the slightest.

I struggle with anxiety, depression amd ADHD with a liberal dose of the bedfellow menopause. Work gives me structure and purpose and I try amd take responsibility for managing these issues as best I can. I do not claim benefits for it.

How are disabled people supposed to get off benefits if employers won't employ them and enable them to work?

Would you be even eligible ?
Again it goes off need not diagnosis.

Would you like a medal? A cookie? A pat on the head?

Many of us can't work because we know the adjustments we need are unreasonable. I mean would you really employ someone who keeps calling in sick because they've got another migraine or because at 4am they had a vertigo attack and are now absolutely shattered?

That sounds great and empathetic but in practice what spending are you going to deprioritise in order to prioritise healthcare spending.

How exactly are you going to force employers to employ disabled people? Quotas? Do you hire less qualified people simply because they are disabled?

And a complete lack of resilience and ability to take personal responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Healing from mental and physical health problems that are curable and/or manageable is hard work and people just don’t want to do it. They would rather be a perpetual victim and wallow in their victimhood than take some personal responsibility to put the work in. They expect a magic pill or therapy to fix them without having to do anything to help themselves. This victim mentality has infiltrated society so much that it is endemic now.

No-one claims for anxiety or ADHD, they claim because of how it affects them.

Someone with severe ADHD may not be able to cook safely unless they are supervised, someone with severe anxiety may not be able to cope with meeting or talking to people they don't know.

In each of those cases, if the PIP assessor agreed that that was the case, they would get 4 points for the cooking and "engaging with others" activities and be entitled to the standard rate of the daily living component.

ADHD and anxiety are both conditions that, if severe, can be really disabling.

I have a friend who I am convinced has undiagnosed ADHD. She literally forgets where she is going and why. It's often hard to be with her, because she's sometimes so unable to focus it's impossible to have a proper conversation. She goes to make a cuppa, forgets what she went to the kitchen for and ends up doing something completely different. She's always setting off the smoke alarm in her kitchen, because she gets distracted and leaves things on the hob. She once left her car in town for two days, because she'd forgotten she'd driven in (she normally walks). Can you imagine what a nightmare she'd be in most work settings?

I've also worked with clients whose anxiety is so severe that they can barely get out of the house without having a full-on meltdown.

Investing in health will allow less welfare spending. Also, I resent being told that I and other benefits claimants are the problem to the public purse when military spending increases all the time for the sake of worldwide willy waving contests.

Yeah, quotas. Why not? What do you suggest people who have their benefits cut do?

He’s 20 and I will be doing the interview because I’m his legal appointee. He would work if he could. He’s severely autistic.

What made you assume the idiocy comment was about you?

So what's the alternative? We cut their benefits until they starve?

You forgot terrible parenting and a refusal of parents to acknowledge they haven’t taught their children any kind of skills associated with resilience, accountability or responsibility in the real world.

How do you think pensioners will survive? I don't think anyone will employ me when i am old and i personally can't afford to put anything into private pension as i have to pay taxes to fund benefits for people with anxiety etc