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

I think the real issue is that there are no jobs really and there are very few jobs which pay enough. Wages have stagnated for years and there is no incentive to work when you know that you are able to claim a similar amount of benefits. In addition, there is no support for people who have issues but want to work. I live in London and I know lots of kids who are on a gap years and who are willing to work but can't get anything - bar work, cafe work etc.. These are kids who are very willing to work and employable.. How much harder must it be for kids who have mental health issues and need support.

She's fortunate to be in a position where she's able to work. Choices are 99% luck.

But the point is that you presumably got treated and got better. Anxiety disorders are very treatable in the majority of cases with the right medication and therapy so I find it bizarre that so many people are getting long term sign offs for anxiety. Especially when avoidance is the very worst thing for anxiety. I just worry that people are being made worse and more disabled when they could be helped.

Die, or fuck off quietly into an institution like we used to do. Employers don't want to employ disabled people.

The Fail is full of crap to put it lightly. But the fact remains that we have a ballooning benefits bill and a shrinking tax payer base. The Fails article was not news to me or many of the other people on this thread.

The bit I care about is the maths.

Genuinely Interested to know if it has helped you live a more peaceful or satisfied life ? Or has it been no help at all ? Asking for a friend who is high functioning but suffers frustration and depression? Thanks.

No one is willing to say outright that we're a burden and it'd be easier if we just didn't exist, but that's the implication. We're asking too much if we want to be supported into work; we're asking too much if we want to be able to live while unable to work.

Surprised we've made it this far without the suggestion of dormitories/camps from that thread last week.

Its not a pity hire if you can do the job. Its precisely that kind of view that you need to avoid by designing the tax incentives that way. Working gives people a sense of purpose and accomplishment, but you also have to consider how the rest of the non-disabled people view the hiring process.

Having said that, there will always be a sub-set of disabled people who will be functionally unemployable due to their disabilities. Its this group that should receive benefits.

The job market is a shit show at the moment. my current job is ending in a few months and I hold out little hope of getting anything else . I still have ten years to go until state retirement age, I could fund myself if it were just a couple of years.

As a person with multiple conditions covered by The Equality Act (‘officially disabled’) and with a DC with profound autism I have a little skin in this game.

I don’t claim PIP. I think I could, I’m autistic and therefore have daily anxiety as a result, which often leaves me depressed and very low. I take three medications to manage the above. In my own head I am probably functional enough to be able to manage without PIP - I can do the school runs, the shopping, sort the house and laundry, read with the kids, play with the kids yadda yadda yadda. I don’t resent people with similar issues claiming PIP because how would any of us know for sure how difficult life is for somebody without living it?

What I resent more is the DWP playing cat and mouse with me over my son’s disability claim, forcing me to tribunal and refusing to acknowledge the avalanche of supporting evidence I have sent that shows he is very much entitled to a higher rate. I don’t want to have to spend thousands a year on new mattress/furnishings/fuel/therapies but I can’t make my child’s disability go away, and as they get older it gets more and more challenging.

I don’t hate the individual players, I hate the game.

You think the only options are unlimited benefits spending, or euthanasia? Do your critical thinking skills not stretch further than that?

Not necessarily - there is no logic that dictates UBI would have to be the only benefit/pension. It would be the same amount for everyone, but then some would still claim other separate benefits.

Ideally you would fix the rental housing market, so no need for UBI top-ups for housing (don't hold your breath on that one).

UBI would replace:
JSA, basic state pension, UC for living costs, and any other benefit meant to pay for normal living and bills (electricity, food, etc).
It would also replace some of the Income tax personal allowance, so those in work currently would not get it on top of earnings, it would start out as a cost-neutral adjustment to income tax.
So the only 'new' recipients would be adults currently not working and not claiming any benefits. Students and SAHP are the biggest groups.

But there is nothing to say you could not also have additional benefits for certain circumstances, e.g. real costs of disability, child benefit.
To placate the grey vote, you could also have an extra payment for old age, say after age 70 then again after age 80.

He’s already on a programme to hopefully be trained for a highly supported, very specialist part time apprenticeship and also goes to a daycare centre. We’re doing everything we possibly can to not have him hiding in his bedroom. However being severely autistic isn’t something he can just ‘recover’ from. He had brain damage at birth.

Enlighten us, then?

You don't just have to fit the criteria though, you also have to provide evidence from medical professionals and that would be every year if you said she has to renew every year. That means medical professionals must be claiming she hasn't significantly improved.

Exactly. Strangely dh, and I commented when the Dolly Parton song, "Working 9-5" came on. Dh said, "Who works 9-5 any more, it doesn't stop."

Obviously this person thinks of depression as just being a wee bit sad because it´s Spring. Not the version of my husband, reduced to a shell of what he once was, not at functional in society. Or your version. Ignorance is bliss.

Right - so you aren't on board with her getting DLA but if she gets Pip after she turns 16 that's fine because it will save you and your partner a packet when she goes to uni? Pip isn't there to pay her living expenses either - it's a maintenance loan that generally covers that or contributions from parents or a mix of both

I find that an odd take particularly as you've said quite rightly that it's supposed to help with her disabilities - it's conceivable that when she goes to uni she's going to need extra supports and adjustments

It won't necessarily be a straightforward transfer over from dla to pip either

Who's doing the helping.
My specialist NHS service don't offer occupational therapy that I so badly need because the funding has been lost.
It's been declared to me that there are no further treatment options available to me in my secondary level NHS mental health facility and I am not eligible for a CPN because I don't meet the criteria that is incredibly small due to lack of funding.
I currently pay privately for therapy that I need once a week and it is expensive.

Personally, I think corporations getting mahoosive tax cuts have had more of an impact on public services being underfunded than low/middle income individuals and their ever increasing taxes on earnings.

standard tax rate for corporations:
1979: 52%
2025: 25% (up from 19% from 2017-2022)

Wow, @Playingvideogames ,yeah euthanasia might be useful for people like me eh? That'd solve the problem. Like a PP says there IS plenty of money just being misappropriated, just down the road from me lies an abandoned building bought for ££££££by the government to pave a pathway for HS2, the owner retired on the proceedings at 52, there's many more people that profited too, only for the scheme to be abandoned, the narrative will be skewed by the right wing press to pitch people against each other,that disabled folk are a waste of space and a drain, that they're effectively stealing from you lucky lucky functional people, christ what a fucking depressing country we've become.

Luck? Fortune? Nothing to do with the hard work of the determination of the individual at all...

Why such contempt?

A reasonable system has respect and compassion for those that need it AND respect and consideration for those funding the system. A shrinking tax payer base means welfare MUST better planned and better spent.

Becuase the world has changed since 1972. Many huge companies can be based anywhere in a way they couldn’t before. The internet has changed everything.

if the Uk government put the tax rate to 52%, 99% of big business (big employers paying huge amounts of employee taxes and VaT) will simply up sticks to a country that is favourable to them. They’ll stop investing the Uk and find somewhere else.

the world is a different beast than the 1970s.

She sees her psychiatrist once every 6 months on Teams for 15 minutes and sends her blood pressure in every so often so I doubt they have a huge amount to contribute.

Like I say, 99%.

1% hard work, but no amount of hard work in the world is going to grow legs back or cure incurable disorders. That's where the 99% luck is.