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

It isnt.
My DHs family were Windrush and they worked their butts off as does my husband. It was a badge of honour as I'm sure it was for your mum @PotsPies
Were in our sixties, still working still contributing. I get pip for severe RA plus other disease. I go back to work next week after nearly dying last year. Our DD is disabled but claims nothing. She's a med student who supports herself Vocational in a much needed specialism.
I will continue to claim my pip as it gives me access to my rail card and help onto the train to commute. If i give up I get no help. The tax payer will get my 45% tax as always.
Edited to say this was for @askmenow not pots but i can't change it

Yes you dont get sacked if you miss going to the pub one day.
Too many people thinking that disabled should just stay at home. If they are seen out then they are clearly conning the system.

Its not that simple to determine, it depends on diagnosis, evidence, and what level of support they get. A complex sentence for pip isnt what we would necessarily consider complex, and proving support for it is incredibly high. If they have an EHCP that indicates they need support across their basic needs and in lessons, its easier to justify. But, if they can read well enough to sit an exam, even if that exam is with reasonable adjustments, its highly unlikely they will score for reading. We dont even consider the ability to retain what they have read, that is considered elsewhere.

I didn't mean people like yourself. I don't even think you need to justify yourself because this thread is not about your situation. You need it and you are rightfully entitled to it.

I was going to say this earlier. I was only referred to a psychologist after a breakdown - and I had a ptsd diagnosis prior

Of course.
The wallowing in cotton wool must have a lot to do with that.

What, precisely, do you imagine therapy will do for autism?

Yes they presumably just send in the copies of letters that we already write for clinical purposes. They can do as they please with their own records I won’t write a specific ‘benefits’ letter because I don’t have the time and I don’t know the criteria so it would be a waste of time all round.

You can usually tell if someone with a huge track record of DNA appts and not wanting to be seen suddenly develops a great desire for an appointment that it must be PIP renewal form time. I try to use this rare motivation for clinical good.

I am also amused by the cognitive dissonance involved in claiming a disability benefit for schizophrenia whilst at one and the same time maintaining that you do not have schizophrenia and do not need any medication for it. I don’t begrudge it I just have a small smile of wry amusement that DWP can convince someone of something I have spent years trying to convince them of!

There are corporations taxes, business rates, vat and property taxes too. Non workers still pay vat and fuel duties or inheritance tax. In fact lots of pensioners pay income tax still.

Not that i dont think we need more workers.

Many people who work, have underlying disabilities and crippling health conditions also.

Apologies. Tax revenue in 2019 was £636.7 billion. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fa413948fa8f57896ad02a1/HMRC_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2019_to_2020__Web_.pdf

Welfare spending was £228.7 billion. https://www.statista.com/statistics/315182/total-welfare-benefits-united-kingdom-uk-government-spending-forecast/#:~:text=Government%20expenditure%20on%20welfare%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom%20from%202013,2013/14%20to%202024/25

That's a percentage of 35.91%.

Forecasted this year £334 billion on welfare, and tax receipts £1232 billion.

That's a percentage of 27.1%.

Whichever way you cut it, we're spending less on benefits now, in real terms, than before the pandemic.

But let's not let facts get in the way of the rhetoric.

It’s going to be one of those definition clashes again. If this poster is a consultant psych then mild for her is going to be a lot worse than what the general public thinks of as mild. Obviously no one anywhere is getting seen in secondary care for a mild illness. We actually cut moderate out of our referral criteria a few years ago due to lack of any staff and chronic overwhelm so now we only see severe and enduring mental illness of which there is quite enough to be going on with.

Oh naff off back to the Daily Mail.

You lot really do just take all this nasty stuff as gospel, don’t you?
Here’s a hint. Look up, not down.

Hope that helps 👍🏻

If it affecting their lives that much then they can claim PIP. Being in work wont stop them.

This was my first thought
I used to be a mental health nurse, Psychiatrists ime have large case loads they dont have time to be seeing people with mild anxiety.

I think I've been out socially five times in the past three years. Mostly with my family and once with a friend. I hate to disappoint you - but someone going to the pub would only be an issue if they had told the dwp they needed 24 hour care and couldn't leave the house. Going to the pub doesn't make someone a scammer. Going to a restaurant doesn't make someone a scammer - disabled people are entitled to a life too. Leaving the house doesn't make someone a fraudster

The people who are scamming are people who say they can't walk and then go running marathons

The economic incentives are effectively backwards

If they improve they would lose their PIP benefit. So naturally, there is very little impetus to be proactive and find your own solutions.

NHS not available? Perfect. Blame them for not being able to work even though you can find private solutions.

Available jobs require too much effort? Great. Can blame the MH problems for not being able to cope.

These are textbook cases of learned helplessness being driven by incentives. And this causes immense economic damage.

My employer only gives 10 days sick pay. That's it. If you have anything other than the flu you're fucked, you're rolled onto SSP which does not cover living costs or even food bills in my experience - only just over £100 a week is the flat rate (employers only have to pay the lower rate), the weekly rate is only just slightly higher than one day on national minimum wage. I mean really anyone who wanted to keep a roof over their head would HAVE to claim benefits as SSP just doesn't even touch the edges.

So you have people working when they're in fact very ill and increasing the risk of being seriously disabled. It also doesn't disincentivise companies working people until they're made ill as the SSP contribution is peanuts.

Complex written information is deemed to be 2 sentences.

How is this relevant to a discussion of PIP? Once more, with feeling, PIP is not an out of work benefit. I am severely physically disabled and I work full time, the PIP I receive helps keep me in employment. This is the third time I have had to repeat this simple fact on this thread alone. Sadly, since some of the posters who frequent these tedious disabled benefits bashing threads appear to have either poor reading comprehension or bad short term memory, I feel like it won't be the last time I need to say this!

You seem to be forgetting the one thing I made very clear.

Debt service costs are £120bn/year. This was not the case pre-pandemic.

You cannot spend so much on welfare when you have to pay your creditors that amount of money every year.

There is no magic money tree anymore in the UK

I am an advisor and have a number of clients who have been in the Uk for a few years ( maybe5/6 years). They came here to work in low paid jobs ( care, restaurant work). One of them must have been almost 60 when they came here as they are now turning state pension age. They have all become too ill to work and claiming everything - UC ( including rent), LCWRA, PIP, council tax support. one has been given council housing. One is getting carers paid for three visits a day. Whilst I sympathize with their health woes, because all their conditions are serious so compassion is needed I do wonder,. , how on earth are people in their fifties and sixties being given work visas in the first place ?I guess they must have got indefinite leave to remain. With one of them his wife is now also too unwell to work so both on PIP highest rates totalling £1500 a month before you even consider the UC. These benefits will likely just continue into pension age/ for the rest of their lives and they'll get pension credit etc as won't have enough NI contributions to have a state pension. The situation is just absurd. i would never have believed it until I started working in this area of work. I used to think when people said immigrants get benefits/ housing etc they were making things up.

The cost of the out of control Welfare budget (as well as paying more taxes come April to pay for these people) is giving me anxiety & depression!

Maybe I'll get myself signed off and get myself a PIP.

I've got KFC and feel sick! Their chicken tastes like cardboard. Tomorrow I have to go shopping and that always brings out my IKEA.

I think even if you changed your username to NoEyeBallPIPClaimantThatWorks people would still ignore it.

The issue with the headline is the data is misleading.

People claim for multiple conditions usually, but, the one that is affecting most areas, is the one that is listed as primary. Say someone has rheumatoid arthritis, and require aids for activities, they have lost grip in their hands, they cannot open jars or hold a standard knife and fork, remove medications from blister packs, they need rails for the bath or shower, a raised toilet seat and aids to walk safely as their knees are so badly affected, they are under rhuematology but DMMs arent helping enough to allow them to be pain free and independent. But because of their condition and how it affects them phsyically, they are also depressed, on anti depressants, receiving CBT, have sucidal thoughts due to their phsyical conditions, the prompting and supervision score higher than the aids, and the primary condition is logged on the system as depression, even though the depression is a direct result of their phsyical health.

Its misleading, it doesnt give you the full picture. And the media is cherry picking data to make it look like people who are awarded are just claiming for something where they shouldnt recieve it becuase its "just" anxiety and depression. Its not the case.