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

But neither is people sitting at home on benefits a cure. I have both autism, OCD and anxiety and I work full time.
And believe me there are plenty of days where I'd rather stay home but I know that isn't good for me.
People have a responsibility to themselves to sort their own lives out. Money certainly doesn't fix these problems nor does sitting at home doing nothing and I'd pay all the money in the world not to have OCD.

Ultimately the benefits explosion can only ever end due to a Government financial collapse.

There are more people in receipt of such benefits than there are net contributing taxpayers payers that are funding them.

Therefore those in receipt of benefits will always vote for political parties that promise to either increase them or at least not cut them. Any political candidate seeking reform or cuts in benefits will never be elected.

The ongoing problem with this is that taxation discourages behaviour (for example tax on cigarettes or alcohol or even speeding fines) whereas subsidies or benefits encourage behaviour (heat pump subsidies or PIPs).

So it's no surprise that there is an increase in very high earners leaving the country or as we saw with Doctors reducing their hours because of taxation on pension contributions or people cutting their hours once they get to the 100k mark.

On the other side there is an increase in the number of people on benefits- for example if you are 21 have been applying for jobs for over a year then yes life is shit and yes you will be depressed so you can either keep going or get signed off with depression/ mental health.

All these edge cases of someone "oh they are faking it. They claim PIP but can do X Y Z"... I almost guarantee that you don't know the whole story.

In Scotland benefits for anxiety has doubled in the space of a year 😱wtaf is going on?

Nobody is getting disability benefits for feeling a bit sad or abit anxious.

I had to prove my diagnoses to prove my needs. That was made clear during the PIP process.

Do you think the government data is incorrect?

Again it goes off need not diagnosis you may well be able to go out work with your diagnosis, others wont.

What nonsense, all of those things that you have mentioned, can be very debilitating. Why do some people spout such rot?

My local area have stopped taking said referrals since 2023. So without help and guidance what would someone suffering do? Their mental health will get worse but they have stopped seeng anyone

I think the DWP misrepresents data frequently, yes. There are recorded examples of this that have been subject to questioning by the relevant Select Committee.

I have diagnosed ADHD, OCD and GAD. It is debilitating, as a combination.

I do work, but only three days a week, I can't really manage more.

I'm wondering whether to look into claiming having read this. I do genuinely struggle with a lot of things other people seem to be able to do easily.

There is have you ever read a PIP form ?

They do a lot of assessments via telephone now without physically seeing a person. While I do not doubt a lot are genuine and deserve the help, I do feel a lot of people play on it

Maybe read the previous quotes to see that I was saying the exact same thing as you.

We need a reform of society. Reform the inflexibility of the system, and the benefits cliff edge that makes it difficult for so many people to take up part time work. Reform child care. Reform the forty hour work week that is causing so much burnout. Reform housing, so people aren't pouring half their income into rent with no return. Improve social mobility - stop demanding unnecessary credentials for entry level positions. No-one needs a degree to answer the phone and reply to emails.

It's really very simple. If the advantages of work outweigh the negatives, people will work. If the system is so broken people can't afford to participate, they won't. People will endure the stigma of being unemployed if it gets them help with rent and keeps a roof over their head. They will stay home with the kids and make cutbacks to their lifestyle, if the cost of childcare makes working impossible. They will accept the shame of unemployment and struggle to survive on a low income, if they're too burned out or chronically ill to function, and they've hit a wall.

There are some people who have no interest in work and would rather live off "the system". There always have been. But the explosion in benefits claimants we're seeing speaks to major problems with society. Structural problems. We can't keep ignoring them.

They are still migrating people away from DLA and onto PIP. So unless the data has been adjusted to account for this (often it is not), then it's not an accurate representation of what's happening.
Also, this is unadjusted for inflation.
You can make data tell any story if you cut it right, and are selective with your assumptions.

SD16 has been claiming DLA for the last few years and has put in a claim for PIP and I'm wondering how easy it actually is.

SD is perfectly capable in all areas. She's excelling at school, she has many hobbies which she is very engaged in and has Grades and Awards in, she's fit, healthy and independent. She's an excellent baker and is always making some complicated new recipe with caramel or melted chocolate or both. She travels across the country by train often. She volunteers with children, and is applying for part-time jobs alongside her studies.

However, she's quite averse to washing and has to be reminded to shower, occasionally gets engrossed in an activity and doesn't eat for a while, and uses a timer on the Echo Dot to remind her when to get things out of the oven or start cooking things to be ready at the right time. She has a phone alarm to remind her to take her meds. She wants to wear baggy joggers and a hoodie everywhere and never wears a coat (although she has no issue wearing uniforms for her various activities and school). She's dyslexic and if she has the option to get someone else to read and summarise something, she will. Based on this, she thinks she will score:

Needs to use an aid or appliance to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 2 points.
Needs prompting to be able to take nutrition. 4 points.
Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy that takes no more than 3.5 hours a week. 2 points.
Needs supervision or prompting to be able to wash or bathe. 2 points.
Prompting or assistance to be able to select appropriate clothing. 2 points.
Needs prompting to be able to read or understand basic written information. 4 points.

=16 points, higher rate.

I think she's a completely healthy and competent 16 yo who uses completely normal strategies, like reminders on her phone, to stay organised.

But she's adamant that she knows other people with similar needs to her and they also get higher rate.

If that's the case, I do think it's ridiculous. The DLA is spent (and PIP will be spent) on day trips, holidays and nights out. Her argument is that people with ADHD get bored more easily and so she needs to go to theme parks and concerts regularly!

FWIW I also have ADHD and wouldn't dream of trying to get money for it.

it’s cheaper to give benefits than MH support and frankly there is even LESS public will to pay for that than there is benefits.

people who don’t believe in autism and anxiety don’t want to pay for the amount NHs support required to get these people into work.

there are less than 100k vacancies currently, benefits help to mask the absolute dire jobs market. There are not enough jobs for even half of the people currently unemployed. I know a bunch of autisitic people in government work schemes that are unable to find them ANY jobs

they are not being truthful

Agree with this.

They have made the eligibility requirements so expansive that people are claiming in far greater numbers.

This is a mistake and its going to damage the country economically-speaking as money gets diverted from imvestment to welfare (consumption).

When people complain about the roads being full of potholes, and the underlying infrastructure in the UK being poor, its precisely due to these types of decisions.

You cannot have an expansive welfare state when your infrastructure is falling apart due to a lack of productive investment. You just end up much poorer that way (which is what is now happening in the UK).

This is exactly what I would expect. A diagnosis directly correlating to need.

They will still need proof,
Sometimes its paper based, they are unlikely to hsve to see my son when he transfers to PIP in a few months becsuss we have absolutely tons of evidence that hes severely autistic is non verbal etc and we hsve loads of professionals involved.

Too much screen time and social media.

Can you explain to the others what it's like in your head?

Anyone who takes their "facts" from the Daily Mail is, ipso facto, U.

YABU.