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

Have you reported him?

We’ll see what happens in Australia

I agree. It’s a huge problem. Clearly having negative effects and should be banned for children.

The genie is out of the bottle, and now Society will have to deal with the consequences. I think it is all just going to get much worse, with the obvious extension, and ongoing development of AI.

I don't think she meant autism she brought it up. Therapy as many people knows is for anxiety and mental health. Did you mean anxiety? I agree no amount of therapy will ever change how you feel if you can't make those changes yourself.

Not really on this thread to be questioned by you tbh.

They tend to name them chronologically.

But for example, if you're undiagnosed autistic or ADHD then you probably will present with anxiety, so you go to your doctor's and say hey I'm not coping, I don't understand why, I'm having several panic attacks a day, I am struggling to leave the house or do any work while I'm at work, and they say you have anxiety, possibly agoraphobia, here take these SSRIs and come back if they're not working.

So you take them, they don't work because the anxiety is distinct anxiety. You aren't anxious about things that aren't likely to happen, you're anxious about things that have happened to you, and continue happening to you.

You go back, they say here try these other medications and come back to us.

You do, you feel numb, but you're still not functioning, you struggle with executive dysfunction, you cant start tasks, finish tasks, keep track of time, you feel like you've gone from one extreme to another.

You go back. Oh it's depression, or if you're a woman, it's bipolar.

You start to question your life and do some self educating and come to the realisation you've always been like this. You think if this is ADHD, I could be medicated, and that could fix me, so you go you get your ADHD assessment, you get your medication, and it helps but it doesn't fix you. It helps you sustain attention, but you don't get to choose what it is your attention is sustained on. You realise you are still emotionally dysregulated and have communication struggles and you aren't coping with changes and you've had persisted deficits all of your life.

You go, you get an autism assessment and then you are diagnosed with autism.

Obviously I'm not saying this is the pipeline for everybody but it is for a lot of people very similar to this, and so it can look like you're collecting the alphabet, but no, it's recorded chronologically.

You find it surprising that 83% of people on a benefit that is designed for people the most affected by disabilities can't work?

I mean, make your mind up FGS. You want PIP to be more difficult for people to get so only the most disabled qualify but you want them to be working?

Make it make sense.

Of course something isn't right, here. You're using the daily mail as a source of information.

My DGC gets DLA due to the level of SEN. As a family we would much rather they got an adequately supported education, enabling them to be literate and a productive worker as an adult. Rather than chucking money at a family who don't know what to do for the child.

You made a statement which I have challenged.

Don't make such statements if you cannot back them up with evidence.

Wait ... Is therapy free? Will fixing the woeful NHS mental health support be free???

Wionder why this hasn't been done before.

You've solved it Op.

Round of applause.

/s

I suppose I’m an oldie too at 58. I lived through the Troubles in Belfast. I have terrible anxiety as a result. I very likely am predisposed to anxiety due to my genetics. I was put on Valium at 10 years old. I suffered with severe OCD. I’m sure for every one of me, there are dozens, probably hundreds, who are fine. But people like me have always existed, it’s just that nobody talked about it. We were expected to just get on with it. Until we didn’t.

They don’t have to be prescribed. Needing reminders on your phone is considered an aid.

We're not units of productivity for the state or the economy. We are human beings, and we're doing our best here.

The ignorance on this thread is deafening.

Well if he thinks he has just been sacked for just a bit of "banter" then maybe he should go to an employment tribunal. See how far he gets. As already mentioned sacking someone for gross misconduct especially someone there for 27 years is a process that isn't easy. Why haven't women felt able to voice their concerns before now. Maybe new management in place who take these things seriously. It also sends out a clear message to all staff that such behaviour will be taken seriously when they receive any complaints.

Depression isn't "being depressed". Anxiety isn't "being anxious". I have both and ptsd. I wouldn't wish having ptsd on anyone

I agree. MH services are awful.

I was referred to the perinatal mental health team when DD2 was under a week old. I was actively suicidal. They put me on a waiting list for therapy but told me that it was quite likely that DD2 would turn 1 before I got to the top of the list, at which point I’d be removed from the perinatal team anyway.

At other times I’ve done NHS talking therapy on several occasions, which was always just photocopied standard worksheets to fill out. If you say they don’t apply to you, well tough, that’s how it’s done so “fill it in best you can”. Absolutely no customisation for individual issues, just cookie cutter sheets (I suspect this is due to the training level of the people doing the “therapy”, and their inability to work with individual issues. One of mine had a job title something along the lines of “wellness advisor”.)

It will end when

• managers learn how to manage
• working adults understand the term reasonable adjustment and it's implications
• employers pay employees a decent wage
• universal basic income is introduced
• when everyone can get an appointment with their GP
• access to MH services is widened so people can get help before they reach crisis
• government undertake long term planning and invest accordingly

Would you be okay explaining to others what it's genuinely like in your head?

You curiously forget the other side of the equation.

Productive taxpayers are forced to work longer and harder to subsidise you.

So yes, it does matter.

I've been working as an advisor for some years. I'm so glad my job is ending. It's just person after person ( late 50's/ early 60's ) who can't find jobs and want PIP on the basis of anxiety and depression because basic UC or ESA isn't enough to live off and they keep pushing pension age back and back. It really isn't a solution to just dish out benefits to these people but then there seems to be so little help to get them back to employment either and who wants to employ someone in their late fifties who has barely worked for years. I've no idea what the answer is just so glad to be leaving this area of work as it's bloody depressing. l From April they are halving the LCWRA element of UC so there will be even more thinking they'll just have a go for PIP. We need to get back to making PIP and childrens disability benefits for the most severely disabled only. the current system is completely unsustainable.

Here we go, another benefit bashing thread...

Daft and tedious...

PIP is an extremely difficult benefit to apply for and to be awarded. The DWP own stats show that fraud is close to zero.

We have an ageing population so it is normal that more people will develop long term health conditions/disabilities in their lifetime.

No matter how successive governments chose to ignore it Covid and lockdowns have also affected the physical and mental health of the nation.

Mental health services have been starved of funding. In my area there is a five years waiting list for autism assessments...

As for employers do you really think that they want to employ and retain people who have to declared long term health issues on their job application?

But I guess it is easier to scream about "explosion" rather than looking at facts.

Fully agree OP, but you’re not allowed to express an opinion about benefits on this forum.

As an autistic person who has been medicated for depression for 25 years, has an autoimmune disease, a diagnosed chronic back complaint involving herniated discs, and narcolepsy, yet still manages to work because I was raised to believe there was no choice and that you had to just get on with it, I can’t even think about the amount of money that goes on PIP without getting annoyed.

Pip isn't actually easy to get. If you look at the descriptors that's plain to see. Face to face assessments stopped after covid