AIBU to wonder if some pursue diagnoses hoping for benefits?

[WittyFawn]

To feel like a lot of parents are seeking diagnosis of mental health ie; ADHD, bipolar etc for their children or even themselves with the hope of getting benefits for it? Am a mother and grandmother and just an observation from reading and hearing things. Just interested to know what other people think?

You don't need a diagnosis to make a claim for DLA. It is on care needs. Not diagnosis.

You don’t need a diagnosis for DLA or PIP

Yes this is definitely true in the area where I am teaching.

I suppose some people do but I’m not prepared to give much thought to it. I’d rather go to work and live my fairly nice life than fret about what cheaters are up to.

Wtf?

I have never heard of a parent pursuing a diagnosis of bipolar disease for their child. And ADHD diagnoses are definitely not given out like Smarties. Parents who fight for their children to be assessed are usually at their wits end, long before any diagnosis is arrived at.

Do you really think people are faking bipolar in children for benefits? Do you have any idea what it's actually like?

I dont this is generally true.
I work in an adult autism diagnostic service, a very small number of people mention benefits and they are usually people who are really struggling so I think its fair enough.
DD has AuDHD, we get no benefits for her, never tried but I dont think she would come anywhere near the threshold tbh.
Also from my understanding of the benefits system it is not as easy as saying 'Im autistic' and they give you benefits, you need to prove there is a significant day to day impact.

I feel, if this is based on today's news, in particular The Times headline relating to it, it's done a great injustice to the content of the actual report.

Which if you actually read doesn't say or suggest this, or more says that there are a lot of issues, though actually ADHD and autism are not significantly higher than the projected figures should be, and more that that intend to fully explore the reasoning behind it.

ADHD isn’t a mental health diagnosis. Yet another ignorant post.

ODFOD. DLA is based on care needs, not diagnosis. As is pip (16 and over). Plus I think the DLA form is 43 pages so I doubt anyone is doing it for fun. Oh, and a diagnosis is years to wait.

Bipolar in a kid? You are making stuff up now. No one wants a kid that mentally ill.
Goady thread is goady.

Oh and children aren’t diagnosed with bipolar disorder except very rarely.

While MOST claimants are legit and deserve every penny, yes there are people out there who purposely go out for diagnoses for money. It’s true but it’s rare.

But nobody diagnoses a kid with bipolar.

This is a deliberately goady thread written in a style very similar to other goady threads. OP will either never come back or will come back with AI word soup.

Unlikely, on a time+ stress Vs monetary benefit basis. Be better off taking in ironing.

OP name rhymes with shitty pawn. Yep, checks out.

Yep, pretty much all of the later diagnosed adults I know were already on PIP before they were assessed etc. They didn't suddenly become disabled when they got their diagnosis. They had been struggling for years, even decades before.

🙄

It think it’s disingenuous to pretend it doesn’t happen. Several national forums and some of the very large Reddit subs both supporting those who are neurodivergent and with mental health problems, and supporting with UC and DLA/PIP claims, have explicitly banned “claims farming” posts, because they openly acknowledge there were a significant number of posters who were coaching and being coached in exactly what they needed to say, regardless of whether it was actually true, in order to be successful in obtaining a diagnosis and in qualifying for benefits.

There are no benefits, no one wants a child to be different from their peers. Benefit fraud is less than 3% and that accounts for all applicants so the proportion of faux diagnosis would be a miniscule amount.
A study by Cambridge confirmed ADHD is NOT being over diagnosed.
Getting a diagnosis saves the NHS £13,000 per year per patient because of the crippling it effects it has on mental health left undiagnosed.
The media has an agenda and it's 2 fold -
Wes Streeting wants to cut down on the ability to claim benefits for mental health, going after ADHD is his low hanging fruit despite the fact it will actually make things worse.
Secondly, in capitalism disabilities and people with them are fruitless and therefore are rejected.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/no-evidence-adhd-is-being-over-diagnosed-say-experts

Same

Getting a diagnosis for themselves as adults would not make them eligible for benefits. You need to demonstrate a high level of impairment to claim PIP. Children, possibly. Child DLA is also assessed on need, not diagnosis but the threshold for child DLA seems to be lower than for adult PIP in that many children who are eligible for DLA don’t reach the threshold for PIP. I don’t doubt it happens as there will always be people who try to play the system but I don’t believe “lots of parents” do this.

Rubbish. Diagnosis gets you zilch.

My daughter has 7 diagnoses and is currently going through her review, she has to prove how her diagnoses impact her and are still impacting her- with evidence. It’s not the diagnoses that get you help but how you are impacted. You could get benefits with no diagnoses and none with diagnoses if you’re not that impacted. The form is a ballache, lengthy and the amount of evidence you need to provide is big.

My son has 4 serious diagnose, struggles massively and is hugely vulnerable he was turned down .He hasn’t got the strength to appeal.

My understanding is that a adhd diagnosis enables parents to apply for carers allowance.
For adults, it enables application for PIP.
This information has been provided to me by persons in this group with real life experience