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?

Great. I’m a tax payer and have never been on benefits unfortunately my daughter needs benefits because her autism impacts her in ways that mean she needs a lot of support.

My child also struggled with clothes that they just couldn’t cope with, airbrushing was particularly distressing and was self harming. Claiming DLA wasn’t going to change any of the though so why do it?

I do wonder why so many kids get diagnosed with anxiety and not depression-you never hear a parent say their kid is depressed. Is it about stigma or is anxiety just far more common? I'm pretty sure I was depressed as a kid but never suffered with anxiety (until recently) I wonder if it has anything to do with anxiety getting you all sorts of accommodations that aren't really there with depression.

Yep my daughter’s diagnoses were all
missed by school.Her send were too. She has an EHCP now, the ignorance was astounding.

Reasonably easy to get a diagnosis if you go private.

Professionals don’t tend to use depression. My dc’s were classed as low mood. Now it’s anxiety depressive disorder 🙄

Not if you haven’t got it or don’t have a spare £3k lying about.ADHD is under diagnosed in this country.

As the independent research done by NHS England ADHD taskforce confirmed.

OP never came back.

@Tul1pFever ah I see that's interesting thanks.

DLA and PIP are not about changing things. They are about a having a level playing field.
A child with SEN might wreck clothing through chewing, wreck iPads, destroy items when they have a meltdown. Replacing those items would be a cost that (for lack of a better word) "normal" kids don't subject their parents to. DLA and PIP are for the extra costs associated with disabilities.

Yeah funny that. Do you think we should report

Also don't assume that ADHD = benefits

I previously claimed PIP due to my mental health difficulties presumed to be because of my previous (mis) diagnosis of bipolar. The issues I struggle with are the exact same and I still struggle to the exact same degree but when my diagnosis changed from bipolar to ADHD they revoked my pip entirely 🤷🏻‍♀️ and I lost it all.

But are the ones being asked to fill in the forms which inform the diagnosis.

Some are, some don’t even know what masking looks like hence so many girls going undiagnosed. I’ve been quite horrified at the ignorance shown by staff I’ve worked with over the years.

Arg, sorry to hear that. I have a friend who had his schizophrenia label changed to autism, and they removed his PIP too. He has it back now... after a huge battle.

Who else is filling out the forms and questionnaires?

As expected no sign of OP
Most adults I’ve come across who are trying to get a diagnosis for autism, ADHD etc are either doing so to try and see if medication helps, struggling at work and want to apply for adjustments or access to work or just to try and understand the way they are - I can’t comment for children but assume it is similar although rather than work it is to navigate help at school or college
I’m 60+ and trying to get a diagnosis for my multiple health conditions - some of which started 40 years ago - there isn’t a cure - I already get PIP, and a diagnosis won’t change anything other than that I will feel listened to and validated after years of being fobbed off not just by the medical profession but friends and family
I will join Spike Milligan with a headstone that says ‘I told you I was ill’

Yep very true in adult diagnosis online communities. The minute a diagnosis comes through some are asking how to best apply for benefits to leave work, even though they are currently in work. I get it, work sucks for most of us and even more so for ND people, so I see it as a failure of businesses not the welfare state. The answer is better workplaces and more flexible ways of working, rather than ND living on the bare minimum because work life is disabling.

Depends.
Sometimes it’s the SENCo, sometimes class teacher, I’ve even known TAs do it for class teachers.

That’s just for screening.

DS masks in school, how much his teachers see varies considerably, from his original primary school where his behaviour had become disruptive to other pupils but they'd had no concerns before that, to the school he moved to where he was incredibly well behaved and charming - what they didn't see was his behaviour after he'd been picked up when he was unable to speak and would run off flapping and grunting. No teacher ever saw a full on melt down either, though I did show them some of the bruises I had as a result.

I don't think DS was overly bothered by the assessment - from his point of view this was another person to talk about his current special interest with and that's what he did. He wasn't dysregulated afterwards. It was nothing like, say, a trip to the dentist, which he does find difficult.

I don't think parents set out with this intention initially. But then once they realise what a gravy train it is many see milking it.

Friend of mine pushed to get an autism diagnosis for her eldest DC from a very young age. Admittedly, there were some behavioural indicators for autism. But now he's got that badge for life. But by the time he reached teenage years he'd blossomed into a very neuro typical teenager, full of self confidence and social awareness. If he's autistic, then half the population must be too.

His mum has continued to claim DLA for him (a benefit that's supposed to assist with additional care or mobility needs over an NT child), even though there aren't any extra needs, never were. He's now 15 and thoroughly independent for his age, no extra expenses. But DLA assesment is simply have a diagnosis and fill in a form. The claimant is supposed to notify if there's a change in circumstances that affect the DLA eligibility, but no one ever does. And once you're receiving DLA, it then entitled you to extra UC benefits as well. And on top of that, friend has used ds's diagnosis to get priority on a larger council house, on the grounds that her DC can't share a room because of his Nd. So the 3 of them are now living in a new build house designed to accommodate 6 people. Meanwhile, I know of families of 8 (6 dc) overcrowded in a small 3 bed house, but because of the housing shortage and lack of a diagnosis they never become a high enough priority for a bigger house.

Now her eldest DC is approaching the age where DLA ceases (and then the child has to claim disability benefits in his own name, which he almost certainly won't meet the threshold for being eligible), she's pushing hard to get a Nd diagnosis for her younger DC in order to keep the gravy train going.

On paper, her family probably meets the definition of living in poverty, but in reality she can afford luxuries many of us can't - a camper van, several rounds of cosmetic surgery, luxury foreign holidays, and rainy day savings stashed in cash to hide from the benefits office.

A few weeks back I was talking to this friend and we got on to the subject of how my two DC are having to cope with sharing a smallish bedroom (half the size of what each of her DC have to themselves) and she retorted that I need to 'get a bigger house'. Which would be lovely, but I've stretched myself financially to be able to afford the mortgage on the house we have, up sizing is not a possibility. I had to bite my tongue not to come back with a snide remark about her playing the system to get her spacious house at the taxpayers expense, it's not so easy for those of us that have to pay our way legitimately and without state assistance.

ADHD isn't a mental health condition.

The criteria for PIP, DLA and work capability assessments are based on the effects of your conditions, not the diagnosis itself. It's possible to get any of these benefits without a diagnosis. I'm not saying no-one seeks a diagnosis to support a benefit claim, but the real work is in showing you meet the criteria, which many with diagnosed disabilities don't.

Absolutely. Teacher here .

The amount of teachers on here who think they are more qualified in this area than those who actually qualified to diagnose.

my daughter was 5 when a SLT first highlighted the need for an assessment. Her school disagreed and I didn’t have any real opinion at the time.
I was sent a questionnaire and so was school - they didn’t match and we saw a community paed who said she didn’t meet the need for an ADOS assement based on the school questionnaire.

I never pushed as I didn’t have much of an opinion or experience in autism. Moved schools for different reasons a few years later.
was in the school 6 months when the Senco rang me to say they think DD needed an autism assement.

we both filled in questionnaires and she was given an ADOS assessment by a specialist SLT and then an appointment with a community paediatrician.

they said implied it was a straight forward diagnosis as it was obvious via the ADOS.

she was 10 when she officially was diagnosed from first being highlighted at 5.

it’s not an easy process at all.