PIP for Anxiety

[IntelligenceIsFree]

AIBU to clear things up?

The current nasty rhetoric around disabled people at the moment is astounding. Society needs to be reminded that we are ALL one illness or accident away from disability.

Everyone knows someone who is gaming the system, yet the PIP fraud rate is extremely low. The public demonising, does not match the reality.

The hot topic is “anxiety” and how people with “anxiety” are gaming the system, getting “free” cars and robbing tax payers; this is being constantly fed through media, news articles and so on.

This is simply not true. The people spouting this nonsense clearly have no idea how PIP works. Nobody gets PIP without strong medical evidence. Nobody.

Before anyone posts “my neighbour got PIP just by telling lies”. No, they did not. That’s not how it works.

People need to be educated properly on how benefits work, how they are awarded and what the criteria for mobility cars actually is; the cars are not in fact free.

People need to be educated on the fact that there is anxiety, which every human suffers from at some point, and then there are anxiety DISORDERS which are entirely different and can be life changing and debilitating. Hence, the need and entitlement for PIP.

Brenda down the road who feels too anxious to go to Bingo on a Friday night is NOT getting PIP ❌

Mary up the lane who has such severe OCD that she cannot leave her own home for fear that she will die, IS getting PIP .✅

There’s a huge difference.

The current turning on disabled people is shameful and we are living in a country full of hate because Bob (and his Uncle) are annoyed that they are paying tax to “support all of these scroungers”.

Bob (and his Uncle), needs to hope that they never get cancer, or suffer life changing trauma or have an unfortunate accident to avoid being served a huge scrounged humble pie.

I do not suffer from anxiety but as a human, I am pleased we have a system in society to support the most vulnerable people who need it. Life can happen to anyone.

Good luck with that conversation on MN! They will eat you alive for questioning it. ‚You don’t know what people go through in their lives” !

My dd has shed loads of hospital admissions, her father working from home, multiple intensive pieces of work from specialised mental health teams, care plans, psych notes, lists of meds…..

The list is endless and they are scrutinised to the nth degree.

A GP appointment and a log book you write yourself will get Jack shit.

I don't claim PIP because ironically my anxiety disorder stops me being able to, I can't fill out the paperwork or have an assessment because it would be too much for me to deal with.

Well let's say this i have bipolar, bpd, anxiety disorder, depression, mild brain damage and a rare progressive congenital condition which has caused me to be in multiple organ failure. I have been sectioned multiple times. I take almost 70 pills a day I've had hundreds of surgeries. I got letters from my cpn, psychiatrist, care co, multiple consultants including neurologist, cardiologist, vascular surgeon etc etc and I still got turned down initially

I'm severely disabled and PIP told me to piss off.

So if its so hard and difficult to get, why do they even need a benefit fraud team?........

The fact they have one would indicate it can be faked

So what evidence will? (That cannot be fabricated by lying)
I hope that you are correct and can prove me wrong because according to official websites all the things mentioned previously are enough evidence.

Do you have a cpn who could help

We get DLA for DS who is autistic.

We currently use it regularly to pay for counselling (CAMHS wouldn't do anything despite the fact he was constantly talking about suicide and was self harming), replacing things he damages - he chews his clothes to rags, so we are constantly buying him new clothes, we've bought him various other things to chew but he always goes back to his clothes -, some goes towards car costs.

As one offs/less regular - we've put money towards car repairs as no car means no school, for food in Costa if he's distressed/dysregulated when we're out, particularly if visiting somewhere new for the first time or after difficult experiences like visiting the dentist as it's a safe place for him, trying multiple shoes to find a kind he could tolerate (ditto socks, toothbrushes, many things.), being able to get him things like noise cancelling headphones, occasional takeaway after a bad night (example Friday last week, DS didn't go to bed until gone 1am, I was up with him from 4am to 6am then I had to go to work. By dinner even going to the chippy seemed unimaginably difficult and bearing in mind he always sleeps badly so it has to be a more difficult night than usual.)

(We get less than 5k a year in DLA, tbh the loss of income is considerably higher than that, as DH has to work around DS, so earns about 5k a year, CA is a bit under 5k. If he was working full-time on minimum wage take home would be more like a minimum of 20k. We actually ring fence the DLA as well.)

What I find funny is how people think the PIP fraud rate is so low.

It's only low because the people defrauding the system generally don't get caught because it's virtually impossible to disprove anxiety/back ache/fibromyalgia. It is impossible to know the real extent of PIP fraud because there is no legal way the government would ever be able to tackle all the claimants who know what to say to their GP.

There is a reason that PIP and other benefits seem to be generational in certain families and it is because some families know exactly how to play the system.

@ArtyFartyCrafts DSs’ benefits don’t touch the sides of their disability related expenses, but the extra costs we face because they are disabled include things such as:

• Higher electricity costs - medical equipment (feed pumps, seating, bed, rise and fall bath, changing table, nebs, hoist, through floor lift, etc.). DS1&3 have EOTAS/EOTIS, some of which is delivered from home so some days they are both home with up to 4 extra staff when others their age would be in school with no staff at home, DS1 has carers at home so sometimes there are 2 extra people in the house using electricity.
• Higher gas costs - we need the heating on higher and longer for DSs’ medical conditions and DS1’s reduced mobility. Because DS1&3 are at home more during the day the heating needs to be on more than if they attended schools - both for their needs and because there are other people working in the house.
• Higher water costs - DS1’s clothes/bedding etc. need changing more than the average person. This is more than ‘a bit of extra washing’. His specialist bath uses more water than many conventional baths. He also needs washing more. With carers and education staff in the house, there are more people using our water.
• Higher food costs - for medical reasons.
• Motability vehicle - the AP and adaptations. DS1’s current vehicle cost over £15k. That is on top of the monthly amount.
• Car parking charges and fuel costs - we have to drive places we would otherwise walk. Not all car parks offer free blue badge parking. More hospital trips.
• Equipment - Not everything is funded. We are lucky we have had a lot of charity grant funding for equipment that isn’t funded. For things such as SN car seat, SN buggies, bike trailer, specialist seating and some other equipment, but not everything is funded or has charity funding available. From the little things such as slider mitts, incontinence swim products, topping up the incontinence products provided because the NHS supplies aren’t enough even though we get more than many to bigger expenses such as topping up the funding to have a H-frame hoist because only a single track hoist would be funded even though the OT recognised a H-frame would be better and was really needed. Not to mention all the things we buy in the hope they will help but don’t.
• Costs associated with hospital admissions.
• Medical assessments and treatment - assessment and medication for one of my DSs. The medication has now been taken over by the NHS.
• Pre-action letters to hold the LA and ICB to account. I can write my own, but my LA laughs and says good luck finding someone with a legal aid contract to take it further.
• Independent assessments for EHCP purposes to hold the LA to account - although the LA contributed to these costs with the settlements from previous complaints.

Things like being unable to dress herself without assistance. I’ve been in a changing room with her where she tried on tight skinny jeans standing up without so much as losing her balance. Frankly, I wouldn’t be able to put them on so easily myself. She also claimed she couldn’t walk very far but I’ve never seen it hold her back on a city break, even when others quite fancy a rest. Her claim stems from an injury nearly 20 years ago now that she still claims for but admits privately doesn’t affect her now.

What they say and what they do are not the same thing. Just like working, driving having children or pets shouldn't effect it but they will use every single one against you

And did you get it?!

Im really sorry to hear this and that you are going through this. Your case sounds severe though and this thread and examples given were about anxiety-only pip.

Stressful. I've got a physical disability. Provided endless hospital letters, prescription scripts, phone calls etc and then told I wasn't eligible. I am anxious, although certainly not to the degree that I would ever have contemplated enquiring regarding that, but it felt like a losing battle.

But if i had to fight with all that on top of anxiety I find it very hard to believe anyone in primary care with an anxiety disorder would get it

No, that poster had their claim refused. They have another thread about going to Tribunal.

Unfortunately there is a small minority who are gaming the system. I know one myself. He is suffering from bipolar depression but is physically healthy,yet he somehow managed to get the top rate on the mobility side. Even I couldn't get that when my award was reviewed last summer, and I am struggling to actually walk at the moment. On the other hand,I know 2 people who get PIP who in my opinion,are perfectly entitled to it. It is the small minority who play the system that makes the general public so critical and hostile towards disabled people.
If you believed the likes of Nick Ferrari and Richard Littlejohn,you'd be under the impression that 99% of people who claim disability benefits are faking it. Going on about people being 'given free cars' under the Motability scheme for nothing more than a sore finger,or a blue badge because they have an ingrowing toenail. When will these people get it into their heads that Motability scheme cars are not free? The day I heard Nick Ferrari ranting on about the 'excessive' number of disabled parking bays in a supermarket car park that he went to,then saying that he would damn well park in a disabled bay if he wanted to,I had to switch the radio off and vowed never to listen to his shite again.

This is the thing for me - OCD and anxiety are very treatable with the right therapies and meds. Unfortunately, those are inaccessible to the majority of sufferers. It would have more of an impact if the PIP money paid out to anxiety and OCD sufferers was spent on quality accessible treatment instead.

Only 35% of new claims are rewarded a drop from 43% in 2025

I have a cousin like this. He claims he has anxiety when he does exams, etc. but who doesn't?

That gives me some hope!
unless the tribunal overrules it.

The mobility component is about more than the physical ability to walk. Moving around is only one of the mobility component activities.

Please tell me how to treat health anxiety when your organs are failing I'd love to know because I can barely leave the house as I think im going to drop dead at any given moment. The cmht have been trying to help me for 20 years and haven't managed but please share your wisdom