10 year olds more likely to be on disability benefits than 50 year olds

[AgeingMillennial]

AIBU to think this is absolutely baffling? And at some point we really have to investigate why so many young children are non verbal, have severe emotional regulation problems etc?

We’ll likely transition him into his adult facility when he’s in roughly his mid-20s, for argument’s sake.

For context, he’s just turned 10 and that future planning has already started.

I would like him to be settled in that setting while we’re still around, so needing to live without us doesn’t come as a complete shock.

I would like him to need us less by the time we either can’t care for him, or aren’t here.

There are local services that already exist, which we have already considered as potentials. Fortunately for us (very fortunately!) whatever the state can’t or won’t provide, money will be available to top up his care package to make sure we’re happy with it.

I wouldn’t like to think that others who don’t have access to that end up with the bare walls asylum option, or anything similar.

But there will be a lot of people who don’t have that money, and I can tell this is just going to lurch in the direction of SEN schools, where extortionate ‘private providers’ pick up the slack at such enormous cost that it’s spread incredibly thin.

I think the govt urgently needs to start opening proper state run care facilities, so in 15 years they’re ready for what I predict will be a tsunami of adults with severe disabilities and non verbal autism

So what? Its not the law to care about autistic children? Why should I care? The insane benefits spending does however directly impact me

Although residential homes/care homes/supported living homes/whatever you want to call them don’t work for all. And for even more, large settings don’t work and they need a smaller setting with a limited number of other people.

They won’t for DS1&3 at all. That isn’t just me saying that, it is the opinion of many professionals. They will need individual placements. Or maybe one together depending on how things are at the time, but that would need to be very carefully managed.

I just can’t see this being workable with the sheer number of severely autistic young people we have now and how they will all be adults with ageing parents in 20+ years

Well, not meeting their needs will cost more.

As an aside, other disabilities exist. DS3 has ASD (alongside other diagnoses), but DS1 does not. DS1 has other complex disabilities.

That doesn’t mean we will be able to do it.

A civilised society cares about disabled children and disabled adults, whether their disability is autism or not.

I hope you aren’t a medical doctor. And if you are, I am very thankful my DC aren’t under your care - which I know they aren’t because none of the many HCPs they are under have such a disgusting attitude.

Not doing it will cost the state more.

There are lots of things the state has expensively kicked the can down the road on, because there are no other options.

It wouldn’t kick the can down the road. If their needs were not met, they would very quickly both end up in hospital. DS1 very probably in ICU.

I reported this thread as ablelist but Mumsnet has decided to keep it going 🤔
So giving financial assistance to families directly is bad but paying for residential homes is good ?
Who pays for residential care?
The government.
It's all money from the same government pot essentially.
Do we really want to return to the days of "asylums" ?
Yes good idea.
Lets hide those pesky people with disabilities away from sight.

SARCASTIC BEFORE ANYONE IS HORRIFIED

From self injuring?

Any number of reasons. Maybe SIB, maybe unmet medical needs (especially DS1), maybe accidental injury due to lack of care, maybe shutdown/regression due to unmet needs…

You know a child doesn't have to be severely autistic for it to have a huge affect on your life? We are thousands of pounds worse off a year even with DLA (which we ringfence) and CA.

We're not raking in the money, believe me, yet if you met DS on a good day you'd wonder what we were getting the money for. You wouldn't see the meltdowns, the police being called out, my trips to A&E, the fact he often won't wash or change his clothes, or sleep, or that he chews holes in his clothes so we have to constantly replace them (yes, we've bought him things to chew on he always goes back to his clothes), finding shoes he can tolerate is a nightmare. At 13 he'll still suddenly make a break for it and cross roads without stopping to look. Up until he was 11/12 I was getting about as much sleep as you would with a newborn (and for a while considerably less). But you'd be unlikely to see any of that.

A friend of mine has an autistic non verbal son.

the son is now in his 40s. He lives in an annex with carers coming in. Fortunately the family can afford this.

As an aside, other disabilities exist.

Thank you!

Frustrating, isn’t it?

Tsunami is an awfully dramatic word.

I, like most parents of disabled children I assume, couldn’t actually give a stuff where the government find the money to provide the level of care those children need.

My expectation is that they do.

I would point out that I also pay insane amounts of tax, so have skin in both games here.

We pay to support people who need it. Or at least we should.

Whether that’s the right living situation, the education they need, or the support packages they need.

There are far too many families subsidising the level of financial shortfall having a disabled child brings, providing essentially free care comparative to the cost of the state doing it, and then being rewarded for that by being told their kids will either end up somewhere substandard or they’ll have to make/fund toward a private arrangement that many people can’t.

The way we treat disabled people and their families in this country is, increasingly, a legitimate disgrace.

It’s my expectation that I will have a sufficient state pension, but logically I know it’s unlikely because our country won’t be able to afford it.

We all have tough choices to make going forwards and I don’t think anyone will be exempt from that.

How is it a disgrace? I was talking to a friend from South Africa who was amazed at how generous disability benefits are here, that our NHS is free at the point of use and so on.

The problem comes when they can’t. As will be the case for many in about 15 years.

It’s a massive worry.

Very. Especially when the thread is about DLA which isn't just for autistic children and misses the fact that some very complex children who may need care for the rest of their lives actually don't have autism.

Bless him, poor lad. Must be so worrying for you

Because history has shown us the large economies of scale homes for vulnerable people are oh so safe...will these people be seen in the community?? Or behind thoughtful large doors and gates?

Untreated and undiagnosed ADHD alone costs the tax payer £17 billion a year. Disability doesn’t go away. If left untreated it gets more expensive and harder to treat. My children have cost the NHS significantly more amounts of money because they were left without care or support. A bed on a paediatrics ward costs £800 a night. My daughter was in paeds for weeks at a time on an endless loop. Paeds wards are full of young teens like her.

Young people with MH difficulties, autism, ADHD, SEND and other disabilities have been massively let down. This is widely recognised and the fact they’re not snowflakes.It’s ludicrous berating a cohort that didn’t cause the dire situation they’re now in.