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?

Nowadays you can't either a) live off one salary b) receive much in benefits without working once children are school age....unless they have disabilities. Then you are eligible for more....

• dla
• the benefit cap doesnt apply
• carers

Its only possible to live comfortably without working, if you have disabled people in the household.

Do you know the reasons behind the disabilities?

Looking at the graph, there could be a pattern that some disabilities are so severe the children unfortunately have short life expectancy.

As the proportion increases, you are looking at disabilities that really start to impact later in life / disability through illness or accident.

It’s a % yes not actually more 10 yr olds.

Also can 10 yr olds actually claim or do their parents have to?

The 60plus amount is high considering they are such a large cohort.

Yes I considered that but life limiting illnesses are very rare so I wouldn’t expect it to account for many. Same as prematurity, only 1% of babies are born so early that a disability can be expected

Where’s your stat of one in thirty come from?

never heard that before.

Not necessarily that surprising as 50 is young for old age disabilities but people born with life limiting illnesses are less likely to live to 50.

So teachers here on mumsnet say that 10% of the 10 year olds in their classes will need 24/7 care as adults?

Yes pretty much. If some of them are reading perhaps they can comment! It’s more pronounced in age under 7 or 8 I think.

10 year olds cannot claim their parents claim for them.

so what it actually means is that one in ten 10 year olds have parents who have claimed (presumably) DLA for them.

Glued to screens before they can walk and talk. Then they have to use the screens to ‘self regulate’

1 in 10?! Is that true?

Its crazy.

Im all for support for children that need it but eventually (if not already) the support thats actually needed and essential will be affected by those claiming who shouldnt be

There aren’t any statistics. Thats anecdotal from my kids school and nursery classes and comments from nursery professionals and teachers on here and IRL

I was a teacher for many years and disagree vehemently with this statistic

It was a common cold that nearly killed my son as a newborn. It also contributed to his disabilities now

thankfully modern medicine has kept many alive.

just to clarify:

its it’s it the MN teaching demographic consensus that the kids in their classes who are on disability benefits (how would they know which kids are??) are all going to need 24/7 care as adults?

I was a teacher until recently in a large (2000 students) secondary school.

in the ten years I worked there (until 2023) we had no nonverbal children at all.

we did have some children who had become verbal at 7/8/9

Im reading this in a rush and confused.

Youve started a post based on heresay?

My parents had a more comfortable standard of living without both working so my mum could definitely absorb my challenges with both time and money in a way that we really struggle to for our DD as two full time working parents in 2026.

When did you stop teaching? What age group did you teach. It’s primarily teachers in EYFS up to year 2 or 3 that I see this from

Apparently you’re an outlier….

There are 725k 10 yr olds, more people trying to access private services probably drives up the benefit claims.

No based on the graph released today in the news

Nobody is arguing with this

Support should be given to those with disabilities

Standard for MNs these days.

I work in a mainstream primary school. We have lots of children with high needs and who should be in specialist provision ideally. However nowhere near 10% shout out as potentially needing 24/7 care when older.

it is also impossible to predict that at primary school age because a lot can happen!