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?

Can do but will need to get my laptop as DfE data is through stat explore which spits out excel files which I can’t easily look at on my phone. Give me ten.

Currently in my area, you cannot have a child on the pathway for diagnosis unless there are two or more co-morbidities, to a high level. Even with that, the current waiting list just to be seen is 2 years. The NHS themselves signpost people to two private clinics if they don’t meet NHS criteria.

Ok thanks

Needing care as an adult isn’t the same as needing 24/7 care as an adult.

Disability benefits aren’t based on diagnosis. A diagnosis isn’t required to claim. Equally a diagnosis doesn’t automatically make one eligible.

Various national surveys and government statistics show verifiable data on severe early language deficits - one in four children starting receptionlack basic language skills, which includes severe struggles like being unable to say or respond to their own name. One in five children fail benchmarks and finish reception without reaching expected targets for basic communication and language.

Around two children in every average class of thirty have developmental language disorders and experience a severe long term difficulty in speaking or understanding spoken language.

Data from Speech and Language UK says a record two million children in the UK now struggle with talking and understanding speech, much of that is a result of pandemic isolation and shifting home communication. In some highly deprived areas school leaders are reporting that up to 50% of new intakes arrive with severe speech delays.

I have 5 disabled dc. 3 of them wouldn't have survived if they had been born 20 years earlier.

That must be hard what disabilities do they have?

You can’t directly compare the rate of claimants for DLA and PIP. The eligibility criteria are different. Some who are eligible for one won’t be eligible for the other. Also, DLA has 3 rates of the care component. Whereas, PIP’s daily living component doesn’t. It has 2. It doesn’t have a rate equivalent to low rate care.

This post has a eugenacist energy.

So you don’t think they should’ve investigated thalidomide or anything?

Where is that from

Oh give over. That’s an entirely different scenario.

You realise it’s genetic, yes?
Morher of two autistic kids, autistic herself, can think of at least 3 family members all on my mother’s side who aware so obviously in the spectrum.

Thats 5 generations….and I’m pretty sure for all by one of those generations (in fact just one of those 5) , iPads and smart phones didn’t exist

Is it? Limb differences have always been around.

See the graph at the top it was in the news today

It’s actually very concerning. We have multiple problems facing us as a nation but it seems the solution to all our ills is to reduce the circumstances of the most vulnerable in society. There’s also a very worrying lack of understanding as to why disability benefits are actually paid and what they’re meant to support.

The renewal for DLA is just as strict as the initial claim. They need the same evidence at 12 as they did at 6. If you no longer have consultant or therapist input who can confirm the condition, you will likely not continue to be given benefits.

As others have said, disability benefits are needs related, not based on diagnosis. I have no idea how people manage to claim fraudulently as it takes a huge amount of evidence to get it. A very high proportion of children with eg autism will not be eligible for DLA. Basing benefits on diagnosis is mad when there is a 4 year waiting list for assessment in my area.

You can't really live on disability benefits. Middle rate DLA is about £100 a week and carers is just under that if I remember rightly.

To the person upthread talking about a child who presented "normally" during a playdate, this could well be masking. In some types of autism this is particularly common. Masking is pretending you don't have autism and comes at huge energetic and emotional cost. I have a child who would have been able to look "normal" during a playmate, but the friend's parents wouldn't have seen the 6+ hours' a day effort to try to get enough calories into him, the 2 hour daily toothbrushing battle or the meltdowns and self-harm that followed stressful events - probably including said playdate. Being able to put on a good front for a short while doesn't make you not autistic or not disabled.

There's no such thing as severe autism and I would love to see the data on that claim pleeeasssssse

The scale, severity, and pattern of ‘limb differences’ was very very very different to what would have normally been expected based on previous rates of ‘limb differences’ it was abundantly clear to anyone with half a brain that something had gone very wrong and there was a cause for this sudden cluster of birth defects.

But if it’s that difficult why have 11% of 10 year olds been successful in applying? (Or their parents!)

Yes and I think that now with the number of children with non verbal autism. It’s always been around but I see so many now, all the posts about it on here are from the last 5/6 years

There was a massive cluster of cases, spiking over a very small period of time. It was clear there was a very specific problem.

Ok so

dfe says how many children are in reception here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/489bec15-4dfe-480e-8cd1-08df25240285

spoiler it’s 572,913

i did some interrogation of the dfe data from stat explore. Their data on disabilities is strictly by age which is frankly quite annoying but I’ve got the table for five year olds which should give a reasonable idea and saved it as a permanent link

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/24a03ebd-4c97-42eb-4bd7-08df251b5373

so all children aged 5 who might need language support - I have included all children with ASD, profound learning difficulty and any kind of speech and language problem so this sweeps up lots that will be verbal.

link here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/24a03ebd-4c97-42eb-4bd7-08df251b5373

grand total for this is about 20,000 girls and 47,000 boys, so 67,000 in total.

67,000 out of 572,000 is 1.14 per cent. So about one in seventy children.