PIP and the Government

[thetemptationofchocolate]

I have emailed this article from today's paper to MIND, who I hope will be as disgusted by it as I am. The quotes imply that the Governemnt policy unit thinks that mental illness doesn't count as an illness and that it cannot possibly be classed as a disability. I may also contact my MP (although he is a bit useless). What else can I do? I am so cross having read this that I want to put all this angry energy to good use!

The comments in the article show huge ignorance from the govement minister. I'm disgusted by her attitude and it reinforces why properly trained assessors are needed.

You could try 38degrees who lobby the govement and maybe a letter to the editor too. Heads together, rethink and time to change are other charities that might be interested. And sharing on social media is another avenue.

The difficulty with any invisible condition is its hard to prove and seen as a soft touch by people who want to cheat the system. We used to live in an area where most neighbours were on benefits DH was out of work at the time and the number of people (who had no idea of his serious MH diagnosis) who encouraged him to fake depression to "get on the sick" was astounding. Those people are just as big a problem as the ignorant government ministers. The really galling thing was that despite DHs genuine problems he didnt qualify for any benefits at that time.

The problem

The charity Action for Asperger's is doing a lot of work on unsucessful PIP claims for people with ASD. They have produced a questionaire which will hopefully help them to take some action about this. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPCCftzyPGd1x1D39_8xNH88NQJLdPFpgGIjQ-ZhRqB4ntlg/viewform?c=0&w=1 If anyone feels able to complete this, totally anonymously that would be great.