Is there a link in the increase in people claiming disability benefits with the rise in NHS waiting lists

[supercatlady]

This afternoon I heard on the radio that benefits claims have doubled in 5 years, so something must be wrong with the system hence benefits reforms.
I wonder how much of this increase is down to NHS waiting times, particularly for mental health.
My daughter has been waiting two and a half years for an investigative procedure to determine whether she is suitable for orthopaedic surgery. In that time she’s had to give up her job and claim benefits due to chronic pain and fatigue which have also significantly impacted her mental health. If this “urgent” procedure had taken place within 6 months she could have been back in a job she loved instead of confined to her home in pain.

How many more people are affected like this. The answer isn’t to take the benefits away.

The nhs could save so much money by employing more staff to deal with patients mental health issues. Counselling, psychology, psychiatry. It’s at the root of so many issues.

But it’s easier to pay big pharma to make pills to pump into them.

Sad really. what has society become.

YES! I've seen so many people unable to work because they need something be it surgery or anything because of the NHS

I would say that the rise in people on benefits is directly related to the state of the NHS and other agencies eg CAHMS.

Its mostly directed related to people not getting the health care they need. My dad has waited 4 years so far for a knee replacement and in that time has had to claim pip & a blue badge as hes struggling to manage. (Leg reguarly swells up & on lots of pain killers) if he had the surgery, he would be better and no need for pip or the blue badge! He says once its done he will close his pip claim.

Of course. Plus there was this thing that happened 5 years ago called a pandemic, which not only prevented some people getting access to the care they needed and so they got worse, but also left some healthy people with long term issues after catching the virus. But sure everyone's just faking it so that they get PIP and don't have to work, even though you can claim PIP while working

I’ve been waiting close to three years to have a more long-term procedure for back pain (arthritis-related so no other real solutions available).
I'm still working but will retire soon because this and other health conditions have made continuing to work in the way that I do impossible to sustain.
In a younger person it would likely cause someone to have to stop working - I’m lucky that I’m able to retire while lots of people are not.

Yes, it’s definitely related to not just waiting lists buts crazily high thresholds for eg orthopaedic surgeries and treatments.

And the rise in the state pension age.

It’s all the above plus more mental health issues in younger people; cost of living means UC isn’t enough to live on so more people will bother to claim disability benefits who may have managed without; pension age gone up so those on PIP stay on it a few extra years. Fewer jobs for people eg manual workers who stop work due health issues in 50’s so they have to claim. A lot of the easier jobs someone approaching retirement may have done are now done by technology.

I was chatting to someone recently was a senior nurse in NHS been made redundant due to ill health. Needs a knee replacement, NHS won’t do it as too young, apparently they wear out and don’t like to replace so will do it at 60. Currently 45. So rather than keeping someone in employment for next 15-20 years, they’ll be getting benefits and a knee op in time to start claiming a pension probably.

I have gallstones and Ive had to take loads of time off work. Gallbladder needs to come out, I’ve been waiting a year and still no appointment. Bile duct is dilated.

I think at some point it’ll just make me so ill, that it’ll be an emergency. Bonkers way to run a health system. It’s like there’s no planning and everyone is constantly putting out fires.

I would expect waiting lists and also the NHS choosing cheaper short term treatments rather than those that give best outcomes. My 30 year old niece is now disabled and unemployable due to NHS treatment protocols favouring long term steroids over surgery until she needed the operation done under emergency conditions, we nearly lost her and she was left immunocompromised, steroid dependent and has 5-6 emergency admissions followed by 2 week stays to hospital each year now, and impacts her health day to day. It is likely to significantly shorten her life. All completely unnecessary and if we had known it at the time we would have paid for her to get the op privately but she trusted the consultants were doing the best for her. Never trust the NHS.

I was hospitalised on a weekly basis for gallstones and only got the operation as an emergency in the end when it caused one too many problems. Luckily for me because when they operated they found cancer - if I had been left waiting the time the nhs dictates is okay the outcome could have been very different.
I think the lack of timely treatment has such a huge impact on how our society runs

Definitely, but also there is a big rise in severely disabled children living into adulthood who might previously have died without advances in medicine. These are profoundly disabled adults who will never be able to work. Also, as a sidebar regarding work there is a lot of emphasis that disabled people should get jobs but no emphasis on employers embracing disabled candidates. Many disabled people not in paid work have had 100s of rejections and even when they get a job, accommodations so they can keep that job are rarely made. Most disabled people would prefer to be in work, its the workplace that isn’t cut out for them not the other way around.

"This afternoon I heard on the radio that benefits claims have doubled in 5 years"

Oooo I wonder what happened 5 years ago?

Yes plus long term disability impacts of covid including long covid but also all the other stuff like ptsd and mental health issues and the result of other health conditions being not picked up till later than normal because of covid.

It’s madness that government/press can get away with the narrative that benefits are flawed and too easy to get.
My son is learning disabled and desperately wants to work but the supported employment service just kept getting him to apply like everyone else with zero engagement with employers/job carving etc. He works now Co-delivering Oliver McGowan training but that’s a niche role. He has so much to offer but can’t compete with more able candidates for standard jobs.

I think the increase in claims relates to mental health issues ...

Then how is it that the proposed PIP cuts are set to disproportionately affect older female claimants with arthritis, heart conditions, and eg sickle cell disease?

I think we’ve all been fed a load of propaganda by the government tbh.

I think this is exactly the problem. Young children can’t get early diagnoses for things like ASD and it’s well known that support and interventions before age 5 massively improve long term functioning and achievement then CAMHS waiting lists are YEARS for children who have MH issues and then can’t get support and yet young people are criticised if they are struggling and need benefits.

NHS waiting lists are as you say a massive factor as early or pre emptive care and treatments are hard to get so conditions worsen and need more invasive procedures and the waits are too long. Of course this will result in more people unable to work .

Absolutely. My MIL chose to go private for an operation on her eyes because the waiting list was 2 years. She already could barely see out of one eye, she couldn’t read, she couldn’t even go for a walk herself, and her other eye was going the same way. Within 6 months she would have been totally blind, reliant on social care and able to claim disability benefits. The op cost her less than 3k. The cost of supporting her without the op would have been way in excess of that. It’s time the government bit the bullet and just outsourced the waiting lists to private companies to get back to normal.

Absolutely. MH support is non existent and send support is also pretty dire. These need to be fixed before cutting pip.

Yes of course a lack of access to prompt healthcare.would cause a:deterioration in the nation’s health ergo more people who are sick and disabled and claiming benefits designed to support such people. That and the fact we had a pandemic only a few years ago. The CoL crisis won’t have helped people’s physical or mental health either.

I work in benefits advice for over 50's and the vast majority of the PIP claims we help with are for problems caused by MH issues/ anxiety, addictions, and things like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue/ ME, and Arthiritis.

Might be onto something. I thought they were trying to avoid diagnosing obesity related problems.

You can be operated on and then left wondering what the hell.

Operated on inside 6 months for Cervical Myelopathy as it got to the point next of kin refused to take me home and pleaded that as my brother is paraplegic they can’t handle us both but no one got my heavy legs any help and an armchair diagnosis from a junior doctor at that particular time as to whether it wasn’t heart related.

9 weeks ago and just over 2 years - another issue or one in 2023 which if action taken could possibly have been prevented.
Thinking I was going to be discharged it was news to me I’d been nill by mouth (I got served breakfast and nearly lunch fortunately it was a sandwich so could be clutched from my hands) 12 days I laid on that bed after surgery for giggles? Who knows.
Sent home with a serious infection? but that I should be strong and make it round Tesco’s in another day or two, who the hell were they kidding.
12 day fit note, zero physio attempted I can see why people’s mental health rapidly decline. I must sound like a right fool err don’t know why I had surgery, don’t know the type of infection, don’t know the risks. Been left little idea if I’m hampering recovery.

Perhaps this is the new way, diagnosis nobody with anything.

I even asked for pain management clinic a month ago - but that got ignored. My brother with consistent sores on legs is only just getting to vascular 10 years on the anniversary of becoming paraplegic after the complete run around (they did not operate quickly enough after an accident in 2015 where they had to transfer him from one East Anglian hospital to another so he lost movement from waist down as they were out of time on the table.) hate what it has done.

A lot of brainwash in this thread. Fat lazy uneducated people clog up the NHS each year and post covid people have gotten worse. You see people claiming for pain that doesn’t exist. Then everyone playing a mental health card but not doing anything about their mental health, again just being lazy.
Consumerism is the plague, stop eating bad food, stop being lazy, stop crying about your life, start moving, start making healthier decisions, start doing things yourself.

Sorry, I just can’t stand this nonsense. The NHS could be so much better if people didn’t waste its time with avoidable issues. But that isn’t the only issue, it’s far deeper than that, we are fed too much in all aspects of life and you’d need a cultural revolution to change this around.