Adult Disability Payment - Teenager

[Pootle40]

I am dealing with a really frustrating scenario. My teenage son (16) has dyspraxia so the fine motor skills, memory and timekeeping are affected. He is still in school full time. He knows of many other peers (similar to him) who are receiving Adult Disability Payment. I’ve explained to him that while he has the condition he lives at home with us, has everything he needs and doesn’t have ‘extra costs’ associated with his condition. He thinks we are being blockers. He went ahead and made an application behind our backs. We received three follow up letters requesting further evidence and I put them all in the bin as I morally disagree (of which he is aware). I grew up with a severely disabled single parent who could not work and had two children so I have a very clear view of what I think the purposes of these payments are. My son, I think, sees this as pocket money. I asked him to name one extra cost he incurs because of his dyspraxia and he can’t. He simply thinks he’s entitled to it and no explaining is helping. So frustrated. I don’t think I am being harsh but surely he can’t just claim money because he has a life long disability?!

People with conditions like dyspraxia or ADHD are going to struggle anyway. With the right support people can do really well. Demonising someone for trying to get support available is always going to be counterproductive. Lots of neurodivergent people from the older generation have been long term unemployed, in the mental health system or prison. Yes there are lots of people who managed to work and get a good education without being diagnosed but there are lots of you people who are diagnosed who are doing well now. Maybe they are using money from benefits to help them. Maybe they are eligible for a blue badge as a result of receiving ADP which means they can get to work independently without being taken by their parents .

Far more people per head of population are awarded ADP compared to PIP. Which leads to some questions.

Is the granting of PIP too stringent?

Is the granting of ADP to lax? (And pp stating her son uses his ADHD payment not for costs associated with ADHD but taking his girlfriend out suggests that it is very much this!)

Is the population of Scotland that much sicker than England?

Ive drawn my own conclusions but I think most people can agree that if we’re spending more than England on adult disability benefits and it is costing not much less than the tuition fees policy then something’s going very wrong indeed.

My husband and I both work, and have supported both our kids throughout their lives. What we can’t do is provide complete independence for him financially, and he claims UC but at a greatly reduced rate because he gets PIP. His PIP and UC cover his rent and travel expenses, and his food bills. The unemployment crisis that we’re currently facing means he is really struggling to get a job. He is not an attractive candidate on paper, and even with support from the job center he hasn’t been able to find a new job. He is now looking at going back to college to train in a trade, so that he can one day be self employed. I think it’s very easy to judge someone on mumsnet without knowing much about their situation. We, and our son, do not consider it free money. His ADHD is on the severe side, with a lot of co occurring conditions, and the pip he received as a kid covered things he needed, or made improvements. It’s also designed to cover childcare, so that as a family, we could have days out without him, as he hated leaving the house and does not enjoy going to other people’s houses, or out for a meal, and he hates going away for a holiday.

Oh that’s an an easy one - it’s the first question.

PIP is a horrendous system. DLA was already one of the most underclaimed benefits and changing it to PIP was a deliberate choice to get less claimants - they literally said that was one of the aims when they created it BTW.

But instead of doing that by doing something like change the criteria for who would be eligible, they just made it harder to claim for almost everyone that meets the criteria.

It’s very hard to prove you have a disability if most medical evidence you have is ignored, which is what happens with PIP.

Look so long as there is concerted effort to get them to look to a future where they work for a living then great, yes definitely get him to college and let him get into something that inspires him but it really worries me that society is writing so many kids off. Why didn't we used to have all this? Granted my brother could have done to have been diagnosed in the 80's ADHD rather than now like but kids tended to grow up normally and yet now it's become like a competition to see how many different things you can get a kid diagnosed with and it's also like a contest to see how many kids you get diagnosed with things! How many people now claim to have 3 or 4 kids and that they've all got syndromes that need money throwing at it, why did they keep on having kids when the first two popped out with lots of syndromes.

For those of us who work and often don't have our own kids, it's just bizarre to watch what's happening to the country and all the things people get money for! How did we get to a situation where it's claimed that most kids are disabled and get money before they've even left school, it's a real worry for the future because I'd like to retired in 15 to 18 years time, how many of todays kids will be working Vs sat at home on benefits.

Why do you think it’s most children?

It’s 12% of children in Scotland - global rate of disabilities in all ages is 18% in the U.K. it’s 25%, so well under both of those.

Also, again, the benefits being discussed are not out of work benefits, yes a fairly high percentage of people claiming them also claim out of work benefits, but that’s always going to be the case because to qualify for it someone needs to have either very high personal care needs and/or very restricted mobility, but about 1/3 of PIP claimants do manage to work (there aren’t stats for Scottish ADP)

he claims UC but at a greatly reduced rate because he gets PIP

PIP doesn’t reduce the amount of UC someone receives.

Ha! Now here we have it …. The reason for the country’s downfall written large. “ENTITLEMENT”
Good on you OP for holding out against your sons demands.

Tell him if he goes ahead you’ll be charging rent.