Half of all female benefit claimants attempt suicide

[gendercritter]

It is being reported in the Independent

I'm absolutely horrified if this is true. The pressure people must be under.

Not in the slightest bit surprised. I have dealt with so many vulnerable women in my volunteering capacity who are faced with a system that seems designed to provoke people to extremes. Like this notion that cutting someone's money is an incentive to work. It's devastating.

To be clear this is lifetime prevalence, not following any benefits claim, and use of suicide statistics is quite ethically dubious.

Awful isn't it. Shows a complete of understanding of the structural reasons why women rely on social support.

I think it's fair enough to point out that this is an exacerbating factor among a population likely to be dealing with other MH conditions along with poverty and other issues. It's not going to be the only reason someone makes a certain choice, but when the government is outsourcing these 'fit to work' interviews and they are not fit for purpose, things need to be addressed.

Just to point out, these are disability benefit claimants, not all benefits. (It's important to be accurate as possible when talking about suicide).

Yes, I completely agree. Very important to be responsible with these stats and not use them as a political football.

The suicide data they are using are from 2014, so not 'news':

files.digital.nhs.uk/excel/d/c/apms-2014-ch-12-tabs.xls

These show:

• lifetime suicide attempts age 16-64: 7.7%
• lifetime suicide attempts ESA (longterm disability): 43.2% - female: 47.1%, male 40.5%
• other out of work benefits (excluding ESA, presumably JSA) 14.5%

They say the IB figures as of 2007 show a lifetime suicide prevalence of around 21%, but I can't find the APMS for 2007 to confirm that. At any rate, ESA is not quite the same as IB.

To be clear this is lifetime prevalence, not following any benefits claim, and use of suicide statistics is quite ethically dubious
I had a very very long post that I discarded on this, but you've said it better than I could.

Clickbait and dubious article as PPs have said, but anyone who has been doing anything with regard to austerity over the last few years can testify to the unbearable stress and sheer desperation people (especially women with children) have been subjected to. I volunteer at a food bank and people have been broken by the benefits system. As Universal Credit rolls out, it's going to be uncontrollable. 1 in 5 working households claim UC.

I'm concerned by the growing tendency in political discourse to use suicidality as a proxy for ill-treatment by others.

Life for benefit claimants under current government practice is utterly shit in many ways. We shouldn't require people to harm themselves in order to demonstrate this to us.

We shouldn't require people to harm themselves in order to demonstrate this to us.

Hear hear.

We should actively want everyone to live in security and dignity, not expect destitution as proof of deserving-ness.

Thank you for the posts clarifying. I agree Universal Credit is going to be an absolute disaster. I have several friends who are so profoundly vulnerable - I can't see them coping with the transition onto it for a start

The callousness of the assessment system has to be experienced to be believed. Claimants are told to lay out all their vulnerabilities, then the assessor is trained to treat them as if they are all liars and frauds.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-benefit-sanctions-mental-health-suicide-killer-herself-assessments-pip-a7682991.html

Having had a PIP assessment it was noted apparently that although I’ve had seizures I “have suffered no major injuries as a result” so being hit by a car resulting in a metal plate and 8 pins in my leg isn’t a major injury then no?

I got 0 points despite professionals stating I shouldn’t go out on my own, cook on my own or bath on my own

I didn’t appeal but should have. This was when it went over to PIP from DLA

The samaritarians last annual report expressed concern that there was a potential new trend emerging in young women. They said it was too early to tell if it was something that was more than a blip and they didn't want to speculate on the causes of why that might happen, though they did mean social media. Universal credit could also be another possible explanation.

That's the trouble. We are talking correlation here with a number of possible factors.

Are people who have serious disability more likely to be depressed. Are those claiming benefits a greater risk group precisely because they need to benefit? Chicken or egg?

Plus the samaritarians also are very strong in their point that we should be very wary of suicide stats in small populations. Just a few deaths in a year can look like a big percentage increase. They say to look for long term trends.

We also aren't talking actual suicides here. The data is 'self reported suicide attempts' rather than suicides. This type of data is highly contenious, difficult to assess in its consistency and actually subject to political interference / social contagion.

'Studies' on 'suicide attempt' should come will big stickers saying 'remember your bad science lessons' and a warning that they might damage health inadvertently. Yet 'journalists' keep swallowing them whole. Are they journalists or propagaters?

That's what is frustrating. The utter lack of critical thinking or scrutiny in that article. Even if there is a link, it does society a disservice to fail report this subject responsibly.

The phrase 'needs more research' needs to be trotted out here.

FWIW I suspect there Is a problem here. It's just this isn't as easy to link as you'd like.

Red - Lisa Muggeridge writing about this perfect storm back in 2015:

lacuna.org.uk/justice/fighting-on-all-fronts-poorest-women-hit-by-legal-aid-cuts-in-family-courts/

Exactly LangCleg. But being a combination of factors makes it even harder to pin down. You can't say it's the assessment system because it does not exist in a bubble. It's an entire environment and culture.

That's why I'm slightly wary about single issue reports like this too. It puts a single idea out, without further context and reference.

Changing one thing alone might not make anywhere near what's required to improve the lives of people suffering from mental health problems.

Pretending there's a simple solution here, isn't all that helpful in practice.

That's my fear really.

OurMiracle

The system is now committing frank emotional and financial abuse against its own clients

Engaging with the benefits system is quite frankly horrendous. The fucker bullied me relentlessly until I broke down, then had the gall to suggest I claim esa instead.

Unless you are in the system you don't understand the utter hopelessness and pettiness and awfulness.

I don't think this is a feminist issue as such, men are equally at risk.

I spent 3 months claiming bollock all because I couldn't face haven't to go through it. I'm likely about to face claiming universal credit, there is no way it needs to be so degrading and dehumanising.

An hour reading the posts here www.katebelgrave.com or here thepoorsideof.life will show you just how Orwellian the system is.

I know someone who died because of universal credit.
I am not sure about the suicide stats but I am totally sure the government's policies are damaging the most vulnerable in our society and I hate them for it.

We know that being starved, humiliated, robbed of autonomy, plunged into constant crisis and subjected to relentless chronic stress is bad for people's physical and mental health. In my view a state that subjects its citizens to these outcomes is failing in its most basic functions.

Whether or not the people involved remain personally resilient to their circumstances is absolutely beside the point. Suicidality is a mh issue that should be dealt with by decent mh provision. Destitution is an objective fact.