Upcoming changes to benefits
Comments
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It's got the point where I'm asking this question, is CPTSD or PTSD seen as a incapacitating mental illness?
Britain is the only country in Western Europe doing all of this making a joke out of mental illness. I think the UN need a serious discussion with Britain in how it perceives mental illness.
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you flatter me 😘
In all seriousness as other members will tell you I’ve made many a suggestion of how incapacity welfare could be reformed but some members called me out for being discriminatory in terms of fairness
I do try my best working on my empathy but my autism makes me a very black and white thinker
Autistic ppl are like sponges (not just in childhood) and I was very fortunate in the area which I grew up and the locals I got to know.
I do understand that the treasury needs to balance the books and yes the sharp rise of incapacity claimants is concerning and needs to be looked into further. (Though the gov is ignoring that a pandemic wrecked the nations health (both via new disabilities and many people first taste of mental health issues) as well as cost of living and the gov didn’t invest in more gp and mental health services to tackle that rise - the last gov are hugely responsible for this mess and this gov are ignoring the original source)
I also think the gov official definition of ‘disability’ is too open and that is causing (if all levels of mental health are classed as disability that would include 50-90% of the uk population and if everyone with a mental health issue could potentially qualify for incapacity benefits it would crash the uk economy)
If only 100k ppl were claiming highest level incapacity benefits then these reforms would not be happening because there’d be no financial need
But at the same time the gov refuses to address the major reasons why the amount of disabled have grown and aiming to cut 1m pip awards is ludicrous (1-2% of total pip claimants is more realistic and ‘fair’)
The reason I’ve set aside my own personal idealisms these past few months on ‘fairness’ is that the gov haven’t been playing fair since getting in power using media for the past 9 months selling an image of disabled that aided their future agenda pitch (which has endangered disabled in uk society as a result - sadly I got some bruises over the holiday season due to not looking disabled that made me learn the hard way) - I can’t offer fairness if I’m not being offered it back and right now this Labour gov aren’t playing by the rules so they don’t deserve my understanding
Hence why I’m currently very much team disabled rather dipping my toes between both sides
(I went off at a bit of a tangent there- sorry all)1 -
Very true!…when you have cfs & fibro, youre stuck in that quagmire of more exercise triggers the cfs, and vis-versa.. Its a nasty nasty trap!
I was diagnosed in 2011 by a Rheumatologist, who on paper said i am(at that time) right down the middle for both illnesses.
The awful aspect of this condition is the fact that in the summer when im at my base-level of 75-80% pain..(its never gone lower in 14yrs) I'll attempt to do something in the garden, and anyone looking at me would think I'm physically able & fit; but they never see the seizing of the muscles and doms hrs after and the proceeding days., unless they see me shuffling to my bin when i can.
I'm sure you also have many debilitating co-morbid conditions that come along with these issues( though i have always been a migraineur since 13 , also c5-6 spinal stenosis-cluster headaches(oxygen tank) trigeminal/occipital neuralgia.
I'll just mention this quick: When i first applied, i'd heard so many negative views regarding fibro and me/cfs…but the sheer fact that i spent 3 weeks in St Thomas', have tried every procedure they have offered, to attempt to get better and well (its simply not worked).. plus PIP contacting the hospital and having a very lengthy chat really helped my position, as it was all based on facts and no hyperbole..Now we're facing all these benefits changes and i just dont know what more i can show them..Unless they come to live with me for a week, maybe then they can see without any doubts.
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I think that many autistic ppl on the higher functioning end are like high end graphics computers but with no inbuilt fan (so frequent overheating and crashing)
Some of the most intelligent ppl in history had disabilities or major mental health illnesses that impacted their ability to function
If there was more understanding and support and less dismissal in the world the human population may be developmentally 50yrs ahead of where it is now
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I think it is to the usual standard. CPI was only 1.7% in September which is very bad luck, as its the lowest month for the entire year, but using Sept is normal for the DWP uplifts.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/d7g7/mm23
Pensions have the triple lock which means they always get the highest of earnings growth, 2.5% or CPI, earnings was the highest at 4.1% thats why they got 4.1%.
So my £8.70 is actually too high for the 2025/2026 uprate. If I redo the maths for 1.7% it becomes, £4.94 every 4 weeks or £1.24 (rounded up 1.235p) per week.
A double enhanced award at 1.7% is an extra £12.50 per 4 weeks or £3.13 per week, so yes I think £5 is too high, I am not sure what happened in your calculations. I guess you based it on higher historical inflation and enhanced awards.0 -
s are the worst. Last for days . Sciatica, cramps which no Dr found a reason for . All different types of pain in different areas . It sounds like St Thomas’s is a lot better than The Royal Free. They gave me therapy, once it didn’t work they forget about you . Apart from muscle relaxants and painkillers I’m left to it
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I find it interesting as apparently the people doing the random means testing UC reviews are remote workers, which is why it uses an upload system, so my first thought after learning that was to look for these jobs, but yep, they not advertised which of course is no surprise.
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so you want me to use more accurate figures
You know what I can do that but you will have to allow me a little time to gather the official figures that the dwp used to calculate things (I obviously can’t predict the next 3 years of inflation but I can look up the last 10 years to get the average.
I get touchy when someone challenges my maths but I also want to make Uber sure that I’m along the right lines even if it means proving myself wrong and I have no problem holding my hand up to an error
I hope you are understanding that I’ll continue using the current 3.6mil pip claimant figure in future calculations of 2026-2029 3yr freeze (no idea how that 3.6million number will rise or fall in that time and also I think I’ll confuse 99% of the forum if I incorporate that too)
let’s get some better more accurate figures 😉0 -
As far as I can tell they're only backtracking on freezing PIP, which while it wouldn't have been good was probably the least harmful part of their plans. The last I heard, they were standing strong on the rest which were planned cuts and big changes to eligibility criteria which reduce the amount of people even allowed PIP and LCWRA in the first place. Worrying stuff.
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I too have been reading up on what defines mental illness as a disability on the governments own website. They seem to be trying to say that depression is not that serious, hence trying to change the criteria for it on PIP. I'm not sure where they'll stand on these changes after reading the below link on Gov.UK, but other members on here definately have more of a legal mind than myself and I'm just clutching at straws, so to speak!!
https://www.gov.uk/when-mental-health-condition-becomes-disability
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Maybe we should screenshot this and see if they change it.
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The UN have been holding the UK to account for years, and will continue to do so:
And yes, PTSD and cPTSD are both seen as mental illnesses.
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"The Guardian" reports that Wes Streeting is under attack from MH experts. Moreover, the full welfare reform proposals appear not to have been seen by the whole Cabinet yet:
Wes Streeting’s comments that there is an “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions has prompted experts to warn against stigmatising and punishing people.
The health secretary also said too many people were being “written off”, as he was questioned about the government’s welfare measures. Speaking to broadcasters, Streeting was repeatedly challenged on whether ministers were leaving disabled people uninformed for too long about the plans – and whether they would freeze the personal independence payment (Pip) as part of their welfare package this week.
Streeting did not deny the government had dropped plans to freeze Pip after a major backlash from Labour MPs this week. There are still expected to be significant changes to Pip including making the disability payment – which is not dependent on work – harder to claim, as well as changes to employment support for those too sick or disabled to work.
Asked whether he thought overdiagnosis of some conditions was a problem, he told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I want to follow the evidence and I agree with that point about overdiagnosis.
“Here’s the other thing: mental wellbeing, illness, it’s a spectrum and I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis, but there’s too many people being written off and, to your point about treatment, too many people who just aren’t getting the support they need. So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.”
Minesh Patel, the associate director of policy and campaigns at the charity Mind, said Streeting was right to say that not enough people were getting support, and advised against stigmatising those with mental health problems.
He said: “Applying for benefits is not an easy process. People with a mental health problem must go through a lengthy and arduous assessment process, with decisions to not award support often overturned at appeal stage. We must also be extremely careful with the language around mental health diagnoses, which risks creating a climate of stigmatising people’s real experiences and undermining the opinions of medical professionals.”
Robert Howard, a professor of old age psychiatry at University College London, said “punishing” people would not get them back to work.
He said: “I’m really anxious that the kind of language that Wes Streeting was using this morning will be used to justify further disinvestment in mental health services.
“If we want to get people with mental illness back to work, the way to do that is to make sure they can access timely and effective treatment, and pretending that they haven’t got a real illness, it just doesn’t make me feel encouraged that the government will invest sufficiently in mental health services to help people get back.
“There’s so many young people with kind of chronic generalised anxiety who can’t work. The way to get them back to work isn’t to kind of shame them and punish them and tell them they’re not ill. The way to get them back to work is to make sure that they have access to proper psychological therapy and treatment so they can be fit and go back to work.”
The Guardian reported on Friday that ministers had threatened to resign over any potential freeze to Pip, which would require a vote in parliament. But there remains widespread concern from Labour MPs about how tight the criteria to claim the disability payment will be, and about the changes to employment and support allowance, which covers those who cannot work.
“I haven’t seen the full plans, they haven’t come to cabinet yet,” Streeting said. “But what I do know is the work and pensions secretary wants to support people who need help the most and we’ve got to make sure that there is a wider range of support, and that everyone’s playing their part, including me, because with those levels of illness, for example, if I can help people back to health, in many cases I’ll be helping them back to work and that’s what we’ll do.
“I haven’t seen the proposals but you’ve seen the briefing, you’ve seen the speculation, I think the moral of the story is wait for the plans.”
Streeting said he did not come into politics to take money from the most vulnerable in society but that there was still a need for reform. “We want to support people who are the poorest and most vulnerable to make sure they’ve got dignity, independence and great quality of life,” he said.
“Without that support from an active state, I wouldn’t be here talking to you. The challenge we’ve got [is] we’ve got one in eight young people in this country not in education, employment or in training. We’ve got one in 10 people who are off work, sick, and 3 million people shut out of the labour market because of long-term illness.
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Wes Streeting's descent into ableism isn't surprising.
He has been spouting transphobic drivel for some time (he deliberately extended the puberty blockers ban for trans kids based on prejudice, effectively condemning them to death, if not the black market). And this is in spite of meeting trans kids and their families weeks before making the ban pernament. He is a monster.
source:
Transphobia and ableism go hand in hand (and a trans persons' mental illnesses/neurodivergence are commonly weaponised by bigoted doctors to deny healthcare). It was obvious Wes would support disability benefit cuts/eugenics the moment he started attacking trans kids' autonomy.
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Hope you don't mind, Iv'e found the document you were referring to as your link doesn't show the whole document. It's supposed to be the easy read option (obviously for people like myself!!)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/easy-read-the-equality-act-making-equality-real
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"3 million people shut out of the labour market because of long-term illness."
Okay so suddenly they won't no longer have the illness??
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Despite really not feeling it's in my best interest I asked for a diagnosis appt as I've had lifelong MH issues that have prevented me from working for 16 years. I was told that there were no diagnostic services available in my local NHS trust anymore, my therapist can write me a letter stating her opinion on my probable diagnoses but that I could not get a psychiatrist to confirm.
So what am I supposed to do now? I get LCWRA & PIP for MH, with the support of my NHS therapist, but with no formal diagnosis. If Labour's proposals are to be believed, I will lose both. If that happens I will be homeless because I won't be able to afford my housing costs, never mind the things in my life that PIP covers which are the structures that keep me from unaliving.
What are they doing? Do they know what effect this is going to have on us? I'm feeling very lost right now.
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So Wes streeting pathetic excuse was a thousand people a day are signing up for Pip, which is the size of Manchester.
Any excuse to put the boot in with more lies
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They seem to think you'll be fully cured if you have a job and feel like you are contributing to society
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100%. Even when there are well-intentioned staff within services (ie. PIP assessors, employers), there's too many ableist decision makers that will destroy progress or cause obstructions. They don't understand, many refuse to learn, and some will use their jobs to go on a power trip, knowing that the DWP and other organisations will protect them as long as they can.
Also as an autistic woman looking for a remote job so I can move abroad and travel (while making life a lot more accessible), UC just don't have the resources to help. Ironically that will mean giving up my PIP, but at least the lower cost of living will offset the costs!
(Although I know how privileged I am I can even consider that, i know a lot of people here cannot).
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