Access to DWP bank accounts

Lol yes, you're right - a splinter! Obvs that was the word i learned first from my mum but, going to school in Oldham, i still remember getting a question mark next to it when i wrote up my 'news' as a 6 yr old!

The teacher told me she had never heard of spelk and it was a splinter. I have used splinter ever since but never forgotton spelk.

I thought it was a high figure @Ranald but numbers aren't my strong point, to the point i don't even know how many zeros a trillion has!

100% that's the figure quoted on Peston last night - about 20 mins from the programme's end.

Of course, employers were literally crying out for an army of disabled employees!

My feeling is they will be looking at those who have become disabled by socio-economic factors - depression, anxiety, neurodivergence which has rocketed in modern times, the sorts of conditions which can be ameliorated by environment.

As a non disabled person myself, i can certainly confirm that there are people out there thinking 'what benefits can i claim' as soon as neurodivergence is raised as an issue in their child - and no wonder when families are struggling in desperate poverty.

Some sickness and disability in the population currently must be attributable to the state the UK is in and my feeling is this is where the government will look. Though of course that means massive investment in the social sector - not exactly a saving.

I do apologise if my comment has upset you @Catherine21 - it wasn't meant to cause offense and i do have insight into how serious mental illness can be - i myself have been hospitalised with psychosis and have received ECT treatment and my Mum was a suicide due to a psychosomatic illness.

I don't think the government will be looking at claimants like yourself at all - or any claimant that has a long term severe mental health issue.

In fact i don't know what they'll be doing as I am not in government (obvs!!)

I have mentioned on Scope before an experience I had where i joined a popular parenting forum after my 16 year old overdosed. Following that OD, we did get her privately assessed for autism as we have many family members with autism and CAMHS were so useless(wanting to start her on anti-depressants straight away) when she'd not been diagnosed with depression and actually they'd never spent any amount of time finding out what the problem was.

When i went onto this parenting forum and mentioned she had been diagnosed as autistic, fellow posters were immediately advising me to apply for PIP for her!!

Even when i strongly said this was not a path she was anywhere near going down, they continued until i gave up and closed my account. It became clear to me that the parents I was talking to on there were not doing anything that might help their young people get back into society or back to school - they were at a loss, weren't getting any support from services or their kids' schools and are now stuck with teens at home full time, in mental health crisis, on meds and going down the benefit route. Egged on by each other.

Now - my daughter was fortunate in that we could afford a private diagnosis and that, with us having experience of both autism and anti depressants, we knew right away not to get her on anti ds and to address the root cause.

18 months down the line she is much happier out of school, at college and working at weekends. She will be ok as long as she guards against another autistic burnout.

She could have easily started down a long path of medication and battling on never knowing she was autistic, dropping out of education and work. And - suppose she had come from a poor home where money was tight - and suppose i had got her onto pip - she'd be another long term claimant at home full time with a life-long condition. We can do better than this for our young folks - and all folks. Surely!

Please don't get me wrong about anti depressants either-my hubby has been on citalopram for many years and he'd likely not be here without them. Marvellous for depression. Just not as a first line treatment for my daughter. She was never depressed.

So yes - having experienced a severe psychosis first hand - i do not at all under estimate the devastating effect it can have on one's life.

Apologies again

@Ranald - 250 000 million is equal to a ¼ trillion, right?

That is the figure for ALL social security spending, including pensions, which explains why so high. But it is widely quoted as being the figure so it must be right. Lots of internet sources have that quoted - i just picked out this one as it looks to be from a reputable source.