There's a thread on reddit right now where, as usual, people are claiming that it's too easy to get disability benefits, all you have to do is say "I'm sad, I'm depressed," and you are instantly given benefits. Which is the complete opposite of reality. Someone wrote a response about how difficult it actually is to claim disability in the UK, and I think this response is brilliant and really shows just how hard it is. The response focuses specifically on mental health claims, but applying for physical health is every bit as difficult as this too:
Hi, Welfare Rights Adviser for over 10 years here, probably over a 1000 first tier tribunal appeals under my belt at this point, dozens of upper tier tribunal appeals also. I help clients with every aspect of a claim from start to finish.
Your second point could not be more wrong, and gets parroted on here like it's gospel by people who don't have a single clue about any of this.
You absolutely cannot just turn up and say "I have depression, give me money please ooh I'm so sad"... The way everyone talks on here makes it sound like the DWP response to that is, "well we can't just accuse someone of lying, they must be telling the truth, we have no choice but to give them infinite money and a car"
Someone with a mental illness wouldn't just have to fake it to a DWP assessor, they would have to fake it to multiple healthcare professionals throughout many years.
DWP can, and do, very frequently reject reported restrictions claimants have because there's no evidence. Often unreasonably so.
If you have no diagnosis they'll say go away you have no diagnosis
If you have a diagnosis they'll say go away you're only on a first line medication and not under a specialist
If you are under a specialist they'll say go away you have no history of self harm or suicide attempts
If you do have a history of self harm and suicide attempts they'll say go away that was 5 months ago you're fine now
If you tried to commit suicide yesterday they'll say, actually you managed to finish high school twenty years ago, that must have taken a lot of drive and motivation go away.
Last month I had a case up for a hearing where the appellant suffered from severe depression, and had been in receipt of PIP for 8+ years, with 4 reviews in that time. This time he was given 0 points despite having been sectioned twice since the last review as he was a danger to himself .
While waiting for a hearing he hanged himself from his bedroom door using the cord from his dressing gown.
I informed the DWP of this, expecting them to lapse the appeal, give him his old award back, and give his grieving family some money for a funeral with the backdated payment.
They refused.
Three months later we have the hearing, appellant is represented by his mum and dad who are in floods of tears the moment they walk in.
The hearing lasts 1 minute, in which the judge simply apologises to the family, and launches into an absolute tirade against the DWP (who wisely chose not to send anyone to this particular hearing) for ever stopping his benefits in the first place.
This is the reality, this is the system people on here are advocating should be made crueler to those with mental illness
