Why are ADHD benefits in the firing line?

[FunStork]

I've been seeing this a lot recently.

Feels like the media is very much against ADHD benefits claims.

Why is that the one that seems to be getting all the focus?

Another one from BBC Verify tonight:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24ym9yd8p6o

Is this an orchestrated campaign?

A diagnosis of anything won’t get you pip though (except if you have terminal cancer and two doctors sign to say so).

pip is all about how your disabilities affect your daily functioning. Having medical documents saying your disability helps to evidence what you are saying but the form has 94 questions which are all about what you can do/csn’t do

eg can you walk
can you go upstairs
can you prepare food

etc etc .

Same here! I haven’t and won’t apply for DLA for my son, but have heard this exact thing from two different friends of mine.

Ok, well I’ve discussed it with him at length and that’s what he told me. ADHD is the only condition he has which affects his ability to complete his day to day tasks and he receives PIP. He actually got declined the first time round and appealed and was successful.

I'm not saying he doesn’t ’deserve’ it btw, in case you think i am.

Because of the reasons of abuse as others have highlighted. We cannot afford to have many young people who do not work and don’t expect to have to. As a nation we compete with others and do not exist in splendid isolation. We need to be productive.
Having a significant number of young people who do not work is bad for their future and the nations. Burnham may well address with programmes and employment initiatives. But parents and young people have to want success too.

The clothing replacement understandably comes out of my child's DLA. Because them destroying clothing constantly is part of their disability. Craft supplies were at a different time in my life before children. My hobbies are now filling out EHCP paperwork and running around after my child. :|

Of course you do 🙄🙄
To get the highest rate for mobilty they would hsve to prove the ADHD rendered him virtually unable ie behaviour so severe hevis unable to travel anywhere indpendently
Or severe mental impairment
And one of the criteria is that the child needs someone with them they whole time they are awake to keep thrm safe
Both routes would be very visible across all settings.

I agree with you. A lot of people will see this and think that if someone as successful as Sara Davies has ADHD it really can't be that bad. It would have been better for her to keep this to herself.

Thats fine your son msy well not qualify anyway aa it goes off need.

We dont it goes off need not diagnosis HTH.

So true

And am coming at it from an angle what I think my child might have it, we have significant struggles. And am thinking of getting her assessed. Although I have no plan at all to claim benefits for it

Because it's one diagnosis that increased so massively in recent years, and there is a systemic incentive to diagnosing.

I understand why adhd numbers are going up.

I suppose i didnt really think that automatically mean pip claims for adhd would go up. Theres meant to be 2.6 million people with adhd (although that includes undiagnosed people tbf ) and only a handful (100,000) have claimed pip.

I know a diagnosis is good evidence for pip but it isnt meant to need a diagnosis and the level of need for a high claim should hsve had other evidence along the way if that makes sense?

I think it is probably still under diagnosed tbh.
I work with people every day that I can imagine were damn poster children for ADHD and I often think their lives might have turned out different had they been diagnosed when younger. Some seek diagnosis, most are so beaten down by the system they just accept they are 'bad'.
I meet parents of adult children, from ALL walks of life, who are on their knees after years of trouble at their door.

As for DLA and PIP, believe it or not, it is incredibly hard to get. So for the few that will be swindling it, because there will always be some that manage it, I think the system works pretty well. Barring the ridiculous wait times for claims to process etc.

DLA is usually reassessed before 16 too unless they have been awarded until 16.

This review doesn't contradict anything I've said

How is the need assessed?

ADHD benefits should be under the spotlight.
The UK is not special. We don't appear to have significantly higher levels ADHD or other disabilities than many other similar countries, yet we seem to have much higher levels of worklessness, people unable to stay in work, children unable to attend school and an acceptance that this it normal and reasonable.

Why is that?

Other countries somehow manage to achieve much higher employment rates among people with ADHD and other disabilities. They don't simply make endless workplace adjustments or rely on long-term benefits. The focus is much more on supporting people to achieve and on personal responsibility.

Yes, we should support people who genuinely can't work. But we should also be looking much harder at why ADHD has worse outcomes in the UK than in similar countries.

Lers hope ADHD benefits are just the first benefit.

Why are so many diagnosed as adults then?

This too.

I would imagine (but you can’t do this from the data the government make available) that the majority of those 100,000 people have other issues as well.

autism/adhd is a common combination and many autistic people who would previously not have pursued another diagnosis (or their parents pursued it for them) are now dual diagnosed.

in addition people with adhd can have heart attacks, strokes, MS etc just like the rest of us.

my dd who has adhd is dual diagnosed with autism and adhd and she also has an auto immune disorder that means she uses a wheelchair.

Adhd is "underdiagnosed" because the criteria have been dramatically widened..... narrow them back & voila.

For some people yes, sadly my dc are not able to take them as it was considered too risky due to cardiovascular issues.

I agree with PP. I have a disabled child, and the DLA we receive hasn't come close to covering the fuel costs of the 1000+ miles we've driven to and from her 15 hospital appointments in the last 2 months, or the wear and tear on the cars. It doesn't cover the days of unpaid leave (because I have no AL left) spent sat by my child's bedside in paediatric intensive care after her 4th major surgery in less than 2 years. It doesn't cover the £300+ extra I spent in April alone on extra child care fees for my older child whilst the youngest was in hospital. So no, I don't think the state should be covering the cost of lost coats and gloves.

So you're happy to be ignorant. But it won't stop you loudly proclaiming your precious opinion. Cool.

Iit is certainly true that the diagnostic criteria for both ADHD and autism have broadened. That does not mean they are inappropriately broad though. It is due to the increased scientific understanding of both conditions. Most of the knowledge of ADHD in the past was based on studying boys. It usually presents very differently in girls.

While most of the traits, such as distractability, are common in the general population, people with an ADHD diagnosis suffer with significant impairment from these traits and have done all their lives. There is a difference between occasionally struggling with focus or organization, and having such severe difficulties that they are pervasive and disabling.

Be pleased that more of us are getting the support we desperately need rather than being dismissed as lazy, difficult, messy, addicted, spendthrifts or whatever.