The disability benefits bill is rising fast. But the bigger question is why more than half a million young claimants are recorded with psychiatric disorders as their main condition.
Let me caveat this by saying I receive PIP. I am profoundly physically disabled full time power chair user and at the moment fighting to keep the use of my arms and my eyesight.
But you tell me how your average mental health condition should qualify? When the criteria is so rigid.
Needing help getting in and out of bed. Needing help washing, dressing, cooking, or need constant supervision and it has to be for 9 months or longer that you have been like that.
How does your average depressive fit that criteria or anxious person? If someone is so depressed they don't get out of bed, it never lasts that long.
Really appreciate you sharing your experience, and I’m sorry to hear what you’re going through. The point of the piece isn’t to say “mild” anxiety or short‑term low mood should get PIP – the criteria are, as you say, pretty strict and focused on long‑term functional limits.
What the figures show is that over 500,000 16–29‑year‑olds now meet that bar with a psychiatric disorder as their main condition. That either means much more severe, long‑lasting mental illness among the young, or big shifts in diagnosis and how the system is operating. The argument here is that ministers should be explaining and addressing that, rather than just talking about the bill.
My understanding is the Govt doesn't give out the primary cause for receipt of benefits. Someone may suffer from a variety of ailments, and anyone of them might be mentioned but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the one which gets them enough points for the award. Why this would be I couldn't say.
One of our local pubs has a table that some people refer to as the ‘PIP’ table?????
Mid morning arrivals, until mid evening, same faces seven days a week.
People are aghast at this, as they are mainly citing their mental health, depression, anxiety, etc. Funnily, none of them ever refer to their blatant alcohol abuse.
Isn't it a bit more like this? Let's take depression, since you specifically bring it up;
The DWP PIP process does not have specific questions just for depression. Instead, the "How your disability affects you" claim form uses the same set of 22 functional assessment questions for all physical and mental health conditions. These assess how your condition impacts your ability to carry out everyday tasks. You will need to explain how depression affects your daily functioning—such as your energy, motivation, and concentration—within these standard categories. Daily Living Questions For depression, you should particularly focus on how your mood, lack of motivation, or poor concentration impact the following areas: Preparing food: Do you struggle to focus on cooking, forget to turn off appliances due to distraction, or lack the motivation to prepare meals? Eating and drinking: Do you ever forget or refuse to eat? Do you need someone to remind or prompt you to take in nutrition? Managing treatments: Do you forget to take your medication or need someone to help supervise you taking it due to a lack of interest or suicidal ideation?Washing and bathing: Do you lack the motivation to get out of bed, wash, or maintain your personal hygiene? Dressing and undressing: Do you struggle to change out of your nightclothes or need prompting to wear clean clothes? Communicating verbally: Do you have difficulty expressing yourself or understanding others due to brain fog or low mood?Reading and understanding: Do you struggle to comprehend instructions, bills, or information due to poor concentration? Engaging with other people: Do you struggle to mix with others or miss social cues because you withdraw from social situations? Mobility Questions These questions assess your ability to navigate outdoors and get around: Planning and following journeys: Are you unable to plan a route or travel to unfamiliar places because it causes overwhelming psychological distress or anxiety? Do you need someone to go with you? Moving around: Do you struggle to walk certain distances safely, and does your mental health or medication cause physical symptoms (like extreme fatigue or heaviness) that impact this?
Based purely on a few young people I know, getting access to a diagnosis of mental illness is a popular way for parents to excuse school-aged misbehaviour. A child can get a diagnosis of ADHD or broad-spectrum autism if a parent is forceful enough. The school then can't stop poor behaviour because the disruptive child is "special". That diagnosis carries on forever. If you fail to get it at school, you can always bang on at your GP about your inability to get up in the morning or you can go to Harley Street and pay for a diagnosis. Once you have your bit of paper, you can get your PIP and you become unemployable but also unsackable. You can demand staff meetings are held in coffee shops because "formal situations make you uncomfortable", you can take days off work without giving notice because "you woke up with a sense of having a bad day". It goes on and on because a system has developed whereby, make enough fuss and you can get treated like a special princess. Young people are indoctrinated into the system at a very early age and just move through it. To the detriment of people who actually need help with proper illness and disability. Mental health diagnoses are destroying schools because every one plays the system. The very few children with real mental health and the children who are well behaved get pushed to the side. Same applies to adults.
"A child can get a diagnosis of ADHD or broad-spectrum autism if a parent is forceful enough." Really? Got any evidence, have we? "If you fail to get it at school, you can always bang on at your GP about your inability to get up in the morning or you can go to Harley Street and pay for a diagnosis." Really? Got any evidence, have we?
Actually yes! Obviously only anecdotal because I'm a nobody. Friend works in a preschool nursery where parents rock up with a disruptive child who gets assessed by a healthcare lady. Easier to give the child a label than to tell the parents they need to brush up their parenting skills. And my 30 year old niece, disappointed with her life, found being organised difficult and couldn't get her GP to agree she was "special" so she went to Harley Street and paid a few bob to get her autism/ADHD diagnosis
that's interesting. My niece got her piece of paper a couple of years ago now. Obviously, the children at preschool and at school get assessed by social services and the NHS.
Years ago the "Doctor in the House" novels wrote about how a person with nothing really wrong with them who simply kept turning up got sent to every department under the sun and finally got sent to the psychiatric department where they would be seen on a regular basis for years.
I suspect a modernised version of that still continues except they get given a diagnosis of mental ill health and then wave it around to get money, exemption from work and/or unsackability. This is obviously a problem for the minority of people with proper mental health issues.
Let me caveat this by saying I receive PIP. I am profoundly physically disabled full time power chair user and at the moment fighting to keep the use of my arms and my eyesight.
But you tell me how your average mental health condition should qualify? When the criteria is so rigid.
Needing help getting in and out of bed. Needing help washing, dressing, cooking, or need constant supervision and it has to be for 9 months or longer that you have been like that.
How does your average depressive fit that criteria or anxious person? If someone is so depressed they don't get out of bed, it never lasts that long.
Really appreciate you sharing your experience, and I’m sorry to hear what you’re going through. The point of the piece isn’t to say “mild” anxiety or short‑term low mood should get PIP – the criteria are, as you say, pretty strict and focused on long‑term functional limits.
What the figures show is that over 500,000 16–29‑year‑olds now meet that bar with a psychiatric disorder as their main condition. That either means much more severe, long‑lasting mental illness among the young, or big shifts in diagnosis and how the system is operating. The argument here is that ministers should be explaining and addressing that, rather than just talking about the bill.
My understanding is the Govt doesn't give out the primary cause for receipt of benefits. Someone may suffer from a variety of ailments, and anyone of them might be mentioned but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the one which gets them enough points for the award. Why this would be I couldn't say.
But don't forget that t hey are now completely revising their take on mental health esp those two conditions.
One of our local pubs has a table that some people refer to as the ‘PIP’ table?????
Mid morning arrivals, until mid evening, same faces seven days a week.
People are aghast at this, as they are mainly citing their mental health, depression, anxiety, etc. Funnily, none of them ever refer to their blatant alcohol abuse.
Funny too how they can afford it if they're on benefits, which are miserly.
Isn't it a bit more like this? Let's take depression, since you specifically bring it up;
The DWP PIP process does not have specific questions just for depression. Instead, the "How your disability affects you" claim form uses the same set of 22 functional assessment questions for all physical and mental health conditions. These assess how your condition impacts your ability to carry out everyday tasks. You will need to explain how depression affects your daily functioning—such as your energy, motivation, and concentration—within these standard categories. Daily Living Questions For depression, you should particularly focus on how your mood, lack of motivation, or poor concentration impact the following areas: Preparing food: Do you struggle to focus on cooking, forget to turn off appliances due to distraction, or lack the motivation to prepare meals? Eating and drinking: Do you ever forget or refuse to eat? Do you need someone to remind or prompt you to take in nutrition? Managing treatments: Do you forget to take your medication or need someone to help supervise you taking it due to a lack of interest or suicidal ideation?Washing and bathing: Do you lack the motivation to get out of bed, wash, or maintain your personal hygiene? Dressing and undressing: Do you struggle to change out of your nightclothes or need prompting to wear clean clothes? Communicating verbally: Do you have difficulty expressing yourself or understanding others due to brain fog or low mood?Reading and understanding: Do you struggle to comprehend instructions, bills, or information due to poor concentration? Engaging with other people: Do you struggle to mix with others or miss social cues because you withdraw from social situations? Mobility Questions These questions assess your ability to navigate outdoors and get around: Planning and following journeys: Are you unable to plan a route or travel to unfamiliar places because it causes overwhelming psychological distress or anxiety? Do you need someone to go with you? Moving around: Do you struggle to walk certain distances safely, and does your mental health or medication cause physical symptoms (like extreme fatigue or heaviness) that impact this?
Vaccinations of infants, then through life e.g. aluminium as an adjuvant. Diet, food additives over the years. Convenience foods.
Perhaps we should find out what DWP forecasts are based upon before giving them any credence.
Based purely on a few young people I know, getting access to a diagnosis of mental illness is a popular way for parents to excuse school-aged misbehaviour. A child can get a diagnosis of ADHD or broad-spectrum autism if a parent is forceful enough. The school then can't stop poor behaviour because the disruptive child is "special". That diagnosis carries on forever. If you fail to get it at school, you can always bang on at your GP about your inability to get up in the morning or you can go to Harley Street and pay for a diagnosis. Once you have your bit of paper, you can get your PIP and you become unemployable but also unsackable. You can demand staff meetings are held in coffee shops because "formal situations make you uncomfortable", you can take days off work without giving notice because "you woke up with a sense of having a bad day". It goes on and on because a system has developed whereby, make enough fuss and you can get treated like a special princess. Young people are indoctrinated into the system at a very early age and just move through it. To the detriment of people who actually need help with proper illness and disability. Mental health diagnoses are destroying schools because every one plays the system. The very few children with real mental health and the children who are well behaved get pushed to the side. Same applies to adults.
"A child can get a diagnosis of ADHD or broad-spectrum autism if a parent is forceful enough." Really? Got any evidence, have we? "If you fail to get it at school, you can always bang on at your GP about your inability to get up in the morning or you can go to Harley Street and pay for a diagnosis." Really? Got any evidence, have we?
Actually yes! Obviously only anecdotal because I'm a nobody. Friend works in a preschool nursery where parents rock up with a disruptive child who gets assessed by a healthcare lady. Easier to give the child a label than to tell the parents they need to brush up their parenting skills. And my 30 year old niece, disappointed with her life, found being organised difficult and couldn't get her GP to agree she was "special" so she went to Harley Street and paid a few bob to get her autism/ADHD diagnosis
Thanks for your response. This is what gave me pause (and still does, I was thinking this is law now but maybe it's not yet) https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/07/09/dwp-adhd-diagnosis/
that's interesting. My niece got her piece of paper a couple of years ago now. Obviously, the children at preschool and at school get assessed by social services and the NHS.
Years ago the "Doctor in the House" novels wrote about how a person with nothing really wrong with them who simply kept turning up got sent to every department under the sun and finally got sent to the psychiatric department where they would be seen on a regular basis for years.
I suspect a modernised version of that still continues except they get given a diagnosis of mental ill health and then wave it around to get money, exemption from work and/or unsackability. This is obviously a problem for the minority of people with proper mental health issues.
Is this a UK problem or is it happening in other developed countries?