Are the DWP and government trying to kill us all off?

No, but Nature is in the process of killing Neurotypicality off: its kingdom's and empires may all band together, but Nature is the ultimate dictator. As you may know, I'm referring to evolution of which the necessary modification to preserve human lineage I shall now explain:

Neurotypicality exhibits behavioural extroversion which was once necessary for our survival as it caused us to form safety in numbers prior to the advent of a technological world, but now that said world is here, behavioural extroversion needs to go extinct for it fuels technological tribalism: Neurotypicality continues to identify with imaginary borders and build ever more powerful nuclear weaponry. This obviously means humanity is becoming increasingly vulnerable. The only evolutionary modification to overcome the threat of technological tribalism is not more limbs, webbed feet or some other nonsensical feature but an alien neurology that expresses behavioural introversion (not the same as social introversion): Autism. Such a future will see humanity thinking as individuals rather than as groups thus the countries will become as mere coordinates which in turn will see an end to the threat of technological tribalism. The growing Autism population will be considered an epidemic by the Neurotypical majority for they're wired to fear that which jeopardizes group sameness and will be unable or unwilling to accept the possibility that "weirdos" are Nature's future select. In essence, the Autism epidemic is evolution seen through prejudice eyes.

For more information regarding my evolutionary hypothesis, check out my book on Amazon called Autism: Epidemic of Evolution? By me G. C. Timbrell.

It wouldn't surprise me if they were. I agree at least Hitler was honest in his feelings, Communism is the biggest killer of people. I just wish the government would be up front about their genocide!!!

I have similar problems.   

Also debt and multiple advisors, setting up action plans for me.  Do this, do that.

To increase my income, one advice is get a job, other advice is claim extra benefits.

Gaining employment is difficult because of long periods of unemployment in my past through both physical and mental illness.  And great difficulty at interviews explaining my situation etc etc.

Other advice from one advisor was to claim PIP and ESA.  Other advisors laughed.  Their opinion is that I have no chance.  Because I have a degree, I can travel independently, I'm physically fit, good personal hygiene etc etc.  I should find it easy to find work.  ESA and PIP are out of the question.

most responses on here seem to pertain to Esa or Pip applications and neglect to cover other things like JSA and the limited support job coaches at the jobcenter provide. time and time again i am informed that i am high-functioning with asd by my family as an official diagnosis from when i was a child. The reality of alot of people with high-functioning autism or aspergers who arent able to get esa or pip is because their condition enables them to look for work like any other person but at the same time is unable to gain work through proper channels unless they know people and have influence with the addtion of difficulties with communication pre-employment and during employment. I consider myself one of those people who have been failed by the dwp and find myself having to prove myself to the jobcentre that i am willing to work and not this lazy unemployable individual who has nothing going for them.

Thanks Alice!

Rip Van Wrinkle said:

I guess the stress of pretending to be coping wears many of us down eventually.

This is a sad truth, especially when we don't know whats making us feel the way we do. Getting a diagnosis is a big help. Life changing in fact. I was terrified that I had Schizophrenia with the sensory issues I had. The fear of going to bed as me and waking up as Dave or something was ruining my life. I was good at masking it too but every few years I'd lose my ***. I had a raging drink and drug problem too. High functioning and good at functioning high. My diagnosis came at the right time. Luckily my physical health is intact and I'm beginning to learn strategies to cope with my mental health.

Rip Van Wrinkle said:

I need to leave past diagnoseses in the past.

I'm getting there but sometimes the fear creeps in. The more I learn about my Autism the more I learn that there is nothing to fear. There are a few psychiatrists I think about punching in the face though! I need to get off that *** though! As you say we cannot change the past!

I'd say get your diagnosis report. It does help with access to resources like adult support and more importantly, relating to the DWP matter, access to benefits you are entitled to.

There are a lot of resources on this site that will guide you to stuff in this area. For some reason the rest of the site is running kind of strange tonight and it won't access the directory. I'll have a look in a while and see if it's back up. If not I'll put the links up tomorrow.

You have your diagnosis, you are having difficulties. Don't be afraid to use your diagnosis to help you help yourself!

That’s a good idea. I didn’t even know I could do that with the doctor. Once I am calm I will look into whether there is any local advisor I can approach. Thanks. 

I suffer from extreme emotions so I know how difficult it can be when you're incredibly stressed. I'm not sure about my local area but in Derbyshire, the county council has a benefits adviser who can help people like you to sort out you're claim so that might be an avenue to explore. I was assessed in Oct last year and received my report in Dec, so hopefully, you won't have long to wait.

If you are considering applying for PIP have you considered going to your GP in the meantime to get them to officially record some of the difficulties you have that specifically relate to the PIP criteria . Then you could get a print out of your notes and send off the relevant sections as extra evidence with your claim. I can't help with ESA unfortunately as I've never applied.

I agree. 

Thanks Cloudy Mountains. Love the name by the way. I guess the stress of pretending to be coping wears many of us down eventually. I need to forget the DWP for now and concentrate of my friends. I need to leave past diagnoseses in the past. I cannot change the past. We are all individuals, not bound by labels. NT is just another label, so I don’t usually use it.

Thanks for telling me your experiences. I think I should find out if there’s any support groups in London for independent adults. I’ve been diagnosed as on the Autistic Spectrum, but as yet have no written evidence or report. Trying to get hold of that. I’m sure things will work out if I’m patient... or rather I’m trying to convince myself they will. Thanks again. 

Thanks for offering advice and telling me your story. Sorry if I was OTT previously and horribly unfair to you. To clarify, my problems are with the DWP regarding ESA. They won’t tell me what the problem is. It has got much worse than that. Nobody will tell me what the problem is. I simply cannot cope with it any more. I am going to try to not do anything until September. I simply cannot even get any communication. I’ll be fine on my savings for some time. If I knew what the problem is I could sort it out. Thanks. I actually thought I don’t qualify for PIP because I am independent. Maybe I should get the forms after all. That might be easier when I finally get a written ASD report. That too is taking a long time, despite requesting it. I was assessed for ASD in May. 

If you need PIP to apply for other/higher level of benefits and you don't know how to deal with the problem of applying for this, as well as ESA, have you considered starting a thread on here asking for people to explain what they did when they were successfully awarded the benefit? That might give you some ideas of how to approach the issue. 

I didn't have any help when I applied and didn't even think about aksing for any as I tend to be a bit of a loan wolf. I have noticed other people have been to see CAB and there is a benefits and work website that a lot of people have found useful.

Although people suggest going to work, having a degree etc hampered their application I'm not sure the degree of ability effects claims as much as how the application is written. For example, I work 30 hours a week as a teacher, have a masters degree, manage my own home etc. This doesn't mean I don't struggle. Someone I used to work with applied for PIP for his son. His son won't leave the house alone so it could be suggested his needs are higher than mine. His dad left a lot of detail of his application and didn't submit any evidence and his son's claim was rejected.

I noticed another poster said they sent in hundreds of pages of evidence. This is only my opinion but I think that's excessive and could have made it difficult for the assessor to find the relevant points, especially if these weren't pointed out by the applicant. I always try and make things as clear as possible, including highlighting the relevant sentences on a document. Below is an example of how I'd answer a question on the PIP form...

I need prompting with taking nutrition as xxxxx. This is highlighted in my ASD report on page xxx, as well as the OH referral dated xxx.

Good luck with your application/s!

I find it to be extremely stressful to have my livelihood depend on the whims of bureaucracy.

Cassandro said:

Back in 2012, Rethink commissioned a poll of 1000 GPs: 84% said they have patients who have developed mental health problems due to the WCA; 21% said they have patients who had suicidal thoughts as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the WCA; 14% had patients who has self-harmed as a result; 6% of GPs have patients who have attempted or committed suicide as a result.

With unavoidable stats like that things have to change. I knew things were bad but wow.

Ringorin said:

As for figuring out NT - I don't like the term neurotypical. It's easy to see a line between us and them when the DWP are giving you stress, but real people are nuanced whether they have ASD or not.

I like your way of thinking. I had a very stressful time after being diagnosed, a bit of an identity crisis. When I first came across the whole neurotypical/neurodiverse thing I thought about it for a while and just thought no. It's a scary world when you are conditioned to think 99% of the world is the "other".

The people who are the "problem" are the people who are the "problem" in my mind. NT or not. Sometimes I see and hear stuff and if you replaced NT with a race, gender or sexual orientation it would be frowned upon.

Yes, NT's are classified as different but there are lots of them and as you say there is nuance in everyone. There are also lots of levels of compassion and common ground. 

I know your frustrations. Trust me. 30 years of being told I was (insert any other mental condition other than Autism) nearly drove me to the edge of suicide. It certainly drove me to a long period of substance abuse. I was relieved to find out I was Autistic after it all set in.

I was diagnosed late myself but I got in contact with my local Autism center and basically told them I didn't know what to do and I was muddling through myself. It's a scary thing to be left to cope with alone. I found that they were very helpful and still are. I'm still trying to make a new life and learn to cope after a few years.

Don't give up. You have turned a corner, you know you have Autism. With some support you can build a new life for yourself. I'm having struggles myself with mental health services but now I know what my challenges are they can't impose their misinformed practices on me.

Try and find a support network in your local area. Don't give up on people. I've found some really helpful NT's with great understanding and most friends have been great. I know some of them can be really stupid and ignorant but I've met some people on the spectrum who have been quite deplorable too. The worst thing you can do is start to see the rest of the world as an adversary. The people and situations are the things that are adverse, not the world.

I've been in your shoes. The walls closing in and no-one seems to care but I decided to use the resources I could access with my diagnosis. Don't give up.

All the best. I hope things fall into place for you.

Thanks Ringorin. Being able to vent and realising it goes wrong for others, and that they saw it through IS a huge help. I’ll stop going on about it now. I’ve survived THIS long after all. Just overloaded with can’t cope feelings. At least we have rain right now. 

Sorry to hear that. I'm lucky not to have ever had a Work Capability Assessment but do know second-hand how stressful it can be to have your livelihood depend on the whims of bureaucracy.

Back in 2012, Rethink commissioned a poll of 1000 GPs: 84% said they have patients who have developed mental health problems due to the WCA; 21% said they have patients who had suicidal thoughts as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the WCA; 14% had patients who has self-harmed as a result; 6% of GPs have patients who have attempted or committed suicide as a result.

This is supported by Barr et al (2015), "‘First, do no harm’: are disability assessments associated with adverse trends in mental health? A longitudinal ecological study." which suggests a figure equivalent to 27% of those assessed in 2013 developed mental health problems - I found the strength of evidence from proper epidemiologists there pretty startling. Also a 2017 study reported 'discrimination is built into the WCA' and suggested the mental health problems were long-term.  The process can be harder to navigate for autistic people, and of course they have an increased risk of suicide anyway.

So why does such a harmful policy persist? Is it because people can't think of anything better to judge need and think it is reformable? Is it the difficulty in altering the contracts with the providers?

Are they trying to kill us all off? It's a valid question. I don't think it's so deliberate. However, there are a minority of influential people who are complacent about rising health inequality, and either justify to themselves that disability is self inflicted, or have some unspoken delusion about suicide and mental health problems being 'natural selection at work'. If those types of views were challenged more openly, would things change?

Speaking of small groups of committed citizens: DPAC https://dpac.uk.net/ ?

Whilst I fully comprehend many claims go through with ease, particularly when PIP is awarded and also for people who don’t live entirely unsupported and alone, for many others it doesn’t run smoothly. Many go smoothly, many don’t. My problem stems from the fact I didn’t apply for PIP when DLA was abolished. Also there are degrees of ability. This seriously affects claims. 

Other people won’t have any problems. It really is more a case that I don’t know how to deal with the problem and nobody is going to do it for me. That should not be a problem for you to understand. Maybe it is. I’ve always had to fight my corner. Nobody else will. If you have help in your corner I’m happy for you. Just don’t assume we all do, please. Sorry if I’ve gone OTT, but this is how I actually feel right now. I simply cannot cope with the system. 

Thanks Ade. I don’t want to claim PIP. My DLA was stopped as it’s been discontinued by them, and I told them I don’t want to apply for PIP. Now even ESA is a problem. I could kick myself! Apply for PIP otherwise it seems other problems arise. Your wife will be a huge help in your claim. 

I do have limited savings to live on. I’m just really stressed out with it all. I’ll be okay.

Thanks Ringorin. I need to decompress and just ignore them. I do have limited savings to live on. It’s more about frustration and the blatant lies they tell. I’m annoyed I am so gullible. I guess when everyone treats you as weird your whole life then you find out why in middle age, it’s easy to feel the backlash. I really did think the majority thought like I do, but I am a Mac computer and they are on Windows. Communication is just too problematic. Neither is better than the other. It’s just we are a minority.