PIP (Personal Independence Payment)

I was advised to apply for PIP on my second visit to the job centre but like most of the benefit system it is very autism-unfriendly so I couldn't cope with going through the process. There was no way for me to apply online or for the job centre to do it for me, I had to phone so that scared me off from the beginning and I didn't bother.

I believe that the criteria are related to autism such as struggling to cope with social situations and not being aware although I think the threshold is quite strict nowadays. My cousin told me about someone NT she knew who faked it and easily qualified. She said she eats junk food, doesn't wash or change clothes until someone tells her and struggles to go shopping etc

Yes, I've often pondered the irony of a disability benefits system where the process of applying discriminates against people with certain disabilities. There's also the lovely catch-22 whereby many support services assume that you'll pay "top-up" contributions from PIP, but if you don't have the support services yet, the assessors will assume that it's because you're not disabled enough to need them. Or the one where they'll stubbornly refuse to allow you a home visit, threaten to suspend your claim if you don't show up to the assessment, and then mark you down as being independently mobile if you do manage to drag yourself there.

I'm sure that someone at the DWP must have got the notion that the writings of Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller are administrative policy guides!

Edited-in:

PS) I was just catching up on the Disability Rights UK site, and apparently the DWP have a new trick up their sleeves. If you're waiting for an appeal, they might ring you up with a "deal or no deal" offer to try to get you to take an instant award at a lower rate than they think you might win at appeal. So it's not just Kafka and Heller - they're stealing ideas from Noel Edmonds now, too! (LINK)

(Oh, and apparently, they're the UK employer who has lost the most Employment Tribunal cases for disability discrimination - for four years in a row!)

Yes, I've often pondered the irony of a disability benefits system where the process of applying discriminates against people with certain disabilities. There's also the lovely catch-22 whereby many support services assume that you'll pay "top-up" contributions from PIP, but if you don't have the support services yet, the assessors will assume that it's because you're not disabled enough to need them. Or the one where they'll stubbornly refuse to allow you a home visit, threaten to suspend your claim if you don't show up to the assessment, and then mark you down as being independently mobile if you do manage to drag yourself there.

I'm sure that someone at the DWP must have got the notion that the writings of Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller are administrative policy guides!

Edited-in:

PS) I was just catching up on the Disability Rights UK site, and apparently the DWP have a new trick up their sleeves. If you're waiting for an appeal, they might ring you up with a "deal or no deal" offer to try to get you to take an instant award at a lower rate than they think you might win at appeal. So it's not just Kafka and Heller - they're stealing ideas from Noel Edmonds now, too! (LINK)

(Oh, and apparently, they're the UK employer who has lost the most Employment Tribunal cases for disability discrimination - for four years in a row!)