Why nothing for us!!!!

If NAS are receiving millions from government then they must be getting it to perform government duties. They are working for gov & not for us. Such as trying to get more of us into work. Giving the money with strings attached means it can't be used for other purposes.

There will be "strings attached" to part of it, but the way many charities operate with the government is that they are commissioned to provide a certain service, so a lot of the commissioned services are respite, residential care and schooling etc. So yes they can’t use earmarked funds for things they aren’t earmarked for, they can use donated funds to do whatever they want.

Because NAS is a charity people assume it will be given to those who need it most. When in reality it probably goes to those who can provide the best return such as education/ work, so government will get a return on it.

I’m not sure people do assume that, but regardless of that I would say that a non-verbal severely autistic child needs assistance far more than someone with higher functioning ASD (such as myself) who regardless of finding certain things strenuous can manage day to day and won’t starve or walk off and get lost without constant care, there is no return on that kind of care.

There is also a getting people into work scheme, many large companies have signed up for this because of the different kind of insight people with ASD can bring, because of the skills (especially coding and pattern/trend spotting) that we can offer and in various surveys assistance in getting into work was one of the top requests from ASD adults.

The more who are forced into work with autism, the more it's being ignored as a debilitating condition. DWP don't even accept that autism could prevent someone getting to ATOS offices.

I wouldn’t say that people are being forced into work, but those who can work should, those who can’t should have assistance. From what I know it’s not enough to just claim that an ASD diagnosis stops you from working, or that means you can’t go to an assessment, but I know people who’ve had special dispensation given through medical professionals (although I also know a friend who’s in a wheelchair who was told he had “missed” an appointment and was trying to get hold of them on the phone, when he was waiting outside the building which could only be accessed by stairs so I think it does depend on your area and who’s involved). ASD can’t and shouldn’t be used as a blanket diagnosis with all ASD individuals declared fit or unfit for work, it’s a spectrum and it has nuances, the implementation of the current system leaves much to be desired. Part of the problem actually comes back to the medical definition, ASD is now such a wide diagnosis, it ranges from someone who is non-verbal and can’t feed or cloth themselves, to someone like me who is fully independent, works, pays the mortgage and runs a company, through to people who are at the absolute genius end of the spectrum, those people need treating differently, some have no needs other are utterly dependant.

And they scrap our benefits. There's much less help to fight for needed benefits. Help to access benefits is still only in the form of charities, who can refuse to help. Even though benefits are needed to survive! Help to access benefits should be mandatory. People can live without a job, but not without money!

There are plenty of organisations that help people with benefits, Citizens Advice are brilliant at helping in those cases. The benefits system is designed to function as a safety net but because of that it has to have various qualifications, it can’t hand out taxpayer money just because someone says they should get it, it has to be proven that those people are in need of receipt.

You say people can’t live without money, but one of the best ways to get money is to earn it, that’s why the aim is to get people working rather than being funded by the taxpayer. There is also help to access benefits, the information is available online, there’s loads of support from Citizens Advice and NAS and others offer assistance as well, admittedly it’s not an in your face offer, but the help is there.

If NAS are receiving millions from government then they must be getting it to perform government duties. They are working for gov & not for us. Such as trying to get more of us into work. Giving the money with strings attached means it can't be used for other purposes.

There will be "strings attached" to part of it, but the way many charities operate with the government is that they are commissioned to provide a certain service, so a lot of the commissioned services are respite, residential care and schooling etc. So yes they can’t use earmarked funds for things they aren’t earmarked for, they can use donated funds to do whatever they want.

Because NAS is a charity people assume it will be given to those who need it most. When in reality it probably goes to those who can provide the best return such as education/ work, so government will get a return on it.

I’m not sure people do assume that, but regardless of that I would say that a non-verbal severely autistic child needs assistance far more than someone with higher functioning ASD (such as myself) who regardless of finding certain things strenuous can manage day to day and won’t starve or walk off and get lost without constant care, there is no return on that kind of care.

There is also a getting people into work scheme, many large companies have signed up for this because of the different kind of insight people with ASD can bring, because of the skills (especially coding and pattern/trend spotting) that we can offer and in various surveys assistance in getting into work was one of the top requests from ASD adults.

The more who are forced into work with autism, the more it's being ignored as a debilitating condition. DWP don't even accept that autism could prevent someone getting to ATOS offices.

I wouldn’t say that people are being forced into work, but those who can work should, those who can’t should have assistance. From what I know it’s not enough to just claim that an ASD diagnosis stops you from working, or that means you can’t go to an assessment, but I know people who’ve had special dispensation given through medical professionals (although I also know a friend who’s in a wheelchair who was told he had “missed” an appointment and was trying to get hold of them on the phone, when he was waiting outside the building which could only be accessed by stairs so I think it does depend on your area and who’s involved). ASD can’t and shouldn’t be used as a blanket diagnosis with all ASD individuals declared fit or unfit for work, it’s a spectrum and it has nuances, the implementation of the current system leaves much to be desired. Part of the problem actually comes back to the medical definition, ASD is now such a wide diagnosis, it ranges from someone who is non-verbal and can’t feed or cloth themselves, to someone like me who is fully independent, works, pays the mortgage and runs a company, through to people who are at the absolute genius end of the spectrum, those people need treating differently, some have no needs other are utterly dependant.

And they scrap our benefits. There's much less help to fight for needed benefits. Help to access benefits is still only in the form of charities, who can refuse to help. Even though benefits are needed to survive! Help to access benefits should be mandatory. People can live without a job, but not without money!

There are plenty of organisations that help people with benefits, Citizens Advice are brilliant at helping in those cases. The benefits system is designed to function as a safety net but because of that it has to have various qualifications, it can’t hand out taxpayer money just because someone says they should get it, it has to be proven that those people are in need of receipt.

You say people can’t live without money, but one of the best ways to get money is to earn it, that’s why the aim is to get people working rather than being funded by the taxpayer. There is also help to access benefits, the information is available online, there’s loads of support from Citizens Advice and NAS and others offer assistance as well, admittedly it’s not an in your face offer, but the help is there.