Disability benefits for aspergers?

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KingdomOfRats
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14 Sep 2007, 9:27 am

Hadron wrote:
Macbeth wrote:
DLA (Disability Living Allowance) in the UK is a farce. You want to claim it, you're better off telling them you're a manic depressive. According to the letters I receive, the standard payment for AS is Lower Rate on both Mobility and Care. My brothers wife, who consistently LIES that she is depressed, gets higher rate on both. She's not depressed.. shes just a bloody emo. Strikesd me as curious that a life long uncurable neurological disorder that affects almost every aspect of life is apparently easier to deal with than depression, a treatable, curable, and non-permanent condition. Go figure...

You know what to write on the forms next time then. Bear in mind you are supposed to write like its the worst possible day in your life, from what I can remember from filling out the forms. Anyway, Lower rate for both is £35/ week or over £1700 a year. Its not a bad deal at all.

if does not exist,they will know as they phone the gp up to ask about it.



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14 Sep 2007, 9:34 am

KingdomOfRats wrote:
Hadron wrote:
Macbeth wrote:
DLA (Disability Living Allowance) in the UK is a farce. You want to claim it, you're better off telling them you're a manic depressive. According to the letters I receive, the standard payment for AS is Lower Rate on both Mobility and Care. My brothers wife, who consistently LIES that she is depressed, gets higher rate on both. She's not depressed.. shes just a bloody emo. Strikesd me as curious that a life long uncurable neurological disorder that affects almost every aspect of life is apparently easier to deal with than depression, a treatable, curable, and non-permanent condition. Go figure...

You know what to write on the forms next time then. Bear in mind you are supposed to write like its the worst possible day in your life, from what I can remember from filling out the forms. Anyway, Lower rate for both is £35/ week or over £1700 a year. Its not a bad deal at all.

if does not exist,they will know as they phone the gp up to ask about it.

My point is he is probably a lot worse affected than me, and should show it on the forms.



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14 Sep 2007, 10:32 am

I did write that on the forms.

There are several problems with the forms and process.

1) They are not backreferenced. Each form is read like a new claim. No previous information is referred to. This cuts both ways, as not only does the claimant have to make sure that he supplies exactly the same details as the last time, he will be placed under the scrutiny of a different decision making officer. The DWP have no real way to know if your claim has changed in a fraudulent manner or not, barring accident. You could claim AS in one form, then three years later claim polio and diptheria, and they wouldnt have a clue.

2) The forms are bent more towards physical disabilities, making it appear that you are relatively sound, when in fact you are not. (Though the most recent set I saw do seem to have corrected this issue a little, so there is hope.)

3) Despite their claims to me, there are NO standards or set marks for any given disability. Thus, being a degree more self-sufficient will actually lose you money. This is the case with ALL disabilities. Thus the fact that people are often prosecuted for gardening, when they claim DLA.. it does not take into account the amount of effort people will put into a beloved hobby that they find relaxing and entertaining, and of great benefit to their general well being, as opposed to sitting in an office for hours on end, typing inanities onto a pc. Example.. I wargame, and will go to places and engage in what, from the outside, appears to be a social pursuit, despite my varying anxieties and lack of skills. A DWP investigating officer would only see "you are with people, ergo you must not have an issue with people." It would never occur to him that a) I might simply be sucking it in for the sake of an hour or so of something I love, because it NEEDS a second person, and that b) its not as social as it looks. Not to mention c) a lot of people who do it are essentially socially inept geeks. Unlike the workplace.

4) They rely on phone and first person contact to deal with them. Thats not an easy trick when you despise phones and have great difficulty using them, and end up having a meltdown when they monkey on the other end cant answer a simple question. Been there, done that. Likewise, the DWP buildings are full of smackheads and chavscum with a hundred mewling rat offspring dangling from their sagging Elizabeth Duke festooned teats, gathering around the free TV to gaze in a bucolic fashion at Trisha, in between bouts of scavenging tabends outside the doors, or begging for change for busfare home. This is NOT an environment I thrive in.

5) No-one seems to know what the Decision making officers qualifications to make decisions about complex mental disabilities actually are.. if he even has them.

6) Literacy skills are actually a dsiability when filling in the forms. If you are articulate, you suffer. If you fill them in with crayon and spell every other word wrong, you're obviously a mong....

7) The forms are filled with questions that make no sense to an Aspie mind.. or at least not mine. Too many tick boxes asking you to work out averages and explain what you WOULD DO if you COULD.. not what you cant do.
I am no more likely to want to go out "when accompanied" than not.. and i fail to see how they figure out that the small amounts of money they parcel out are going to pay for that anyway.

8) They seem to have focal point issues. A claimant with ONLY depression gets more money.. yet a claimant who gets depressed ON TOP OF having AS does not? Surely my depression is just as debilitating as someone who is "depressed", and possibly worse, given that Ive got AS to deal with as well?

Ahh well.. I'll wait til we sort out LadyM's claims before I try mine again. Its too much stress to be dealing with the f*****g DWP TWICE for the same damn thing.


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14 Sep 2007, 10:54 am

Macbeth wrote:
I did write that on the forms.

There are several problems with the forms and process.

1) They are not backreferenced. Each form is read like a new claim. No previous information is referred to. This cuts both ways, as not only does the claimant have to make sure that he supplies exactly the same details as the last time, he will be placed under the scrutiny of a different decision making officer. The DWP have no real way to know if your claim has changed in a fraudulent manner or not, barring accident. You could claim AS in one form, then three years later claim polio and diptheria, and they wouldnt have a clue.

2) The forms are bent more towards physical disabilities, making it appear that you are relatively sound, when in fact you are not. (Though the most recent set I saw do seem to have corrected this issue a little, so there is hope.)

3) Despite their claims to me, there are NO standards or set marks for any given disability. Thus, being a degree more self-sufficient will actually lose you money. This is the case with ALL disabilities. Thus the fact that people are often prosecuted for gardening, when they claim DLA.. it does not take into account the amount of effort people will put into a beloved hobby that they find relaxing and entertaining, and of great benefit to their general well being, as opposed to sitting in an office for hours on end, typing inanities onto a pc. Example.. I wargame, and will go to places and engage in what, from the outside, appears to be a social pursuit, despite my varying anxieties and lack of skills. A DWP investigating officer would only see "you are with people, ergo you must not have an issue with people." It would never occur to him that a) I might simply be sucking it in for the sake of an hour or so of something I love, because it NEEDS a second person, and that b) its not as social as it looks. Not to mention c) a lot of people who do it are essentially socially inept geeks. Unlike the workplace.

4) They rely on phone and first person contact to deal with them. Thats not an easy trick when you despise phones and have great difficulty using them, and end up having a meltdown when they monkey on the other end cant answer a simple question. Been there, done that. Likewise, the DWP buildings are full of smackheads and chavscum with a hundred mewling rat offspring dangling from their sagging Elizabeth Duke festooned teats, gathering around the free TV to gaze in a bucolic fashion at Trisha, in between bouts of scavenging tabends outside the doors, or begging for change for busfare home. This is NOT an environment I thrive in.

5) No-one seems to know what the Decision making officers qualifications to make decisions about complex mental disabilities actually are.. if he even has them.

6) Literacy skills are actually a dsiability when filling in the forms. If you are articulate, you suffer. If you fill them in with crayon and spell every other word wrong, you're obviously a mong....

7) The forms are filled with questions that make no sense to an Aspie mind.. or at least not mine. Too many tick boxes asking you to work out averages and explain what you WOULD DO if you COULD.. not what you cant do.
I am no more likely to want to go out "when accompanied" than not.. and i fail to see how they figure out that the small amounts of money they parcel out are going to pay for that anyway.

8) They seem to have focal point issues. A claimant with ONLY depression gets more money.. yet a claimant who gets depressed ON TOP OF having AS does not? Surely my depression is just as debilitating as someone who is "depressed", and possibly worse, given that Ive got AS to deal with as well?

Ahh well.. I'll wait til we sort out LadyM's claims before I try mine again. Its too much stress to be dealing with the f***ing DWP TWICE for the same damn thing.

What probably helped me is I had a specialist and a teacher backing me up on the forms, who knew what to write. The process is still crap, but its a lot better than when the tories ran it.
1) Totally true, but you are supposed to have some supporting evidence
2) Yup, but you can discuss the physical effects of a mental disability
3) In that case I just send the reams of paper off that are written about me.
4) I dont really have a massive problem with phones, but i sympathise with you. They are nincompoops.
5) They are civil servants on low pay.
6) Thats why i didnt fill in the forms myself
7) They are a bummer, but i normally reason them out.
8) Add it into your application. Filling in forms depresses you.

Finally, good luck.



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14 Sep 2007, 11:23 am

I swear the next lot are getting done in Crayon and i'm getting my 8yr old son to write them for me.

Half the time they never seem to bother contacting the references. I'm tempted to add a few, as one of my mates is a psych nurse ata high security mental hospital. Couldnt hurt lol.


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14 Sep 2007, 12:43 pm

Macbeth wrote:
I swear the next lot are getting done in Crayon and i'm getting my 8yr old son to write them for me.

Half the time they never seem to bother contacting the references. I'm tempted to add a few, as one of my mates is a psych nurse ata high security mental hospital. Couldnt hurt lol.

I think if your son wrote it then his writing would shoot over their heads, given some of the civil service. You may as well stick the references on yup. Good luck with it all.



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15 Sep 2007, 6:31 am

Hadron wrote:
Macbeth wrote:
I swear the next lot are getting done in Crayon and i'm getting my 8yr old son to write them for me.

Half the time they never seem to bother contacting the references. I'm tempted to add a few, as one of my mates is a psych nurse ata high security mental hospital. Couldnt hurt lol.

I think if your son wrote it then his writing would shoot over their heads, given some of the civil service. You may as well stick the references on yup. Good luck with it all.


Hey hey.. I used to be a Civil Servant. Though I did leave it.

I was tempted to write mine using my left hand as it looks a little bit messier.


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15 Sep 2007, 8:22 am

LadyMacbeth wrote:
Hadron wrote:
Macbeth wrote:
I swear the next lot are getting done in Crayon and i'm getting my 8yr old son to write them for me.

Half the time they never seem to bother contacting the references. I'm tempted to add a few, as one of my mates is a psych nurse ata high security mental hospital. Couldnt hurt lol.

I think if your son wrote it then his writing would shoot over their heads, given some of the civil service. You may as well stick the references on yup. Good luck with it all.


Hey hey.. I used to be a Civil Servant. Though I did leave it.

I was tempted to write mine using my left hand as it looks a little bit messier.


Thats what he meant. They'll let any nutter work in the Civil service :P :)


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Hadron
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15 Sep 2007, 10:57 am

Macbeth wrote:
LadyMacbeth wrote:
Hadron wrote:
Macbeth wrote:
I swear the next lot are getting done in Crayon and i'm getting my 8yr old son to write them for me.

Half the time they never seem to bother contacting the references. I'm tempted to add a few, as one of my mates is a psych nurse ata high security mental hospital. Couldnt hurt lol.

I think if your son wrote it then his writing would shoot over their heads, given some of the civil service. You may as well stick the references on yup. Good luck with it all.


Hey hey.. I used to be a Civil Servant. Though I did leave it.

I was tempted to write mine using my left hand as it looks a little bit messier.


Thats what he meant. They'll let any nutter work in the Civil service :P :)

I did a weeks work experience there, they even accepted me :P



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01 Oct 2007, 8:13 am

I just noticed you said civil servants are not paid very much? I was on £6-20 an hour when I worked there.. that was the STARTING wage. Not bad for an 18 year old tbh. It's when you work your way up that it gets a bit crappy.

Oh yeah, the other day I got refused DLA, despite the fact that I'm worse than Macbeth, and showed that on the forms. Going to appeal that one. I think I'm going to have to go to the doctors about my depression and anxiety, just so I get proof. :roll:


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01 Oct 2007, 10:22 am

Heh.. now i have to phone the buggers and fake being her carer to get s**t done, because LadyM hates phones. So do I, but I'm also a consumate actor, and given a run up, I can manage it. Its f*****g annoying that we have to mess about so much to get what she is due.


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02 Oct 2007, 6:29 pm

I have been on benefits most of my life Income Support, Job seekers the worst, an this year disability allowace also always had my rent paid which is £75 a week Ive never had any problems dealing with DLA buts its only my first year.
The money I get now is the same if I was on jobseekers allowace which is enough for me to live on sometimes I feel bad that I'm a tax burden to rest of the Working NTs but if I was pushed into working like my last job I would kill myself so they have a choice give me benefits all pills to kill myself with.

Hope in time with help from my shrink which have only been seeing this year to sort my life out, meds to improve my depression an anxiety then be well enough for a part time job then later full time work so will be off benefits for good.

At this time my disability allowace is just for depression an anxiety, but also have a lot of AS symptoms.
You should all pray the Tories don't win the next general election they want all people with disability working! Helps pay for their posh lunches an massive wage increases when they come into power an of course tax breaks for the rich.


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02 Oct 2007, 9:22 pm

LadyMacbeth wrote:
I just noticed you said civil servants are not paid very much? I was on £6-20 an hour when I worked there.. that was the STARTING wage. Not bad for an 18 year old tbh. It's when you work your way up that it gets a bit crappy.

Oh yeah, the other day I got refused DLA, despite the fact that I'm worse than Macbeth, and showed that on the forms. Going to appeal that one. I think I'm going to have to go to the doctors about my depression and anxiety, just so I get proof. :roll:

£6.20 is not far above the maximum minimum wage (the one for people above 20 something). Plus most of the people actually left school at 16 that work on the applications, and probably have little or no actually understanding of disability. The civil service is often as much about keeping the less employable employed as it is providing a service to the nation.



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03 Oct 2007, 10:21 am

WildMonkey wrote:
I have been on benefits most of my life Income Support, Job seekers the worst, an this year disability allowace also always had my rent paid which is £75 a week Ive never had any problems dealing with DLA buts its only my first year.
The money I get now is the same if I was on jobseekers allowace which is enough for me to live on sometimes I feel bad that I'm a tax burden to rest of the Working NTs but if I was pushed into working like my last job I would kill myself so they have a choice give me benefits all pills to kill myself with.

Hope in time with help from my shrink which have only been seeing this year to sort my life out, meds to improve my depression an anxiety then be well enough for a part time job then later full time work so will be off benefits for good.

At this time my disability allowace is just for depression an anxiety, but also have a lot of AS symptoms.
You should all pray the Tories don't win the next general election they want all people with disability working! Helps pay for their posh lunches an massive wage increases when they come into power an of course tax breaks for the rich.


Oh yeah, tax breaks for the rich works out just great in the United States. You guys should definitely do it too ;)

We also give billions to the oil companies, because the poor things will go broke without our help! But health care for everyone? Safety net for people with disabilities? Outrageous!

I am of course being extremely sarcastic.



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04 Oct 2007, 10:59 am

I never had much of an issue with being disabled and working, and in fact have a job. My concern is that I end up in employmeny suitable to me, that will not drive me mental. I have been fired from previous jobs through AS-based problems, and I am aware of what I can or cannot deal with in a work environment. Actually, a little assistance from the Governmnet in finding the rght job would not go amiss.

Time will tell if the finances hold up when working at a lwo wage job, rather than with benefits, and I have the sense of impending doom that I always get when I know I'm going to have to disrupt stability, and deal with the DWP.


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01 Sep 2009, 2:36 am

Lessian wrote:
If you really have AS, you would not be asking that question. Since you are asking, I am going to assume that you are either lying about yourself or are so mild that you may as well be an NT.

While we may look and act superficially normal, we are not. Most aspies have no trouble in getting work, but keeping that work is very difficult. After the honeymoon period is over, people get used to each other and are a lot less willing to overlook peculiarities and oddities. Little things suddenly become bigger things if they keep happening over time. The average aspie often burns out because of the stress caused by having to concentrate all day everyday on to many different things (read the other threads...).
Imagine having a list of 10 sentances that you had to remember on an ongoing basis, without having a prompter. You will forget words or whole sentances at some point, which is comparable to the aspie having to remember things like the nitty gritty of social ettiquete, how to do their job etc. some things will be missed somewhere. someone will get upset. heads may roll, jobs may be lost.
Aspies do deserve some kind of assistance simply because through no fault of our own, we are the equivalent of a square peg being forced to fit into a round hole. Most of the time this simply does not work. which is why aspies are frequently either unemployed or on the verge of a nervous breakdown. depression is also a common side effect due to the accumulated belief that no one wants to work with them, its their fault etc. many aspies burn out and become psychologically restricted in the types of work they are capable of doing.


Seriously, I am going to agree with you about Work Environment and Aspies. People need to accept people with social and learning differences in their work environment because people with emotional, learning, health and vision disabilities want to take on challenging, rewarding, and fun careers in today's world. People assume that Aspies are at fault for their weaknesses and flaws, but no. We have our differences and if employers are more welcoming, understanding about our differences and more willing to put time to get along with empolyees with differences, then it will be better for the workplace, because some of the most valuable employees in a company can be Aspies.