Most, if not all, people with MS who are claiming for PIP are legitimate claimants.
However, it is the sick-note culture which is discrediting the benefit and making it harder for people with legitimate disabilities to be heard and to be processed fairly. I’m all in favour in making PIP harder to obtain because it means the genuine cases are easier to recognise.
This article is based on findings by a former Labour politician and the former England football manager. Worth a read.
Good post Graeme 
I think the whole thing is a shambles. Some have always picked benefits as a lifestyle choice. They’re not being left behind as stated in the article, they’re sitting back.
There’s a family round the corner here - 4 in the house, all on PIP, all claiming carers benefit for each other. The daughter doesn’t even live there now. The son has his pretend autism and actually works for DWP (so knows all the strings to pull) the dad says he has a bad back (that old chestnut) but, still manages to walk to the corner shop to buy alcohol and cigarettes.
The mum is a big girl with knackered knees and bed sores but, can still drive for hours to Cornwall and back for their umpteenth holiday this month and, walk round those small streets to enjoy herself. The house is worse than the Munsters place but, none of them ever tend the garden or clean the windows.
I lied through my teeth to try to get back into my career but, pesky neurology were too honest 
There’s families like that mob round the corner all over the country that are making things harder for people that genuinely need the help.
It’s infuriating. A lot of them just need a size 10 swiftly up the bum
Sorry to be so negative on such a nice day mate.
I hope you’re keeping well .
Jon.
That’s lefties for you, everybody needs a label and a hug, and told it’s not their fault. It’s only going to get worse, in a-lot of things.
I’m not sure about making it harder GCCK. I think they just need better system of weeding out the chancers.
I don’t know if this is right, but i’ve been told you can get pip for being an alcoholic 
.
Not that it ever bothered me what Joe and Josephine down the road was getting, as it was something i can’t control, and that imo comes under pointless stress that i really don’t need especially now.
All the best mate.
Mac
I do agree with much of what you have said, but my problem is that the system is heavily stacked against genuine people & the ‘sick note culture’ rhetoric is being used as a convenient excuse by MP’s & media as the reason why genuinely sick/disabled people are being routinely denied benefits, (despite having the necessary medical back-up to prove they are genuine cases).
I was diagnosed with MS 14 years ago, although looking back, experienced 1st symptoms at age 15. It took a year to get a diagnosis after I went to the GP having woken up numb from the waist down & was unable to walk, in which time my savings had dwindled to nothing. My experience with the MS medical profession has been dire & help is non existent. I just get on with MS the best I can.
3 years ago I was diagnosed with 2 cancers unrelated to each other. The treatments for both were horrendous & have left me with additional issues on top of the issues caused by MS. I was hospitalised for a week because of the cancer treatments because my body started shutting down. I reluctantly claimed PIP because of the considerable extra costs & was awarded the lower rate for Daily Living, nothing for Mobility despite the fact I have great difficulty getting around & the rare times I try to do the 3 minute walk to my local shop by myself, I have to stop several times to rest/sit down there & back. During my cancer treatments, the DWP reviewed my claim & told me I was no longer entitled & stopped my payments weeks before telling me they’d ended my claim. It brought me down to my lowest ebb, the worry made me ill & I fully believe the stress it caused made by body reject the last few cancer treatments, so I couldn’t proceed with the final courses. I’d provided all the necessary medical back up regarding my cancer diagnosis & treatments etc.
I then had the huge task of requesting a mandatory reconsideration, which was such a gruelling task, mentally & physically. Eventually I got my award back, but still nothing for mobility. I wanted to appeal that but as I was in the process of starting the paperwork, my dear Dad got ill & was admitted to hospital & he died about 4 weeks later. I couldn’t manage to deal with the appeal & the loss of my Dad.
I’m now consigned to being housebound, I haven’t managed the short walk to the shops for at least 2 months.
I wish I did not have the need to claim a penny, life would certainly be less stressful, constantly worrying about what I will do should they take my small PIP award away again, or the prospect of being forced to jump through pointless exhausting & humiliating hoops just to prove that MS is for life & doesn’t get better, only worse. Politicians & the press berating disabled people constantly, making us feel like criminals. MS sufferers are protected by law, but Politicians removed some of the protections that has now made us far easier targets.
My point is, if the system wasn’t so rigged, genuine people with MS etc wouldn’t be denied help, blaming the sick note culture for it. There is no legitimate excuse for denying genuine people who have provided all the necessary paperwork & proof of genuine need, but that is exactly what has been happening since 2010. The added expense of people having to appeal through the tribunals just to get what they should have been awarded in the first place much be costing millions i.e. another huge cost to the tax payer that could be avoided if the system wasn’t doing it’s best to deny as many people benefits as possible.
I also worry that there will be more suicides/deaths of genuinely sick/disabled people (heaven knows there’s been plenty since 2010) when people with legitimate mental illness are told they’re swinging the lead.
The sick & disabled are being scapegoated by a political system that has been unfit for purpose for decades. Millions, probably billions wasted by their incompetence, yet they never pay the price.
Remember when over 100 million alone was wasted on defective equipment for the creation of the universal credit system, before it was even rolled out? Perhaps if the politicians responsible were forced to pay the money back out of their own pockets for their endless incompetent creations or bad ideas, we’d actually get some decent politicians for a nice change?
Contrary to what you constantly hear from Politicians & media, the welfare bill is not spiralling out of control. An article from the Disability News Service explains it quite well.
Unfortunately, it’s such disinformation spread to the public by politicians & media which is causing the real damage for genuine sick & disabled people, no wonder disability hate crime is on the rise.
In the last few months I have seen small signs that the public aren’t so quick to fall for the untruths being spread, which is encouraging.
PIP fraud stats are miniscule = 1.4% for the financial year ending April 2026 & includes official error made by the DWP & other government departments, causing overpayment etc.
In the 90’s I worked at what is now the DWP. I couldn’t be more shocked & horrified at what has been happening to sick & disabled people since 2010. Not once ever in all the years I worked there were there any of the thousands of horror stories there have been since 2010. It’s shameful, but it carries on regardless, no one has ever been held to account for it.