The disability benefits system is broken. It has not adapted to a world where disability and ill health are more prevalent, and more complex in terms of the variation of impact on people's lives or the support that could help.
Disability often results from medical conditions, and is worsened by challenges accessing health services and social care. It is also exacerbated by the barriers to participation in society and the economy – such as limited access to education, poor quality transport infrastructure, employment discrimination, and inflexible workplaces – that disabled people face.
Over the last 20 years the main policy response, in the face of rising costs, has been to make claiming disability benefits more difficult.
Additional Links/Reading: CWs in spoiler
CWs: ableism, discussions of trauma, medical ableism, neglect and abuse, eugenic and capitalist undertones/viewpoints
Disability Benefits in Different Countries
Half of disabled people ‘humiliated’ during benefits assessments, new research finds
Center For American Progress - How Dehumanizing Administrative Burdens Harm Disabled People
Disability News Service - UN committee asks government: ‘Why are you demonising disabled people?’
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"Disability" is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
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On the plus side it looks like I'll be getting discharged from physiotherapy soon, as it is not working and the physio basically said it's a waste of NHS appointments. It's tiring going to physio and doing all the exercises all the time for no reward. I've only kept up with it this long for my benefit claim, and I'm long since resigned to being permanently disabled. My only worry is that at my next assessment the DWP will use this against me, saying "You're not having physio? Then there is nothing wrong with you!" But if I've spent years having physio and it hasn't worked, how is that my fault? I will ask the physio to write me a letter saying I've had all the treatment and it hasn't worked and they won't treat me any more, but the DWP will only accept letters that are less than 6 months old and by the time of my next assessment it will be older than that.