Rushed review into overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergent conditions begins

Details: Published: 07 December 2025

A rushed review, lasting just 3-6 months, to decide whether mental health conditions, autism and ADHD are being overdiagnosed has been launched by the government. Fears have been raised that the extraordinarily quick turnaround time is needed to allow the review to influence the outcome of the Timms personal independence payment (PIP) review.

The review has been commissioned by Wes Streeting’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Back in March of this year, Streeting had railed against the fact that 1,000 people a day are signing up for PIP and “over the course of a year that’s the size of the city of Manchester”

And in the same month he claimed that there was an overdiagnosis of mental health conditions.

Yet, the Guardian on 4 December Streeting said he regretted this statement and that the purpose of the review was simply to reveal the truth about the issue.

On the same day, he announced in a written statement his “Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism”.

Streeting says the review will “look to understand the similarities and differences between mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, regarding prevalence, prevention and treatment, the current challenges facing clinical services, and the extent to which diagnosis, medicalisation and treatment improves outcomes for individuals.”

Details of the review were first leaked to the Health Service Journal back in October, when it was revealed that psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist Peter Fonagy, would lead the review, with the hugely divisive Sir Simon Wessely acting as vice chair.

In the same month, we pointed out that the NHS had published its own “Report of the Independent ADHD Taskforce, Part 1” this year.

The report was compiled by a team of 40 people, including Prof Tamsin Jane Ford, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Head of Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, plus six other professors. It found that the UK has much lower recognition and treatment rates of ADHD compared with other European countries.

We argued that, in the face of such up-to-date, expert evidence, if Streeting didn’t remove ADHD from the list of conditions being investigated, it would increase the suspicion that this review is not about establishing the truth, it is about cutting the benefits bill.

The terms of reference of the review still include ADHD, but no doubt coincidentally, they say that the team “will also consult other relevant reviews and taskforces, including reports by the independent ADHD Taskforce, to ensure its conclusions and recommendations are aligned.”

In addition, an extra vice chair, Professor Gillain Baird who is a consultant in children’s neurodisability, has been appointed – perhaps to offset some of the effect of the presence of Professor Wessely.

Amongst the issues the review will examine are:

the current extent to which diagnosis, medicalisation and treatment improve outcomes
the differences between the levels of need and disorder for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism
the role that medicalisation of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism plays, including the associated risks and benefits

The review is required to work extraordinarily quickly. It is expected to report back in 3-6 months having looked at mental health, autism and ADHD. Yet the ADHD taskforce referred to above, had a much narrower focus, but it was set up in April 2024, produced its interim report in June 2025 and its final report in November of this year – a total of 18 months.

But the rapid turnaround means that Streeting’s review, which should report back by June 2026 at the latest, will be available to be studied by the Timms review of PIP, which is not due to report until the Autumn of 2026.

If the Streeting review does find that conditions are being overdiagnosed and that this has a negative effect on people’s life chances, then it would provide a strong argument for tightening the eligibility criteria for PIP in relation to mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Streeting review says it will “work closely with people with lived experience of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism” and “consult closely with parents and carers”.

We will keep readers informed of any opportunity to provide evidence to the review, if indeed any such opportunities arise.-

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Bub · 10 days ago
I had a tempered rant about what Wes Streeting said back in March. I made a YouTube video. I was diagnosed as Audhd in my 60s and also have ME/CFS and FM, anxiety and many other conditions. In that rant quoted from a GP who explained the increased diagnosis is to do with true population prevalence catching up in the same way eg diabetes did etc
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Bub · 10 days ago
I had a tempered rant about what Wes Streeting said back in March. I made a YouTube video. I was diagnosed as Audhd in my 60s and also have ME/CFS and FM, anxiety and many other conditions
https://youtu.be/k2E03n7vo40
?si=J0MVTJcwTsZ4cepI
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Gazmo66 · 11 days ago
Well I don’t think either government realised how many additional mental health claimants there were going to be. So 293,000 at least later and colossal bill they are back tracking now to find ways to end it and take it away. This is what happens then those supposedly in know don’t know and don’t care either. It’s not them they are suffering the pain and anguish or the indignity . The disabled are always getting the blame. It’s a shambles.
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Jon · 11 days ago
Hi,

I am confused about all the talk on reviewing neurodivergence and PIP. Will it affect new claimants and/or those currently receiving PIP?

After over 50 years of living a VERY VERY difficult life, I was diagnosed with Autism a couple of years ago.

Following advice from this amazing, life-saving website, I applied for PIP and was given the Higher rate for both elements. This was granted with Ongoing status which I understand means there is no end date.

I must also add, I have many physical disabilities as well as Autism.

This Government, to me, continues to pick on vulnerable British citizens - firstly the elderly with their Winter fuel payments, then on disabled people on PIP.

I live in one of the strongest Labour Boroughs of London, and despite me writing to my Labour MP numerous times, they either don't reply or get one of their workers to give a meaningless reply on their behalf.

They have stopped caring for vulnerable British people.
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Arthur · 11 days ago
They never give up either labour or the Tories. Once again the answer to the countries is lets bully and attack the most vunerable.
This over diagnosis reveiw is really give us an excuse to rewrite the rules and kick people who can't manage daily life off benefits and forget them job done.
It isnt even about saving money its political misdirection when they are failing at everything else.
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Tuxcat · 11 days ago
They are despicable, it's hard having to live with autism, trying to live a normal life with these issues. Being told I'm too autistic to understand things , being groomed by a narcissistic who abused me. Being taken advantage off ,by not understanding people and their motives. I am in my 50s and also have physical disabilities, They are no jobs around because of reeves. Now media reports they want to send under 60s to war. I have like my daughter have been officially diagnosed with Autism, both reports say we are vunerable. Why can't they leave us alone.
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  Duncan · 11 days ago
  
  @Tuxcat They pick in us because we are easy targets and have very few people in Government on our side
  
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Duncan · 11 days ago
Anyone noticing a lot of downvoting on here? Sure , I know people won't agree with what you type , but this seems structured and planned, clearly they come from the Julia Hartley Brewer and Jeremy Kyle school of common sense and compassion
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Clara5 · 11 days ago
This is absolutely bonkers! The July 2025 NHS report clearly stated that we are actually under-diagnosing! I am wondering how the panel are going to conduct this review in such a short time span - are they going to reassess everyone who got a positive diagnosis to check the assessments were accurate?!

I am speechless by Wes' comments and the speed at which this report is being conducted. Thank you for being our voice B&W.

As someone who has struggled all their life and has been making positive steps forward since a recent diagnosis, I feel it's so sad that the minute we are openly talking in society [and rightly raising awareness about] Autism, ADHD, anxiety, mental health; politicians decide to shut down these positive conversations - effectively minimising people's opportunity to understand themselves better and get the support they deserve, in my case 40 years too late!
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  DiaR · 2 days ago
  
  @Clara5 Of course they are not going to look at any actual people. They already know the answers. Just look at the histoires of the two of them. Westley did a big study 'proving" that ME was a psychological condition. It didn't matter to him when an economisg showed it was deeply flawed. Finaghy thinks you can map basic Freudian categories onto specific brain regions. They "know" what is and isn't a mental illness. This review is independent of government . It's not independent of the worst kind of psychiatry
  
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  TMF · 11 days ago
  
  @Clara5 Hi Clara, I’m in exactly the same position. I’m now 54 and have struggled all my life. Been given generic labels such as anxiety and depression. I know these are bad for people but every time I’ve requested help I’ve been fobbed off with CBT. Part and parcel of what I have going on prevents me from speaking up. So there’s always been a sticking plaster route.
  I ended up paying for a private MH assessment. That gave clear conditions that I deal with on a daily basis. It’s awful. I have been partially listened to and was given some CAT. However the nhs are not wanting to diagnose me and the CAT has made no difference for me.
  So more time and resources wasted. I’m still a mess. Still no further forward and everything that is going on in the media about pip claimants does not help.
  I honestly wished those that are deciding what to do with the benefit could live a day in our shoes.
  Things like anxiety and depression are real and difficult to deal with. People who have more complex conditions which affects them physically too, aren’t listened to. Not everyone can speak up for themselves and just accept what they are given.
  I honestly believe that if this investigation is carried out properly, it will show that there is a serious problem and many go correctly undiagnosed for years and years.
  I am so glad you have eventually been listened to fully and you are now receiving the correct help. I wish you all the very best for your healing journey.
  
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Gazilla · 11 days ago
I was raped , contracted HIV, I have bulimia and self harm and massive anxiety and trust issues, good luck getting me or anyone else I'm my position into work , I'd be a liability for any potential employer
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wibblum · 11 days ago
The usual total lack of basic human compassion disguised as well-intentioned misunderstanding. You can't 'prevent' neurodevelopmental conditions.
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Sad days · 17 days ago
Again people that are not trained qualified professionals in autism or ADHD or mental health conditions stating misleading incorrect information about mental health and ADHD and autism so that they can justify taking disabled people’s benefits of them and cause disabled people even more harm and suffering
This is disability discrimination and inhumane and disgraceful
This is not going to help disabled people with mental health conditions and ADHD and autism etc into work this is going to push them into further poverty and cause them to self harm even more and cause even more suicides but this government and the tories etc don’t care about the devastation and severe detrimental impact they cause neurodivergent individuals and people with ADHD and disabled people with mental health conditions
As all labour and tories care about is clawing back money from the most poorest and vulnerable and justifying it with incorrect information and incorrect statistics etc
Will the government be held accountable for the devastation they cause disabled people will they be held accountable for more disabled people that have mental health conditions and who are neurodivergent and people with ADHD to self harm even more and causing the suicide rates to go up even further I think not
As this will just carry on until the government has demonised every disability with incorrect information and incorrect statistics etc so they can demolish the benefit system by making it nearly impossible for any disabled person to be eligible for disability benefits
So the government can claw back the money from disabled people by demonising them as this is what it is all about money
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  Lisa · 11 days ago
  
  @Sad days I agree with you totally but in your comments you keep saying neurodivergent and ADHD as if there desperate but ADHD is neurodivergent its not separate people with adhd are neurodivergent same as asd just needed to correct that part
  
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John · 18 days ago
Kemi Badenoch get Britain working speech.

Went on about people should not get benefits for anxiety. And went on about too many people being diagnosed with mental and physical health conditions. To audience laughter and cries of here, here.

Wants to look at all health conditions and make many no longer considered disabilities/illnesses in regards to benefits eligibility.

Want most disabled/ill people to get help into work rather than cash disability/incapacity benefits.

Wants to look at time limiting disability benefits. On the basis they should get a job.

Wants to reform the household benefit cap so less households with disabilities are exempt.
Wants to look at all cases where households on benefits get more than workers.

Wants to change how poverty is measured so it does not use relative income.

So in effect wants to extend what Labour wants to do with ADHD, Autism and mental health conditions to all health conditions. And in addition to removing eligibility for some health conditions, wants to time limit disability/incapacity benefits for some more (as previously done with LCW), and look at reducing benefits for most of the rest (as previously done with abolishing low rate care component when DLA was replaced with PIP, abolishing the independent living fund, abolishing the severe disability premium when income based ESA was replaced by UC, abolishing the LCW premium, cutting LCWRA premium for new claimants). While also changing how poverty is measured.
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  John · 18 days ago
  
  @Alex They could as part of a coalition government.
  
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  Alex · 18 days ago
  
  @John I don't think the conservatives will get into power anytime soon though?
  
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John · 19 days ago
Parliament 8th December.
Pat McFadden "...Now we have begun to change the system, with the first change in universal credit incentives for years, more support for the long-term sick and disabled, and a youth guarantee that offers hope where previously there was only neglect."

What more support for the long-term sick and disabled?
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John · 19 days ago
Concerning Guardian article yesterday "People on lowest incomes being denied access to social housing, research finds"

Housing Associations in England are denying people on benefits especially those with complex needs (the disabled) social housing. Due to affordability checks, the LHA being frozen, and benefits being cut, and preferring people on higher incomes. And due to prejudice the belief those with complex needs (the disabled) are higher risk, less likely to keep up rent payments.

Amazingly to me at least social housing providers in England are not obligated to give priority to housing the poorest those on benefits or most vulnerable those unable to work due to disability or those most in need the homeless particularly homeless families with children and vulnerable people. So choose to house working people instead.

I stupidly thought the primary purpose of social housing was to act as a safety net for those who would otherwise be unable to rent privately at commercial rents. Not be a perk for workers lucky enough or due to connections able to get social housing.
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  naheegan · 17 days ago
  
  @John That's really informative, especially that those on lower incomes being unable to rent social housing due affordability checks. I agree that social housing has become a difficult objective for the originally-intended low income tenant population. I think that as social housing rents climb ever higher, they are almost little different to private rentals with the exception that decent homes standards are intended to be met. Too many social housing providers have failed to meet those standards, been fined, but have been allowed to carry on advertising and renting out substandard housing. I've seen quite a few that can only be described as neglected and derelict, and in need to thousands of pounds worth of repair which the property owner expects the tenant to pay for.
  
  Wanted to also mention that affordability checks are applied to tenant applications for private rented accommodation too, and have been for some years.
  In the private rental sector the affordability requirement seems to be driven by estate agents, but I have found that not all landlords specify affordability as a requirement to the estate agencies they hire to market their properties.
  In other words, some estate agents add affordability to their terms and conditions unnecessarily without being asked to do so.
  I have also found that some private landlords (using estate agents as managers) provision applicants with a form to add any additional information they would like the landlord to know before choosing an applicant out of the pool of applications.
  And interestingly, a lot of private landlords are fine with lower income tenants who have a guarantor who will be willing to cover any rent that is not paid. In my experience Guarantors submit proof of income, address and other contact details and sign a form; none of that is intrusive or a lot of work. Generally, those are good landlords, if you can find them.
  
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  pollenpath · 19 days ago
  
  @John This was all part of the austerity ideology 15 years ago, part of the 'reasoning' behind IDS's UC. And after the foundations were painstakingly and deliberately laid (and never effectively objected to), the project is now in full swing. The disenfranchised can go to hell, basically.
  
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HL · 19 days ago
Austerity is in the air again – from ‘overdiagnosis’ to the benefits bill. Here is what’s at stake
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  naheegan · 17 days ago
  
  @CaroA Thank you for this post and summary.
  
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  CaroA · 18 days ago
  
  @HL
  
  Thanks for drawing attention to this article I have asked AI to summarize it for me. Obviously please come back anybody if any of it isn't accurate the article itself seems to be behind a pay wall.
  
  Here’s a summary and breakdown of what Zoe Williams argues in her article Austerity is in the air again – from ‘overdiagnosis’ to the benefits bill. Here is what’s at stake, published in The Guardian (8 Dec 2025).
  
  The core argument
  
  Williams warns that the UK seems to be sliding back into an era of austerity — not just in economic measures, but in how society treats the sick, disabled, and poor.
  
  She suggests that discussions around “overdiagnosis” (especially of mental-health conditions) and tightening benefit eligibility are not abstract policy debates — they have real, often deadly consequences for vulnerable people.
  
  The article draws attention to the human cost of welfare cuts and bureaucratic cruelty. According to a 2022 study she cites, there were over 330,000 excess deaths between 2012 and 2019 in the UK attributable (at least in part) to austerity measures.
  
  The Human Cost: The Museum of Austerity
  
  To illustrate her point, Williams describes a powerful immersive installation called the Museum of Austerity — currently in London — that uses holograms and audio testimonies to convey stories of people who died as a result of cuts, benefit sanctions, and harsh disability assessments.
  
  The scenes are visceral: people dying of starvation, others committing suicide after being denied benefits or overwhelmed by assessments, a terminally ill woman treated cruelly by the welfare system in her final weeks.
  
  The relatives of victims recount plainly how the system failed — often for what seem like bureaucratic or administrative “mistakes.” But the repeated patterns, Williams argues, show this is not error: the cruelty is systemic.
  
  From Political Rhetoric to Lived Reality
  
  Politicians and officials often frame welfare reform under comforting clichés: “tightening belts,” “making work pay,” “cutting waste” — but these abstractions obscure the human suffering behind them.
  
  The language around “overdiagnosis” and mental-health benefit claims risks fuelling a narrative that people are “scroungers” or faking illness, justifying welfare cuts and stricter assessments.
  
  Williams argues that this narrative effectively reduces social support to a binary: either you’re “well enough to work,” or you’re implicitly left to fend for yourself — a society operating on “be well or die.”
  
  What’s at Stake — Why This Matters
  
  The article is a warning: these developments are not theoretical. They are producing real harm — suffering and death — disproportionately affecting people who are already marginalised, disabled, or in precarious situations.
  
  Rolling back social safety nets, “tightening up” welfare, or declaring “too many diagnoses” may ease pressures on public spending — but at what cost? The article argues it’s humanity, dignity and lives.
  
  It challenges readers to see austerity not just as economic policy, but as an ideological choice about what kind of society we want: one that protects the vulnerable — or one that discards them when they cant “pull their weight.”
  
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Dez · 19 days ago
It's fascinating how we've jumped from minimising mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression to now minimising neurological disorders such as ADHD/autism in just a few years, right down to classing them as "mental health conditions" that one can "shake off" like they keep saying one can with anxiety and depression (which also isn't true).

There's going to be no line drawn in the sand here. They know they don't have a job market - nay, a society - that can accommodate the disabled without spending a ton of money, so the cheaper solution is to go down the RFK Jr. route and simply argue that disabilities aren't real and that we're all just being unreasonable shut-ins who refuse to work, regardless of what conditions we have.

I fully expect an "independent review" into conditions such as arthritis next that will conclude that there's no such thing as bones wearing away and physiotherapy and an eventual construction job is the ticket for you!
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  D · 18 days ago
  
  @Dez The one plus of the gov openly coming for mental health, adhd and autism is that it’s out in the open. Many disabled individuals, activists, online communities and charities have already put 2 and 2 together and knows there’s a high probability that the gov is most likely going to try and change criteria so significantly less of that group will qualify for lcwra and pip.
  
  But because it’s so out in the open and the dwp seem to have chosen to fight this particular issue out in the open (hoping to drum public support I’m presuming) it also means that it’s much more exposed to backlash and can’t be sneaked through so easily.
  
  We also know this particular battle will start late summer-autumn so that gives us at least 6 months to prep and put down foundations and that give us time to educate MPs that adhd and autism are not actually low level mental health conditions and are are not solely neurological disabilities either (that there are biological and physical aspects and knock on risks of additional conditions too).
  
  Right now the stereotype ministers and right wing media is putting out is that autism & adhd are fake conditions (not a disability) that lazy scroungers use (and often self diagnosis) to get extra benefit money and a excuse not to work.
  
  We as a community need to expose the actual facts not only to MPs (who have the power to block things) but the public (we need as much noise and backlash as possible)
  
  Let’s not waste the next 6-9 months before the mother of all fights officially begins!
  
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  John · 19 days ago
  
  @Dez The RFK Jr. route is for people with opioid addiction, or on prescription anti depressions or medication for ADHD to be rounded up and sent to wellness farms. Detention camps located in the middle of nowhere. Where they are held for years with no access to technology, so no access to the internet, social media, etcetera. And do manual work. This simple life and good hard work is supposed to cure them so they can return as productive members of society.
  
  It is a identical approach minus the word farm to the one for the homeless they are actually building mass detention camps for at the moment. In expectation of rounding up the homeless in cities en masse and detaining them for years and rehabilitating them through a simple life of hard work, cut off from technology and the outside world. These camps are being built in the middle of nowhere, including in deserts.
  
  If the USA goes through with this. I fear people sent to these rehabilitation camps and wellness farms may never be seen again.
  
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Ginny52 · 19 days ago
I was at school in the 1950s and 60s so obviously no chance, but haw very different my life could have been if that was possible. Being unable to meet expectations meant I was broken before 11. If only?
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James h · 19 days ago
All this talk about mild mental heath again first it was depression and anxiety and now it’s autism and adhd I have a autism diagnosis from 25 years ago which is really aspbergers nowadays it’s called autism spectrum with no levels all under same name so if that’s what they trying to do go back to the levels again of 1,2,and 3,and see mine as mild low level so then no pip claim in future then I’m in trouble
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  James h · 19 days ago
  
  @D @D enjoyed reading your post I feel the same too all this hatred about autism and then I saw that Tory kemi badenough on the news today saying all this “harder to claim” rubbish like she thinks I’m sat on the couch all day with my Doritos and sky tv they have no idea how it effects me I think the other reader is right they will move onto arthritis next and say a days work on a building site will make your fingers and toes better
  
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  D · 19 days ago
  
  @James h The spectrum has expanded massively in the last 25 years - first in the 1990’s and then guidelines altered in a major way in 2013.
  
  I was diagnosed with Asperger’s/higher functioning autism almost 30 years ago when the spectrum was starting to enlarge and inclusive in its diagnosis.
  
  My autism may of been classed as mild back in the 90’s when there weren’t anywhere near the knowledge and access to diagnosis as there is now compared to others diagnosed at the time - however 25 years later with the expansion of the spectrum I’m probably closer to the middle of the spectrum and I imagine you may be too if that makes sense.
  
  The reality is that those being assessed as mildly autistic in 2025 probably wouldn’t have been placed anywhere on the spectrum in 1990, Prehaps even 1995.
  
  I’m not against a review into whether disabilities like autism are over diagnosed (even the author of the spectrum thinks it’s been expanded too far) - what I am against are these grim reapers ministers using any review to cut financial support for those with autism
  
  Recent studies have shown the autistic brain as different to the neurotypical in mri scans and that we are less able to produce a vital component used in communication with the rest of the body. That autistic individuals are not only more likely/ predisposed of serious mental health issues but also many physical health conditions. That the average lifespan of an autistic person is 16-20 years less than that of an average neurotypical person.
  
  I personally hate the label neurodiverse being used as it makes the conditions under it sound special & fancy and a desirable label for people who think that if you are different you special - I hate that some of the newly diagnosed adults use their autism almost like a status symbol and that there are z list celebs trying to make a buck out of their diagnosis.
  
  I’ve been living with my diagnosis to know that different does not mean you are special, but that many in society wish that the majority of yourself is erased leaving a silent compliant shell of a person and it hurts every day politicians and media paint people like me as scroungers, lazy and just making excuses and we should just pull ourselves together when the reality is that there is next to no help our there for a autistic adult and the gov wants us to work but have spent the last few years sprouting untruths and stereotypes and making us the most undesirable hires
  
  Sorry for the rant - social media has been a s**tshow with so much crap being written about the evils of autistic people the last few day, some comments so brutal that it’s taken my breath away. I never thought id feel so unwelcome and unsafe in the uk as a do today
  
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Mel · 20 days ago
Can someone tell me . I'm currently on UC in the LCWRA group. The government say they are ramping up re assesments is this for people who's circumstances had changed or for everyone. I was told that I wouldn't be re assessed again. Also on PIP getting standard allowance. Not due to get re assessed for that till 2028. It's confusing I know how dreadful the face to face assesments are.
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  Minxy · 19 days ago
  
  @Mel You can request a video assessment. They have to make allowances for disabled people by law.
  
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  Charger 7 · 19 days ago
  
  @Mel Yes they're ramping re assessment up on existing claimants as well Mel
  
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  Charger 7 · 19 days ago
  
  @Mel They generally re assess you about a year before your pip runs out but they can re assess you anytime Mel a friend of mine has been reassessed 2 years early and getting motorbility car removed my advice keep all letters from hospitals anything on your condition to hand cos you don't know what this government is planning and yes they are re assessments up on every body like I friend was reviewed 2 years early hope this helps not the greatest of news but there you Go
  
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  John · 19 days ago
  
  @Mel If your LCWRA award letter literally states you will not be reassessed again then you have been placed in the severe conditions criteria group and will never be reassed for LCWRA.
  
  For LCWRA reassments they are focusing on those whose condition is likely to have improved and those awarded under the substantial risk of harm criteria. And on the 122,000 who have requested a reassessment due to their condition getting worse.
  
  Your PIP award end date or if it is a ongoing award light touch review date should in theory remain unchanged. You maybe contacted upto a year early due to delay times in them processing claims. Or your award could be auto extended. The government has said they are increasing PIP award durations for conditions unlikely to have improved to free up staff to do LCWRA reassments.
  
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  Annatar · 19 days ago
  
  @Mel Yes we will be reassessed.
  
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D · 20 days ago
We all know this study is going to be used by the dwp as an excuse to tighten criteria of pip/lcwra and exclude ‘mild’ mental health conditions and those with adhd and autism if they can swing it (streeting and McFadden have been hinting at this the past week)

The 2 child cap removed was always a bribe to backbenchers to not stand in the way of take 2 of disability cuts and reforms (there were a lot in the disabled community sending the rebels that supported the uc bill once all the pip cuts were removed all sorts of nasty traitor labels - my viewpoint was always that we need to picked our battles so the rebels will continue fighting for us when the gov try’s to push the nasty stuff through again and not alienate them as we still need their support). We have 6-9 months to get as many Labour backbenchers on side before the likely more brutal sequel of cuts and reforms gets revealed. It’s not too early to contact your mp on this.

Slightly off topic but I doubt that streeting study will touch on those with ADHD living an average of 6yrs less than the norm - nor those with autism not only being more susceptible to psychological conditions but also physical ones

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/autistic-individuals-have-increased-risk-of-chronic-physical-health-conditions-across-the-whole-body

I got to say I do have my own questions of whether ‘mild’ autism means the same 25yrs ago as it does today and if the autism spectrum has been expanded to include more ppl in those years (when I first got diagnosed in the later half of the 90’s I was put in the higher functioning end of the scale - but after reading the stories in the media of celebs with later life diagnosis and esp those that are married with kids and a full friend circle I question if I belong in the higher functioning end anymore & if I’m more mid end) - the criteria and process for autism diagnosis may have become a lot more inclusive in the past 30 years - it’s good if more help becomes available however the result at the moment seems to be that many of the public (influenced by right wing media and MPs with no education on the subject) are labelling autism as a made up condition self diagnosed by lazy scroungers. If too high a population percentage have a disability it will cease to be a disability and considered to be normal and all forms of help will be removed.

My fear is that this gov will try and exclude all autistic individuals on the ‘higher functionality’ end of the spectrum from qualifying for pip or any other financial support - and not acknowledge that the definition of what higher functioning autism has widened significantly the past 20-40 years and prehaps we need a new subgroup in the spectrum so the gov doesn’t target every autism person with the ability to semi function and communicate as a person with nothing wrong with them and not actually disabled.

I’m sorry if this seems like a mean post but there isn’t enough support (financial or otherwise) for fully abled ppl in the uk which have left many desperate - would so many ppl be trying to apply for autism/assessments and pip if the pandemic hadn’t of happened, the cost of living hadn’t happened and right wing media painting pip as easy free money for lazy people (I do think there are some ppl taking advantage of the welfare system but I also think there’s this middle group that are desperately keeping their heads able water any way they can and probably wouldn’t apply for pip if the government hadn’t as good of abandoned them of support every uk citizen should be getting, disabled or not)

In the past 10 years multiple governments have failed both groups and are now pitting us against each other to hide who’s truly at fault
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  Sarah · 9 days ago
  
  @D Thank you. So much of what the popular neurodiversity websites say seems to come from the type you describe "we're all equally autistic, functioning labels are offensive, self-diagnosis is valid," etc. Yes there are barriers to diagnosis, but sometimes it's more about trying to have a higher number of protected characteristics in these days of intersectionality.
  
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  John · 19 days ago
  
  @D Politicians never make the argument for giving people with health conditions that shorten life expectancy their state pension earlier. So they can retire early and be treated as deserving. Rather than be treated as if they should be working until they die.
  
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