Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has called for the Government to crackdown on families cashing in on their children’s Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis. Mr. Duncan Smith is said to have been shocked to discover that thousands of families with children suffering from ADHD are believed to have been handed out free vehicles under the £1.5 billion-a-year Motability scheme. Mr. Duncan Smith is committed to preventing what he believes to be abuse of the free car scheme for the disabled in order to reduce the UK’s annual £192 billion welfare benefits bill. The number of individuals in possession of cars paid for by the Government-funded Motability scheme has risen to 575,000 – up 200,000 in a decade. The Motability scheme, which was launched in 1978, is the UK’s largest fleet-management outfit.
The number of individuals in receipt of disability benefit for ADHD has risen from just 800 a decade ago to 43,100 in 2010. An additional 55,900 claimants were given handouts by the state for “behavioural disorders”, taking the total number of claimants for ADHD-related conditions to 99,000. The Government believes that around a third of a million children aged between six and 16 suffer from ADHD. While ADHD was almost an unheard of condition 20 years ago, the number of prescriptions for ADHD medications has increased from 2,000 in 1991 to almost 350,000.
Duncan Lewis is home to a dedicated welfare benefits department whose trained welfare benefits solicitors are able to assess their clients’ eligibility for financial support.