The current system to assess PIP for disabled people is not right. They don't include sometimes mental health conditions and financial circumstances. The questionnaire itself sometimes hard to understand and repetitive.

Thank you very much Maddy for this week's question.

Looking at whether food aid organisations make a difference in people’s life. For me I will talk about the food bank. Honestly food band/ food pantry is good thing to support people in the community in the Uk but unfortunately not for everyone . This is because the idea didn’t put everyone into consideration especially foreigners. The food bank mostly have Canned food and some other English foods. As an African am not use to the English food so I hear others African complain.

It will be of more importance/ benefit to all if African food is included in the food bank or better still convert to supermarket vouchers for people to buy

what they need. Lastly I will be interested in been involved in this project.

Thanks

Just when I feel hopeful that the year will start improving something else happens. I've had back to back infections and flares since Xmas and the extra stress of constantly being unwell, needing to rearrange appointments over and over, getting more n more behind on housework, just makes things worse too. It's not fun. Doesn't help that I'm now scared to put my heating on cos of last month's utility bill (£150!!!), and the sudden cold after last week's brief warmth, just adds to my constant strains and makes recovery even harder

Diversity of need and issues with supply and demand. It's a matter of great shame (or rather should be but govs is happy to pass the buck) that such a wealthy country should even need food banks, let alone that such large percentage of the population requires that aid.

I won't use them ever again. Firstly cos in lockdown, when I finally told myself I had no choice but to seek such aid, and donations were dropped to one's doorstep due to social distancing. I was horrified to receive black, slimy rotten veggies and bread that was green, fuzzy and mouldy visible through the packaging with ease. When you're struggling the message is clear, don't bite the hand that feeds you/be grateful for what you get/etc.

But also most of the food that was edible was also unsuitable for our family with our multiple disabilities and sensitivities. It was just safer that I keep skipping meals and not use food banks.

But one thing I'll say for my immediate area, even if I could use food banks (aka if the food available was suitable for our family's needs - by which I don't mean top brands and lots of sweets, I mean some families have very few safe foods, others can't chop veggies, or can't eat tinned foods due to salt/sugar content, etc) but our nearest food bank is no where near a bus stop n all the roads and pavements to that part of town are unsafe for wheelchair usage (which is weird to me, cos many bigger near by community sites with easier access for people of any age and ability and on bus routes, so I don't understand why they put the food bank where they did).

Yes, there are additional needs in my household, and meeting them can sometimes be challenging. It often requires extra time, patience, and resources, especially when trying to access the right support services. While there are helpful provisions available, navigating them isn’t always straightforward. That said, you learn to adapt, and you do everything you can to make sure the children feel supported and have the opportunities they deserve.

I feel stuck.

I never expected my life to be as hard as it has been. I genuinely try to see the very best in things and people, I have tried to stay upbeat for a lot of my life often masking deep childhood trauma but not really having the words.

I find myself tired and in pain most days, I don’t ever reach a level of comfort for any consistent length of time. Poverty, has left me with disordered eating. The mental load of recent social security reviews and applications has been huge and I add that to daily struggles with my teen, in a large part, this is the fallout of the most broken systems, of him being let down again and again. The pain of that, for a young person, for a parent.

His choices and the choices and opportunities for young people around him and around here, are grim. There really is not a lot to support them and people almost never follow through with the support they offer when they sweep in at crisis number 1000…

I feel stuck, because I haven’t the energy to do anything more than I am and in fact some of the work things I do will need to be streamlined. I can’t do it all and I know the areas I want to help to change…

I feel stuck because it’s terrifying not knowing if you will be supported if you try to work for yourself because that’s the only option, you have to create your own hours and your own work, to fit the caring in, and the now poor health you are experiencing.

I feel stuck, because I am grieving for the life my son and I never had. For the person I might have been myself, had I not grown up in a framework of abuse and poverty.

When you can intellectualise what has happened to you, and what opportunities might have existed if you had made different decisions, like not self medicating a trauma you couldn’t name, it hurts. And to see your child careering down the same path but a little different, but the same, is heartbreaking and adds a layer I can’t even describe, to what is already a shocking life.

I am stuck.

The garden helps, and the vouchers are such a boost (I can’t though, explain how sad it is to be counting out vouchers you’ve saved, just to live, to buy maybe something nice for your kid ), I never, ever thought this would be my life, but here we are.

At least for now, the sky is free and the plants will grow and maybe, I just have to let go, to free fall… maybe being scared is a default I can change.

Hi, great question. As always. It was, firstly, it was one of the best experiences being part of such an amazing project, anyway, changing realities; but the push and the feeling from our participants, from the team, and from

the government side, too, there seems to be an openness and willingness to listen. And I think that what went well was that openness and that willingness, and what goes well for us is that we've got a really brilliant team, the changing realities team. And so, that primarily is what went well, answering the big questions, obviously, absolutely great. And great to see people who work at the heart of government and who are working on things that matter so much. And great to see you asking questions. I think what didn't go well, is the short term, the short lead times on meetings. Maybe sometimes you seeing us as one-dimensional, as well, the government sort of sees us as just poor parents. And I know that's not necessarily the wording that might be used. But I think seeing the participants as one-dimensional is not, maybe, using the opportunity that you have when you're speaking to us, asking us questions and working with us. Yeah, so the timings are really problematic and the fact that you invite us somewhere, but don't fund it - pretty problematic.

Thank you Millie for the question. I think the terminology comes close to the truth that the govenment is trying to identify and solve. Ever since I came to this country I understand that term as young people typically transitioning from Uni and going in the workforce and honestly that's when most young people fall in the cracks. This is a true reality for me because it was the same situation I was in back in my country before immigrating here. I was out of the educational system, out of the workforce and out of training. I was honestly trying to hustle to make ends meet and it is truly challenging and can mentally scar you sometimes. so I think trying to identify these young people is half of the answer the solution however is much more complex.

My 18 year old son finished from College in June 2025 and told me he wanted to have a 1 year work experience before going back to University in September 2026, and I obliged him. He started job hunting from June and was unsuccessful till December 2025 when he managed to get a job.

So for me the major problem here is that employers are unwilling to hire these young people for some flimsy reasons like work experience and the fear that the young person may not want a long term contract.

My son was frustrated and losing his self-esteem due to so many rejections after many job interviews he attended.

Employers of labour can do better by employing these young people so that they gain work experience and build life skills.

Thank you

For me, what I think the community should really be, what I should really be concerned or what's concerning me is that the communities disregarding and is looking down upon children with learning disabilities. This makes it, it makes them lose the confidence that as parents will try to but it erode them of their self-esteem. It makes them to view themselves as people who are not worthy in the community.

And tomorrow, those children will be adults. And how do you expect those others to manoeuver the journey called life if they have been sidelined when they were little and how will they raise their children for them to have the strength and the courage, and the confidence for the children to be stronger?

The community ought to be taught.

The public ought to be taught politicians ought to be taught of using ways which do not build, but which make somebody view himself or herself less than other people.

I think that's what we can look into. Thank you so much.

No, I believe in some ways it's only just getting started. We're watching and things starting becoming more expensive, the wages aren't reflected to the cost of what life is costing, and businesses are feeling it everyday people are feeling it and I think that we're being crunched, even more day by day.

Please a give a mum with children with autism a big hug 🫂 is not always easy for them sending love ❤️ to everyone