Traits in parents accussed of fabricated and induced illness, are you at risk of being accused?!

Working with many parents who have been accused of fabricated and induced illness you get to think that there are certain traits that those parents exhibit that attract professionals to make false allegations. So we at Fiightback decided to make a survey to see if there are any patterns in those parents accused of fii.

Those accused of Fii are overwhelmingly female


Out of those 165 respondents accused, 29% had a disability, 30% chronic illness and 10% are autistic. This is despite Scope reporting that only 19% of working age adults have a disability (which includes chronic illness and asd). This shows a huge problem with ablesim within social care.


Out of the respondents you can see that nearly 40% are single parents, the office of national statistics reports that 25% of families with children are single parents households, so single parents are over represented in this category.



About 36% of respondents were not on good terms with the other parents due to seperation, domestic abuse or lack of contact. In many accusations of fii, there is an ex partner agreeing with false allegations in order to punish the resident parent and/or to attempt to gain residency of children.


Those who are accused are overwhelmingly well educated


This is only slightly above average though as the office on national statistics reports that 27% of adults have a degree.

One overwhelming trend is that those who are accused often work in healthcare (and are the barred from ever working in that field again because they have a criminal record due to child protection proceedings). Here we can see 16% worked in education (another career choice affected by false allegations) and 25% work in healthcare.


Larger families with 3 or more children seem massively over-represented in the survey. As you can see 39% of those accused have more than 3 children. The office of national statistics reveal only around 29% of families have more than 3 children.



The kind of parents accused are those that make their opinion known and do not keep quiet about injustice and would complain about poor service





The conditions most commonly targeted by "professionals" for accusations of fii are EDS at 58% , autism at 52%, adhd 26%, depression and self harm 47%, school refusal 39% , sensory processing disorder 49%, dyslexia 26%, dyspraxia 18%, ME/fibromyalgia 18%, physical disability 15%, hearing issues 9%, chromosone deletion 10%, vision issues/blind 8%.
We are used to seeing parents accused of fabricated and induced illness where there is an "invisible illness" like EDS, ME and ASD (which again highlights ableism in social care) but it shocking that parents of children with cromosone deletion are increasingly being accused of faking a condition impossible to fake.

A high percentage of those accuse are reliant on benefits to survive, however I couldn't say if this is due to child's illness/disability and/or due to social care involvement destroying their health care/teaching career

These statistics give an interesting picture of those at danger of being accused of fii, much of which is not at all surprising given what we see everyday supporting such families in fiightback. If you feel you are at risk of such accusations or have been accused please get in touch through our facebook, twitter or website