Actually, as far as I'm aware, support for people with aspergers in the U.K. has deteriorated because the current Government is mainly interested in reducing unemployment statistics. Thus, people even with more serious disadvantages to aspergers are coming under ever increasing pressure to be signed off any invalidity. This is why I've not yet bothered with formal diagnosis as I don't believe there would be any difference in assistance. Some people might believe I've not correctly grasped the current situation but, from what I've read so far, it doesn't look too good.
Not that I disagree with the notion of aspies working but think, in some cases, there needs to be an awareness of the condition. I don't know how it stands in Europe but over here it seems as if there is a huge change in attitude towards disability.
The attitude towards disability hasn't neccesarily changed here, but the ways to land income for disability have become increasingly hard. New laws exclude a lot of people from it.
I'm not receiving a lot of assistance myself; just a temporary "ban" that I have to look for jobs, until I have clearly mapped what my problems are and the jobcoach can look into that with me. It would be non-sensical if I have to look for a job, land a job and end up at a therapist (or worse) after a week, and that's pretty much what my therapist, as well as the people who assessed me for disability said. Though I should add, there's more going on with me than "just" asperger's. Yet, because of those new laws to assess disability as such, I do not get that income and have to file for social security.
Just like even "healthy" people can't deal with every job because of limited capabilities, aspies are just like those... it just happens that a lot of "normal" things don't work for us. 9 out of 10 people would be fine to put at a callcenter for example; I'm quite sure that a fair share of aspies wouldn't qualify for that. And let's not forget that there's also sensory issues, meltdowns and what have you, which might impose a problem on the workfloor. I don't want to end up as a "victim" because people push me places I know I shouldn't end up.. and I know this upfront and have documentation of it. If that's the case, I'm willing to state that I should not be held responsible for whatever happens. Yes, I'm a responsible person, but as such I feel that there's more to it than putting blame at someone and that's it.
What I'd like to see for aspies is a more serious dialogue with jobcoaches to see what kind of job they might do, and what's possible, that's already failing. No wonder people rather have disability income or something like that. Reducing unemployment is more than just sticking people somewhere. They're focussed on (at least here) employing people short term not long term... and long term in fact should be the goal. You don't want people coming in and out of the revolving door for benefits because they can't function the way they're supposed to according to some silly notion.
The reason I got my diagnosis was in fact because my therapist told me it might open doors for me. Little did he know about laws changing just before I got my official diagnosis. Under old law I would be on disability benefits. And actually, because I have my diagnosis, I can map out my issues and at least it's worth something. I somewhat did it to cover for myself... and if it would be possible to "reap some rewards" but that wasn't top priority for me personally.