March 21, 2024, 07:18
The culture of mental health “may have gone too far,” says Mel Stride.
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The Work and Pensions Secretary said Britain’s “open approach to mental health” may have gone too far.
Mel Stride said work was good for people’s mental health, as he unveiled plans to get 150,000 people who left work on poor terms back into work.
In the UK, millions of working age people are out of work due to illness, and this number has increased significantly since the pandemic.
Many of these people say they suffer from mental health problems that make them unable to work.
The number of people out of work due to poor mental health is a problem for the economy and for many claimants themselves, Mr Stride said.
Mel Stride.
Picture:
Alamy
He told the Telegraph that “as a culture we seem to have forgotten that work is good for mental health”.
He added: “While I am grateful for today’s much more open approach to mental health, there is a risk that this goes too far.
“There is now a real risk that we will label the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions that, in reality, serve to hold people back and ultimately drive up benefit bills. »
He added that it was good that attitudes towards mental health had changed, meaning people who previously “suffered in silence” were now receiving treatment.
Many people are unemployed due to mental health issues.
Picture:
Alamy
But he added that things may have swung too far in the other direction and people may be “convincing themselves that they have some sort of serious mental health problem, as opposed to to the normal anxieties of life.
He added: “If they go to the doctor and say, ‘I’m feeling pretty down and depressed,’ the doctor will give them on average about seven minutes and then, in 94 percent of cases, they’ll be considered no. fit to do any job,” he added.
Mr Stride acknowledged the subject was sensitive, but said it should not become a “no-go zone” and was “something we need to start having an honest, mature debate about”.
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“It’s too important for people and their future, too important for the functioning of welfare and too important for the economy to ignore.”
Mr Stride said the subject was sensitive, but maintained it was “something we need to start having an honest, adult debate about”.
“It’s too important for people and their future, too important for the functioning of welfare and too important for the economy to ignore.”
The welfare bill is expected to rise to £100 billion this year, having already risen significantly since the pandemic.
Some 1.5 million people who applied for disability benefits between 2019 and 2023 received the highest level of compensation and are not required to look for work. Mental health was the most common reason given.
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That’s much higher than the government anticipated when the category was introduced in 2011, and Mr Stride wants to reduce that number.
Under the new rules, only people with very serious mental health problems can receive the highest level of disability benefits and be told they do not need to look for work.
It will also require people with milder illnesses, such as anxiety, to get jobs that allow them to work from home.
The government also spends an extra £2.3 billion a year on mental health services.
Mr Stride told LBC’s Andrew Marr in November: “If you need state support because you can’t work and have a significant disability or long-term illness problem, we should be there, as a compassionate society, to do it.
“If you can work and you’re basically saying you won’t, then the taxpayer, in fairness, is saying…benefits shouldn’t be there forever if they’re not needed. »
