Response to Health Secretary on rising mental health issues
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On Sunday Health Secretary Wes Streeting commented on the mental health conditions, suggesting that ‘too many people’ are being ‘written off’ and emphasising the need for early intervention to maintain employment.

We're disappointed that he claimed there's an ‘overdiagnosis’ of mental health conditions in his defense of the Government’s proposed benefit reforms.

But we do support and strongly advocate for better earlier intervention, including expanding provision and access to psychological therapies as part of a health creation approach.

Overlooked systemic failures

We must be very cautious when using language that might be politically appealing but fails to show an understanding of the importance of careful communication regarding diagnoses. It also completely overlooks the systemic failure that has left so many people without the support they need to both maintain or come back to employment.

The availability of mental health services, including counselling, is crucial for effective recovery, and while services are currently overwhelmed with increasing demand, we must look to address the complex issues behind this, rather than perpetuate notions that failure of diagnosis is somehow the problem.

Economic and social inequalities 

The issues that are keeping many people out of work or are too complex, many layered and rooted in economic and social inequalities. These include the costly failure of previous attempts to reform welfare, underfunding of the NHS, the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis are key.

Similarly, we need challenge the notion that disability benefits provide a generous disincentive to work, as though they’re a ‘choice’ for people who ‘game’ the system. This simply isn’t true, with research highlighting that the UK's social safety net is actually among the least generous in the OECD.

The vast majority of people claiming disability benefits have serious, often long-lasting, conditions that can affect both physical and mental health.

Moreover, we know that reducing benefits or making them harder to access only leads to increased financial hardship among vulnerable populations.

Past benefit cuts have been associated with rising rates of anxiety and depression. For instance, between 2013 and 2017, severe anxiety and depression among unemployed people increased from 10% to 15%, partly attributed to benefit reductions.

Better access for mental health services needed

Whatever the government saves on disability benefits would represent a pyrrhic victory, with any reductions in support passed further down the line in terms of the cost of worsened financial and psychological health.

We urge the Government to more sensitively balance considerations about mental health ‘diagnoses’ alongside the need for more accessible mental health services and wider economic policies.

Ensuring adequate support, including access to counselling and psychotherapy, not only aids individual recovery but also promotes workforce participation and over-all societal wellbeing.