Ministers will tell people with ‘mild’ mental health problems to get therapy and get back to work this week as they seek to reduce the 3.5 million disability benefits bill.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is set to announce plans to overhaul the way disability benefits work in a statement to the Commons on Monday, with proposals aimed at providing ‘more tailored support in line with their needs’.
It’s part of what the government calls the biggest systemic reform in a generation, which may result in vouchers being given to individuals in place of regular monthly payments.
It is the latest government attempt to reduce the number of people in the UK who are registered as long-term sick and unable to work. Last week, Mr Sunak announced a clampdown on ‘sicknote culture, with changes to the way people are signed off.
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, suggested that some people who were labelled as having ‘serious mental health conditions’ were simply struggling with ‘the kind of ups and downs of life that is part of the human condition’.
‘We all have challenges in our lives,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘Work being right at the centre of people’s lives is something that is really good for mental health.’
On the other hand, given the backlog in the NHS, concerns can be voiced over how long patients must wait for treatment.
According to NHS figures released earlier this month, 32.2 percent of patients were waiting longer than the recommended 18 weeks to begin mental health treatment in February, and 8 percent had been waiting for over a year.
In a Green Paper due to be published alongside Mr Stride’s statement, ministers will set out plans to reform personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability benefit, through changes to eligibility criteria and assessments.
The plans, which will be consulted on over the coming months, also include proposals to ‘move away from a fixed cash benefit system’, meaning people with some conditions will no longer receive regular payments but rather improved access to treatment if their condition does not involve extra costs.
In an interview with The Times, Mr Stride suggested this would mean people with ‘milder mental health conditions’ would no longer receive financial support.
Mental Health does not fit into a ‘one size fits all.’
There is a dearth of knowledge on mental health, and further study is necessary. Thus, generalisations such as the one this bonehead made are misinformed and inappropriate.
The majority of DWP employees ought to be providing assistance to others, yet the majority of them are callous and power-hungry.
The fact that people living on minimum wage are unable to even pay their rent and other expenditures is a serious issue because there are now no incentives to work; nevertheless, some may argue that this is a fact of life.
For those with lower earnings, there is, of course, Universal Credit, which is meant to top up your payments but never does. This means that people are struggling to pay their bills—no wonder people are suffering from mental illnesses, and if you work full time, that’s not fair because people should be able to afford to live. Life doesn’t need equality; it needs fairness.
A complete revamp of the system is required. Although we are aware that a large number of people abuse the system, nearly equal numbers of people depend on it to function correctly for them.
With an election approaching, Rishi Sunak must appear to be a decent person, but in reality, Rishi is only talking the talk. Instead of a power-hungry wannabe assessor, we should have a system where DWP claimants are assessed by their doctor, as they are the ones who know them well enough to make an accurate assessment.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 