February has been a big month for mental health. The independent mental health Taskforce report and its recommendations marked the potential transformation of care for people with mental illness. Following its release, we were heartened at the positive response from both the Government and NHS England.
This Taskforce also recognised that mental health issues are the main cause of lost work days, and recommended greater support to help people with mental health enter and stay in the work place.
The number of people with mental health problems in employment is very low: just 43% are in work, compared to 74% of the general population, and 65% of people with other health conditions.
However we know that the majority of people with mental illness want to work – a survey of our supporters showed that 67% of respondents who were accessing benefits said they wanted to work or were looking for work.
But there is a disconnect: the same Government is pushing through disability benefit reforms that we know will make people with mental illness more unwell and keep them out of the work place.
On Tuesday 23 February the Work and Welfare Bill back to the House of Commons to debate the clause to cut Employment Support Allowance (ESA) in the work-related activity group (WRAG) by £30. Based on current statistics, 260,000 people in the WRAG have a mental illness.
This legislation is counter intuitive. Rethink Mental Illness found that 69% of people with mental illness receiving benefits said cuts to their income would make it harder for them to find or stay in work. This Bill therefore has the potential to move us away from our shared goal of supporting people with mental illness in the work place.
This weekend saw the Bishop of St Albans making the
same point; that the Government cannot claim to support people with mental illness while introducing legalisation which will penalise them.
Everyone in the WRAG has been independently assessed as currently too unwell to go back to work. Cutting £30 a week from their income won’t change this. This clause was rejected by the Lords vote in the Bill, and that was the right decision.
We’ve now seen Conservative MPs,
Jeremy Lefroy, Heidi Allen and Stephen McPartlandspeaking out against these changes to ESA.
Ultimately we all want the same thing; to help and support more people with mental illness in finding and staying in employment. Some people simply are not well enough to work, but for others, employment can mean moving forwards on the road to recovery.
The independent review of the proposed cut, conducted by Lord Low, Baroness Meacher and Baroness Grey-Thompson, found there was no evidence to show that the change would help people into work. In fact,
the best evidenceavailable points to the opposite, that reducing support will push people further from the work place.
A survey by Rethink Mental Illness found that 78% of people who receive disability benefits said they would need more support from health services if their benefits were cut. These extra costs to the system have not been taken into account and raise serious concerns about how cost effective this legislation is.
We’ve heard from supporters currently on Jobseekers Allowance – the same amount as the proposed new WRAG rate - who are taking unsuitable jobs despite not being able to cope, just to keep enough money coming in. A ‘revolving door’ pattern emerges, where people start a job they are not ready for, get unwell, and are unable to stay in work. Unsurprisingly this results in their mental health worsening.
Jody, 28, from West Sussex has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, depression and anxiety which means that she can struggle to leave the house, see her family and take care of her physical health. Placed in the WRAG group she was able to use the additional support to pay for travel to doctors appointments, volunteer and attend courses that got to her a place where she was ready to return to part time work.
The Government’s commitment to provide extra investment in employment support is welcome, as we have seen how effective the right support can be. Help accessing courses, writing CVs and job hunting can really make a difference. But it is crucial that this is provided alongside, rather than instead of, the money currently paid to those in the WRAG.
The independent review recommended that the Government rethink the cut and instead put in place better support to help people build up their skills, look for and stay in work. Rethink Mental Illness supports this recommendation and urges the Government to remove this damaging and counterproductive clause from its Bill.