People with depression could be told to get back to work and deal with ‘ups and downs’

The government is considering removing cash sickness benefits given to people with ‘milder’ mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said it was time to have a ‘grown-up conversation’ about the issue, saying that such illnesses ‘sadly present more of an issue than they did a decade ago’.

He wants to make changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit available to working-age adults who need extra help because of a long-term disability or health condition.

It comes after Rishi Sunak said he wanted to crack down on ‘sicknote culture’ last week, claiming people should avoid ‘over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life.’

Mr Stride suggested that some labelled as having serious mental health conditions were in fact just experiencing ‘the kind of ups and downs of life that is part of the human condition’.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We all have challenges in our life.

‘Work being right at the centre of people’s lives is something that is really good for mental health.’ 

He is set to publish planned reforms in a Green Paper this afternoon, which will be followed by a public consultation.

They include proposals to ‘move away from a fixed cash benefit system’, meaning people with some conditions will no longer receive regular payments in their bank account, but rather improved access to treatment such as therapy.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Stride described the reforms as ‘probably the most fundamental reforms in a generation’.

He said: ‘There are those that have perhaps milder mental health conditions, or where perhaps there has been too great a move towards labelling certain behaviours as having certain (medical) conditions attached to them, where actually work is the answer or part of the answer.

‘What we’ve got to avoid is being in a situation where we too readily say “Well, actually, we need you to be on benefits”.’

The paper reported that 360,000 people now claim PIP for anxiety and depression, which is three times as many as for cancer.

Mr Stride said the system should not be paying people to deal with the ‘ordinary difficulties of life’ and suggested that many voters ‘deep down’ agree with him.

He said a ‘whole plethora of things’, such as talking therapies, social care packages and respite care, could be used as alternatives to benefit payments.

He added that the main reason for the changes is to provide better help and not cut costs, but he acknowledged the cost ‘has to be one of the considerations’.

Since 2020, the number of people out of work due to long-term sickness has reached a record high of 2.8 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

A large proportion of those report suffering from depression or anxiety, although most of those report these as secondary conditions rather than the main one keeping them out of work.

The number of monthly PIP awards for mental health disorders has doubled since 2019, from 2,200 to 5,300, in line with an increase in overall PIP awards which have also doubled to 33,000 a month.

The Government hopes the overall impact of reforms will be to move to a system where PIP is more geared towards covering the actual extra costs faced by people with disabilities.

But the moves have been strongly criticised by dozens of disability charities who fear the reforms will make life more difficult for people already facing setbacks.

Ceri Smith, Head of Policy at the MS Society, on behalf of the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), said the consultation is ‘cynical and cruel, unjustly targeting disabled people’.

PIP ‘is a lifeline to many, helping to fund the extra costs of being disabled’ and ‘in many cases, it can actually help people stay in work and maintain their independence for longer’, she said.

‘If the government truly wants a “stronger, healthier and fairer society”, they should start by addressing NHS waiting lists and fixing social care. Instead, this approach will punish disabled people and push even more into poverty.’

James Taylor, the executive director of strategy at disability equity charity Scope, called for an end to the ‘reckless assault’ on disabled people and to fix the ‘real underlying issues’.

‘It’s hard to have any faith that this consultation is about anything other than cutting the benefits bill, no matter the impact,’ Mr Taylor said.

‘Life costs a lot more for disabled people, including people with mental health conditions. Threatening to take away the low amount of income PIP provides won’t solve the country’s problems.’

The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on July 23.

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