The Department for Work and Pensions has been urged to stop benefit claims for two common conditions: mild anxiety and depression. In an editorial, the Sun newspaper warned that Britain's "benefits madness cannot continue."
Benefits spending unsustainable
The newspaper argued: "The Tony Blair Institute rightly insists having 1,000 people signing on sick every day isn't sustainable. Especially when welfare spending — which will hit £73 billion for health and disability benefits by 2030 — starves other urgent priorities of funding, such as defence."
The Sun suggested that the government could solve the welfare crisis by ending claims for mild conditions like anxiety and depression. Classifying these illnesses as "non work-limiting" would save money and stop easy scams, the paper claimed.
Government response
The DWP has said it will "consider" the TBI report, but learning disability charity Mencap called its proposals "deeply unhelpful and ill-informed." Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Mencap, said the research "ignores the lived reality of people with a learning disability and plays to a populist trope about welfare."
"Our evidence is clear: people with a learning disability want to work," he said. "What they lack is consistent, specialist support and employers willing and equipped to give them a fair chance. Slapping labels on people and denying them benefits will not tackle the root cause. It will push people into deeper anxiety, misery and poverty. That's not reform, it's a recipe for making things worse."
TBI report findings
The TBI report notes that "Britain is not alone in experiencing a deterioration in mental health since the pandemic," but the number of people moving onto long-term benefits as a result is more unique to the country. The think tank points to 2.8 million people out of work due to ill health, with 185,000 of these being young people aged 18 to 24. This figure has nearly doubled from 94,000 in 2012.
The government faces a challenging decision: whether to implement the proposed changes to save billions or to heed the warnings of charities that such measures could exacerbate the very problems they aim to solve.
