Workers with anxiety or depression who received both NHS talking therapies and employment support were 4.2 percentage points more likely to claim Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits three years later, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS data, reported by the Telegraph, compares outcomes for those who received both types of support with those who only received NHS therapy. The findings suggest that government job coaches may be helping workers access additional DWP benefits, rather than improving their employment prospects.
Age and Employment Status Differences
The data shows that people aged between 25 and 55 were less likely to be claiming benefits after their treatment than younger people. The ONS said this suggested that people were “moving to lower-paying jobs or reducing their working hours”.
By contrast, people who were out of work during their treatment were less likely to receive state support three years later.
Government Policy and Response
The Labour Party government placed an expansion of NHS Talking Therapies – which already costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year – at the centre of a 2025 white paper. The white paper announced: “To tackle poor mental health, the leading driver of ill health-related inactivity, the government has committed to continuing to expand access to NHS Talking Therapies for adults with common mental health conditions in England.”
The white paper claimed that “extensive literature and studies” showed that NHS Talking Therapies improved employment outcomes.
Amy Wells, senior communications and membership manager for National Survivor User Network, criticised the plans at the time, saying: “It becomes ever more transparent and worrying that our government is intent on pushing disabled people — and those living with mental ill-health — back into work, in place of genuine, comprehensive support.”
Wells added: “Little regard is being paid to whether it is possible or beneficial for disabled people to get ‘back into work’, furthering the rhetoric that people are not valuable beyond their contributions to the economy. The majority of investment for these plans is being funnelled into talking therapies, with the expectation of its ability to ‘support’ people back to work, which has now been shown to have a very insignificant impact on individual employment status.”
She concluded: “What this new data shows is that the government’s plans are not only harmful, but that they also will not work. We find these developments incredibly disappointing and call for a rethink of the government’s strategy around disability employment.”
DWP Response
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “For those in work, some of the differences found in the data may reflect who took up support, rather than how effective the service was. This is precisely why employment advisers are embedded in NHS talking therapies: to identify and support people whose mental health is already affecting their ability to stay in work and to help them access the right support.”
