The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is facing fierce backlash over a proposed crackdown on benefits for depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. The Sir Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has called for payments to be scrapped for certain conditions, but charities have reacted with horror.
Charities respond with alarm
Mencap's Jon Sparkes told the Independent: “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.”
Charles Gillies, policy co-chair of the Disability Benefits Consortium and senior policy officer at the MS Society, said: “We’re really concerned that the Tony Blair Institute are trying to force harmful benefit cuts onto the government’s agenda – something the PM was forced to backtrack on less than a year ago. We urge the government to remember that disabled people, campaigners and MPs didn't stand for such harmful cuts last time, and to reject these proposals.”
Tom Pollard from mental health charity Mind described the report as a “discriminatory and simplistic response to a hugely complex challenge”. Mencap called its proposals “deeply unhelpful and ill-informed”.
TBI’s arguments
The TBI highlighted that four million people are now signed off work with ill health, blaming a broken system for “entrenching welfare dependency” by parking people on benefits indefinitely. The TBI warned of a surge in claims for sickness and disability benefits such as Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and urged Labour to introduce immediate legislation to slow a “proliferation” in mental health-related claims.
DWP responds
A DWP spokesman said: “We agree that the system we inherited left too many people written off – without treatment or proper help into work. That is a failure the Government is determined to fix, through reforms with opportunity at their heart. We’re already acting: we’ve rebalanced Universal Credit, saving nearly £1bn, increased face-to-face assessments and improved use of NHS evidence – all while ensuring those who genuinely can’t work are always protected.”
