Government Accused Of Undermining Mental Health Progress With Employment Drive

Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has been criticised for his claims there is a "danger" that openness around mental health has gone "too far".

Launching the government's overhaul of out-of-work benefits on Thursday, Stride told The Telegraph that he was "grateful for today's much more open approach to mental health", he was concerned "normal anxieties" were leading to people being written off work. 

“There is a real risk now that we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions which then actually serve to hold people back and, ultimately, drive up the benefit bill," he said. 

But his comments have sparked backlash among those who have long been working to improve support for people with mental health issues, who see the tone as dismissive and undermining. Andy Bell, chief executive at the Centre for Mental Health, told PoliticsHome it felt like a "worrying development" that was detrimental to positive work the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has otherwise done around the issue. 

"The frustrating thing is we know what works, and the government is investing in it," Bell said. 

"There's an approach called individual placement and support (IPS) and it is known to produce very, very good results in terms of supporting people into paid work, to real paid jobs.

"If we had a system which used that approach consistently, you'd never need to have [benefit] conditions and sanctions because we know it works better without that.

"Rather than treating people as somehow trying to get out of seeking work, you actually give people the right support at the right time to get the jobs they want, and we know that that has has a great level of success."

Bell also said it was important not to belittle mental