Rachel Fergusson, External Affairs Officer, Money and Mental Health

General Election 2024: How the next government can remove barriers to work for people with mental health problems

1 July 2024

  • The number of people who are not working and not seeking work has continued to rise since the pandemic – with one in four people out of work due to a long-term health condition attributing this to a mental health problem. 
  • Our research has shown that people with mental health problems face a number of barriers to employment, including a lack of specialist employment support and the fear of losing their benefit entitlement if a job doesn’t work out.
  • We’re calling on the next government to remove barriers to work for people with mental health problems.
  • This includes placing a specialist mental health Work Coach in every Job Centre and allowing an individual’s benefits to be restarted for up to one year to make taking a job less risky.

The rising number of people who are ‘economically inactive’ – those who are not in work or seeking work – has become a major topic of political interest in recent years. The number of people classified as economically inactive has risen exponentially since the pandemic, and  is at its highest level since 2012. A key driver of this is the increase in people unable to work due to long-term sickness. Currently, one in four people in this position attribute it to mental health problems – with recent research showing that this is twice as common as it was a decade ago.

The last government announced a raft of measures in an attempt to tackle this trend and boost the economy. While their proposals to expand schemes like Individual Placement Support, which provides wrap-around employment support for people with severe mental illnesses, were encouraging, they also included worrying changes to toughen up the benefits system

How the next government can better support people to move into work

Members of our Research Community often tell us that employment support simply doesn’t meet the needs of people with mental health problems. In particular, they describe how a lack of tailored support for those with mental health needs, and a risky financial cliff-edge which disincentives work, make it harder to return to employment.

It’s clear that there is a need for the next government to address the rising number of people out of work — but it’s imperative that these measures engage fully with the specific needs of people with mental health problems, and are geared towards support rather than punity

Ahead of the election, we’ve set out five practical ways the next government can boost financial and mental health. That includes two key measures to improve employment support and remove barriers to work for people with mental health problems by: 

1. Placing a specialist mental health Work Coach in every Jobcentre

Our research has shown that Work Coaches too often fail to understand the impact of people’s mental health on their ability to work. This leads to people being pushed down generic routes to prepare for work or into roles that just aren’t possible to sustain. The specialist mental health Work Coach would act as a leader across the Jobcentre on understanding mental health issues, as well as working with people who are in need of additional help. This would help more of us who struggle with our mental health to find rewarding, lasting employment. 

“My experience was haunting – I didn’t have the voice to explain my anxiety and mental health issues, which were compounded by the fact that I was then unemployed and had no money. But I remember the dread I felt when told I may have to retrain or take unpaid work.” Expert by Experience

2. Allowing benefit awards to be restarted for up to one year to make taking a job less risky

If a job placement fails when someone tries to return to work, they are often required to reapply for benefits from scratch. This can be a long, exhausting process and can result in their benefits being lower than before they took the job creating a disincentive for people to try work. Allowing people who enter work to retain a dormant benefit award for up to a year, which could be reactivated if their employment ends, could help remove this fear and encourage more people to give work a go.

Supporting people with mental health problems to thrive

These steps are just two ways that the next government can act swiftly to remove some of the barriers to work for people with mental health problems. 

Yet the next government must also focus on tackling the problem of economic inactivity further upstream, to minimise the likelihood of people with mental health problems becoming too ill to work in the first place. These include reducing waiting times for mental health treatment, linking up employment, mental health and money support, and making work flexible by default. You can read more about our recommendations on reducing economic inactivity for people with mental health problems here.