MELBOURNE: An MP says the system must distinguish between conditions that prevent work and those that do not.
Britons diagnosed with mild attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety should not qualify for welfare payments, a Labour MP chairing an all-party group on mental health has said.
Sojan Joseph, the MP for Ashford, said signing people off work because of a condition such as ADHD or anxiety should only be an option in severe cases.
Mr Joseph said: “Some conditions are severe. But most conditions are not that severe. You can’t just say all ADHDs or all [people with] autism can’t work or should be on benefits. [The system] should distinguish between the severity of the illness. The current system doesn’t have that.”
Britain’s sickness and disability benefits bill for working-age adults has soared since the pandemic to £58bn and is projected to rise to £78bn by 2030. Despite this, Andy Burnham, the putative prime minister, has ruled out making “crude” cuts to welfare payments.
Mr Joseph warned urgent action is needed to get young people off benefits and into work. Before becoming an MP, Mr Joseph worked in the NHS for two decades, mainly as a mental health nurse.
He added: “Once you start claiming benefits, it’s hard to get people out of that benefit system. This is where the long-term work needs to happen to identify children at a younger age. Children need to get that help earlier on during their school days.
“We have a culture of signing people off for the rest of their lives. Some of these conditions are quite fluctuating, especially the mental health conditions.
“People may be unwell for a certain period of time. They need to be treated and then get back into work. Work itself has a therapeutic effect.”
He added that in his personal view, working from the office had the most benefits.
Mr Joseph chairs the all-party parliamentary group on mental health. The group seeks to inform MPs, and advocate policies that will improve mental health in the UK.
There are more than one million young people aged 16 to 24 who are neither earning nor learning, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Mr Joseph said he wants to see far earlier intervention to prevent young people from ending up on benefits in the first place.
Last week, a report by Sir Stephen Timms, the social security minister, declared that personal independence payments were “not fit for purpose”.
It also found that some disability benefit claimants said it created barriers to fully participating in work.
Mr Joseph said that while moving more people off benefits and into work would not be “an overnight change”, it was important to get started immediately.
He said: “I would like to see the change starting from now. We can’t delay this anymore. We’ve got a lost generation. This has been piling up over the last 10 to 15 years.”
The Labour Party should be able to move past the leadership contest quickly to avoid any disruption to the important work on welfare reform, he added.
Mr Joseph said: “I hope there won’t be much disruption. We’re trying to get [through] this transition as smoothly as possible. I’m hoping Andy Burnham, if he will be prime minister, is already doing some background work with each department.”