The Institute for Financial Research says that 3.9 million people, ages 16-64, and one in ten working-age groups, has health-related benefits.
Mental health conditions have been overdiagnosed and too many people are being “depreciated,” said Health Secretary Wes Street.
When asked if he agreed with experts who said he had overdiagnosed his mental health, the minister told BBC’s Laura Quensberg on Sunday:
“I think there’s definitely an overdiagnosis, but many people were also amortized,” he said.
Streeting explained that not everyone has the treatment and support they need.
This includes getting people into proper care plans, he said, underscoring the government’s pledge to hire 8,500 new mental health staff to cut wait lists.
Mental health worsening since the pandemic
Streeting commented before Liz Kendall, executive director of work and pensions, announced the reforms to the welfare system this week. This will introduce more ways to bring long-term sick people back into the workforce.
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The Department of Labor and Pensions (DWP) previously described the benefits bill as a “spiral,” driven primarily by an increase in the number of people claiming incompetent benefits of mental health.
Researchers analyzed various studies and found in the mid-2010s that about 8-10% of working-age people had long-term mental health or behavioral conditions. This rose to 13-15%.
The number of people in the UK who have antidepressants prescriptions has also increased by 12% since 2019.
Considering a tenth of the work
While the government is working on strategies to bring economically inertia back to the workforce, employment experts have highlighted the question of how to stop the flow of people leaving in the first place.
A photo of the BBC handouts of Wes Streeting Health Secretary featured in the BBC 1 Current Affairs Program on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in London, England on March 16, 2025. Jeff Over/BBC/PA Wire
The PWC said that economic inactivity could rise and that one in 10 UK workers are actively considering leaving jobs worth 4.4 million.
The accounting firm said employees between the ages of 18 and 24 are “particularly at risk, and mental health is a major driver.”
Mental health concerns were the second reason (32%) after “unsuccessful jobs” (35%) for all age groups.
Half says they won’t go back to work
A survey conducted last month against the DWP found that almost half (49%) of people with disability benefits believe they will not be able to return to work again.
Kendall said at the time he believed that “many of those people could work” if given the right support.
She added that not working can have a lifelong “scarring effect” that lasts a lifetime, especially for young people.
The minister said that although there are young people with genuine mental health conditions, “there is no situation where working a day is considered stress in itself.”
She said supermarket managers told her that some young people struggle to understand the world of work, and that it was “the nature of life, and that’s not stress or pressure.”
