Mark Hannaby The Politics Show Wales

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Will mentally ill people be forced back to work?

Welsh mental health charities fear reform of Incapacity Benefit may force mentally ill people back to work before they are ready.

The UK Government plans to get one million people off benefit and into employment, saving �7bn a year.

Those who refuse to take part in back-to-work schemes risk losing part of their benefits.

Thirty-five percent of those claiming Incapacity Benefit have mental health problems.

Later this week mental health charity Hafal will tell the Assembly's Health Committee that the plans could jeopardise their recovery from illness.

Hafal's Deputy Chief Executive Alun Thomas said: "The concern is that the Assessments now are going to be based on, 'Hang On - What are you capable of?'.

"Well, what somebody's capable of today, with mental illness, is not necessarily what they will be capable of tomorrow.

"Maybe two weeks of work under any pressure means that they will end up either admitted to a mental health hospital or be back under heavy medication again."

Case in point

Claire Elizabeth Price suffers from Depression.

She has recently returned to work having spent many years unable to do so, and worries how fair the assessment of a mentally ill person's capability to work will be.

She said: "When you are suffering from depression it is very hard to put into words how you are feeling and how soul destroying the whole thing is and many people with depression have problems concentrating, filling in forms.

"They are very self-depreciating about how ill they are and do not want to write it down and go through everything.

"And then the seriousness is not considered and they might just be taken as, 'Well, they can go back to work.'"

Charity fears targets

Mind Cymru's Claire Williams fears that a need for benefits agencies to meet targets might prove detrimental to individuals.

She said: "If an advisor has a certain number of targets to meet then Mind has very grave concerns that their priority might be to meet their targets rather than to actually provide a service to the people they're trying to support back into paid employment."

The element of compulsion in the Government's plans, whereby people will lose part of their benefit if they refuse to take part in back to work schemes, disturbs Depression Alliance Cymru.

The charity argues the plans do little to address the reluctance of employers to take on people who have had mental health problems.

Employers reluctant?

A recent survey by auditors KPMG showed one in five would seek to exclude such people.

Depression Alliance Cymru Director Tim Watkins said: "The problem is that whatever you do to the benefits system hasn't actually changed anything in the real world out there.

"If the proposal is that we are going to cut people's benefits if they do not make steps to get to work that is not actually a guarantee of people getting to work."

The Department of Work and Pensions says it will work closely with employers to ensure the needs of people with mental health conditions are taken into account in returning to the labour market.

They say their pilots for the changes show those with mild to moderate mental health conditions have been as successful as any other group of Incapacity Benefit claimants in returning to work.

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