UC Will Make The Benefits System Worse For People With Mental Health Issues

The Government’s new Universal Credit welfare reform is likely to make the benefits system more, not less, hostile for people with mental health issues, a leading mental health charity has warned. Policy experts at Mind say Iain Duncan Smith’s new programme could lead to a “sausage factory” approach in Jobcentres where ill people are deemed “fit-to-work until proven otherwise” and given inappropriate instructions backed by the threat of sanctions. Research by the charity publicised earlier this year found that back to work programmes backed by the threat of sanctions had significant detrimental effects on both a person’s actual mental health and their chances of managing to return to work. Read more on the Independent website.