Department for Work and Pensions
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Purnell: targeted support for those with mental health issues to stay in work
Increased funding for the Access to Work programme will be used to test new ways of helping people with mental health issues stay in work rather than move onto benefits, announced James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions today.
Support will be made available for people with mental health conditions either already in work and experiencing difficulty, or those about to enter employment, as well as for their employers.
Crucially, the support will be available when it is needed, waiting in reserve to respond quickly when mental health deteriorates or problems emerge. From autumn a programme will be piloted in London to test the demand and monitor the effects.
Announcing the pilot in a speech to the Social Market Foundation (SMF), James Purnell said:
"Depression, anxiety, phobia and severe stress often take a heavy toll on individuals and their families, yet stigma and ignorance still surround these often hidden conditions. In the UK mental health problems cost the economy of Great Britain more than £40 billion each year - nearly two-thirds of this is the impact on people's ability to work.
"We know work is generally good for people's health and well-being so we need to take steps to intervene earlier and support people before it is ever a serious issue.
"Statutory Sick Pay alone costs employers over £1 billion each year- the Government and employers must work together to bring that cost down by recognising that work can in fact aid recovery and give people their independence back.
"The Pilot I am announcing today will direct money specifically to this problem, looking to help people with mental health issues to manage their conditionthe The and remain in work rather than slip onto benefits."
Speaking at the SMF, James Purnell also welcomed a report the think tank has issued looking at how more people with mental health issues can be helped back into work.
James Purnell said:
"The SMF report mirrors many of our own recommendations from previous reports and agrees that we should focus on what patients can do, rather than what they can't.
"We are sure in the future we can successfully integrate our Fit for Work pilots better into communities by challenging local areas to pioneer these services, and pool funding from across health, skills and work budgets to give them critical mass."
Notes to Editors
1. James Purnell spoke at the SMF event Shifting Responsibilities, Sharing Costs: Meeting the Mental Health Challenge for Welfare Reform, held at the House of Commons.
2. Access to Work funding will be doubled to £138 million by 2014. This doubling of funding was announced in our green paper No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility - available online at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/welfarereform/noonewrittenoff/
3. The Fit for Work pilots were also announced in the Green Paper, following the earlier report on health, work and well being by Dame Carol Black, which can be found at: http://www.workingforhealth.gov.uk
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