Mental illness and inequality

It seems an odd decision for a Government committed to fairness and protecting the vulnerable. We could debate until the next Parliament whether the socio-economics duty was the right answer to current societal inequalities. What’s certain is that current government policy isn’t enough to protect the vulnerable from inequality.

Too many people with mental illness are living in the breadline. Not through any fault of their own but through a combination of a benefits system that doesn’t recognize mental illness, an NHS that restricts mental health treatment and employers that see mental illness as a sign of weakness or danger. If this duty is going, we need a different plan of action to move people out of what can be years of hardship.

First, we need a benefits system that recognises mental illness. At the moment people are more likely to have worse health after some benefits reviews than they are to have a proper record of their ability to work. Independent research has found that 99% of people claiming benefits do so honestly, but so far government rhetoric is focusing 99% of the time on people being dishonest. This is an unfair reflection on many thousands of people who are simply unwell enough to work.

Second we need an NHS that really gives people proper treatment. Whether you’ve got a broken leg or a mental illness, if you don’t get health treatment, it will take longer to recover and get back to a decent life and back into work. The new GP commissioners will hopefully recognize the disparity in treatment for mental illness compared to physical illness and use their budgets to plug the gap. Some GPs seem to recognise that mental health care is simply not good enough in this country – we hope others will take a long hard look at their local services and work out better ways of treating people.

But giving the individual income and health treatment is not enough. Until we do something about people’s role in the new ‘Big Society’, people with mental illness will still face more of an uphill battle in getting employment and could fall into deprivation more easily than others. The Coalition has so far resisted calls from laissez-faire thinkers to repeal the Section of the Equality Act that ends employers asking job applicants about disabilities. The news on the socio-economic duty may be debatable, but there is no doubt that allowing employers to ask these questions affects people’s chances of getting into work. 41% of people with a mental health condition say they had not applied for a job because they believed they would be discriminated against. We sincerely hope that this is the only part of the Equality Act that will be repealed next year.