What the Budget means for mental health
Minesh Patel, Associate Director of Policy and Influencing at Mind, takes an in-depth look at some of the key Budget announcements for mental health, what they mean and what the potential impacts will be.
Glimmers of hope but a mixed picture overall
The Budget showed glimmers of hope for mental health, but it’s really a bit of a mixed picture overall. Addressing the mental health crisis will be critical to achieving the UK government’s health and growth missions. Unfortunately, yesterday’s budget didn’t deliver the scale of change needed to truly deliver on those missions and create a mentally healthier nation.
When we look at increases to the minimum wage and programmes to support people into work, alongside recent proposals on workers’ rights, there is certainly positive news. People with mental health problems are often on low incomes and in insecure work, so raising incomes and giving people greater rights are welcome.
The picture becomes less clear when we look at the proposals around benefits, NHS services and early support hubs. There is still a lack of clarity around changes to the Work Capability Assessment (explained in more detail below) and whether the government plans to push ahead with potentially harmful changes proposed by their predecessors.
There’s £26 million for mental health crisis centres, but very little on addressing the 2 million people stuck on mental health waiting lists and no sense of how the additional funding for the NHS will support mental health services.
And on early support hubs for young people, something we have been campaigning on for some time, there is a worrying focus on crime prevention and anti-social behaviour, not mental health support.
Let’s dive into the detail.
Work Capability Assessment
Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday “We inherited the last government’s plans to reform the work capability assessment. We will deliver those savings as part of fundamental reforms to the health and disability benefits system that the Work and Pensions Secretary (Liz Kendall) will bring forward.”
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is the assessment used to decide whether and to what extent people in receipt of benefits like Universal Credit are capable of doing work or work-related activities. The previous government proposed changes that would have effectively raised the threshold to be judged as having what is called limited capability for work or work-related activity (LCWRA).
It’s not clear whether the government will push ahead with those previous proposals, which could have seen many people with mental health problems lose £400 per month and push many into poverty. We are however, concerned, that the government is still committed to achieving the level of savings factored in for these reforms, which could harm people receiving benefits.
We’ll be pushing the government not to pursue these proposals to change WCA, as well as to redesign benefits assessments and create a benefits system that rebuilds trust between disabled people and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Mental Health Services
While the Chancellor did acknowledge the numbers of people on mental health waiting lists in her speech, there is sadly very little in the budget on how the UK government plans to address this.
Just last week we saw two reports detailing the terrible state of our mental health hospitals. The reports found that patients were experiencing harm and even losing their lives due to crumbling buildings and understaffing. People are being retraumatised when they’re most unwell and it is a result of years of neglect and underinvestment in our mental health services.
But despite these reports, despite the two million people on mental health waiting lists and despite the fact mental health accounts for 20% of illness but only receives 10% of NHS funding, there is nothing substantial in the Budget that seeks to address these issues. This is particularly troubling given the emphasis the government have placed on driving down waiting lists for physical health.
The limited funding (£26 million) for new crisis centres is welcome, but we need to see investment in services to prevent people reaching crisis point in the first place.
We’ll be challenging the government to use its forthcoming 10-year NHS plan to address what the budget failed to do.
Young Futures Hubs
The Budget saw the government announce the establishment of Young Futures Hubs but failed to provide crucial details on their nationwide rollout or specific implementation plans.
We’ve been campaigning for the creation of early support hubs for some time. That’s because mental health problems among children and young people are on the rise, with 1 in 5 now experiencing mental health problems, up from 1 in 9 in 2017. Young people experience extremely long waits to access mental health services. Only about 32% of children and young people with a diagnosable mental health problem can access treatment.
Early support hubs could significantly reduce these barriers and alleviate pressure on NHS services, potentially preventing from children and young people from reaching crisis point.
We’re concerned that the hubs announced today appear to be primarily linked to crime reduction and anti-social behaviour prevention, and not the mental health needs of young people.
Young Future Hubs can only be effective in supporting young people’s mental health if they are underpinned by the right service principles as modelled by the Youth Information Advice and Counselling Services. This is a proven model, which is cost effective and sustainable. We will be urging the government to review the Young Future Hubs’ focus and ensure that they support young people’s mental health.
Employment
The Budget saw increases to the National Living Wage alongside large investment (£2.7 billion) to deliver “individualised employment support programmes and reduce health related inactivity”.
From April 2025 the National Living Wage will increase to £12.21 per hour for all eligible employees, and the National Minimum Wage for 18-20 year olds will increase to £10.00 per hour for all eligible workers. The government is also increasing the minimum wage for Under 18s and Apprentices to £7.55 per hour.
As part of the government’s plan get more people into work there is £800 million for disability support programmes. Earlier this week the government also announced £240 million ‘trailblazers’ to help people move toward employment and which “will bring together and streamline work, health, and skills support to disabled people and those who are long term sick.”
The increase to the minimum wage is obviously positive news. And the trailblazers are a positive step, too. But we’re clear any employment support programme has to be voluntary, independent from the Jobcentre, and not linked to people’s benefits.
At the same time, the government needs to acknowledge that there are some people with mental health problems who are not able to work and who still deserve respect and support. People with mental health problems contribute to our communities in a number of different ways beyond their ability to work. Forcing those who are not able to into work will not help the economy and will significantly worsen people’s mental health.
What’s next?
The Budget, while important, is not the final word on how we fix the mental health crisis. We’ll be pushing to make sure mental health services gets its fair share of additional funding. We’ll be working to make sure any changes to the benefits system don’t harm people with mental health problems. And we’ll be challenging the UK government to show a greater commitment to mental health and deliver the transformation that is so urgently needed.
