THE UK Government's plans to send job coaches to visit mental health patients when they are in hospital wards to “help them” get back to work has been called “ridiculous” by rights groups.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told the BBC that trials of employment advisers giving CV and interview advice in hospitals produced “dramatic results”.
Kendall said a wider rollout of the initiative would be part of her plans to shrink the UK's annual disability and incapacity benefits bill.
However, disability rights campaigners said the proposal has the potential to worsen someone's mental health and that there needs to be evidence it works and doesn’t add distress.
Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK, said: “It is ridiculous to try and turn a hospital, a place of care and support into a business setting.”
While James Taylor, executive director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, added: “We need to see evidence that work coaches being sent to visit seriously ill people works, and doesn’t cause distress.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies projects the costs of disability benefits to increase by almost a third in the next four to five years.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) predicted it would spend £63 billion by 2028-29, an increase from £48bn for 2023-24.
Kendall told BBC News: “I want to see those costs coming down, because I want to have people able to work, to get on in their work, which is good for them.”
She also hinted that some people would lose their benefits, saying the “benefit system can have a real impact on whether you incentivise or disincentivise work”.
The Labour MP praised projects in Leicester and at the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, in south-east London, which offered “employment support” to people with serious mental health conditions, including on hospital wards.
The support offered by job coaches included training in CV writing and interviews.
“The results of getting people into work have been dramatic, and the evidence clearly shows that it is better for their mental health,” she said.
Erhardt said he would like to see the evidence of the trials and that it sounds like the government is trying to turn hospital wards into “business settings”.
He said: “It is hugely inappropriate to be considering subjecting people who experience mental ill-health and distress to a CV check-up.”
Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and campaigns at Mind, also said people suffering with mental health problems in hospitals are already traumatised.
He added that if the UK Government wants them to join the workforce they need to exercise care and compassion.
“We welcome this much-needed spotlight on mental health hospitals [but] we’re still waiting to see the full details of the scheme and results of the trials,” he said.
“Right now, too many people with the most serious mental health problems are left more traumatised by their stay in hospital.
If we want people to join or rejoin the workforce, they need safe and compassionate care that helps them truly get better.”
