Mental ill-health among welfare claimants in the UK: The extent, nature, and impact on claimant experiences

Purpose: It is not possible to understand working-age welfare without considering mental health – yet we have surprisingly little detailed quantitative information exploring this. We aim to quantify mental ill-health among British claimants, the extent of conditionality/sanctions, and perceptions of unreasonable conditionality. Methods: A purpose-collected survey of working-age claimants in May/June 2022 (3,801) using YouGov’s online panel, accompanied by general public comparator surveys. Mental ill-health was captured using a mixture of clinically-validated screening tools (GAD-7, PHQ-9) and self-reports (of conditions, disability, work limitations). Results: Levels of mental ill-health are extremely high among claimants. 72.6% [70.7-74.4%] say they are currently affected by a mental health condition, 61.2% [59.2-63.2%] show moderate/severe depression or anxiety using clinically-validated screening tools – both around twice the level of the general public. We then focus on the 49.5% [47.5-51.5%]) of claimants who reported life-limiting mental ill-health (‘mental health disability’). Some such claimants are subject to conditionality/sanctions, but this is noticeably lower than among other claimants (e.g. after adjustment, they are -10.5% [-14.9 to -6.2%] less likely to be subject to intensive conditionality). Of those claimants who were subject to conditionality, most felt conditionality harmed their mental health (59.0% [48.-69.9%]). Substantial minorities also felt that their Work Coach did not act on disclosed barriers (24.3% [17.1-31.5%]), and that conditionality was unreasonable (23.1% [16.1-30.1%]). Conclusion: Today, most benefit claimants with mental health disabilities in non-working households are not subject to conditionality. Nevertheless, there are several reasons to be concerned that UK work-related conditionality functions inadequately for claimants experiencing mental ill-health.