Theresa May’s first ever speech as PM said her Government would treat mental health the same as it did physical – and apparently that hasn’t reached as far as the desk nextdoor. Why is she so silent on her promises being exposed as a sham?
After taking possession of the keys to Number 10 Downing Street, Theresa May made two bold claims about the type of government she intended to lead. First, she said that she would make Britain a country “that works for everyone”. She pledged to “fight against the burning injustices” of poverty, race, class and health. “The Government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives.”
Second, she committed to creating a health system that took mental health more seriously. “If you suffer from mental health problems, there’s not enough help at hand,” she admitted. And in January she promised to do something about that, describing new mental health measures, including school and workplace provisions, as “a historic opportunity to right a wrong, and give people deserving of compassion and support the attention and treatment they deserve”.
Not yet a year in the job and her record on mental health is under question. Two days ago she was publicly embarrassed by a senior advisor who, in a debate over disability benefits, said that support should be given to “really disabled people” and not those “taking pills at home, who suffer from anxiety”.
Parity of esteem for mental and physical health, May’s great promise of a commitment of wellness for all, apparently hasn’t reached as far as the desk nextdoor. The adviser in question – Conservative MP George Freeman – apologised for the language he used, but what hope is there for May’s big ambitions of a society with new attitudes to mental illness?
Dispatches: Assessor dismisses claimant’s disability as being ‘fat’
Freeman’s gaffe came in the middle of a debate about whether Personal Independence Payments, the award available to disabled people to help them meet the extra costs they incur just to live independent lives, should be extended to those who struggle to work and manage their lives due to severe anxiety. This can include people with agoraphobia, or those who need help to take their medication or to monitor their health.
A legal tribunal has ruled that facing “overwhelming physical distress” from mental health conditions should allow a person to qualify for the benefit. The Government, and in particular disabilities minister Penny Mordaunt, says they should not – despite opposition from other Conservatives, including backbencher Heidi Allen. But what does the leadership think?
If Theresa May wants to lead for all, then ensuring that disabled people receive an equal opportunity to live independently must be a key part of that. So where was the voice of our Prime Minister?
Welfare reform is already taking £28bn out of the pot supporting disabled people, so perhaps her silence is to be expected. But at the very least she should have publicly reprimanded a personal adviser who has exposed her ambitions as a sham. Her commitment to the interests of the ordinary person is made a mockery of by how little priority the Government gives to the disabled.
An added irony is that this has become a row over MPs and legal minds deciding what constitutes a disability requiring additional support, rather than doctors. Government, through its outsourcing of disability assessments, washed its hands of GP and specialist opinion years ago.
7 ways the Tories have ‘helped’ disabled people
Closing Remploy factories
The Work and Pensions Secretary called time on Britain’s system of Remploy factories, which provided subsidised and sheltered employment to disabled people. People employed at the factories protested against their closure and said they provided gainful work. “Is it a kindness to stick people in some factory where they are not doing any work at all? Just making cups of coffee?” Mr Duncan Smith said at the time, defending the decision. “I promise you this is better.” The Remploy organisation was privatised and sold to American workfare provider Maximus, with the majority of the organisation’s factories closed. The future of the remaining sites is unclearScrapping the Independent Living Fund
The £320m Independent Living Fund was established in 1988 to give financial support to people with disabilities. It was scrapped on July 1 2015, with 18,000 often severely disabled people losing out by an average of £300 a week. The money was generally used to help pay for carers so people could live in communities rather than institutions. Councils will get a boost in funding to compensate but it will not cover the whole cost of the fund. This new cash also doesn’t have to be spent on the disabledCut payments for the disabled Access To Work scheme
Iain Duncan Smith is bringing forward a policy that will reduce payments to some disabled people from a scheme designed to help them into work. The £108m scheme, which helps 35,540 people, will be capped on a per-used basis, potentially hitting those with the more serious disabilities who currently receive the most help. The single biggest users of the fund are people who have difficulty seeing and hearing. The cut will come in from October 2015. The charity Disability UK says the scheme actually makes the Government money because the people who gain access to work tend pay tax that more than covers its cost. The DWP does not describe the reduction as a “cut” and says it will be able to spread the money more thinly and cover more peopleCut Employment and Support Allowance
The latest Budget included a £30 a week cut in disability benefits for some new claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The Government says it is equalising the rate of disability benefits with Jobseekers Allowance because giving disabled people more help is a “perverse incentive”. The people affected by this cut are those assessed as having a limited capability for work but as being capable of some “work-related activity”. A group of prominent Catholics wrote to Mr Duncan Smith to say there was “no justification” for this cut. Mental health charity Mind, said the cut was “insulting and misguided”Risk homelessness with a sharp increase disability benefit sanctions
Official figures in the first quarter of 2014 found a huge increase in sanctions against people reliant on ESA sickness benefit. The 15,955 sanctions were handed out in that period compared to 3,574 in the same period the year before, 2013 – a 4.5 times increase. The homelessness charity Crisis warned at the time that the sharp rise in temporary benefit cuts was “cruel and can leave people utterly destitute – without money even for food and at severe risk of homelessness”. “It is difficult to see how they are meant to help people prepare for work,” Matt Downie, director of policy at the charity addedSending sick people to work because of broken fitness to work tests
In 2012 a government advisor appointed to review the Government’s Work Capability Assessment said the tests causing suffering by sending sick people back to work inappropriately. “There are certainly areas where it's still not working and I am sorry there are people going through a system which I think still needs improvement,” Professor Malcolm Harrington concluded. The tests are said to have improved since then, but as recently as this summer they are still coming in for criticism. In June the British Psychological Society said there was “now significant body of evidence that the WCA is failing to assess people’s fitness for work accurately and appropriately”. It called for a full overhaul of the way the tests are carried out. The WCA appeals system has also been fraught with controversy with a very high rate of overturns and delays lasting months and blamed for hardshipThe bedroom tax
The Government’s benefit cut for people who it says are “under-occupying” their homes disproportionately affects disabled people. Statistics released last year show that around two-thirds of those affected by the under-occupancy penalty, widely known as the ‘bedroom tax’, are disabled. There have been a number of high profile cases of disabled people being moved out of specially adapted homes by the policy. In one case publicised by the Sunday People last week, a 48 year old man with cerebral palsy was forced to bathe in a paddling pool after the tax moved him out of his home with a walk-in shower. The Government says it has provided councils with a discretionary fund to help reduce the policy’s impact on disabled people, but cases continue to ariseUnder other governments, the rights, responsibilities and general welfare of Britain’s millions of disabled citizens might have been a sideline issue handled only by a dedicated minister. That minister then may or may not win battles with the premier and the Treasury over spending and benefits for those people.
May, however, doesn’t have that luxury. She’s staked her reputation as Prime Minister on her ability to see beyond privilege. That should include the physical privilege of being able-bodied as well as wealth and class. She’s also made clear commitments on mental health that ignoring the tribunal ruling on anxiety and other conditions would mean immediately breaking.
The modern Conservative Party has never been less convincing than in its position over welfare and disability. That a film such as I, Daniel Blake could even be made in modern Britain is a national embarrassment.
Where earlier Tory PMs may have waved a dismissive hand, Theresa May has no choice but to act. Her legacy, and her honesty, depends upon it. So what will it be, Prime Minister?