"The False Economy of Cutting Disability Beneifts"

Kate Pickett, “The False Economy of Cutting Disability Benefits,” Social Europe, April 28, 2025.

It isn’t just kinder, or fairer, or the ethical thing to do, investing in the prevention of mental health problems, and especially the prevention of the common mental disorders of depression and anxiety that are crippling such high numbers of people and trapping them in poverty and benefit dependency – it saves far more than it costs. Much more. Any estimate of the cost of not preventing mental ill health rapidly gets to very big numbers. In our report on the health of children in the North of England following the Covid-19 pandemic, Health Equity North calculated that the mental health conditions that children developed in just those regions of England alone would cost £13.2 billion in lost productivity over their lifetimes. So, yes, in the end investing in prevention will eventually decrease the number of working age people unable to work because of poor mental health, and ultimately save on the disability benefits that the government is now cutting.

“The False Economy of Cutting Disability Beneifts”