A scheme to help people with mental health conditions return to work will receive a cash injection of £12 million.
The four pilot areas -Blackpool, Greater Manchester, North East Combined Authority and West London Alliance – will use the funding to test whether a better coordination of mental health and employment services could help people find and stay in employment.
A scheme to help people with mental health conditions return to work will receive a cash injection of £12 million.
The four pilot areas -Blackpool, Greater Manchester, North East Combined Authority and West London Alliance – will use the funding to test whether a better coordination of mental health and employment services could help people find and stay in employment.
The pilots will test a number of approaches towards the provision of healthcare including training for employment advisors and GPs, support packages to help individual claimants and support for new employees suffering from anxiety and on-going problems.
Nearly half (46%) of people claiming Employment and Support Allowance have mental health conditions.
In total mental ill-health is estimated to cost taxpayers and businesses £105 billion a year in health and police services, welfare benefits and sickness absence.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:
“It is shocking to think that mental health is now the leading cause of illness in the workplace. It’s even more shocking that many of the people suffering are simply not getting the support they need.”
Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud said:
“We want people with mental health conditions to have the same opportunities in the world of work as everyone else and not simply written off on out of work sickness benefits as often happened in the past.
“That is why we are trailing different types of support to improve employment and health outcomes for people with common mental health problems.”
