Credit: Dur-e-sheywaar Ahmed
On Wednesday, 18 March, the government announced changes to disability benefits. There are plans to cut disability benefits by £5 billion a year will be a catastrophe for disabled people’s living standards and independence.
This affects people who rely on this due to struggling with poor mental health.
In England, referrals for children and young people requiring urgent mental health care have risen by 13% over the past year, totalling 34,793 between April and October 2024. It is clear that this is a pressing issue.
Additionally, the proposed disability cuts could prove to be detrimental for people struggling to access mental health services.
Ryan Lunn, Youth in Mind programme manager working at Bradford-district Mind, a mental health charity that offers a range of support sessions and therapy from adolescents to adults, said that ‘This is going to be a black hole for many young people.’
‘We all know that NHS services that used to be free, such as outpatient clinics specifically designed to deal with issues like this, are closing. They have nowhere to go, so they come here, and we’re happy to help, but we get so many referrals it becomes a strain for us too,’ he says.
Roshni Singh, working as a nurse in Bradford Teaching Hospital, said, ‘I think it’s clear to see that young people’s anxiety levels have spiked. I think people are lonely, and these disability cuts are going to drive them further in the ground.’
Naomi Arao, using the Personal Independent Payment plan to deal with severe depression, is one of the people who is going to be directly affected by these cuts.
She said, ‘ It’s going to be hard and a struggle because it was so difficult to get it in the first place, as the process is really long, so with the cuts, it’s going to make it worse.’