British Psychological Society Campaigns Against Benefit Sanctions

The government must immediately stop suspending the benefits of hundreds of thousands of claimants each year or risk soaring rates of mental health problems.

That is the message of an open letter to the Independent signed by representatives of Britain’s leading psychotherapy organisations. It was signed on behalf of the British Psychological Society by our President Professor Peter Kinderman.

The letter begins:

We, the UK’s leading bodies representing psychologists, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and counsellors, call on the Government to immediately suspend the benefits sanctions system. It fails to get people back to work and damages their mental health.

Findings from the National Audit Office (NAO) show limited evidence that the sanctions system actually works, or is cost effective.

But, even more worrying, we see evidence from NHS Health Scotland, the Centre for Welfare Conditionality hosted by the University of York, and others, which links sanctions to destitution, disempowerment, and increased rates of mental health problems.

This is also emphasised in the recent Public Accounts Committee report, which states that the unexplained variations in the use of benefits sanctions are unacceptable and must be addressed.

This open letter follows the psychotherapy organisations’ joint response to a government consultation where they made the same call for benefit sanctions to be suspended.