Mental health and employment

On Monday this week Incapacity Benefit was replaced with Employment Support and Allowance which aims to get as many claimants back to work as possible, including people with mental-health problems. But with unemployment forecast to rise over the coming months a poll by the mental-health charity MIND has revealed the vulnerability of employment for people with mental-health problems. Of the 279 people who responded to the poll on the charity's web site 58% had had to leave a job because of a lack of mental-health support, 31% had been sacked or forced out of a job after disclosing a mental-health problem and 1 in 4 had had job offers withdrawn when they told employers about their psychological problems. Over 200,000 people with mental distress lose their jobs and have to start claiming benefit each year.