Mental Health Conditions Overdiagnosed, Says Health Secretary

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says 3.9 million 16- to 64-year-olds are getting health-related benefits, one in 10 of the working-aged population.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London, England, on March 16, 2025. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

There is an overdiagnosis of mental health conditions and too many people are being “written off,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.

When asked whether he agreed with experts who have said that there has been an overdiagnosis in mental health conditions, the minister told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, “I want to follow the evidence, and I agree with that point about over diagnosis.”

“I think there’s definitely an overdiagnosis; but also there were too many people being written off,” he said.

Streeting explained that not everyone is getting the treatment and support they need, “so if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay at work or to get back to work.”

This includes getting people on the right care plans, he said, highlighting the government’s pledge to hire 8,500 new mental health staff to cut waiting lists.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the number of 16- to 64-year-olds in England and Wales and receiving health-related benefits has increased from 2.8 million in 2019/20 to 3.9 million last financial year, one in 10 of the working-aged population.

Worsening Mental Health Since Pandemic

Streeting made the comments ahead of Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announcing reforms this week to the welfare system, which are set to introduce more ways to support people on long-term sickness back into the workforce.

Welfare spending on incapacity and disability benefits is predicted to rise from £64.7 billion in 2023/24 to £100.7 billion in 2029/30, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had previously described the benefits bill as “spiralling,” with it being largely driven by an increase in the number of people claiming incapacity benefits for mental health conditions.

Last week, another report from the IFS had found a range of evidence that mental health problems have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. This rise is consistent with the increase in benefits claims for mental ill health.

The report, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Health Foundation, found that more than half of the rise in 16- to 64-year-olds claiming disability benefits since 2019 is due to more claims for behavioural or mental health conditions.

Researchers analysed a range of surveys and found that in the mid-2010s, around 8 to 10 percent of working-age people had a long-term mental health or behavioural condition. This has risen to 13 to 15 percent.

The number of people in England with prescriptions for antidepressants had also risen by 12 percent since 2019.

1 in 10 Considering Leaving Work

While the government is working on strategies to bring the economically inactive back into the workforce, employment professionals are highlighting the issue of how to stem the flow of people leaving in the first place.

On Sunday, accounting firm and professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published a report which said that the outflow of people from the workforce “has risen more sharply than the rate of returns to work, driving higher overall levels of inactivity.”

BBC handout photo of Health Secretary Wes Streeting appearing on the BBC 1 current affairs programme, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, in London, England, on March 16, 2025. Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire

PwC said that economic inactivity could rise, with 1 in 10 UK workers actively considering leaving work, equal to 4.4 million people.

The accounting firm said that employees aged 18 to 24 “are particularly at risk, with mental health a major driver.”

Concerns over mental health were the second-most cited reasons (32 percent) after “unfulfilling work” (35 percent) for all age groups.

By demographic, mental health concerns topped the reasons for 18- to -24-year-olds (42 percent) and 25- to 34-year-olds (34 percent) leaving employment.

Half Say They'll Never Return to Work

Last month, a survey conducted for the DWP found that nearly half (49 percent) of people on disability benefits said they think they will never be able to return to work again.

Kendall said at the time that she believed that “more of those people could work” if they were given the proper support.

She added that for young people in particular, not working can have a “scarring effect” which lasts a lifetime.

The minister said that while there are young people with genuine mental health conditions, “we can’t have a situation where doing a day’s work is in itself seen as stressful.”

She said supermarket managers had told her that some young people were struggling to understand the world of work and that it was “just the nature of life and that isn’t stress or pressure.”