The disability benefits bill is always 'soaring'. I can't think of time when it wasn't described as such. Our current era of 'soaringness' has lots of causes but the main one is the arbitary decision to fix a notion there is a 'right amount' of benefits spending www.theguardian.com/society/2025... - ThreadSky

markoneinfour.bsky.social • 20 hours ago

The disability benefits bill is always 'soaring'. I can't think of time when it wasn't described as such. Our current era of 'soaringness' has lots of causes but the main one is the arbitary decision to fix a notion there is a 'right amount' of benefits spending
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/12/mental-ill-health-is-behind-soaring-disability-benefits-bill-in-england-and-wales-report-says?CMP=share_btn_url

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dukestjo.bsky.social•15 hours ago

You can't cut all support services to the bone ('austerity') and expect no consequences.

greyarea22.bsky.social•10 hours ago

How about us taking back some of the soaring wealth of the 1% instead?

thementalelves.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Sophie K Rosa writes about this in the first chapter of her book 'Radical Intimacy '

srpassesiton.bsky.social•1 minute ago

I’m sure LongCovid impacts aren’t helping either. Have to be v predominant in UK given population’s high exposure to Covid.

davidciani.com•19 hours ago

It’s always going to go up, it’s an economic reality. As other areas of the economy find ways of using labor more efficiently, sectors that can’t as easily substitute labor will face costs rising faster than those that can. This is an issue in education and health care more broadly.

cobieef.bsky.social•14 hours ago

What's behind mental ill-health? Oh, that's right, decades of deliberately legislated inequality. Very adult behaviour, hoarding the cash and refusing to buy food for the rest of the family.

ciannwn.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Not only is this framing monstrous it is also stupid. If cuts are made someone has to pay. This value needs to come from somewhere. It's just regressive tax unless they are honestly foolish enough to believe they can force everyone to work.

auska.esq•19 hours ago

Wonder if anyone over there has ever tried to count the cost of NOT treating people

ciannwn.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Exactly, even if the cruely is ignored this wont even save money. There is always a cost, it wont disappear. But for them, line go up 1% and they can celebrate, even if all our lives are ruined.

epoxie.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Doesn't help that capitalistic society is a sewer we steep in.

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Living with a mental health condition and the mental ill-health that results from it is not something that stands still in someone's life. If you didn't get the help in 2008, 2013, 2023, there's a strong chance that your life is not as it once was. It will always go up if people don't feel better

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Our current moment has three parents. First: is the global financial crisis, which ended a decade of expansion of public services. Second is period of intense work to try to reduce stigma around mental health. Third is Dame Carol Black's review https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c55bee5274a1b0042313c/hwwb-working-for-a-healthier-tomorrow.pdf

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

All of the above are 2008 things, as is uncle to present moment, the foundation of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) approach. In that year, the money all went, the conclusion that work creates good mental health and the idea that public attitudes created poor mental health met

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

IAPT was intended to help people stay in work through direct access to Cognitive Bahavioural Therapy. Black's review concluded people in work were healthier than those not, enshrining survivorship bias into approaches. The global financial crisis began a period of austerity and benefits rejigging

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

At the same time, concerted work via Time to Change began to make sure that we all talked about mental health more, stressing those who experience mental health are not 'different' from those that don't. This gave an illusion of progress in the national discussion of mental ill-health

markoneinfour.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Over the next decade or so, until the aftermath of the 2017 general election, mental health was a way for politicians to gain good notices by talking about how important mental health was while avoiding making any costly commitments, at the same time as more people became unwell and unsupported

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