Labour is trying to prove mental health is over-diagnosed so it can cut DWP benefits further

Not content with ruining trans people’s lives, Wes Streeting has turned his attention to disabled people, too. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has ordered a review into the increase in mental health and neurodivergent conditions, to decide whether they are over-diagnosed.

Streeting played a significant part in getting the current welfare cuts pushed through in government. Back in March, he said “there’s too many people being written off” and that there was an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions. He also fully backed the cuts to PIP, which were squashed due to a backbencher rebellion.

Streeting appoints dangerous professor to lead bullsh*t mental health review

Benefits and Work reported that the review was announced in the Health Service Journal, and that even more worryingly, a highly controversial figure will play a huge part in it. The review will be vice chaired by the professor the Times dubbed “the most hated doctor in Britain”, Sir Simon Wessely.

The Professor of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at Kings College is widely disliked due to his research, which led to the societal belief that ME/CFS is primarily a psychological condition. This work and his subsequent media appearances, during which he spouted this rubbish, meant it became harder for people with ME/CFS to be believed and have their pain taken seriously.

It also made it much more difficult for them to advocate for their own care and put many in danger. On top of this, the shift in attitudes it caused meant it was harder for people with ME/CFS to gain support at work and claim benefits.

Last year the Canary’s Hannah Sharland reported that Wessely was one of the reasons that ME campaigners were denied an inquiry into the treatment of people with ME who are left to die in hospitals. Wessley had managed to weasel his way onto the Judicial Appointments Board, the body which appoints tribunals and inquiries.

Wessely also played a part in the PACE trials and was a big force behind CBT and entrenched GET becoming the main treatments for ME/CFS. he also holds an astonishing amount of power within the medical world. As Sharland points out, he was president of the Royal College of Psychiatry and the Royal College of Medicine. The Queen and King’s College London (KCL) awarded Simon Wessely the first Regius Professor in psychiatry, a special title bestowed by a monarch. In 2017, Theresa May asked him especially to reshape the Mental Health Act, he now also sits on the NHS board.

Not a surprise from a government that wants disabled people dead

However, his appointment hasn’t come as a surprise to disabled people. For a long time now the government have been working hard to sow distrust of benefits claimants into the public consciousness – the latest line being that it’s too easy to claim for mental health and neurodivergent conditions.

Just last Wednesday, as the Canary reported, Keir Starmer ramped up the hatred of benefit claimants with mental health conditions. Starmer told Radio 4 last week that “there is a moral case” for changing who is eligible for out-of-work disability benefits and that in particular he was “concerned” about how many young people were out of work with mental health conditions.

He said:

I have to say I’m particularly concerned about young people. In this regard, there are about a million young people who are on benefits, not all for mental health issues, but quite a number for mental health issues.

I think that is wrong and I don’t just say that because of the spending implications, I say it because if you are on benefits in your 20s, it is going to be extremely difficult to get off benefits for the rest of your life, it is not good and there’s a million young people in that position so there is a moral case for changing that.

As Benefits and Work pointed out, one of the main criticisms made after Labour failed to push through benefit cuts at the beginning of the year was that ministers had failed to create well-researched arguments for reducing PIP eligibility. It’s clear that reports like this will lay the groundwork for doing just that.

At a time when Labour are more focused on savings than actually providing support for disabled people, it’s clear that any research into over-diagnosis is already a foregone conclusion. With someone like Wessley on board, it’s only going to get worse for disabled people.

Featured image via the Canary