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Act Early to Stop People Falling Into the Benefits Trap, says Shaw Trust
National charity Shaw Trust has welcomed a report calling for early intervention to stop people falling into the benefits trap, and has offered its own Staying in Work service as a successful blueprint of providing a safety net in the workplace. She is proposing trials of a new Fit for Work service to provide access to specialists such as physiotherapists and counsellors for all employees in the early stages of sickness. The total cost of ill-health to the British economy is around £103bn. "We welcome Dame Carol Black's insightful analysis. We know from experience that early intervention is the key, and we want to see closer working between GPs, providers, employers and clients," said Shaw Trust's Chief Executive Ian Charlesworth. "Our Staying in Work service is already working with employers who see the importance of quick action to ensure they keep key staff who develop ill health or a disability and would welcome incentives to encourage more bosses to do so. But early intervention is not just about the cost to the economy, it is primarily the moral cost to the individual who faces a loss of self esteem, and often declining mental health, when they have been out of work for some time." Over half of IB claimants state their main reason for still being on benefits is due to mental health issues. In fact often that's secondary. Their original health issue may have been a bad back or a disability, for instance, but as time has gone on, their circumstances impact on their mental well being. "The statistics don't help. The government's own figures show that after two years on Incapacity Benefits, a person is more likely to die or retire than ever to work again. "Life on IB or disabled living allowance all too often means a cycle of poverty, declining health and depression. We need to break that cycle with expert help and support which must spread into the workplace." Shaw Trust's Mental Health Campaign will launch a free web resource in April, to provide line managers with the support and guidance they need to support employees with mental ill health (for more information, please visit: www.shaw-trust.org.uk/mentalhealth). Shaw Trust client Jennifer Drummond, from Denton in Manchester, was forced to give up her nursing training when she was diagnosed with epilepsy four years ago and then had to leave an intensive year-long dental training course. "I was just so disheartened. Doctors diagnosed depression and said I needed to rest," said Jennifer, 24, who struggled to get employers to respond to her CVs when she was well enough to work. Weeks after being referred to national charity Shaw Trust's Ashton centre, and being placed on the government's Pathways to Work scheme, she is working as a retail assistant. "I feel much better getting out of the house and working rather than sitting at home doing nothing, which just made me feel worse," she said. Another client, Parr man Tony Carrington, 49, had left school with basic qualifications and worked in factories all of his life, until a spine injury forced him to quit manual work. "I was pretty down when I was told that the damage meant I had the spine of an 80 year-old," revealed Tony, who is now off pain killers, has a sheaf of qualifications, studies for a hobby and has a new career working as a NHS Health Trainer, helping other people turn their lives around too. "I was very low. Being told I probably wouldn't work again became a mindset, and I'd lie about in bed, feeling all the pains. Now I'm buzzing. Work is the best medicine and I was desperate to lose the stigma of being on benefits," added Tony, who is also being considered by the DWP as a national ambassador to help get people back to work.
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