‘Work is good for you & chats at water cooler can boost mental health,’ Stride says as he bids to get Brits off benefits
WORK is good for Brits and even casual chats by the office water cooler can boost mental health, the Work and Pensions Secretary declares.
Mel Stride doubled down on claims mental health culture is in danger of having gone too far, insisting Britain needs to return to the old-fashioned belief "work is good for you".
He argued being signed off employment and parked off on benefits is just "not right".
The Cabinet Minister had already argued last month there was “a real risk” that “the normal ups and downs of human life” were being labelled as medical conditions that then held people back from working.
Since 2020, the number of people out of work due to long-term sickness has risen significantly, reaching 2.7 million people in January 2024.
A large proportion of those report suffering from depression, bad nerves or anxiety, although most of those report these as secondary conditions rather than the main one keeping them out of work.
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Speaking to BBC's Radio 4 Today programme this morning, Mr Stride reiterated his stance, saying: "What we need to be having is a grown up and sensible conversation about where we're going with mental health and what I mean by that is it is very good news that we are more open about discussing mental health.
"There are far too many people who suffered in silence in the past.
"However, I think we also need to look very carefully about whether we aren't beginning to label or medicalise conditions that in the past would have been seen as the ups and downs of life.
"We all go through difficult times in our life. That is regrettable, but it is part of a natural part of the human condition."
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Mr Stride added: "I think at the heart of the approach that I'm taking... and perhaps it's an old-fashioned belief but I think it's one that needs to come back into fashion.
"And it is that work is good for you. Work is good for your mental health. Getting up in the morning, having a sense of purpose, interacting with other people in the workplace, having the conversation at the water cooler, or whatever it may be, its good for our mental health.
"And there's plenty of evidence that shows that."
The Cabinet Minister also insisted that one of the first things he did as Work and Pensions Secretary was to sit down with his team and say "we have got to break this cycle of people going to a GP and then just ending up being parked on benefits through time, that is not right".