How to help 3.5 million people trapped in health -related benefits?

The last Zoe Hazel has worked for more than 10 years, in the customer service department of an insurance company, where continuous pressures and sales -based goals have contributed to a declining cycle in the deep mental health crisis.

Now, years later, she fights with great anxiety, depression and border personality disorder, the 34 -year -old girl has put her life in full swing and wants to work. But she is terrifying that if she says that, she may lose the benefits that depend on it to pay the rent and forcing it to compete with the better qualified candidates for a job that you may fail to stick to.

She said, “I just feel panic, I think about it.” “I have no interest in staying on the benefits of the rest of my life, I came from a family that depends very much. But I couldn’t start a job tomorrow. I can’t say if I would fail – I will only know if I am trying. I can’t afford this danger.”

UK ministers say people like Hazel are those who want to help them, through reforms to the social welfare system that left about 3.5 million people of age ages trapped on health -related benefits without financial incentive or the practical support they need to enter work.

People who spent a long time have proven outside the workforce while receiving the disease and disabilities. But with a well -related luxury bill, it is scheduled to reach 100 billion pounds annually by the end of the decade, the government sees it is necessary To reflect this trend – Especially for young people near the beginning of their career.

“The country cannot bear the level of resources, but we cannot also bear the waste of the talent He told the Financial Times Earlier this month.

The plans to be Go in a green sheet Through the Minister of Labor and Pensions, Liz Kendall will address two problems this week that led to the high numbers to demand health -related benefits, and less.

One of them is the set of harmful incentives integrated into the current system. The UK is one of the world’s lowest countrys in the world for people who receive basic unemployment advantages – whose value is less than 40 percent of the average profits, and to drink it from hunting intensive jobs.

People are evaluated as very sick from work, or are looking for work, receiving a much higher support rate through bone benefits, which do not contain connected chains. Nowadays, those who “pass this test are rarely re -evaluated to see if their condition has improved or even contacted by Jobcentre officials.

In theory, a person can start a hazel mode without losing its entitlement, according to Anna Stevenson, a specialist in the upper luxury in the The Charity Turn2us. But in practice, even at low hours, the low pressure role can be considered as evidence of recovery by one of the residents.

“People are terrifying from a brown envelope saying” Your benefits are reassessed. ”

This exacerbates a second group of problems: unlike those demanding unemployed advantages, who must meet regularly with work coaches, and people who receive ordinary benefits who want to work do not get any support to do so.

Officials say government reforms will focus on measures Improving the aid offered And encouraging long-term benefits claims to communicate with the system-without imposing punitive conditions.

But the intense pressure on public financial affairs in the United Kingdom means that the ministers also intend to make significant reductions in the short-term spending on social welfare-and they will have limited resources to support support.

Labor Party officials say the ministers are looking for up to 6 billion pounds of the annual cost of personal independent payments – the main deficit benefit – by the end of the contract. Moreover, Deep discounts for the benefit of the deficit It can finance a smaller lift in the basic rate to take advantage of unemployment – which reduces the current deviant incentives, but some people are severely hit.

“I use the benefits to reach the quality of life that others take from it.”

She was working more than 50 hours a week in a care house when she was transferred to the hospital for the first time. Since then, she continued to work in a part-time supervisor’s job from her home in Breston-but she found that every attempt to return to work full time pushed a dangerous relapse.

Charitable societies and thought are afraid that reforms will increase the damage in the system, without breaking the barriers facing the work faced by Cartrite and many others-they are waiting for a long time for treatment, the need to rebuild skills and confidence, and the absence of local employers who provide a flexible work or remote.

“Reducing people’s income in this situation will fail to provide sustainable savings,” said Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Corporation. It also turns as a social health worker and heard that calls to the NHS crisis line flowing from people who are concerned about losing their benefits.

Reducing personal independence payments (PIP), which is not tested and is supposed to reflect the additional costs of living with a health condition, especially controversial.

Cartrait, who cannot drive because of her bipolar disorder, uses money to pay the price of taxis when you cannot deal with public transportation, and the comfort of food when you cannot cook.

However, there is widespread support for the goal of supporting people at work that enhances their mental health, as well as their income.

But Stevenson at Turn2us warned of “the assumption that if you take money from people, this leads them to work,” adding that the real issue was the lack of flexible jobs.

Hazel is doubtful that the government promise with the support of “specially designed and personal” from the employees of the work, which was announced last week, will reach more than the autobiography and prepare the interview. She said: “If you are unemployed for a contract, there is a lot that you need.” “I don’t have the qualifications, the experience that employers are looking for.”

Meanwhile, Cartwright worries that the benefits discounts will force it to exhaustion, at risk of running a large relapse. “If they decide what I can do on a good day is what I can do every day, I will lose a large part of the income,” she said. “I’m a good factor when I work. I can’t do much of it.”

Data is visualized by Amy Burit