Download our factsheets to learn about your rights in
recruitment, employment and benefits. If you need more information,
call our Information Service on freephone 0800 917 34
66 or email info@samh.org.uk.
Factsheet: Employment Rights and Mental Health
Problems
Factsheet: Mental Health Problems and Getting a
Job
Factsheet: Employment Benefits and Mental Health
Problems
Skills Development Scotland Launches Job Seekers
Website
If you want more information on developing new skills and
finding work, Skills Development Scotland have launched a
comprehensive website to help you.
Visit My World of
Work for more information.
Benefits reform
Do you need to know about changes to the benefits system? Here's
the information you need, and some guidance on where to find out
more.
Welfare reform remains a Government priority following the 2010
election. The UK Government consulted on possible reforms which will
include the creation of a single Work Programme to help unemployed
people get back into work, ending all other current schemes.
The 2.6 million current claimants of Incapacity Benefit will be
re-assessed for their readiness to work from February 2011, with an
initial phase in Aberdeen commencing in October 2010.
The process will be complete by 2014 or later and will
move people either on to the new Employment and Support Allowance
or onto Jobseekers' Allowance if they are found fit for work. Read
our factsheet to find out more.
In 2008, almost half of all the people on Incapacity Benefit
were claiming it because of a mental health problem. That's why
this is such an important issue for SAMH. There are some concerns
about how fairly the new Work Capability Assessment is being
implemented: this is the test to see whether you should receive
Employment and Support Allowance. So SAMH is working with the Citizen's Advice
Bureau to track the experiences of people in Aberdeen, who will
be the first in Scotland to be reassessed under the process.
Pace of Benefits reform
In a letter published in the Guardian newspaper and
website today, SAMH condemned the pace of reforms to benefits
affecting people with mental health problems, alongside mental
health organisations Mind, Rethink, Centre for Mental Health, The Royal College
of Psychiatrists and Welsh mental health charity Hafal.
The letter has received coverage elsewhere in the Guardian newspaper and
website and has been covered on the BBC News website. SAMH has contributed to
Government consultations on the new Employment Support Allowance
and related issues, and has been working to equip SAMH staff,
service users and supporters to understand their rights and
entitlements under the new system.
The letter states that:
"We've found that the prospect of IB reassessment is causing huge
amounts of distress… We are hugely worried that the benefits system
is heading in a direction which will put people with mental health
problems under even more pressure and scrutiny, at a time when they
are already being hit in other areas such as cuts to services."
While the Department for Work & Pensions has begun to
implement many of the recommendations put forward by the official
review of the Work Capability Assessment, these changes are yet to
be fully implemented, meaning that thousands of people with mental
health problems continue to be subjected to a system that is unfit
for purpose.
If you would like more information about Employment Support
Allowance or any related benefits, you can contact Citizens Advice
Scotland.
If you have experience of the Employment Support Allowance
process that you would like to share with SAMH, or would like to
know more about the Dismissed? campaign, please contact, Graeme McGregor,
Campaigns Officer.