The system is broken - but cutting benefits from the poor and blaming it on the vulnerable won’t fix that

25 March 2025, 17:43

As I wait for confirmation of more government cuts, I’m feeling frightened and angry.

I’ve received Personal Independence Payment on and off for my whole adult life. Very few of the people I’m closest to know this, as the stigma around benefits is so high, I feel ashamed even saying it out loud.

But the reality is that being hospitalised with anorexia as a teenager – spending 18 months on an inadequate ward at such a formative age – means I rely on this support.

There’s no reason I should feel shame. After all, I use my £400 of PIP payments to pay for my medication and treatment. Every week I spend around £40 just on my prescriptions and, while I’d prefer a talking therapy approach to healing, the NHS has left me on endless waiting lists. Private therapy has kept me afloat but it also comes at a high cost, one that my PIP just about covers.

Tomorrow, the Labour government is expected to confirm cuts to the benefits that I rely on.

They say it’s because they want to encourage young people to work. But many people like me already work! In fact, losing the treatment that PIP affords me would severely impact my ability to do just that. I’ll never forget the time I was fired for missing a shift, while being treated for my mental illness in hospital.

There’s no hard evidence to indicate that mental illness is overdiagnosed, despite Wes Streeting’s assertions. Instead, we know that NHS backlogs find many people waiting months for mental health assessments and even longer for treatment.

The shame that many people with conditions like mine feel is compounded when politicians insist on questioning our reality and blaming us for a broken system.

In skyrocketing mental health statistics, Wes Streeting seems to see trickery and idleness, rather than an indictment on our society. He’s weaponising prejudice to give his government cover for cuts.

How can our young people be well when so few have access to safe and affordable housing? We know that 62% of young people in our country say that the cost of housing affects their mental health.

How can we be well when corporate workplaces treat us as disposable and pay us poorly? When the tech companies that rule our lives see us as mere numbers to capture and profit from? No wonder so many of us are ‘mad’.

If the Labour government truly wants to support mentally unwell young people it has to focus on tackling the root causes of these problems.

They can do that by investing in us, in our support, care, and future. And by holding the corporations driving this crisis to account for the consequences of their business models.

This government is making a political choice: they’re choosing to snatch pennies from the pockets of those already living on the edges of poverty.

Instead, they should set their eyes on extreme wealth and introduce higher taxes on the corporations and people who have more than they’ll ever need.

Hannah Hunt is a campaigner and member of Just Treatment’s Mad Youth Organise.

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