Recent comments by Health Secretary Wes Streeting regarding an "overdiagnosis" of mental health conditions have sparked considerable concern across the mental health sector. Many organisations have already challenged this narrative, and we at the NCPS are joining them in highlighting why this framing is problematic.
Streeting’s comments emerged in the context of welfare reforms aimed at reducing the benefits bill, particularly focusing on Personal Independence Payments (PIP). The suggestion that too many people are being "written off" through overdiagnosis oversimplifies what is a very complicated issue, that is the result of a history of, amongst other things, poor policymaking. While mental health diagnoses have indeed risen, this increase more highlights systemic issues in service provision than excessive diagnosis.
The reality is that public sector mental health services, particularly NHS Talking Therapies (formerly IAPT), have struggled for years with inadequate funding and delivery models that don’t fully meet people's needs. Current efficacy rates for these therapies hover around 50%, and even this figure may overstate their real-world effectiveness. People aren’t getting adequate or timely help, but their financial lifeline through benefits is now being threatened.
Removing or tightening access to financial support without first ensuring accessible, effective mental health services is just going to compound their distress and hardship, and increase pressure on crisis services. We’re putting really very vulnerable people in an impossible situation: they’re now struggling (even more) financially, and unable to access the effective, timely support they need to improve their mental health and gain their independence.
Rather than focusing on reducing diagnosis numbers, the government should prioritise addressing the fundamental inadequacies in our public sector mental health services, as we have been calling for them to do for many years.
For example, investing in more accessible, relationally focused therapies such as counselling and psychotherapy, delivered at the point of need, offers a far more sustainable and humane solution than reducing or removing PIP. It gives people the opportunity to recover meaningfully, and reduces the longer-term costs such as mental health beds and crisis services.
By framing the issue as one of "overdiagnosis", the Health Secretary has misrepresented and overlooked the genuine gaps in mental health support. The government's priority must be to build a compassionate, effective mental health system that meets people where they are and provides the support they genuinely need, rather than punishing those who have been on the receiving end of decades of punitive policies, and underfunded services.
