{"id":11613,"date":"2017-02-28T15:47:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T15:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11613"},"modified":"2017-02-28T15:47:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T15:47:12","slug":"for-sanitys-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11613","title":{"rendered":"For sanity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Benefit sanctions must be stopped to avert a national mental health crisis, doctors have warned.<\/p>\n

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Doctors from Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading mental health organisations also called for an immediate review of the sanctions regime<\/a> to gauge its effects on psychological well-being.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The open letter to the government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c signed by the British Psychological Society, the British Psychoanalytic Council, the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, the UK Council for Psychotherapy and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was published in the Independent<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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It states, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading bodies representing psychologists, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and counsellors, call on the government to immediately suspend the benefits sanctions system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt fails to get people back to work and damages their mental health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe call on the government to suspend the benefits sanctions regime and undertake an independent review of its impact on people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental health and wellbeing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The letter referenced evidence that links sanctions to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdestitution, disempowerment, and increased rates of mental health problems\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Generally sanctions last for four weeks and punish\u00c2\u00a0benefit<\/a> claimants by withholding Jobseekers Allowance, meaning a loss of around \u00c2\u0141300. Around 400,000 sanctions were imposed in 2015.<\/p>\n

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The letter said the government must shift \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfrom making unemployment less attractive, to making employment more attractive\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and highlighted the need for job centre to staff to receive mental health awareness training.<\/p>\n

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It also called for the flawed work capability assessment<\/a> system to be reformed.<\/p>\n

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The letter states, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese policies would begin to take us towards a welfare and employment system that promotes mental health and wellbeing, rather than undermines and damages it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sanctions putting NHS under pressure <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unite has thousands of key mental health workers in membership. Unite national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, said sanctions were putting undue pressure on the NHS<\/a> at a time of unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMental health services, along with the rest of the NHS, have been strangled by austerity. This government has continually failed to put mental health funding on par with physical health funding, despite years of promising to do so,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSixty per cent of NHS trusts have had to cut beds for mental health patients because their budgets have been devastated by the Tories, while the number of mental health nurses dropped by 10 percent between 2010 and 2015.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jarrett-Thorpe added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBenefit sanctions add to the crisis in the NHS by increasing demand for mental health services. These\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no evidence that these cruel sanctions work. In fact all they do is demonstrate how one entirely avoidable crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c created by the Tories pushing the poorest and most vulnerable into increasing penury \u00e2\u20ac\u201c impacts another.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Responding to the letter a government spokesperson insisted that sanctions \u00e2\u20ac\u015bare only used in a very small percentage of cases as a last resort when people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fulfil their commitments to find work\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, a damning report<\/a> by MPs on the public accounts committee released last week said the regime was inconsistent, did not make enough provisions for those at risk and had pushed people into homelessness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The letter came as the government attempts to force through even more welfare cuts that could remove \u00c2\u01413.7bn of disability benefits<\/a> for people with mental health issues, dementia, epilepsy and diabetes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098No surprise\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community, Liane Groves, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis letter, from Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading mental health experts, adds to an avalanche of calls for the government to overhaul the benefits system and particularly for the scrapping of benefit sanctions. It comes as no surprise that the sanctions regime is regarded as such a serious contributor of mental ill-health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSanctions cause enormous harm to some of the most vulnerable in our society. They punish often desperate people for no good reason and cause homelessness and premature deaths. The government knows they don’t work but are happy to let the wicked practice continue. Sanctions cast shame on our nation and Unite is demanding they are ended immediately.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite Community is holding a national day of action<\/a> against benefit sanctions on March 30.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benefit sanctions must be stopped to avert a national mental health crisis, doctors have warned.   Doctors from Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading mental health organisations also called for an immediate review of the sanctions regime to gauge its effects on psychological well-being.   The open letter to the government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c signed by the British Psychological Society, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[404,29,72],"wps_subtitle":"Stop sanctions now warn top mental health docs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11615,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11613\/revisions\/11615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}