Almost two million people are currently on the waiting list for mental health treatment in England, as the NHS struggles to fund basic services and retain staff.
With surging living costs and a decade of austerity having driven millions into dire financial straits, there has inevitably been a significant increase in those ending up with long-term sickness and disability.
Yet rather than acknowledge his own Government’s responsibility for this, Rishi Sunak on Friday sought to blame the very people who have suffered as a result.
Hitting out at what he described as a “sick note culture”, Sunak signalled that he plans to strip back what little protections for the sick and vulnerable still remain in place.
Under his proposals, support payments will be replaced with referrals for treatment, while responsibility for assessing people’s fitness for work will be shifted from doctors to “specialist work and health professionals”.
Anyone who has had to deal with the “health professionals” already employed by the Department for Work and Pensions, will know instinctively what this means. Look forward to long referral times, with outsourced bureaucrats following arbitrary targets to reduce claims.
Yet once you get beyond the spin, it’s clear that the real purpose of Sunak’s speech is quite different to how it has been sold to the country.
Here’s what’s really going on.