NOTHING illustrates the absurdity of Tory rule more than the mental health crisis facing Britain.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is taking nonsensical solutions to a new level by trying to stop people from taking time off work for mental health reasons — while not promising any new funding for already underfunded mental health services.

According to the Financial Times (August 25), “Jeremy Hunt plans to use the Autumn Statement to tackle the sharp rise in people unable to work because of mental health issues.”

The article is full of figures about money spent on sickness and disability benefits, and money supposedly lost to the economy by people being unable to work.

The Daily Express reported that such costs have led Hunt to decide to prioritise plans to “help” people with mental health problems. What is missing from these reports is any information about how he will help them.

The Financial Times states that Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is considering “using tax breaks and subsidies for workplace occupational health services.”

There is no suggestion that ministers will increase funding for mental health services, nor any detail about what “workplace occupational health services” will provide.

All of this suggests that we are back to the tired old tactic of demonising people on benefits rather than actually supporting people with mental health problems and funding therapy, medical services or other methods that will help them recover.

There are clear hints of this in the story that appeared in the FT. It reports that Hunt wants to keep people “in jobs and off benefits.”

An anonymous government source is quoted as claiming that “people are currently being channelled into the benefit system when the reality is lots of them could work.”

This is nonsense. Once again, “benefits” and “work” are portrayed as opposites and alternatives. The truth is that many people in receipt of benefits are also in employment.

This includes benefits related to disability and health, such as Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which are supposed to be based on recognition of the extra costs of being disabled. It is not about whether or not you are working.

While ministers may have an interest in obscuring this reality, reporters on the Financial Times should know better.

Applying for PIP is a tortuous and demeaning process that many people abandon despite being entitled to it. Anyone who manages to complete the application process in the midst of mental distress should be given a medal as well as entitlement to benefits.

In the last 20 years or so, awareness of mental health has risen considerably. As someone with mental health problems, I am delighted to see how much attitudes have changed.

It is now common to hear people refer unashamedly to their mental health needs in a way that was very unusual not so long ago. This is something to celebrate.

But at the same time that awareness has risen, services have been cut.

A growing understanding of mental health has thankfully led more people to seek help. Many more people need help as a result of avoidable and unjust social and economic situations.

Some are quick to point out that not all mental health problems can be explained by social and environmental factors.

This is true — but a substantial number of mental health problems are caused, or made worse, by poverty, unemployment, homelessness, insecure jobs, inadequate childcare or the stress of trying to make ends meet.

That’s before we get into the destruction of communities and support networks, not to mention the pandemic and the Tories’ bungled attempts to deal with it.

Yet while their policies fuel mental health crises, the Tories have left mental health services vastly underfunded and snatched benefits away from people with mental health problems.

Mental health services are inadequate throughout Britain, but especially in England where the Tory government has direct control of health policy. In recent years, I have seen friends with severe mental health problems unable to access the support that they desperately need.

Watching them get turned away, or added to endless waiting lists, makes me want to scream with furious sadness.

Even by the Tories’ own logic, the underfunding of mental health services makes no sense. Even to someone driven purely by economic considerations, it should seem sensible to fund mental health services so that more people recover to the point at which they can work and pay taxes.

In practice, as usual, Tory policies seem to be more about punishing people for being poor or unable to work.

We need to address mental health problems if we are to be a compassionate society, and because life is better for all of us when we support each other.

This, rather than the economic costs of time off work, is the most important reason for taking mental health needs seriously.

In contrast, the new policy that Hunt reportedly plans for his Autumn Statement bears all the signs of an attempt to apportion blame rather than to solve a problem.

But with the Tory government’s popularity plummeting and with a greater understanding of mental health issues in society at large, I am not sure it will work as well as ministers might hope.

Of course, there are still people who will lap up right-wing newspaper claims about benefit scroungers stealing their money, but I suspect Hunt will be disappointed if he thinks that demonising people with mental health problems will be as easy as it was a decade ago.

Labour at least needs to avoid aping Tory attitudes and instead speak up about the right of everyone to be able to access mental health services when they need to. Let’s all be ready to speak out, to stand in solidarity with each other and to say that the best way to tackle mental ill-health is to change the policies and structures that fuel it.

Capitalism makes you ill — and the Tories’ handling of capitalism makes you worse.