Former Health Minister Sir Jeremy Hunt warned that the UK’s risk of “overmedical” daily life activities such as bereavement and unemployment warns that people are constantly decreasing their work with anxiety and depression.
Speaking at the Buxton Literary Festival, the former prime minister said he believed the country went too far in the medically normal human experience as welfare claims related to mental health continue to rise.
“Everyone has trauma – bereavement, sometimes unemployed. It’s different from mental illness,” Hunter said. “I think it’s immoral, we sign 3,000 people a day and say they don’t have to look for a job.”
Hunt, who served as Health Minister from 2012 to 2018, stressed that many people who receive appropriate notes for mental health conditions will benefit from social contact and routine rather than segregation.
“Most people have anxiety and depression, and one thing they need is social contact. If you sign them into the work world, their anxiety will get worse than better.”
His comments were published during Westminster’s debate on welfare reform. According to the Institute for Finance (IFS), the number of adults claiming disability benefits in England and Wales has increased by nearly 1 million since 2019 to 2.9 million, accounting for 7.5% of the population aged 16 to 64.
About 500,000 of these new claims are attributed to mental health conditions, especially anxiety and depression.
The government faces internal resistance to plans to strengthen earnings assessments, and critics argue that the NHS still lacks sufficient mental health resources to provide viable alternatives to work-related stress or burnout.
Although Hunter supports greater openness to mental health, he warns that evacuating individuals only from the workplace without sufficient support is a harm to patients and public wallets.
“What we should do is increase the NHS mental health delivery. It’s much better for that person, but it’s better for her, too, when Rachel Reeves tries to add up the numbers to the budget.”
In a wide-ranging speech, Godaming and Ash MPs also supported the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, who succeeded Rishi Sunak after the historic defeat of the Conservative Party in the last general election.
“We have four leaders in four years. If changing leaders is the answer, we are doing much better in the poll than we do.”
Hunter said Badennock needed to “transfer from religion” and start “providing solutions to the economic and social challenges of the UK”.
“Providing a soccer-sized political hole for political parties that provide solutions.
When asked if he could return to the frontline politics, Hunter ruled out a permanent comeback, but said he would “if it would help” before any future elections.
The senior MP joked that his poll ratings may have improved due to photos of him with his family, Labrador.
“Someone tweeted, ‘God, he has a Labrador – can I change the way I vote?’ That’s the British public!”
