Austerity cuts are causing mental distress and are linked to rise in suicides, health professionals warn

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Research published in September by Mind, the UK's largest mental health charity, reported that for people with mental health problems, the Government's flagship back-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, made their distress worse in 83 per cent of cases. “There's people with mental health problems – and if they didn't have mental issues before, they have them now because they are being so degraded.” open image in gallery Mark Wood’s sister, Cathie, said he had struggled to live on just £40 a week after his disability and housing benefits were cut Both the Coalition and the 2015 Conservative Government have defended cuts in a number of areas, including welfare, as being necessary to tackle government borrowing. Reports, including a number from the Centre for Welfare Reform, catalogued how policies such as the “bedroom tax” were “savaging” people's mental health. Another letter, published before the 2015 election, signed by 442 professionals ranging from psychologists to epidemiologists, said: “The past five years have seen a radical shift in the kinds of issues generating distress in our clients: increasing inequality and outright poverty, families forced to move against their wishes, and, perhaps most important, benefits claimants and those seeking work being subjected to a quite new, intimidatory kind of disciplinary regime.” Psychologists Against Austerity, a new alliance of mental health professionals, had formed with the aim of directly challenging the cuts and welfare changes that they said were adding to mental distress.