Former Health Secretary Sir Jeremy Hunt has warned that the UK risks “over-medicalising” everyday life events such as bereavement and job loss, cautioning against a growing trend of signing people off work with anxiety and depression.
Speaking at the Buxton Literary Festival, the former Chancellor said he believed the country had gone too far in medicalising normal human experiences, as welfare claims linked to mental health continue to rise.
“Everyone has trauma – bereavements, sometimes losing their jobs. That is not the same as mental illness,” Hunt said. “I think it’s immoral we are signing off 3,000 people a day saying they don’t have to look for work.”
Hunt, who served as Health Secretary from 2012 to 2018, highlighted that many of those receiving fit notes for mental health conditions would benefit more from social contact and routine than isolation.
“The majority of those have anxiety and depression, and the one thing they need is social contact. If you sign them out of the world of work, their anxiety is going to get worse rather than better.”
His comments come amid significant debate within Westminster over welfare reforms. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the number of working-age adults in England and Wales claiming disability benefits has jumped by nearly 1 million since 2019, reaching 2.9 million—or 7.5% of the population aged 16 to 64.
Around 500,000 of those new claims are attributed to mental health conditions, particularly anxiety and depression.
The government has faced internal resistance over plans to tighten benefit assessments, with critics arguing that the NHS still lacks sufficient mental health resources to offer viable alternatives to work-related stress or burnout.
While Hunt supports greater openness around mental health, he warned that simply removing individuals from the workplace without adequate support was a disservice to both patients and the public purse.
“What we should be doing is increasing mental health provision on the NHS. For that individual, it’s far better—but it’s also better for Rachel Reeves when she’s trying to make the numbers add up for her budget.”
In a wide-ranging talk, the Godalming and Ash MP also gave his backing to Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of the Conservative Party, who succeeded Rishi Sunak after the Tories’ historic defeat at the last general election.
“We’ve had four leaders in four years. If changing leader was the answer, we’d be doing much better in the polls than we are doing.”
Hunt said Badenoch needed to “move on from contrition” and begin “offering solutions” to Britain’s economic and social challenges.
“There’s a football pitch-sized hole in politics for a party offering solutions. Labour is ducking decisions; Reform is not credible.”
Asked whether he might return to frontline politics, Hunt ruled out a permanent comeback but said he would support Badenoch “if it would help” ahead of any future election.
On a lighter note, the veteran MP joked that his poll ratings may have improved thanks to photographs of him with his family labrador, Poppy, outside Downing Street last July.
“Someone tweeted, ‘God, he’s got a labrador—can I change the way I voted?’ That’s the British public!”
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Jeremy Hunt: ‘We’re over-medicalising anxiety and depression with sick notes’