Closing the Mental Health Income Gap

A new report from the Mental Health and Income Commission shows there is a significant ‘mental health income gap’, and calls for urgent and systemic action to stop this from growing. It outlines that:

• Two thirds (68%) of people with mental health problems who have ever asked an employer for reasonable adjustments said their requests were either rejected (20%) or only partly met (48%).
• One in five (19%) people with mental health problems — equivalent to 3.7m people across the UK — say they have suffered workplace discrimination due to their mental health (including being passed over for promotion or being made redundant).
• As a result of these problems, many people with poor mental health have benefitted from the greater flexibility that employers have offered during lockdown — and are concerned about losing this when normal work practices resume.
• More than four in ten (43%) people with mental health problems say they are worried about returning to their usual working arrangements after lockdown, amounting to 5m people in total. In contrast, only 30% of the wider workforce shares this concern (3).

They have recommended that:

• Introduce a right to flexible working for all employees during the pandemic. Currently, employees have the right to request flexible working, but this can be easily rejected by employers. Requiring employers to offer flexible working practices during the pandemic would help more people with poor mental health to continue to work, and would increase income security.
• Increase levels of Statutory Sick Pay, and ensure more workers can access it. People with mental health problems are more likely to need time off work due to illness. But many struggle to get by with the current rate of SSP (£95.85 per week), while workers who earn less than £120 per week are ineligible for it. Increasing the generosity of SSP — and making it a basic employment right for all workers — would help prevent existing income inequalities from growing during the pandemic.
• Require employers to report on the mental health pay gap and on flexible working requests. The government should make it mandatory for companies with over 250 staff to report on the pay gap between employees with mental health problems and others, and the number of flexible working requests denied and granted. This would help expose inequalities in the workplace and discriminatory work practices.

Read the report here.