To want to work for cash to pay for treatment

I know what IAPT and it usually isn’t called that any longer it’s called NHS Talking Therapies these days. You are being ridiculous to suggest that community therapies in 2nd care would only be offered as ‘an alternative to admission under section’ or for people on CTO. Community mental health teams do offer longer term therapies but not ones that go on for years in an open ended fashion and not to everyone who could conceivably benefit. It is bizarre and insulting for you to suggest that a service I actually provide doesnt exist

You can get both those things on the NHS and/ or in the charitable sector. What you can’t get is to choose the specific practitioner that you want. That’s a private sector luxury.

To be fair NHS mental health care is a disgrace.

There's lots of services & 'talking therapies' for people with not alot wrong with them for mild anxiety, depression be etc & for coping with a one off event eg a serious assault, sexual assault etc.

These services (usually known as IAPT) do have exclusion lists - so anyone with a more serious diagnosis eg bipolar, schizoaffective, anyone with a complex trauma history eg severe & complex childhood abuse, and anyone where there is a recent suicide attempt or high risk are all excluded from these NHS services.

You then have severely underfunded & fragmented secondary care (CMHRS, CMHT, EIP, AOT) that have a very high threshold - usually as an alternative to admission under section, managing people on CTO etc. None of these provide any type of 'therapy'. Where therapy exists for severe & enduring mental illness & complex trauma it's often out of area with very long waiting lists (over 5 years).

Many people do end up paying privately & it's the people with the most severe & complex needs that end up doing so. That's not the same as wanting NLP coaching or homeopathy.

I’m not coming from wanting to be mean to you it’s just that long term therapy is hugely expensive and the NHS can’t afford it. It offers short term therapies because those can be given to more people. The choice is a few people get a rolls Royce service and the vast majority get nothing or everyone can have a little bit. For you to have years of 1:1 therapy with a highly qualified and experienced therapist just isn’t affordable to the NHS and it never could be. I am sorry that you have been harmed and need trauma therapy but it’s not an unusual situation there are so many people who want to have the kind of therapy you are paying for and the NHS cannot fund them all. I am suspicious of long term private therapy that goes on over many years as I often see people who have developed a dependency on a therapist
under those circumstances. Some things the NHs does not find because they are a luxury over and above the basic level of service and some because they are not shown to be effective or to cost effective. I don’t know which your therapies fit into but no I don’t think it’s reasonable to believe that stuff you want should be tax deductible. I think the same about private education and am glad the government levelled the playing field on that.

quite right, I don’t and neither does the rest of Mumsnet.

we can only go by what you have posted up when posing the question and your responses.

You initiated that and sought forum help based on the info provided.

personally I think you’ve got it in you to make good changes and better decisions.

How would it be decided what was a genuine need? How would it be decided what was a genuine practitioner? It would be a system open to abuse.

Op - no I don’t think you should be able to. But I absolutely do think you should get physio and counselling on the NHS!

Some of the comments scream naivety. I hope these folk never have to deal with health issues not covered by the NHS (women especially are impacted in this way) or try to navigate a benefit trap despite working because minimum wage isn’t a living wage in 2026.

My dentist is private. Costs me £25 ish a month I think. I'm self employed shall I keep back £25 a month from my accounts to pay for it?
What a strange concept

No. You are feeling negative due to the replies you are receiving which suggest you should grab this opportunity to have a side huddle while you can.

You’ve now drip feed extra circumstances as to why you cannot and now talking yourself out of being able to handle the side hustle you first presented in here….

have you considered you are battling yourself first and foremost ?

It is completely reasonable to feel frustrated and try to think of other ways to do things. People on here will jump on you, but it isn't as if we have the perfect system.

You clearly don’t you just don’t want to because it’ll reduce your benefits and you’ll have to pay back your student loan. You want things you can’t afford, but don’t want to work for them.

However you said upthread you are able to make additional cash money as a side hustle if you choose to.

perhaps other posters just see you as being selective as to when you are actually able…

That is why I said 'some'. It is actually quite a surprising number though. A lot of countries have far less fully funded state education as well. It is always interesting to see how other people do things, even if you disapprove.

But, if you’re not doing it cash in hand, and declaring it for tax, then surely your UC would be reduced anyway?

All these things are linked through your NI number.

If you’re able to work more hours, why aren’t you doing that? Instead of relying on benefits?

And a lot of countries do not….