I'm still waiting for someone to explain where people not working due to mental health issues are going to find all these jobs that will take them with open arms.
A good number might have had a job that they were quite legally managed out of when their employer really couldn't sustain keeping their position open after a period of time.
Some people may well have managed to get a job without disclosing their condition, and then been terminated for that.
Anecdotally, back in the 70s, my Dad, ex navy, qualified tradesman, suffered a period of mental illness that required inpatient treatment. He then joined the ranks of long term unemployed because people wouldn't hire him despite his previously good track record, simply because of this. At one interview he remembers being actively told that if he hadn't disclosed his condition and been taken on he would have then been sacked for not doing so. Another employer cited insurance restrictions based on age. He was willing, employers were not.
I appreciate laws have changed, but some who do find employment might well be hired due to tokenism. If it's obvious that reasonable adjustments are made, it can't be fun if or when colleagues start getting resentful of time off or perceived leniency. Being the subject of eye-rolling round the water cooler is hardly going to build their confidence, and while one might say people are tolerant, I think this thread rather demonstrates otherwise to a large degree.
So I forsee a huge Catch 22 situation if huge numbers of people are forced to seek employment when they are not up to it and when employers are already extremely selective in who they take on. This will lead to sanctions, tribunals, appeals, and given that serious mental health conditions often inspire lack of engagement with both support and bureaucracy, how will this be managed without further resources being required to beat people into compliance.
Or will we callously go back to abandoning or institutionalising those perceived to be "a drain on society" ? It's glibly suggested for all sections perceived to be so. Any benefit claimant, the working poor claiming top ups are not exempt despite the fact that poor wages, out of line with actual costs of living have lead to the government subsidising employers who still go on to make eye watering profits and pay handsome bonuses to executives, should be doing more, more, more, to make money. The Assisted Dying bill, aimed at easing the suffering of the terminally ill due to their own demands sounds reasonable to a degree, but goal posts have been changed in other countries to include "milder" situations.
The point I'm making is that when a person is simply considered valuable according to their financial contribution, yet making that contribution becomes systemically harder, an incredibly cold mindset creeps in. There is no magic money tree comes the cry - unless you're a banker or have chums in government of course.
The benefits of work may well be more than monetary, but if the monetary bit doesn't meet the cost of living and people lack security or prospects, that is a contributory factor to declining mental health in itself.
The welfare state as a whole came into being after the world wars, and it wasn't pure altruism. Partly it was because the conscripted were found to be in poor health so detrimental to any future war effort, and partly it was because states looked at the Russian Revolution and feared that the people may turn on the ruling elite if something wasn't done. Sure, some of those who ushered it in had genuine motivation to improve the lot of the population but it was the pragmatic resolution to possible impending civil unrest, which would have been far more costly in so many ways.
So now we're heading to an employment landscape dominated by technology which will once again widen the divide between those who provide service and manual labour, and a smaller number increasing the virtual aspects of modern life.
The market is supposed to sort it out over time but in the meantime the adjustment process is creating all sorts of chaos.
And people wonder why mental health is at an all time crisis point.