ADHD and anxiety aren’t excuses to avoid work, says senior Tory

People struggling with ADHD or anxiety should not use it as an excuse to avoid work, a senior Conservative has said. Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, vowed to crack down on young people claiming benefits for mental health problems or neurodiversity if the Conservatives returned to power. Most commented 1 Kemi Badenoch puts cutting ‘immoral’ inheritance tax at core of speech Politics 418 comments 2 Spain’s embattled PM Pedro Sánchez calls snap election Europe 303 comments 3 Brazil election results: Flavio Bolsonaro sets up bitter contest with Lula Latin America 151 comments 4 It’s about time high earners had a tax break Tax 78 comments 5 TalkTalk deal a ‘stitch-up’ of broadband market, says Virgin Media Companies & Markets 96 comments She told a fringe event at the Tory party conference in Birmingham: “A lot of young people are now coming forward and claiming benefits for mental health challenges, particularly anxiety, and for ADHD on the neurodiversity side. Politics newsletter Get our daily insider’s guide to Westminster, plus a rundown of PMQs every Wednesday. Sign up with one click You’ve successfully signed up to the Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters “So, we’ve had this big, big change of young people coming forward and saying, ‘actually, my problem is a health problem.’” Top stories 1 Brazil election results: Flavio Bolsonaro sets up bitter contest with Lula Latin America 2 Andrew takes Thames Valley police to court over Jeffrey Epstein investigation Royal family 3 The Times LUXX cartoon: October 5, 2026 LUXX 4 The Devon boys making posh ready meals LUXX 5 14 luxury home fragrances for winter LUXX There has been a sharp rise in diagnoses of mental illness, autism and ADHD, especially among young people, since the pandemic, and the conditions are now the most common reason for sickness benefit claims. Advertisement Figures released last month revealed that 4.7 million working-age people claimed disability or incapacity benefits , a rise of 1.8 million since 2019. Top stories 1 Six thrilling Costa Rica trips with Times Holidays Promoted content Whately said: “We’re not denying all the challenges that young people, particularly the Covid generation, face with, for instance, struggling with mental health or indeed neurodiversity. “But what we’re going to be saying is that’s not a reason not to work, and we are going to make reforms to our welfare system to make sure that you are better off in work than on welfare.” She added that the Tories would make out-of-work benefits conditional on engaging with the job-seeking process. She said: “We are not going to accept you just sitting at home accepting the benefits. You have to participate in order to get the benefit.” Advertisement She said sitting at home unemployed was “not a good thing for the taxpayer — but it is also not a good thing for the young person”. Meanwhile, the shadow education secretary warned that the pull of welfare had made it “too easy to opt out”. Laura Trott said the system needed to change so it was as “easy as possible to hire young people” to try to solve the youth unemployment problem. Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, and Whately on Monday IAN FORSYTH/GETTY IMAGES She told a Spectator fringe event: “I wouldn’t call it a snowflake generation, but I do think the call of welfare has made it too easy to opt out.” She accused the Labour Party and the left of confusing “welfare with kindness”, adding: “There is nothing kind about consigning people to welfare at such an early age and I think that is what the left do.” Advertisement On the Tories’ pledge to ditch the Employment Rights Act, she said: “We have to make it as easy as possible to hire young people. That just has to be the principle that we go with from now on, right? Even Ed Balls is saying that the government has got it wrong on its approach to adding costs and hiring young people.” A long-awaited government review of mental health conditions will be published this week but is expected to stop short of declaring that ADHD and autism are being “overdiagnosed”. The review was ordered in December by Wes Streeting , the health secretary at the time, and has been led by Professor Peter Fonagy, a leading psychoanalyst at University College London. It will warn that children and adults are “ incentivised ” to seek a diagnosis because it is the gateway to unlocking support. getty images The system, experts warned, was leading to increasing numbers of those with the neurodevelopmental condition being out of education or work and on benefits. In future, only those who doctors believed would benefit from a diagnosis, such as requiring medication, would be put on to waiting lists for ADHD clinics. Advertisement Nearly two thirds of those aged between 16 and 24 who claim personal independence payments — a disability benefit that is not related to whether someone is in work — list ADHD, autism, anxiety or depression as the primary condition. Alan Milburn, a former Labour cabinet minister who is conducting a review of youth unemployment, has said those on health and disability benefits who are capable of working — particularly those with conditions such as mild ADHD and anxiety — should face an “obligation” to take advantage of employment support. He told The Times last month that Britain should introduce a “backstop” like other welfare systems in Europe, which would ultimately reduce people’s benefits if they repeatedly fail to engage. It would be used only as a “last resort” and be for those who are able to work rather than for those with “severe and enduring” disabilities.