Sir Tony Blair has warned against over-medicalising the “ups and downs” of life amid a rise in self-diagnosed mental health problems.
The former prime minister said there was a risk that too many people experiencing normal challenges in life were being told they had a mental health condition.
He also issued a warning to his Labour colleagues in Government, saying that public spending on the issue was becoming unaffordable.
Sir Tony told the podcast Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future: “I think we have become very, very focused on mental health and with people self-diagnosing on mental health.
“And I think we need a proper public conversation about that because I think it’s a very, very difficult question.
“We’re spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago. And it’s hard to see what the objective reasons for that are.”
The amount spent on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – which help cover costs for disabled people – is forecast to rise by 60 per cent from £22 billion to £35 billion by 2029.
Much of the trend is driven by new claimants citing mental health concerns.
Nationwide lockdowns during the pandemic, which saw people spend long periods at home, have been seen by some as contributing to the surge in mental health concerns.
The number of working-age people on health-related benefits has risen by a million since 2019, to 4.2 million, according to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year.
Sir Tony said: “Life has its ups and downs and everybody experiences those. And you’ve got to be careful of encouraging people to think they’ve got some sort of condition other than simply confronting the challenges of life.
“We need a proper public conversation about this because you really cannot afford to be spending the amount of money we’re spending on mental health. And the ramp-up of that just in these last few years has been dramatic.”
He added: “You’ve got to be careful of translating those [challenges] into a mental health condition and losing your own agency, in a way, to govern your own life.”
Sir Tony’s remarks echo arguments made by ministers in the previous Conservative government.
Mel Stride, the former work and pensions secretary, said last March: “There is a real risk now that we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions which then actually serve to hold people back and, ultimately, drive up the benefit bill.”
Before the election, Mr Stride unveiled plans to tighten welfare rules to require an extra 400,000 people signed off long-term to prepare for a return to work.
Labour ministers have talked broadly about the need to bring down the spiralling welfare bill, but have yet to reveal whether they will carry on many of the Tory reforms.
Last week The Telegraph revealed that Sir Keir Starmer’s Government was preparing to make billions of pounds worth of cuts to PIP amid a wider push for savings.
However, Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has adopted less strident rhetoric than her Conservative predecessors on welfare reform, accusing the party of a “blame” culture.
Her reform proposals will be put out for consultation in the coming months.
