Lack of mental health support drives up workplace disability claims

Disability discrimination claims are surging as the number of disputes relating to depression, stress and anxiety continues to rise. The latest data shows that while employment tribunal claims sent to Acas for early conciliation increased by 7% over the last two years, disability discrimination claims over the same period have surged by 30%. It means disability discrimination claims now make up a quarter of the total number of claims referred to Acas for conciliation. 

The research, conducted by Nockolds, is reported by People Management. They quote Alicia Nagar, head of people, wellbeing, and equity at Mental Health First Aid England, who says the rise in cases is “disappointing” and a symptom of a lack of support from employers. She says: “Many workplaces are doing brilliant things to support the wellbeing of their staff, but others are lagging behind. Employers need to better understand their responsibilities to employees from a legal, ethical, and business perspective.”

Rachel Suff, senior employee relations adviser at the CIPD, highlighted CIPD findings that mental ill-health was the main cause of long-term sickness absence. She said: “Employers need to foster supportive work cultures where people feel safe to share health information and seek support. The organisation can then put in place helpful adjustments to support the individual and hopefully avoid employment disputes. Underlying health issues need to be taken into account as part of a supportive performance management process.”

Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation, agrees that employers need to treat mental ill-health with the same seriousness as a physical illness. She told People Management: “Workplaces are obliged to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that staff experiencing poor mental health have the right support in place and do not experience discrimination. When people are supported to thrive in the workplace, everyone benefits.”

The findings from the Acas data reflect what we are seeing in practice so let’s hear more about that. Earlier, I caught up with disability specialist Amy Hextell who told me about the team’s experience:

Amy Hextell: “We are seeing lots and lots of, whether it be claims, or requests for advice. We are constantly, as a team, advising our large employer clients around supporting employees with mental health conditions. In some cases, that's employees who are neurodivergent and have recognised conditions. In other cases, it's a bit less clear that there is a diagnosed impairment, in disability speak, but that person is experiencing difficulties in relation to their mental health, and it's causing real difficulty for employers because there's still, despite this having been talked about for a long time now, a lack of understanding around what mental health looks like, that we all have mental health and that we all have good mental health and mental health that is worse on some days. Obviously in the legal sphere, that sometimes tips into being a legally recognised disability, which is of concern to employers. I think that as regards litigation is concerned, almost every tribunal claim that we're dealing with at the moment has got some element of a mental health concern around it whether that be, again, because it's a disability-related claim or, more generally, because the individual bringing the complaint has mental health concerns and feels that they're not able to get support. Part of it is because there is a wider societal lack of support and understanding around mental health. Quite often we have employers on the phone to us asking, what do we do? The police don't want to know the person's not too unwell such that they have to be in hospital, or anything like that, and actually it is falling on employers to take the steps necessary to support these employees with their mental health because there really is no other person there to help them. So we're seeing it lots and lots. We've got lots of guidance that we can provide in terms of supporting employers in encouraging wellbeing and supporting their employees with mental health but, certainly, I can understand why there is lots of news out there, I guess, around increased numbers of claims featuring disability discrimination in mental health. It’s certainly something that we're seeing and advising on all the time.”

The CIPD has published a useful guide to help support employees with mental health. It’s called ‘Supporting mental health at work: guide for people managers’ and we’ve put a link to it in the transcript of this programme.

Supporting Mental Health at Work | CIPDhttps://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/guides/mental-health-support-guide/

Workplace disability discrimination claims surge 30 per cent, analysis finds, as employers struggle to tackle mental health issues (peoplemanagement.co.uk)