A qualitative study of the transition from unemployment and benefits to working whilst carrying the label of depression in England

Introduction: Mental health problems have been the single biggest cause for disability benefit claims in the UK for a decade. Welfare reforms have been increasingly focused on supporting disabled people into employment, with questionable outcomes. Aim: To qualitatively explore how people who have the label of depression experience the transition back to the labour market from being unemployed and receiving social security benefits. Method: Recruitment involved non-statutory disability and claimant networks and used a convenience and snowball sampling method. Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was employed to analyse semi-structured interviews. Participants: Eight interviewed (5 males, 3 females; age range: 25–51); heterogeneous sample. All participants had worked in paid jobs (length of employment: 4–35 years) and most had had several periods of unemployment. All had experience of the new and/or old social security benefits. All had tried medication and had received at least one psychologically informed intervention. Results: Six main themes were constructed: (1) Communicating confusion, (2) Managing in hardship, (3) Managing mental health, (4) Considering the consequences of working, (5) Questioning volunteering, and (6) Facing discrimination. Two overarching themes were developed to highlight the interconnectedness of the six main themes, namely, (1) Interacting barriers and (2) Counteracting the barriers. In total, 16 subthemes were created. Discussion: Participants’ experiences of navigating the welfare systems (i.e., benefits and health care) is considered in a comparison to a VUCA environment (i.e., volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Findings are considered within the social model of disability. Dissemination: In line with participatory and emancipatory approaches and a pragmatist philosophy, dissemination hopes to reach a wider network of disabled people’s organisations to contribute to their work in addition to submitting for a peer-reviewed journal.