BPS responds to the Spring Statement, warning the escalating cost of living crisis will have long-lasting impacts on mental health

The society is deeply concerned about the damaging mental health impacts of the cost of living crisis, as families and people across the country are pushed into poverty, with a lack of targeted support and a failure to uprate benefits in line with inflation.

Sarb Bajwa, CEO of the BPS, said:

"The absence of measures to support the most vulnerable is glaring, and many families will be swept into poverty over the coming months, as they struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table.

The mental health impacts of this are severe – we know that the stress of raising a family in poverty can have huge ramifications on parents' and children's mental health, and that poverty is one of the major risk-factors for the development of mental and physical health problems.

The government must understand and acknowledge the damaging impact of poverty on children's life chances and wellbeing, and the direct consequences of their failure to uprate benefits in line with inflation on the most vulnerable in society."