Understanding mental health in the UK welfare system: representations of distress among working-age benefit claimants and their implications for assessment and support

This qualitative study explores the ways in which UK benefits claimants describe and make sense of their experiences of mental distress, and how this affects their interactions with welfare and employment systems. The project involves secondary analysis of a large qualitative longitudinal data set: the Welfare Conditionality Study (2013-2019), which comprises over 1000 in-depth interviews with 480 UK benefits claimants. We will use the method of thematic narrative analysis applying the theoretical lens of the Illness Representational Model, to identify differing ways in which benefit claimants describe, make sense of, and act upon their experiences of mental distress, particularly in the social realms of welfare and employment.