The cost of a benefits scheme providing smartwatches, wobble boards and fidget spinners to people with self-diagnosed mental health conditions has surged by more than a fifth in a year.
Claimants can access nearly £70,000 a year for support and equipment under the Access to Work programme, which landed taxpayers with a bill of £321million for the year to March – according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions.
That was a rise of 22 per cent compared with the year before – and almost double what it was before Covid – amid a rush of content from ‘sickfluencers’ giving followers tips on how to apply.
The initiative is only open to Brits who are in work or have a job interview, and is intended to boost employment among those with a disability or a mental health condition.
However, no formal diagnosis is needed, the grant is not means-tested and no assessment is required ‘if a customer knows their support requirements’.
And while applicants can use the scheme to access important services like sign language interpreters, many use it to bag free gadgets including sunlight alarm clocks, laptops and white noise machines.
In one TikTok video entitled, ‘If you’ve got ADHD you’re really going to want to hear this’, a young man films a stash of equipment including a keyboard, mouse, noise-cancelling headphones, desk and a Dell monitor.
In another clip tagged #ADHDhacks, a TikToker reveals she is waiting on her own application before signing off by rubbing her fingers together and saying: ‘Show me the money, baby’.
On Reddit, one client described being awarded an ‘Apple watch’ for time management. While there is no suggestion any of these social media users have done anything wrong, their stories will fuel claims the scheme is overly generous.
In one TikTok video entitled, ‘If you’ve got ADHD you’re really going to want to hear this’, a young man films a stash of equipment including noise-cancelling headphones
One TikToker described how she claimed £13,000 using the scheme
Two in five Access to Work claimants (38 per cent) now list mental health as their primary condition followed by 11 per cent who claim to have a learning disability, DWP figures show.
Around 74,190 people received a payment Access to Work in the financial year to March 2025, with £4,000 handed out on average. Around a quarter of these payments covered equipment.
While the cost of the scheme increased last year, the number of approvals fell.
The number of people claiming benefits for illnesses, mental health conditions and disabilities has soared since Covid – adding pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she scrambles to raise taxes in her upcoming Budget.
Figures show a record number of people are receiving disability benefits for anxiety, with almost 650,000 Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims for anxiety and mood disorders in July.
More than 44,000 people have been handed PIP for mental health since the general election last year – equating to almost 250 people every day under Sir Keir Starmer.
Meanwhile almost a million benefits claimants will be £2,500 better off than those working a minimum wage job by 2026, the research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found.
An economically inactive claimant on universal credit for ill health who receives the average housing benefit and PIP will get about £25,000 – more than the £22,500 a full-time worker on the national living wage is expected to earn after paying income tax and national insurance.
In a third clip tagged #ADHDhacks, a TikToker reveals she is waiting on her own application before signing off by rubbing her fingers together and saying: ‘Show me the money, baby’
The think tank said the figures show ‘rising numbers of young people combining different benefits to provide an income in place of work’.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned that Labour’s ‘addiction’ to welfare will ‘bankrupt’ Britain.
Her comments come as Ms Reeves plots a fresh raid on middle-class pensions this week in order to pay for another welfare handout.
To help fund Left-wing demands to scrap the two-child benefit cap, the Chancellor is targeting a £3billion raid on the ‘salary-sacrifice’ schemes used by millions of private-sector workers.
The move echoes Gordon Brown’s infamous pensions raid during the last Labour government. Experts warned it would deal a hammer blow to private-sector pensions, which already lag far behind the gold-plated arrangements for those in the public sector.
With cash-strapped businesses warning they will be unable to make up the shortfall, the tax grab is likely to cut the pension pots of many workers by thousands of pounds.
It is ‘a tax on doing the right thing’, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
A DWP spokesman said: ‘Obviously any taxpayer cash that is being mis-spent will be investigated.
‘Access to Work supports thousands of sick or disabled people to start or stay in work, but the scheme we inherited is failing employees and employers.
‘That’s why we’re working with disabled people and their organisations to improve the scheme – ensuring people have the support, skills, and opportunities to move into good, secure jobs as part of our Plan for Change.’