The Milburn review into youth worklessness is set to call for young people to be taken off sickness and disability benefits, and politicians are taking notice of even younger recipients. As the number of under-18s claiming ADHD benefits soars, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to make nearly £3 billion in cuts to the childhood welfare bill.

Badenoch proposes retaining cash support for the most severe cases while restricting eligibility for “mild” instances of ADHD. And, as she rightly points out, telling kids with the condition that they are “defective” — or less capable of contributing to society than anyone else — is more damaging than any diagnosis.

Her call should be welcomed. Ever-increasing numbers of children are now receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA), while the number of people claiming personal independence payments (PIP), a disability benefit for those over 16, is at an all-time high. While advocates for PIP have been quick to point out that the benefit is often paid to people who are in work, and can help some disabled people remain in employment, that does not address whether payments in general are the best response to mental difficulties.

It is understandable that many children who are told they have a “broken brain” may seek out financial help if it is offered. But the problem is that financial support is extraordinarily alluring, and it is a fundamental law of human nature that incentives drive behavior. Thus, we need to make sure governmental incentives are shaping healthy behavior rather than the opposite.

The Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking used the term “looping effect” to explore how a label can change the people it describes, and how their responses can then change society’s understanding of the label. A person may receive an ADHD diagnosis and begin to reinterpret familiar difficulties as evidence of their disability. Family members, clinicians, and employers may respond by lowering their expectations and potentially reinforce the child’s understanding of themselves.

Financial incentives can easily make such matters worse. To obtain DLA, adults must explain what the child cannot do. This might be necessary to assess their needs, but it is important to consider its impact. In the process of applying for financial aid, adults who sincerely care about the child can inadvertently induce a sense of learned helplessness by repeatedly concentrating on their limitations.

Kids with mental health conditions such as ADHD should be helped to emerge from childhood as adults who see hard work as an essential part of a meaningful life. But the current ballooning welfare system — which politicians repeatedly find impossible to cut — is making it all too easy to become consumed by obtaining more money and lose sight of what might actually improve one’s life.

Fortunately, people with ADHD can thrive in work like anyone else. They may need help to find suitable work and manage its demands, and governmental policies should certainly assist with that. Financial support can relieve hardship, but it cannot do the work of building a meaningful life. Reducing people’s difficulties to a question of financial entitlement has left them with money and very little else.

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Stella O’Malley is a psychotherapist and bestselling author. She is Founder-Director of Genspect, an international organisation that advocates for a healthy approach to sex and gender.

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