Welfare and Mental Health - The need for meeting basic needs

Why benefit cuts/assessments damage mental health - 'Step1 - Physiological needs' - Mental welfare is impossible if these basic needs are not met -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23902918

Abraham Maslow and the pyramid that beguiled business

Step 1 - Physiological needs, Salary, decent working environment

Equivalent if unemployed and/or disabled is enough money for basic needs, food, clothes, home, heating.

Poverty or worries about poverty consume a person's mental attention leaving other issues to be unresolved and not focused on.

Poverty 'consumes' your mental capacity- NHS Choices -

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/08August/Pages/Poverty-consumes-your-mental-capacity.aspx - “Poverty saps mental capacity to deal with complex tasks”.