I am an ESRC funded PhD student situated in Psychological Medicine at King’s College London, researching the UK benefit system, work and mental health. Prior to this I worked as a research assistant at the King’s Centre for Military Health research on a variety of projects relating to the mental health of the Armed forces and their families. I completed my MSc in clinical mental health at UCL in 2016 and was an honorary assistant psychologist in a community mental health care team at FIRST (early intervention for psychosis). My PhD exploring the relationships between benefit receipt and employment among people affected by a mental health problem. The mixed-methods project uses linked data from electronic healthcare records from South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust with benefit records from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to look at patterns and trajectories of benefit receipt and employment among people with mental health disorders receiving secondary care, alongside conducting qualitative interviews to explore the experiences of participants that have accessed the benefit system in relation to a mental health problem.