Why mental health support is a year-round benefits priority

Mental health support is now a consistent and material part of employer-funded healthcare use, and that has important implications for reward, benefits and HR strategy.

Analysis by Healix Health of healthcare claims data from January 2024 to early 2026 suggests that mental health-related claims account for between 4% and 7% of all monthly claims, making it the third most common category after musculoskeletal issues and cancer.

For employers, the significance is not just the volume of claims but the pattern behind them. Anxiety, depression and stress account for most of the mental health activity in the dataset, and claims peaked in April at 7.2% in 2024 and 7.7% in 2025.

According to Healix Health, this coincides with the point in the year when many employers communicate benefit renewals, suggesting that visibility and clarity of access may be at least as important as awareness campaigns in driving take-up.

Embedded into everyday benefits

This does not mean awareness campaigns have no value. Healix Health found that mental health support queries rose by around 10% in the weeks following Mental Health Awareness Week in both 2023 and 2024, before returning to baseline by June.

However, the data indicates that while awareness can prompt short-term engagement, sustained usage is more likely when support is embedded into everyday benefits communication and backed by clear referral pathways, line manager confidence and easy-to-navigate services.

The age profile is also instructive. Employees aged 30 to 39 represented the largest share of mental health claims at 28%, followed by those aged 20 to 29 at 21%, meaning these two groups accounted for nearly half of all treatment activity. When adjusted for population size, however, the highest rates of service access were among employees aged 15 to 19 and 20 to 29, with uptake declining steadily with age.

Time to review how support is delivered

For benefit leaders, that points to a need for more segmented communication and support design. Younger employees may be more open to seeking help, but they also expect fast, simple access and clear signposting.

Employers should therefore review whether their mental health offer is understandable at different career stages, whether support can be accessed confidentially and quickly, and whether communications are tailored to how different employee groups consume information.

The gender split in claims was also relatively consistent, with women accounting for 59% to 60% of claims and men 40% to 41%. Employers should be cautious about over-interpreting this in isolation, but it does reinforce the importance of examining utilisation data regularly to identify where support is being used, where it may be underused and whether barriers to access still exist for some groups.

Keira Wallis, head of clinical operations at Healix Health, says the consistency of the claims data is the most important finding. In her view, mental health demand should no longer be treated as a temporary post-pandemic trend but as an established and ongoing area of employee need that should shape how employers structure support.

Regular check-ins

The practical implication is clear: if employers want higher engagement with mental health support, they need to make it visible, credible and easy to use throughout the year.

That means moving beyond one-off awareness activity and focusing on the basics: clear benefit communications, straightforward access routes, trained line managers, and regular review of claims and utilisation data.

For HR and reward teams, the goal should be to build a mental health support framework that is not only available but consistently understood and used by the workforce.