Work that is not “meaningful” can be bad for your mental health, a campaigner has said.

Gigi El-Halaby, who campaigns on youth mental health issues, told LBC that for some people, working in shops such as Sainsbury’s or Boots “won’t be meaningful and it won’t be fulfilling”, which could harm their mental health.

She added: “Jobs need to be meaningful, it can’t just be going into any work.”

Ms El-Halaby told LBC: “My definition of a meaningful job will be different to someone else’s definition of a meaningful job.”

Ms El-Halaby has previously said that she received Personal Independence Payment (Pip), a benefit that is intended to cover the extra costs of disability for those with long-term physical or mental illness, which is not means-tested.

Individuals are able to claim regardless of whether they are in full-time education or have a job.

Her comments came after Labour announced that the first young people to qualify for the Government’s “jobs guarantee”, which encourages employers to hire youth workers, started in new roles at Boots.

Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, visited a Boots warehouse in Nottingham this week to meet some of the first workers taken on as part of the scheme. He said the work offered “real jobs, proper wages and a genuine route into a career”.

However, Ms El-Halaby said the Government and businesses needed to take a more “individualised approach” to getting people into work.

She said: “For some people, it will be a meaningful job to want to work in Sainsbury’s or to work in Boots and it will be an accessible job, for other people it won’t be meaningful and it won’t be fulfilling.

“We do know that if the work is not meaningful and fulfilling then it won’t be good for mental health and ultimately lead to worse mental health.”

Many people face accessibility challenges with some of the jobs being suggested by ministers, she added.

“Working in Boots is not an accessible job for me,” she said. “For some people it will be.”

Youth worklessness is a major challenge for Andy Burnham. The Prime Minister urged employers this week to provide young people with work experience to address the problem.

However, figures released on Thursday showed some 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 were not in employment, education or training (Neets) in the three months to June.

Ms El-Halaby said: “Ultimately, as a young person, a lot of us are losing hope to find work.”

An interim review by Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, into youth worklessness found that around seven in 10 young people in receipt of a health and disability benefit would still be claiming a decade later.

Official figures estimate that Pip claims cost the taxpayer £26bn a year.

A survey from the Department for Work and Pensions found that three quarters of respondents believed that young people should stop receiving benefits if they refuse a job because it “doesn’t interest them”.

Around three in five said benefits should stop if a job is refused because it “doesn’t pay enough”.

However, two thirds of people said benefits should continue where a health condition or disability means a job is not suitable.

Ms El-Halaby was contacted for comment.

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