An increasing number of people, particularly among the young, are off work with mental-health problems and claiming benefits. What’s going on? Simon Wilson reports
What’s happened?
Newly published statistics have intensified fears that the UK workforce is experiencing a mental-health crisis of unprecedented proportions, especially among young people – raising worrying questions over the future of our economy, society and public finances. Figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions this month showed that two million people are now receiving universal-credit health benefits, a jump of 400,000 in a year, with 69% of them judged unfit to work at all. On average, each claimant cites 2.7 health conditions, so it would be wrong to ascribe the increase to mental illness alone. However, for the first time the official data has revealed that 69% of all assessments involved “mental and behavioural disorders” (higher than the back and joint problems cited in 48% of claims). And the number of people out of work with mental-health conditions has surged by a third between 2019 and 2023.
What about the young?
Overall, 2.7 million people are off work with long-term sickness, but the numbers are rising much faster among the younger generations (the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups) than those aged over 35. Indeed, among the under-35s, in a dramatic shift from ten years ago, mental-health issues are now by far the most common work-limiting condition. A three-year study by the Resolution Foundation, published last month, found that in 2021-2022 one in three people aged 18-24 had reported issues with their mental health, up from one in four in 2000. And research by the same think tank found that the number of 18-24-year-olds who are economically inactive because of illness doubled in the decade to 2023, with mental health the biggest factor. “We are in uncharted territory here,” says Louise Murphy, their senior economist.
Why is this so worrying?
Quite apart from the personal misery and wasted lives these figures imply, the UK’s population is ageing. If its younger generations are too depressed or anxious to work, the fiscal implications will have “profound consequences for the sustainability of the British state”, says Chris Smyth in The Times. Mass unemployment among the young damages their future earnings potential, has ripple effects across the economy – for example, by contributing to inflationary labour shortages – and puts our society and government finances under strain.
How many are inactive?
