Unemployment: Mental Illness
(asked on 5th January 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the ONS release Rising ill-health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK: 2019 to 2023, dated 26 July 2023, what the prevalence is of (a) bad nerves and (b) anxiety in people aged between 16 and 64 who have been economically inactive because of long term health conditions since (i) 2010 and (ii) 2000.
“Depression, bad nerves or anxiety” is a pre-specified single category in the Labour Force Survey questionnaire. We are therefore unable to separate out depression, bad nerves and anxiety from each other.
As such, we have provided a breakdown of working-age people (16-64) self-reporting depression, bad nerves or anxiety as a main or secondary health condition who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness from 2013 to 2023, published in The Employment of Disabled People 2023 (Table EIA017).
Prevalence of depression, bad nerves or anxiety for those who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, 2013-2023
Quarter | Number of people who are economically inactive because they are long-term sick (thousands) | Number of people who are economically inactive because they are long-term sick with depression, bad nerves or anxiety (thousands) |
Apr 13 to Jun 13 | 2,071 | 908 |
Apr 14 to Jun 14 | 1,999 | 908 |
Apr 15 to Jun 15 | 2,092 | 992 |
Apr 16 to Jun 16 | 2,048 | 1,000 |
Apr 17 to Jun 17 | 1,986 | 976 |
Apr 18 to Jun 18 | 2,046 | 980 |
Apr 19 to Jun 19 | 2,039 | 1,034 |
Apr 20 to Jun 20 | 2,133 | 1,143 |
Apr 21 to Jun 21 | 2,192 | 1,149 |
Apr 22 to Jun 22 | 2,394 | 1,256 |
Apr 23 to Jun 23 | 2,582 | 1,361 |
Source: Labour Force Survey (LFS) quarterly person data
Note this is unpublished data from our own analysis of ONS Labour Force Survey data and that the ONS release compared Jan-Mar 2019 to Jan-Mar 2023 data.