Since the pandemic, Britain’s mental health has taken a steep downturn, which has now been tied to the rise in disability benefit claims, according to a new report by the IFS . It found the number of people between 16 and 64 in England and Wales claiming disability benefits has risen by two million since the pandemic, with the main conditions for claims being mental health related. This, in turn, was also tied to a devastating rise in “deaths of despair” among people of working age.
Deaths of despair are usually attributed to issues like suicide, alcohol and drugs. In 2023, there was a rise of 24%, or 3,700 more deaths, than pre-pandemic levels in England and Wales. The report highlighted: “There is a strong link between these deaths and mental health issues, so this rise indicates an increase in the incidence of (severe) mental health problems.
These deaths were the main driver of overall increases in working-age mortality in 2023.” Additionally, just last December two million people contacted the NHS mental health services, this included people currently waiting for care and marked a 36% increase since 2019. In England, the number of people with prescriptions for antidepressants also increased by 12% since 2019 and although researchers noted this could be driven by more awareness and access to mental health services, it’s also disturbingly aligned with benefits and deaths data.
Researchers urged the government to keep this deterioration of the public’s mental .
