Report suggests mental illness linked to poverty

MANY adults with mental health problems could be significantly more likely to end up in poverty than those without longstanding health issues, a report suggests.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that among 25 to 54-yearolds, 28% of those with a longstanding health problem and 40% of those with a mental health problem are in relative poverty – meaning they have an income below 60% of the median average income after deducting housing costs.

This compares with around 18% for those without longstanding health problems.

The findings come in the IFS report Living Standards, Poverty And Inequality In The UK: 2018, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

It said that in 2016-17, 27% of 25 to 54-year-olds reported having a longstanding illness, of whom 18% reported having a longstanding mental health problem.

The report also found that people in the same age group with a longstanding illness are much less likely to be employed, especially if they have a mental health problem.

Around 88% of the healthy population are in paid work. But only 53% of those with a mental health problem were in paid work in 201617, the report said, adding that, among those in paid work, those with a longstanding illness tend to earn less.

The report’s author Tom Waters, a research economist at the IFS, said: “People with a longstanding illness are significantly less likely to be employed than those who are healthy. Only half of 25 to 54-yearolds with a longstanding mental health problem are in work compared with nearly 90% of the healthy population.”

The report was released as StepChange Debt Charity said one in every five clients it helped in 2017 had an additional vulnerability on top of their problem debt. The most common reason for clients’ vulnerability was a mental health difficulty, followed by physical disability, cancer and poor general health.

StepChange said debt problems are closely associated with certain forms of vulnerability, particularly illness – 77% of clients with a terminal illness and 68% of clients with cancer cited illness as the main cause of their debt problems.

Among those with mental health issues, 40% said illness was the main reason for their debt.

StepChange’s vulnerable clients were more likely than other clients to be in arrears on household bills. And they spent an average of 70% of their income on essential household bills and food, compared with 65% among other clients.