Work helps

The Financial Times reports today that in May 2007 the Department of Work and Pensions reported that 504,000 people below the age of 35 were signed on for incapacity benefits or severe disablement allowance. This compared with 443,000 under 35 who were claiming job seeker's allowance.

Additional comment points out that "in many cases it was worklessness, with its attendant financial problems and absence of purpose that made people depressed." It is depression,stress and anxiety which qualify people for incapacity benefits.

There are very definite mental health benefits from work. The importance of rehabilitation is widely accepted and AIRMIC has two free publications on its site www.airmic.com on the subject. However, given the size of the problem as reported by the FT, it is going to need a lot more than companies working at rehabilitation to get the numbers down.