A new report has revealed that people in their early 20s are more likely to not be working due to poor health when compared to people in their 40s.
The Resolution Foundation’s report paints a “radically different” picture than in the past, where increased age meant it was more likely you would not be working due to health issues.
Official figures illustrate a rise in poor mental health amongst the young, which is having a knock-on effect when it comes to access to education. The result of this young people finding themselves in lower-paid jobs or even being unemployed later in life due to inadequate schooling.
Louise Murphy, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said:
“What should most worry us is when poor mental health comes together with poor education outcomes.”
“The economic consequences of poor mental health are starkest for young people who don’t go to university, with one in three young non-graduates with a common mental disorder currently workless.”
The research also revealed that 79% of 18 to 24-year-olds who have found themselves “workless” due to health reasons only have GCSE-level qualifications or lower.
The report also shows that young people have the poorest mental health of any age group, which is the opposite of what it was two decades ago when they were the least likely to suffer from common mental disorders.
Also, 34% of 18 to 24-year-olds reported symptoms of a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder in 2021/22, and half a million of this age group were prescribed anti-depressants.
Concerningly, the figures show that women are one-and-a-half times more likely to experience mental health struggles than young men, with 1 in 20 young people (5%) being economically inactive because of health problems in 2023.
Resolution Foundation is campaigning for improved living standards for people on low and middle incomes is currently focusing on better mental health support in educational institutions, in the hope that more can be done to prevent young people from having to drop out of their studies due to ill health.
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