Depression UK's bggest social problem

In the UK, depression now has more people on benefits than unemployment.

Around 15% of the population suffers from depression or anxiety, says Lord Layard, emeritus professor at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics. The economic cost in terms of lost productivity is huge - around £17bn, or 1.5% of UK gross domestic product. "There are now more than 1 million mentally ill people receiving incapacity benefits - more than the total number of unemployed people receiving unemployment benefits," he writes in the British Medical Journal.

In NZ benefits for pschological and psychiatric conditions run at about 75 percent (36,454) of the unemployment benefit total. (Can't tell you exactly how many people are on the dole right now as the Ministry of Social Development put up the March 06 figures yesterday but has taken them down again).

Update; The figures are back up (although UB is incorrectly labelled as March 2005). The current percentage is 82 so we are chasing the UK.