Ungated Post | 30 Nov 2016
Added Value: Mental health as a workplace asset
This study, done in collaboration with the Mental Health Foundation, explores the experiences of people with mental health problems, assesses their contribution to the UK economy, and estimates the costs that mental health problems impose on the UK economy through foregone output.
As detailed in the Appendix, we found that people with mental health problems made up an estimated 15.9 percent of total employment in 2015. Of these, 75 percent worked in the private sector.
In 2015, people with mental health problems are estimated to have contributed £226 billion to UK GDP (12.1 percent the country’s economic output). That is nine times more than the cost of mental health problems to economic output: an estimated £25 billion in foregone gross value added the UK economy missed out on because people with mental health problems could not join the labour force, were less productive at work, took sick days off work, or required informal carers to leave the labour force.
Businesses should pay attention to the costs of mental health problems: an estimated £19 billion, or 76 percent, of the total foregone gross value added is estimated to affect the private sector.
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