Deadly cost of unemployment

Published on Saturday 19 January 2008 18:02

THE damage to health caused by being unemployed for more than six months is the equivalent of smoking 200 cigarettes a day, a new study claims.

Health experts studied the life chances of people who were either long-term unemployed or claiming other benefits and compared them against heavy smokers.

They found that smokers would have to get through 10 packs every day to do the same amount of damage to their health as being out of work.

The findings have been seized on by leading public health chiefs in Scotland, who say that unemployment – and not disease – is now the single biggest cause of death in the country.

They say being out of a job for a lengthy period is the trigger for depression and social exclusion, all of which leads to a marked decline in health.

The research on comparing smoking to being without work was compiled by Professor Mansel Aylward of the Wales Centre for Health, and the former chief medical officer for the Department for Work and Pensions.

He said: "This research looked at the impact of being out of work for six months or more and compared it to other high risk activities like smoking.

"What this showed was that being out of work gives you a risk of death which is equal to if you were smoking 10 packs a day. That is the sort of risk that a normal healthy person would have if they were out of work for that time."

Aylward said that the only explanation for the poor health record was the fact that they were out of work.

The research has been seized by one of Scotland's leading experts on public health, Dr Ewan MacDonald, head of Healthy Working Lives Research Group at Glasgow University. He is now urging ministers to focus their policies on getting people back to work as the best way of relieving pressure on the NHS.

He said: "Worklessness is the most significant risk to public health we have. Work is hugely beneficial in terms of health and wellbeing. There is strong evidence that work is good for health and wellbeing."

He added: "Unemployment is associated with a loss of self-respect, a loss of autonomy and a loss of identity and all those have an impact on health."

"This is not about more hospitals, or more doctors and nurses, or more health care. The key health innovation has to be in rehabilitation and ensuring that it is at the centre of every health intervention."

The research comes as Scotland on Sunday reveals new figures from researchers at Glasgow University which show that, in the worst affected parts of Scotland, more than one in three working-age people claims Incapacity Benefit, the 70-a-week payment given to people who say they cannot work due to ill health.

Researchers say that far from supporting the sick, the benefit is actually making people sicker, because of the health hazards associated with not having a job.

The worst affected neighbourhood in the country is Parkhead in the East End of Glasgow where more than 60% of those in their late 50s claim Incapacity Benefit.

Across Scotland, 335,000 people are on the benefit, or one in 10 working age Scots. A further 137,000 people in Scotland are officially unemployed.

Public health chiefs say that while many of those people are genuinely unable to work, a substantial number could take up some of the 100,000 job vacancies across the country.

Both Labour and the Conservatives at Westminster have now made it a priority to slash rates of incapacity benefit across the UK.