People who retire early because of mental
illness can find themselves with up to 93% less accumulated wealth
than people who continue to work, according to an
Australian study. This can leave them facing hardship and lower
living standards in their old age.
Researchers from the University of Sydney and
University of Canberra teamed up to quantify the cost of lost
savings and wealth to Australians who retire early because of
depression or other mental illness. Their findings are published in
the February issue of the British Journal of
Psychiatry.
The study was based on a survey of 8,864
people aged between 45 and 64 and an innovative economic model
called Health&WealthMOD which together provided information
about their employment, income, and wealth accumulated in savings,
property and other financial investments. Of these people, 43 were
not working because of depression, and 56 were not working because
of other mental illnesses.
The mean total wealth accumulated by people
who were employed full time and did not have any mental illness or
other chronic health condition was AUS$398,098 (£218,954), while
those who worked part time had accumulated a mean wealth of
AUS$360,071 (£198,039).
In contrast, those who were not in the labour
force due to depression had accumulated an average AUS$236,727
(£133,200), while those not in the labour force because of other
mental illness had accumulated just AUS$148,771 (£81,824) on
average.
Lead researcher Professor Deborah Schofield
said: “Our study shows that people who retire early as a result of
mental ill health not only have a loss of immediate income from
employment, but also have a very low value of savings. We found
that people who are not working because of depression or other
mental illness have 78% and 93% less wealth accumulated
respectively, compared with people of the same age, gender and
education who are working and who have no mental health or other
chronic health problems.
“We also found that people who are out of work
because of depression or other mental illness are more likely to
have the wealth they do have in cash, rather than in other
higher-growth assets such as property or financial investments.
“This lower accumulated wealth is likely to
result in lower living standards for these people, and the state
may be required to provide financial support – a hefty financial
burden. We believe that some of this financial burden could be
avoided by investing more money in interventions to prevent the
occurrence of mental illness in the first place.”
For further information, please
contact:
Liz Leicester
or Deborah Hart in the Communications
Department.
Telephone: 020 7235 2351 Extensions. 6298 or 6127
References:
Schofield DJ, Shrestha RN, Percival R, Kelly SJ, Passey ME and Callander EJ. Quantifying the effect of early retirement on the wealth of individuals with depression or other mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 2011; 198: 123-128