Which is most important for good mental health: paid work, avoiding poverty or having money itself? And is there a gender difference when exploring job loss? This research investigates these issues, using Understanding Society data.
Paid work is often seen as central to improving health, but it can be difficult to establish the extent to which the benefit to people’s health comes from the salary, rather than other aspects of work, such as social interaction or increased self-confidence. It can also be difficult to tell how health is affected by the income of other household members.
In this research, a team based at the University of Glasgow used Understanding Society and studied the relationship between changes in employment, income, and poverty and a person’s mental health. Mental health was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire that measures psychological distress, a marker of probable depression and/or anxiety. They found that being in paid employment had a far greater influence than poverty and income, with job loss leading to a 16% increase in the likelihood of psychological distress.
Separately, entering poverty was linked to a 2% increase in the chance of psychological distress, while longer term poverty likely has an additional impact. In contrast to poverty, changes in income above the poverty threshold had only a very small effect. The relative importance of employment, income, and poverty differed by gender, but generally not by age. Men’s mental health was affected more by job loss, while women’s mental health was affected more by poverty.
With men appearing more sensitive to employment transitions and poverty having larger impacts on women, as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, minimising unemployment, as well as helping people out of poverty, is crucial for population mental health.
The authors comment, “Our research suggests that universal, one-size-fits-all policies aimed at raising income to the same degree for all households may not be sufficient to improve mental health for the UK population. Instead, more targeted policies focused on lifting people out of poverty may be more successful, particularly in reducing inequalities in mental health. This could either be achieved by increasing existing means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or by introducing new policies guaranteeing an income floor above the poverty line such as the Minimum Income for Healthy Living or Universal Basic Income.”
EmploymentHealth and wellbeingMoney and finances
