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Children in Great Britain with serious mental health conditions are two-thirds more likely to have a limited ability to work in adulthood. Specifically, those with severe mental and behavioral issues as children are 68% more likely to have a long-term condition that impacts their ability to work.
These children are 85% more likely to exhibit symptoms of depression at age 51. Poor mental health has now emerged as the leading work-limiting health condition among individuals aged 44 and younger.
Physical health problems in childhood also contribute to reduced work capacity, with affected children being 38% more likely to face limitations in their ability to work later in life. These findings stem from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which tracked approximately 6,000 to 17,000 individuals born in a single week in 1970 across Great Britain.
The ripple effects of poor childhood health extend beyond the individual. For every four children developing a long-term health condition, one of their mothers is likely to leave the workforce entirely, exacerbating economic strain on families. The IPPR estimates that the hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has surpassed £100 billion annually, with employees losing the equivalent of 44 days of productivity due to working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018.
Rising rates of poor mental health are placing significant pressure on the NHS, council services, and the social security system. Government figures indicate a 41% increase in working-age adults in England claiming disability benefits, from 1.9 million in November 2019 to 2.7 million in May 2024, alongside a 40% rise in incapacity benefit claims, from 2 million to 2.9 million over the same period.
One in five children in England currently faces a probable mental health issue, and the number of workers aged 16 to 34 reporting mental ill health as a work-limiting factor has surged more than fourfold over the past decade.
The UK government has pledged to “raise the healthiest generation of children in our history,” with Labour committing to initiatives such as a national dental hygiene program, 2 million additional operations to reduce pediatric waiting times, and a 9pm watershed for junk food advertising.
To address the mental health crisis, the government has expanded access to mental health teams in schools for nearly an extra million children and allocated £680 million to recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers and deliver 345,000 talking therapies.
However, the crisis persists. In January, the number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare in England rose by 10% in a year, driven by lengthy waiting lists for regular NHS care. The IPPR urges the government to safeguard spending on children and preventive measures within the NHS and other public services, expand the role of the children’s commissioner, and ringfence funding for children’s mental health.
The think tank also advocates for “high-impact, cost-saving interventions,” such as mental health support for 14- to 19-year-olds nearing workforce entry, to deliver early economic and health benefits.
Dr. Jamie O’Halloran, a senior research fellow at the IPPR, emphasized, “The earlier we address both physical and mental health challenges for children, the more likely we can prevent costly health conditions and worklessness later in life. This is not just a matter of improving individual lives, but also of alleviating long-term pressures on the state.”
Amy Gandon, an IPPR associate fellow and former senior government official on children’s health, added, “Successive governments have failed to face up to the long-term consequences of poor child health. If this government is serious about building a preventative state, it must act decisively to improve the prospects of our children and young people. What’s more, the dividends from doing so need not be decades away; the right action now – for example, for those joining the workforce within a few years – can deliver better health, opportunity and growth within this parliament.”
The IPPR report concludes, “Improving children’s health is not just morally right – it is a social and economic necessity. A healthier generation of children is essential to delivering this government’s core missions: improving the nation’s health, spreading opportunity, and securing sustainable economic growth.”
The IPPR’s findings highlight the critical need for a preventative approach to children’s health to mitigate long-term societal and economic costs. As Dr. O’Halloran and Gandon suggest, targeted investments now could yield significant dividends within years, not decades.
With one in five children grappling with mental health challenges and workforce participation increasingly hampered by health-related limitations, the government’s “Plan for Change” must prioritize early intervention to ensure every child has a healthy start and a productive future.
