If the number of disability benefits claimants are artificially high in the UK because people are claiming to avoid work, then this should stand out when compared to other developed nations.

Statistics are available for all member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. We can compare national figures from 2008. Below is claimant rates for the G7 nations and OECD average:

From reading the above graph, the UK is indeed higher than all the other G7 nations other than (perhaps surprisingly) the USA. It is also higher than the OECD average.

But what if we measure it against health statistics? About 42% of UK disability claimants are mental health sufferers. People claiming benefits due to mental health problems are often accused of cheating by the media due to their disability being invisible. The World Health Organisation devised a standard measure of mental health and tested this in a number of countries. We can also add the UK, Canada and Australia, as very similar measures have been taken and recorded nationally.

By measuring disability claimants against mental health sufferers we find a correlation between the two rates, albeit weak, as would be expected.

The UK is found above the trend line, which means that rather than the claimant rate being artificially high, the UK has a low claimant rate as a percentage of mental health sufferers as a whole. This would also explain the high claimant rate for the United States.

Again, it is important to stress that the WHO measurement is a standard measure of mental health. This graph is a clear indication that rather than having a high disability claimant count, the UK has a high number of mental health sufferers as a whole, roughly three times higher the Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain.

If the UK Government wishes to reduce the claimant count fairly it should look to improve the nation's mental health.

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