Editorial: Stormont minister puts a welcome focus on helping people of working age in Northern Ireland get back into work, which will be good for their health​

A new plan is being launched to get more benefit claimants into work, as we report on page 5 of today’s print edition

This is good news from Gordon Lyons MLA, the DUP communities minister, who will unveil the plan at Stormont today.

As he points out, Northern Ireland has an economic inactivity rate of 26%.

What this means, in essence, is that the province has far too many people of working age who are not in fact working. The astonishingly high figure, more than a quarte of that section of the population, is not widely known because such potential workers are not categorised as unemployed.

Mr Lyons is right to try to start his mission with a positive approach, by emphasising the health benefits of work.

There is a very substantial mental health boost to being in occupation, and – on the contrary – a real threat to mental wellbeing by never having such a role. It impacts on people’s sense of self-worth in the prime of their lives. Even what some people might consider to be a lowly job gives people structure and a sense of status and a feeling that they are contributing to the world.

Ironically, the massive rise in economic inactivity has to a significant extent been driven by a surge in mental health concerns and perceived illness. Being out of work and feeling worthless is only likely to exacerbate the anxieties of anyone in that situation.

This is not to deny that some people have such serious illnesses, mental or physical or in some tragic instances both, that they cannot feasibly hold down a job. It is the hallmark of a civilised society to support the most vulnerable people.

But the News Letter was reporting on Northern Ireland’s far higher proportion of Disability Living Allowance claimants a decade ago, well before Covid made such absence from the workforce much worse.

We look forward to seeing the plans to tackle this challenge.