Around 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem lose their jobs each year.
Before I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression 11 years ago, at age 50, I was working at the top of my profession, but one of the most serious aspects of my illness was that I lost my entire business memory and ultimately could not even read a page of The Sun and absorb the content. I had to leave my job and have never been able to work full time again. In my industry, anyone over 50 struggles to get employment
After I’d been off sick for 12 months, I was then offered early retirement on health grounds, which I took. I guess the longer-term impact was that I retired at 50, and that has had a massive impact, obviously, on my pension and an impact on what my pension might have been.