Mentally-ill 'should get help sooner'

People claiming benefits because of mental health issues could be identified by GPs three years before they stop working, research suggests.

Experts examined data from thousands of people and found no evidence that GPs inappropriately signed people off sick.

But they did find a high number of consultations between GPs and those patients who eventually went on to claim incapacity benefit for mental health problems.

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The number claiming incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance has increased by more than 300 per cent in the past 30 years in the UK, the study said.

The annual cost is more than 100bn.

Writing online in the British Medical Journal, experts from the universities of Manchester, Glasgow and Stirling said: "Much current policy is aimed at getting people who are on long-term benefit back to work.

"It might, however, be more effective to focus on keeping those vulnerable to becoming dependent on benefit in work, rather than getting them back into work after a long period of absence from the workplace.

"General practitioners are well placed to identify people who are vulnerable to becoming dependent on benefit up to three years before this occurs by identifying frequent consulters with emotional distress."