Reductions in the United Kingdom's Government Housing Benefit and symptoms of depression in low-income households

摘要

Housing security is an important determinant ofmental ill health.We used a quasinatural experiment to evaluate thisudassociation, comparing the prevalence of mental ill health in the United Kingdom before and after the government’sudApril 2011 reduction in financial support for low-income persons who rent private-sector housing (mean reduction ofudapproximately £1,220 ($2,315) per year).Data came fromtheUnited Kingdom’s Annual Population Survey, a repeatedudquarterly cross-sectional survey. We focused our analysis on renters in the private sector, disaggregating data betweenudan intervention group receiving the government’s Housing Benefit (n = 36,859) and a control group not receivingudthe Housing Benefit (n = 142,205). The main outcome was a binary measure of self-reported mental health problems.udAfter controlling for preexisting time trends, we observed that between April 2011 and March 2013, the prevalence ofuddepressive symptoms among private renters receiving the Housing Benefit increased by 1.8 percentage points (95%udconfidence interval: 1.0, 2.7) compared with those not receiving the Housing Benefit. Our models estimated thatudapproximately 26,000 (95% confidence interval: 14,000, 38,000) people newly experienced depressive symptomsudin association with the cuts to the Housing Benefit.We conclude that reducing housing support to low-inc