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Depression causing more early retirements

Published: 30 Dec 12 13:29 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20121230-47049.html

Psychological complaints like depression and nervous exhaustion have become the most common cause for early retirement in Germany, new data has shown.

As many as 41 percent of workers who applied for disability pensions benefits in 2011 complained of depression, panic attacks, or other psychological illnesses, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing new figures from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV), which operates Germany's state pension system.

That is substantially higher than in 2000, when 24 percent of early retirees had such complaints, and even higher than the 39 percent reported in 2010. Altogether, some 73,200 people went into early retirement because of psychological complaints in 2011.

Women were also disproportionately affected, with 48 percent of female early retirees complaining of psychological damage, compared to 32 percent of males.

Trade unions and opposition politicians have blamed increasing burdens on the job market for the development, and Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she wants to better protect employees.

She said she wants work "hand in hand with employers, unions, and accident insurers to find what programmes, concepts, and concrete rules can effectively protect staff from psychological pressures," she told the paper. "We must learn and act."

The Local/bk

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

15:44 December 30, 2012 by catjones
Heavens to Betsy, I do believe I feel a spell coming on. Fetch my smelling salts and pension papers. Oh my.
16:56 December 30, 2012 by Englishted
"Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she wants to better protect employees."

And I believe her ,that must be grounds for early retirement ,insanity .

@catjones

:-)
20:36 December 30, 2012 by realist1961
I am now depressed after reading this. I am sure free money will help.

Is this sort of depression ever cured? People quit work and get paid for it and they never get well enough to go back to work? Perhaps paying them not to work is good solution to the problem.
01:31 December 31, 2012 by jg.
"Trade unions and opposition politicians have blamed increasing burdens on the job market for the development"

Wouldn't the "burdens on the job market" affect those looking for jobs and not those already in gainful employment? Anyone on Hartz IV and in one of those shitty 1 Euro jobs has more right to feel depressed than someone who can look forward to an early pension.
06:38 December 31, 2012 by RainerL
Well" It's a way out for many people who find it difficult to cope any more. So out comes a medical complaint and an earlier retirement. The trick is to make this option unattractive. How? That is for the Big Think Tanks to work out.
08:56 December 31, 2012 by realist1961
It should have read: Perhaps paying them not to work is not a good solution to the problem.
17:23 December 31, 2012 by puisoh
I always think that depression is an invention of the affluent. I have rarely heard of such problems in poor African nations or India. Perhaps, hunger knows no depression.

Also, in most part of Asia (except Japan), the society is so dynamic and with little social support, such luxurious sickness is rare.

Feel free to correct me. Hearing the word depression makes me burn!
19:57 December 31, 2012 by wxman
Actually, here in the US just the opposite is true. Early retirements (due to layoffs) are causing deppression.
01:24 January 1, 2013 by Englishted
@ puisoh,

In most parts of Asia apart from Japan you still have people living in abject poverty in squalid conditions with a health service so poor that unless you are being given medical care by a western charity you could simply die.

Hypocrisy is a word that lights a fire,and that I find depressing .

Sadly you are correct "hunger knows no depression" a damming indictment as we move into 2013.
16:46 January 1, 2013 by raandy
catjones LOL

Yes I feel depressed, Its an open door to opportunist and they will kick it wide open, but there is also a lot of truth, employees are often given goals or quotas or expectations that are almost impossible to meet. Take this and trouble on the home front and possible problems with school and your children, money keeps getting tighter.and your not sleeping,. ................
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