Ministers are considering bringing in annual health checks for workers and subsidies for smaller businesses to offer occupational health services to help reduce the number of workers going on long-term sick leave, according to reports.
It has been suggested that chancellor Jeremy Hunt will announce the health check plans, which were first reported by the Sunday Times, in his Budget next week (15 March).
The government would also conduct a trial of a subsidy for small businesses to claim back up to 80% of the cost of occupational health (OH) services. It has been estimated that only half of employers in the UK offer occupational health services.
However, the Society of Occupational Medicine said there was limited evidence about the effectiveness of health checks on keeping people in work for longer. Chief executive Nick Pahl said any subsidy should be offered to help smaller businesses tackle “emerging health issues” and for OH “to assess [these] so the employee does not fall out of work or can be supported to return to work”.
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He said: “We welcome the subsidy for small business as it will lead to further appreciation and knowledge about OH by employers. The occupational health sector needs to both take responsibility and have support to increase its capacity to meet the increase in demand.”
Ministers have also reportedly asked the Migration Advisory Committee, which advises on which sectors should be added to the shortage occupation list and thus have more relaxed eligibility requirements for work visas, to consider whether construction, hospitality and retail industries should be added to the list.
Hunt has ordered a review of the workforce by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health and Social Care to determine why there are around half a million more economically inactive people of working age than before the pandemic. Many of these are out of work because of ill health, but there has also been an increase in early retirement.
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However, it has been suggested that the chancellor’s focus on encouraging retirees to return to work is not the answer to reducing economic inactivity, with the Resolution Foundation recently stating that recent retirees have disproportionately come from high-paying jobs and are unlikely to want to return to work, while actuarial and financial consulting firm Lane Clark & Peacock has said the rise in economic inactivity is due to long-term sickness.
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