The number of people who are out of work because of long-term sickness has continued to grow, reaching a record high of 2.6 million earlier this year.
According to the latest labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 491,000 more people were categorised as economically inactive in May-July 2023 because of a long-term illness.
Long-term sickness has been the main driver of economic activity since the Covid-19 pandemic, the ONS figures suggest.
Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said there needed to be more support for jobseekers with different needs.
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“But the reality is that many people with long-term illnesses who are looking to work face limited choices due to their conditions. Pushing these workers prematurely into any job without adequate support is only going to make the UK’s long-term sickness challenge worse,” he said.
“Any further punitive measures – such as real-terms cuts to benefits or failing to raise social security levels in line with inflation – will risk pushing millions of workers and jobseekers into poverty and must be avoided. Instead, there needs to be more focus on tailored support for jobseekers with different needs, and a renewed drive to work with employers to increase the quality of jobs on offer.”
Nick Pahl, chief executive of the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM), said the scale of the problem was concerning, and with the number of people off sick expected to increase, further investment in occupational health was vital.
“Only around 50% of workers across the UK have access to occupational health specialists, with better coverage in the public sector and larger companies. Workers at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, such as those in insecure employment or on zero-hour contracts, are the least likely to have access, which only widens the healthcare gap,” he said.
In the spring Budget, the Chancellor announced £2 billion to support disabled people and people with health conditions back into work.
The government has recently launched two consultations: one on tax incentives for occupational health uptake, and another covering ways to increase OH coverage.
Jon Boys, senior labour market economist at the CIPD, acknowledged that rising levels of sickness were becoming a persistent theme in the post-pandemic UK population.
“This highlights the important interplay of health and employment policy. Both policymakers and employers should have a bigger focus on occupational health to stop people falling out of work in the first place,” he said.
Boys also urged employers to take note of the effects of stress at work. “This entails good job design and managing workloads effectively,” he added.
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