Sickness-related unemployment continues to surge (Image: Getty)
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is so alarmed by the rise that he plans to use his autumn statement to help people with mental health problems off benefits and into work.
He believes urgent action is needed to tackle labour shortages and cut the rocketing bill for disability benefits.
The crisis is now costing an estimated £150billion a year in lost tax revenue, benefits, NHS cover and carer expenses.
And with more than 163,000 employees quitting each year for health reasons, it shows little sign of improving.
Although 35 percent of people believe the NHS backlog is the primary cause, experts say the health service cannot resolve the problem on its own.
Instead, they say, it will take a societal effort with measures including: Health checks for the middle-aged; Tax breaks for employers who invest in the health of their workforce; More investment in mental health and rehabilitation services.
There are now 2.58 million people aged between 16 and 64 out of work due to long-term sickness – a 27 percent rise on the same period in 2019, according to advocacy group Rest Less, which campaigns for the over-50s.
Mental health and neck and back pain are the most cited reasons for illness, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Polling by Omnisis found that 35 percent thought a lack of access to healthcare, thanks to the NHS backlog, is the primary reason for the absentee crisis.
And a fifth cited changing attitudes to work as a result of the pandemic.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to address the rising issue (Image: Getty)
Former Tory Health Minister Lord Bethell said he is “very distressed” by the statistics and their “massive impact” on the economy. “There are large numbers of people who are absent from the workforce. The causes of this are contested, and not all are sick,” he said.
“However, growing evidence suggests a big chunk have sickness as a primary or secondary reason for being out of work.”
He said that pressure on the NHS is a key factor. “There are a huge number of people waiting to be treated. If you have to wait extra weeks for your procedure you are less likely to have a successful operation. Waiting lists are bad news. We need follow-up care and rehabilitation, which is increasingly less likely due to cutbacks.”
“We have a habit of performing an operation and sending someone home with medical notes on their chest. Lo and behold they get something else, or don’t get better.”
But the NHS crisis is not the only issue, he said, as he stressed the need to engender more healthy attitudes to wellbeing.
“We have become one of the unhealthiest countries in the advanced world,” Lord Bethell said.
“Our leaders should recognise the public do back measures to tackle smoking, obesity, heart disease and other illnesses, to support healthy communities and to engage people in their own health.”
“If we had a war tomorrow, most people would be too ill to go into the Army. We are the sick man of Europe.”
The Conservative peer said that financial incentives to coax people back to the workforce will not work unless they are accompanied by longer-term fixes.
He said: “The Government solutions so far have been targeted at tweaking the welfare and pension system to encourage people back into work. But that doesn’t seem to have helped. The Government should give all middle-aged people a health check, invest in mental health services and rehabilitation, as well as giving tax breaks to employers to spend on healthcare for employees.”
Stuart Lewis, chief executive of Rest Less, which offers advice on everything from careers to health and lifestyle, said that with a third of the workforce aged over 50, more flexible working choices are now a necessity.
“There are over half a million more people aged between 16 and 64 who are economically inactive due to long-term illhealth than before the pandemic,” he said.
“This has significantly reduced the size of the workforce but it is a particularly large driver of the reduction in available workers aged 50 to 64.”
Rise on 2019 out of long-term “Many of these people want to work in some capacity, if the right opportunities were available to them.” He called for more employers to accommodate older people’s health problems. And he said this could also help people who need to look after others return to work.
Mr Lewis said: “To help attract, retrain and retain more older workers, and entice this experienced talent back, we need employers to offer more flexible opportunities such as part-time and flexible working, to allow people to fit work around health commitments, as well as caring responsibilities for elderly parents, dependent children or grandchildren.
“We would also like to see high-quality training programmes to enable career switchers to use their skills in new ways.”
A DWP consultation paper states that a Government priority is getting people back into the workplacequickly.
It says: “The longer a sickness absence lasts, the less likely an individual is to return to work, demonstrating the need to minimise the length of sickness absence.”
Options under consideration include creating a Government-backed accreditation scheme for employers to show they are promoting healthat work.
The most radical proposal is to require firms to provide employees with access to occupational health services. This follows the success of the introduction of workplace pensions, with staff automatically eligible unless they opt out.
This would need “new primary legislation to legally require employers to provide a minimum level of occupational health in specified circumstances”, the consultation says.
occupational health services designed to cut absence rates could include mental health treatment and help quitting smoking, eating healthier’, getting more exercise and early tests to spot problems.
