As new data confirmed this week that economic inactivity due to ill health remains a major issue for the UK labour market, a series of Ministers have floated policy changes designed to help support more people with health conditions back to work. But will they help provide realistic pathways to employment, or do they risk stigmatising and ratcheting up the pressure on vulnerable groups already facing significant challenges?

The latest ONS data may show that the headline figure for economic inactivity has fallen slightly to 21.8%, but 2.75 million working age people are still out of work and not looking for a job due to sickness – up 640k since the pandemic began. This has put substantial pressure on the welfare system – with spending on health-related benefits having risen by £12 billion between 2019/20 and 2023/24 – and is contributing to worker shortages and slower growth in the economy.

Interventions to get people back to work

The Government is gearing up to publish its strategic response to this alarming trend around the time of the Autumn Budget at the end of the month. While we need to wait a little longer for the full detail of its Getting Britain Working White Paper, we have had a series of interventions this week, beginning with the Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggesting new treatments to tackle obesity could be offered to unemployed people to help them return to work.

This may appear a slightly odd connection to make, and it’s understandable that concerns have been raised in response regarding the risk of further stigmatising those with obesity. However, research from the Health Foundation does make clear that conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are playing a significant role in rising levels of sickness across the country. They suggest that a new approach to public health and prevention focussed on tackling the causes of ill health is required to alleviate pressure on the NHS, and support more people back into work.

Streeting’s remarks were followed today by comments from the Secretary for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, focussed specifically on providing additional employment support for those suffering with ‘serious mental health conditions’. Kendall cited promising results from trial projects in Leicester and South East London, which saw the provision of services such as training on CV writing and interviews to seriously mentally ill people, including on hospital wards.

The rise in levels of mental health related illness is a particularly worrying trend, with just over half of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness reporting in 2023 that they had depression, bad nerves or anxiety. It’s critical though that interventions in this arena are handled with sensitivity and err on the side of confidence building and support, as opposed to inadvertently adding to the pressure and anxiety those suffering from mental health conditions may already be facing.

Kendall also raised the issue of the benefits system needing to ‘incentivise work’. However, rather than cuts to welfare provision, the reality is for those on sickness and disability related benefits, this must mean prioritising changes that ‘de-risk’ a return to work, including by ensuring that those who try to re-enter the workforce are not jeopardising their current income levels.

A truly pan-Governmental approach?

Streeting and Kendall’s remarks may represent the first concrete signs that Labour is committing to a truly pan-Governmental approach to tackling the twin issues of rising ill health and economic inactivity. In this spirit, it’s crucial that the Department for Business and Trade is explicitly seen to be contributing to this effort too, as we also need to see a continued focus on action to help those with health conditions remain in work in the first place.

Measures in the new Employment Rights Bill could help here – strengthening flexible working and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) could support workers with long-term and fluctuating conditions to better manage their health while remaining in work. However, the way in which these commitments are delivered will have a decisive bearing on how effective they are at supporting more people to return to or remain in a job.

If a new ‘day one right’ to flexible working is to mean anything, it is imperative that provisions in the legislation do not inadvertently allow employers to effectively reject flexible working requests out of hand. And reforms to SSP should go beyond widening access and include raising the level of sick pay on offer, beyond the limited £116.75 a week available today – which replaces just 17% of average wages and means many people carry on working when ill, making their conditions worse. Today’s latest inflation figures suggest that further intervention, SSP will rise by just 1.7% or £1.98 in April 2024.

Ultimately action to help tackle the drivers of rising sickness levels – such as obesity – and additional employment support for those who want to work but are suffering with a mental health condition, could be welcome steps as part of wider efforts to combat sickness related economic inactivity.

But the various data releases and Ministerial interventions this week also underline the urgent need for an overarching strategic plan to do so. In this context, the publication of the Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper can’t come soon enough.

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