Businesses stand ready tackle long-term sickness – if only we let them
The huge spike in people being signed off work for mental health problems is a disaster for their individual wellbeing and for Britain’s economic prospects. Thankfully, the private sector is more than prepared to play its part, says Nick Tyrone
The latest employment figures make for stark reading. Data from the ONS this week tells us that all the indicators are going the wrong way – wages are down, growth is down, while unemployment is up. And the worst thing is, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. A much larger problem is looming.
There was a huge spike in people claiming long-term sickness benefit after the outbreak of Covid in early 2020. While that isn’t surprising, what is interesting is that the spike never died out. We’ve stayed at a high level of sickness benefit ever since. In terms of changes from 2019 through 2023, the number of people who were economically inactive for most physical disabilities rises a little over that four-year period, but where we see the most dramatic upturn is in the category “Depression, bad nerves or anxiety”. We see a jump from around 965,000 across the country in this category in 2019 to 1.35m in 2023.
Of course, there will be people in that category who simply cannot work. Mental health issues are real and when serious enough, can make it impossible for an individual to remain in any sort of meaningful employment. However, it is worth considering how many of those people who are economically inactive in this category would be much better off in employment, even part-time – particularly from a mental health point of view.
What’s also true is that the Treasury cannot afford to keep spending money in the way we have post-Covid – particularly considering all the employment numbers are headed in the wrong direction. We need to find a solution. Thankfully, the private sector is more than prepared to play its part.
Across the last year, the Jobs Foundation have spent time speaking to hundreds of employers. This has included some of the largest employment and training programmes across the UK. In doing so, we discovered a wide range of businesses and other organisations that take helping people with mental illness either back into work or to stay in work extremely seriously, focusing real resource on the issue.
Businesses are investing in their employees
A great example is Lynas Foodservice, a family business that stretches across 74 years and three generations, employing around 700 people. Lynas is located in Northern Ireland and supplies food to many leading brands across Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland. It is also a company that takes the mental health of their employees very seriously, putting time and effort into holding onto staff by investing in pastoral care.
“I wanted to make how we deal with the employees’ mental health more prescriptive and proper,” said Andrew Lynas, the grandson of the company’s founder and current CEO. “12.5 percent of our net profits as a business go to our charitable trust every single year.”
Lynas Foodservice is a great example of a company that is serious about investing its own money and time into the mental health of its employees. As it happens, they are far from alone.
What we have learned is that British businesses are not only prepared to tackle this issue, but are optimistic about doing so, if only the government did the right things to help. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case at present. The Employment Rights Bill, due to be enacted in 2027, is not loved by companies across the country. The imposition of having to introduce things like “day one rights” to new employees will curb their ability to take a chance on people who would be seen as “risky hires” – such as those who have been out of the workplace for a significant period on long-term sickness benefits.
The rise in Employers NI contributions is another example of something that is making it more difficult for companies to make riskier hires. Just taking on any new staff becomes a challenge when the cost is so prohibitive, so getting people off benefits and into work becomes that much more difficult. If we want to reduce the long-term sickness benefit bill and help improve the lives of people with mental health conditions by getting them into work, we need to make it easier for businesses to do just that.
Fixing the issues within the British economy was always going to be a difficult task for the incoming Labour government. Sadly, the Employment Rights Bill and the rise in Employers NI have been steps in the wrong direction. Businesses are prepared to employ the people we need to be in meaningful work to get the economy going in the right direction again. Government just needs to work with businesses to help them make this happen.
Nick Tyrone is the research director at the Jobs Foundation