Too many young people are being signed off sick for finding work difficult, the Government’s worklessness tsar has warned, as soaring sickness rates deepen Britain’s economic inactivity crisis.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former John Lewis chairman leading a government review into long-term worklessness, said that GPs were often “over-medicalising” stress and anxiety by writing fit notes instead of helping people remain engaged in the workplace.
“Work can be tough. It’s meant to be tough,” he said. “Sometimes you’re meant to find it hard. You’re not meant to ace everything or get everything right. When challenges are dealt with in a supportive environment, they can be a constructive process of improvement. But if you feel criticised and unsupported, you may start to feel anxious or stressed – and the default response is too often a sick note.”
The number of people signed off with mental health conditions has risen sharply since the pandemic, particularly among those under 35. About a quarter of all those classed as economically inactive due to long-term illness are younger than 35, and young people with mental health problems are nearly five times more likely to drop out of work than their peers.
There are now 2.8 million people not working because of long-term sickness, up from 2.1 million in early 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Sir Charlie warned that advising young people to take weeks off for anxiety or stress risks making problems worse. “You go home for a month and nothing’s happened except you’ve been away from work. The prospect of returning can then feel even scarier than when you left,” he said. “Workplaces are social environments, they’re communities. Isolation is a bad thing for most mental health issues.”
Fit notes – the official term for sick notes – are meant to assess whether a person can continue working in some capacity. Yet around 93 per cent declare that an employee should stop work altogether.
Sir Charlie said employers had described fit notes acting like “a force field” between them and their staff, creating a barrier that often leads to disengagement. “When repeat fit notes are issued, an employer doesn’t really have mechanisms to deal with it,” he said.
Businesses also fear being accused of mishandling health issues, with the risk of complaints, grievances or even tribunals discouraging managers from tackling problems proactively.
The rise in long-term sickness is straining both employers and the public purse. The UK’s welfare bill is forecast to hit £70 billion by the end of the decade, driven by growing claims for disability and incapacity benefits.
“The scale of welfare benefits, and particularly the rate at which it’s increasing, is troubling,” Sir Charlie said. “Any responsible government would be concerned about that.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has already faced challenges trying to rein in spending, abandoning planned cost-saving reforms earlier this summer after opposition from Labour backbenchers.
Sir Charlie said Britain could learn from countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, where policies emphasise the importance of labour market participation in any form – full-time, part-time or voluntary – for both economic and social wellbeing.
“They make the point that working provides integration benefits as well as financial ones,” he said. “Bringing more humanity back into the workplace is going to be a key part of addressing these issues.”
His review, due to report in the autumn, will focus on how to support people with health conditions before problems reach crisis point. That means intervening earlier in the workplace, tackling issues such as back and neck problems in older workers and mental health challenges among the young.
“The rise in worklessness since the pandemic is heavily driven by these two areas,” he said. “We have to think seriously about how we support people before they fall out of the workforce – otherwise the problem only worsens.”
For Britain’s employers, the stakes are high. With sickness levels now at historic highs, the balance between protecting employees’ health and keeping them engaged at work is emerging as one of the most pressing economic and social challenges of the decade.
