More than a quarter of young people are taking career interrupting health breaks which are having a “massive” impact on the rest of the workforce.
This is according to David Collington, partner and head of benefit consulting at Barnett Waddingham, at a roundtable event outlining findings from a major survey it carried out with more than 2,000 adult employees in the UK, working in businesses with 10 employees or more.
The report was released on the afternoon Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced a major shake up to the UK’s welfare system aimed at getting Britain working. This included scrapping the Work Capability Assessment and introducing a “right to try” work guarantee.
The shake up includes:
- Reintroducing reassessments for people on incapacity benefits who have the capability to work in a bid to ensure they have the right support and are not indefinitely written off
- Targeting Personal Independence Payments for those with higher needs by changing the eligibility requirement to a minimum score of four on at least one of the daily living activities to receive the daily living element of the benefit, in addition to the existing eligibility criteria
- Rebalancing payment levels in Universal Credit to improve the Standard Allowance and raising it above inflation by 2029/30, adding £775 annually in cash terms
- Consulting on delaying access to the health element of Universal Credit until someone is aged 22 and reinvesting savings into work support and training opportunities through the Youth Guarantee
As Kendall spoke Barnett Waddingham revealed findings from its research which showed nearly half of UK workers (46%) have now taken extended sick leave in the past five years, with a fifth (19%) being out of work for between one to five months.
Younger people taking extended sick leave
But speaking at the event, Collington said that when breaking the data down by age group, 66% of 18 to 24 year olds have had more than two weeks sick leave in the last five years.
And 27% of this group have had a period of sick leave of between one and five months.
“And that is quite significant,” Collington said. “We would say that that is a career interrupting health break if you’re off between one and five months.”
Tension in the workplace
Collington maintained that these a career interrupting health breaks were having a “massive” impact on the rest of the workforce.
“Can you imagine people doing workforce planning?” he continued. “And then looking at people in the 18 to 24 age group, you would never imagine that a quarter of those would be taking such long, extended breaks due to sickness absence.
“And that can do a number of things. It causes issues with the rest of the workforce.
“So when we delved into the research, we looked at what happens when people are off on long term sickness.
“Is there additional recruitment? Are there temps brought in? And the most profound answer there is no, nothing happens – the rest of the workforce are expected to pick the extra work when this population is off sick.
“So if we’re talking about it being a cyclical issue, people being off sick, causing others who aren’t off sick to do more work, and then it becomes this perpetual cycle which we needs to be addressed.”
What employees want
The research also showed more than a quarter (28%) of those polled believed a reduction in NHS waiting times through more in-person appointments would be most beneficial to them, 24% want faster referrals to specialist care, and 22% want more virtual NHS appointments.
Access to NHS mental health services was another area of concern, with 22% of employees – particularly women (25%) and those aged 25-34 (27%) – wanting better mental health support or triaging services.
From their employers, workers said they want better guarantees around communication of support and that it will not leave them out of pocket.
One in five (22%) want financial assistance for managing long-term health conditions, while 18% said clearer workplace policies around sick leave and absence management would help them most.
More than two in 10 (21%) said suitable adjustments in the workplace, such as flexible working, are still top of their priorities.
More than half of workers (58%) also said they are not currently offered private medical cover by their employer despite a third (35%) saying they would use it.
Elsewhere, 31% report lacking paid sick leave, and 61% are not offered critical illness insurance.