To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports by the Office for National Statistics that record numbers of people are not looking for work due to long-term illness.
Answered on
27 October 2022
The latest figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for June to August 2022 show that the percentage of individuals who are economically inactive due to long-term illness is 27.7%, a record high (since data collection began in 1993).
Long-term illness is now the most common reason within the working-age population for an individual to be economically inactive, rising 3.5 percentage points in the last 3 years to a total of 2.5 million people.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the majority of the rise in economic activity is attributed to long-term sickness, totalling 380,000 or 60%. The percentage of individuals with long-term sickness who want a job is 23.3%.
The government has a longstanding programme designed to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. This includes employment support programmes for disabled people and people with health conditions who face additional barriers into employment, as well as more upstream interventions designed to minimise the risk of ill-health related job-loss, as outlined in the response to the Health Is Everyone’s Business consultation.
The 50-64 age group make up the largest proportion of those who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. The government provides additional support to individuals 50 and over, in recognition of the additional challenges they may face re-joining the labour market.