Sick note Britain

British workers are taking the most sick leave in over a decade, according to arresting new data which suggests the post-pandemic problem of ill health contributing to growing economic inactivity isn’t going away.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) analysed rates of absence in over 900 organisations representing 6.5 million employees and found that the average worker took 7.8 sick days over the past year, up from 5.8 days in 2019. 

To what extent is Covid-19 driving “sick note Britain”?

It’s certainly a factor. A third of organisations surveyed said workers testing positive for the virus was still a significant cause of sick days. Though the degree to which long Covid has contributed to the rise of over half a million workers on long-term sick leave since the pandemic is still a little unclear. Indeed, only today, researchers from the UK, along with Denmark and the US, warned that “many scientific publications” have overestimated the prevalence of long Covid, which has become an unhelpful umbrella term with “overly broad definitions”. The researchers called for an “internationally established” diagnostic criteria for long Covid.

Yet what is clear is that mental ill health is a major part of the problem when it comes to rising work absences. 

According to the CIPD, minor illnesses are still the main reason for short-term absence, followed by musculoskeletal injuries and mental ill health, while for longer-term absence, mental ill health is now the number one cause. 

“External factors like the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis have had profound impacts on many people’s wellbeing,” it warned. 

The danger is that it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. Stress brought about by economic worries contributes to ill health, keeping people away from work. But fewer available workers makes it more difficult for businesses to operate, feeding into inflationary pressures and dealing another blow to Britain’s economic problems, which in turn contributes to the population’s growing levels of stress. 

While much of the discussion around the NHS’s record backlog has focussed on the millions of patients waiting for operations, today’s data is a reminder of the importance of tackling the backlog of over 1.6 million individuals waiting for specialist mental health services. 

According to UK Parliament data, the average waiting time to begin a course of NHS talking therapy varies enormously across England – from lows of four days in Castle Point and Rochford (Essex) to highs of 229 days in South Sefton (Merseyside). These vast regional disparities need to be addressed urgently. 

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