Working well: A plan to reduce long term sickness absence – IPPR FULL REPORT 2017

One-in-two people now on sickness benefits because of a mental health condition – up from one-in-three a decade ago –

Major new report from Think Tank urges reform of sickness absence strategy and aims to provoke the government into take decisive action

“This report by IPPR, the progressive policy think tank, sets out a plan to reform the sickness benefits system to make it fit for modern health conditions. This comes ahead of the closure of the Department for Work and Pensions’ consultation; ‘Work, health and disability: improving lives’ on Friday.

The report finds that:

• Government efforts to reduce the number of people on sickness benefits have failed; government spending on sickness benefits is spiraling – up by £1.7 billion since 2015 and expected to rise by a further £2.4 billion by the end of the decade. This is because the government has failed to keep people well in work and stem the flow of people falling out of work and onto benefits in the first place;
• Those with mental health conditions are making up a growing proportion of people on sickness benefits – the proportion increasing from a third to half in the last two decades;
• Employers spend £9 billion a year for sick pay; the state spends £14.5 billion annually on Employment and Support Allowance alone;
• The report also finds that many employers are avoiding their responsibility to pay Statutory Sick Pay, thereby denying their employees their rights and costing the state up to £143 million a year.”

Source:  WiredGov News alert service

Please follow the link below for the full report:

WORKING WELL A PLAN TO REDUCE LONG-TERM SICKNESS ABSENCE