New figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest there are 2.8 million people classified as not looking for work due to health problems – up from the 2.6 million previously estimated and up a third from the pre-Covid 2.1 million -19 pandemic.
As economics editor of the Guardian: Larry Elliott, tells Hannah Moore, This is a shocking increase and each of these people will face individual and often complex circumstances. There is no easy solution. But it’s a situation that hasn’t come out of nowhere: while the Covid pandemic has clearly had a huge effect on physical and mental health, many of the underlying trends have been evident for decades. And NHS waiting lists have tripled in length since the Conservatives took over in 2010.
We hear the stories of two people who have been forced out of work due to health problems that have left them demoralized and enraged by the label they have been given by some parts of the media as a ‘generational disease’.
On Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt will announce his final budget for the general election. Will he do anything to tackle the growing long-term disease?
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