Pain caused by working from home has fueled the spike in Britons on long-term sick leave, the Work and Pensions Minister has suggested.
Poor posture while working remotely may have contributed to the increase in the number of people now out of work due to muscle, back and joint problems, Mel Stride said.
Poor mental health since the Covid pandemic is also partly to blame, he said.
The MP for Central Devon said getting people back to work is a ‘primary focus’ of the government and could boost the economy and reduce dependence on foreign workers.
Reforms that ensure sick Britons keep their benefits after they return to work and schemes that offer life coaches to help with job applications are key to tackling the trend, he said.
Poor posture while working remotely may have contributed to the increase in the number of people now out of work due to muscle, back and joint problems, said Mel Stride
The ONS chart shows the cumulative change in the number of people aged 16 to 64 who are out of work due to long-term illness from January to March 2017 to June to August 2022. The number has increased by 498,642 since March 2017
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, a record 2.5 million people were out of work due to long-term illness in the first three months of the year.
This means that for every 13 employees, one person is unemployed because of their illness.
This is over 2 million in 2019, before the Covid pandemic hit.
Mr. Stride told The times that the figure is ‘going in the wrong direction’.
While the reasons behind the increase are “difficult to pinpoint,” muscle, back and joint problems accounted for many cases of long-term absenteeism, Stride said.
Poor posture while working from home could be a contributing factor, he added.
ONS data shows that the number of people sick due to back and neck pain has increased by 31 percent since 2019 to more than 262,000. It said the increase in working from home since the pandemic could be to blame.
Experts say poor posture and less movement and exercise — such as not having to walk to work or the office — can lead to musculoskeletal problems among those who work from home.
According to the latest ONS figures, nearly half (44 per cent) of Britons work full-time from home or have a hybrid benefit, meaning they only have to go to the office on some days.
Mr Stride also blamed an increase in ill health for the growing number of long-term absenteeism.
He said: ‘There’s a lot around mental health, especially among younger people – phobias and fears have been on the rise and you can speculate about it, it’s driven by social media.
“And partly driven by the pandemic and lockdown – a lot of things that could play into that.”
The cost-of-living crisis may also have increased ‘people’s propensity to claim benefits’, according to Mr Stride.
Mr Stride hopes reforms will help address the problem.
Plans unveiled in January will allow people on long-term sick leave to keep their benefits after returning to the workplace and get tax breaks for finding a job.
And there are plans to expand a £2,300 per person scheme offering life coaches to people with long-term health problems to help them get back to work.
Pilots in Sheffield and the West Midlands suggest it gets half of those who use it back to work, according to The Times.
Mr Stride told the newspaper: ‘If we can get these things right, and the initial evidence is very strong, then we can really grow it and ramp it up.’
He argued that getting more people into work is essential to boost the economy and fund vital services, including police, the NHS and the military.
And more Brits in work will reduce reliance on foreign workers to fill vacancies.
The MP also praised drugs that fight obesity and have been shown to help people shift the scales.
Semaglutide, sold under the brand name Wegovy, was given the go-ahead by UK health watchdogs to help people lose weight.
He said such drugs could be “very helpful” in reducing long-term illness. Weighing too much has been linked to a range of health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.