“I don’t see myself ever being well enough to go back to teaching or actually doing any meaningful work because I can’t concentrate. I got about an hour and then it disappeared.”
Naomi Wan, a PE teacher at a special needs school, has been suffering from prolonged Covid since November 2020 when she caught the virus for the second time.
“I have constant pain which is tingling in my arms and hands and when it’s really bad it goes to my face and legs. My joints hurt most of the time like I have the flu,” she said. “I used to read every night before I went to sleep, but now I don’t read as much because I can’t remember the characters and the plot properly.”
She forms her words slowly and carefully – conversation is another thing she struggles with now.
“The other thing I have is depression and anxiety. I’ve always been happy, but now I’m on maximum meds for depression and anxiety.
Van, who is 53, has been on sick leave from the school, where she has worked for 27 years, and is now negotiating a severance agreement. When it is signed and sealed, she will join the 2.49 million people who are now economically inactive – not working or actively looking for work – due to long-term illness. This is the highest level since records began in 1993 and more than 400,000 since the end of 2019 alone.
employment schedule
This fast-growing group is one reason why the UK’s activity rate – the proportion of adults working or looking for work – has fallen faster since the pandemic than in many large economies.
In addition to those with long-term health problems, a large number of older workers have left the labor market in the past two years, many of them voluntarily.
Stephen Evans, of the Institute for Learning and Work (L&W) think tank, said: “There are now one million fewer people in the workforce than if pre-pandemic trends had continued, driven by rising numbers of over-50s or long-term leavers of the workforce due to illness’.
Having so many people too sick to work is not only painful and frustrating for employers struggling to hire at a time when unemployment is at historic lows, but also a drag on economic growth.
Many, like Van, have conditions so dire they could not work, but in a survey published this month, 581,000 people told the Office for National Statistics they would like work. Labor market experts believe there could be many more people who could work if they had the right attitude and support.
The number of people out of work due to long-term illness was rising before the pandemic, but has increased sharply since 2020. L&W estimates that up to a third of the increase can be attributed to prolonged Covid.
Lesley McNiven, co-founder and chair of Long Covid Work, a support group for working people with long-term Covid, asked: “What percentage of our working population has to become disabled by this before we know that long Covid is a chronic problem? We have this huge cohort of half a million people who have been sick for more than two years.”
long-term sick leave
Suffering herself, Macniven is urging employers to be sensitive to those with prolonged Covid, as well as calling on the government to offer more support.
Another factor likely to drive the rise in long-term illness is rapidly lengthening NHS waiting lists, with 7 million people now waiting for routine treatment. Many of them can continue to work while they wait; others cannot and may leave the labor market.
Danielle, who did not want to give her last name, has painful and debilitating osteoarthritis and has been on the waiting list for two hip replacements for more than a year. She continues to work in an office job at a manufacturing firm near her home in Barnsley, but this is becoming a struggle.
“Fortunately, I have a very understanding manager: he is sympathetic and allows me to work from home when I need to.” My concern is that as my condition worsens and my mobility becomes less and less, I will be less and less able to get to the office.’
Danielle said: “I will be devastated [if I had to give up work] because I love my job – I really do. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but you have to do what’s best for the business as well.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “We need greater awareness of how gaps in health and care provision contribute to the problem we have of working-age people not working.”
He said the health system continues to face a “capacity gap” between what it wants to do – including reducing waiting lists – and what it can achieve. He urged employers to be more empathetic to staff waiting for treatment.
“I would very much encourage employers to recognize that waiting for health interventions can be challenging for their workers and to support them in this,” he said.
The charity Versus Arthritis is calling for the NHS to be given a legal duty to help those stuck on waiting lists for long periods. “People who wait years for joint replacement surgery have a lifetime of waiting, are often unable to work but rarely get the support they need while they wait,” said a spokesman.
A third driver of the rise in long-term illness inactivity is likely to be the rise in mental illness – and in many cases, the struggle to access treatment – in the wake of the pandemic.
Lots of people want to work: Not offering help is a huge waste of talent, but when we have a million vacancies it’s also an economic disaster John Ashworth, Shadow Pensions Secretary
“With 1.8 million people currently on NHS mental health waiting lists, it is clear that a significant number of people currently out of work due to illness and waiting to see a clinician will be living with a mental health problem ‘ said Paul Spencer, Head of Health, Policy and Campaigns at Mind.
He added that some of these people may be able to return to work with the right support, while others may not be able to return to the workforce. “All these people need mental health support if we are to thrive as a country and grow the economy,” he added.
Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith acknowledged the challenge of long-term illness in a speech last Thursday, calling inactive workers a potential “gold mine of growth and opportunity” – if they can be enticed back into work.
But she made it clear that the government hopes to shift the burden to employers. “In return for the government helping businesses fill vacancies, we expect employers to invest in the development and health of their workforce,” she said.
But her Labor shadow John Ashworth called on the government to do more. Jobcentre officials, he said, were focused almost entirely on making sure jobless claimants were actively looking for work – and on penalizing them through the sanctions regime if they weren’t.
NHS waiting list table
He added: “Many people want to work if they have the right support. Not offering to help is not only a monumental waste of talent, but when we have millions of vacant jobs and a rising cost of living, it’s also an economic disaster.
Tony Wilson of the Institute for Employment Research think tank said the dramatic disruption the pandemic caused to many people’s working lives may also have contributed to the rise in the number of people out of work due to long-term illness.
“A lot of people were separated from their jobs either through furloughs or layoffs,” he said. “And a lot of people with long-term health problems who have been laid off are now finding it very difficult to go back.”
Like Ashworth, Wilson argued that the government should provide more help for people who, despite not receiving any unemployment benefits, could nevertheless be persuaded or supported to return to work.
“Even people with multiple and complex illnesses can often return to work with the right individual support,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just about finding the right partner: the right employer, the right workplace.”
For Van, however, the dramatic change the pandemic has caused in her life feels permanent. “I had a panic attack when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to teach anymore,” she said. “It makes me feel really useless because I’ve lost my sense of purpose.”
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