Over half a million under-35s in UK out of work due to long-term illness

More than half a million young people under 35 in the UK are out of work due to long-term illness, what experts linked to mounting mental health issues and insufficient funding in the health sector.

According to data from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) during the first three months of 2023, more than 560,000 people aged between 16 and 34 were economically inactive – meaning they were not in work or seeking work –due to long-term sickness.

The 44 percent increase in four years, according to experts, is linked to a growing mental health crisis and underinvestment in health services.

Similar findings are also echoed in other studies.

The Health Foundation revealed in a recent report that 16- to 34-year-olds were now “as likely to report a work-limiting condition as someone aged 45-54 years 10 years ago.”

According to the ONS labor force survey, mental problems in youth and adults daunted by depression, bad nerves, and anxiety affect more than a third of the 16- to 34-year-olds (36 percent) who were out of work due to long-term illness.

Professor David Strain, a professor at the University of Exeter and chair of the British Medical Association’s board of science, links the jobless trend and poorer population health to difficulties in accessing mental health services, in addition to “12 years of under-investment in the public health sector.”

“We have a national disease service these days, not a national health service. We are focused on treating sick people rather than keeping people healthy. And people haven’t had access to essential mental health services,” he said.

The Conservative Government’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott, has recently said that those people with mobility and mental health problems should do “their duty” and work from home or face having their benefits cut.

The Tory MP dismissed concerns over the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in Europe, saying that those who can “should work.”

Strain also said while long COVID had probably played a part in the increase, this was difficult to tease out from the available statistics.

The labour force survey does not provide figures on the proportion of participants out of work due to long Covid. The most recent figures, from a separate ONS analysis, estimated that 93,000 people aged between 16 and 34 were economically inactive with self-reported long Covid in July 2022.

Researchers also point to a post-pandemic effect in the number of people out of work because of mental health problems, but they also say these problems are not new and that they are part of a wider trend that goes back to 2012.

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The Health Foundation report also shows that the rise in work-limiting conditions among young people has been mainly driven by mental health problems, with the proportion of people not working because of mental health issues almost doubling in 11 years, from 6.7 percent in 2012 to 12.7 percent in 2023.

Dave Finch, an assistant director of the Healthy Lives team at the Health Foundation, said its research showed there were now more than four times as many younger workers reporting mental health conditions that affect their working lives compared with a decade ago.

“Good mental health is built on having a stable income, social interaction, and a good place to live. But we know that younger people face greater pay insecurity, are more likely to suffer financial strain due to high rents, and are likelier to feel lonely than other working-age people,” he said.

Experts say failed policy measures taken by the Tories, who took the Government helm in 2010 and later introduced the Health and Social Care Act constituting the biggest reformation in the National Health Service (NHS) since its formation in 1948, has led to huge disruptions in the nation’s health system.

A report published earlier this year warned that under-investment in the NHS is a source of “serious concern,” as it lags well behind other comparable countries in terms of key health metrics.

The report released on the 75th anniversary of the NHS, compared Britain’s flagship healthcare provider to the health systems in 19 similar countries.

UK’s health service is “not by any means where it should be,” the report concluded.

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