The number of people suffering from mental health problems caused by their jobs has soared by 275,000 since the pandemic, i can reveal.
Some 875,000 workers experienced job-related stress, anxiety and depression in 2022-23, according to estimates from the Health and Safety Executive and Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The number of people affected jumped from 602,000 in 2018-19 – an increase of 275,000, i analysis has found.
Experts said employers need to improve working conditions and offer more support amid a push to get people with mental health problems back into work.
Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation, said the onset of working from home during the pandemic has contributed to poor work-life balance in some jobs.
She told i: “During the pandemic people’s work and home life started blurring, people started working longer hours, they were less able to switch off and some of that has carried on. Managers can play a key role in making sure that people are protecting their personal time.”
The Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, sparked controversy on Monday when he said getting back to work is “good for mental health” as he set out plans to overhaul disability benefits, which could have people with depression and anxiety lose cash payments.
The changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) – the main disability benefit – follow a major increase in the number of people signed off work, often on the grounds of poor mental health.
Mr Stride told The Times that work is “the answer”, adding that the welfare system should not be paying people to deal with the ordinary difficulties of life.
In response to his remarks, Ms Knight said: “This whole concept of people using their everyday worries to say they have a mental health problem and can’t work is really damaging and potentially stigmatising for people who are really struggling with poor mental health.”
She said the welfare system is difficult to navigate and it is not easy to claim out-of-work benefits.
She added: “If people are mentally unwell then just telling them to go back to work is not helpful. What people actually need is time to recover, access to services and support, and the right kind of support.”
Ms Knight said many people struggle to get help via the NHS and employers can help by providing counselling and other mental health benefits to their staff.
Neil Greenberg, a psychiatrist and executive committee member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said work is healthy “unless you’re in a toxic workplace”.
He told i: “If you’re in a workplace where there’s too much work or there’s poor relationships or bad leadership, that absolutely can impact your mental health.
“In that case, obviously, not being at work is likely to have a positive effect on your mental health because it’s taking you away from the stressors that are causing it in the first place.”
He also said people in “safety critical” jobs such driving trains and carrying out complex roles in the NHS should not be working if they are unwell because they risk harming themselves and other people.
Mr Greenberg, who is also a professor at King’s College London, said workers’ mental health is likely being negatively impacted by insecure jobs and zero-hour contracts, which have risen in recent years.
He urged employers to do more to help people who face mental health issues arising from their jobs.
Under the Equality Act 2010, he said people who have an impairment in their day-to-day activities for more than a year are considered to be disabled and should be receiving “reasonable adjustments” from their employers.
He said: “That might mean reducing workload, it might mean allowing more flexibility in how someone works so they can work at home some of the time, it might be changing their supervisor, it might be changing their role a bit.”
Mr Greenberg also supported calls to expand health services provided by employers.
Only 45 per cent of workers have access to occupational health services, according to the UK Government, which launched a taskforce in February to promote their benefits.
Just 28 per cent of employers provide some form of these services, which usually include other medical support such as flu jabs and physiotherapy.
In other countries such as Finland, France, Japan, the Netherlands and Italy, occupational health services are more widely available and tend to be legally required, according to a 2021 report by the Department for Work and Pensions.
In Finland, where around 90 per cent of workers have access, employers need to pay for and organise preventative services for all employees regardless of the company’s size.
Employers bear the costs in countries like Finland – but in the UK business groups like the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have called for tax breaks to enable their provision.
Matthew Percival, future of work and skills director at the CBI, said the figures “highlight the need for business and Government to work together to improve the health of employees through preventative workplace measures to support employees and their families’ mental health and wellbeing”.
