About a quarter of working-aged adults in the UK do not currently have a job, amounting to nearly 11 million people.
Of that 11 million people aged 16 to 64, nearly one and a half million are unemployed. However, that number is dwarfed by the number of economically inactive people – those who are not looking for work – which currently stands at over nine million.
This presents a huge challenge to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), which has said it wants to get people with long-term health conditions and disabilities as well as the long-term unemployed back into the workforce.
Yahoo News takes a look at how the sickness and disability systems work, and why more people are claiming sickness-related benefits.
What are sickness benefits?
While they are often lumped together, there is a distinction between sickness and disability benefits, cancer support charity Maggie’s says.
Disability benefits are extra amounts of money to help people who have additional difficulties with daily living tasks and getting around, regardless of whether this stops them working or not. Sickness benefits are a form of basic income to cover food bills, clothes and other essentials, replacing earnings from work.
While these categories of benefits have different eligibility criteria, in some cases people can apply for both.
Examples of benefits that could be claimed by someone who is only long-term sick include personal independence payment; employment and support allowance, which is replacing incapacity benefit; and universal credit.
How many people claim sickness benefits?
There are 4.2 million working-age individuals (10.2% of the working-age population) receiving at least one health-related benefit, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said in July.
That is up from 3.2 million in 2019.
While these figures include both disabled people and sick people claiming incapacity benefits, the IFS has provided some insight into how many people are claiming sickness-related benefits, specifically.
In 2023/24, around 3.2 million people claimed incapacity benefits, according to the IFS, which forecasts that number to rise to 3.8 million by the end of 2028/29.
Government spending on disability and incapacity benefits across Great Britain reached £65.7bn in 2023/24, £47.6bn of which was for working-aged people.
That number is set to rise substantially to £74.2bn in the current financial year, with £53.9bn expected to go to working-aged people, the IFS forecasts.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the proportion of the working-age population in receipt of an incapacity benefit reached a post-financial crisis high of 7.0% in 2023-24 and is forecast to reach an all-time high of 7.9% in 2028-29.
Figures from the ONS, specifically on economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, show a steep rise since 2019, reaching a record high 2.8 million people this year.
The IFS says that while one in six of those aged 60–64 receive a health-related benefit, the recent rise in claiming has been greater among younger people.
Since 2019, for example, the share of 25-year-olds on these benefits has risen from 4.9% to 7.0%, while the rise among 55-year-olds was from 11.4% to 13.4%, it says.
A report by the IFS on post-COVID pandemic trends suggests there is substantial regional variation, with the rate of health-related benefit claims four times higher in Blackpool (19.1%) or Merthyr Tydfil (18.4%) than in Wokingham (4.3%) or Windsor and Maidenhead (4.7%), suggesting a connection between health and labour market strength.
Why are more people claiming sickness benefit?
According to parliamentary research published in November, there has been an increase in young people who are economically inactive due to a long-term illness.
Mental health appears to be a primary reason for this rise, with the number of young people economically inactive due to a long-term mental health condition rising by 20,000 (24%) between 2019 and 2022.
This appears to be a common theme for working-aged people across the board, according to the IFS, which says mental health and behavioural disorders represent the primary condition for 41% of recent disability benefit claimants.
According to the government, the number of workers aged 16-to-34 who say mental ill health limits the type or amount of work they can do has increased more than fourfold over the past decade, and that mental health is now the leading work-limiting health condition among people aged 44 and younger.
In many cases, claimants have both physical and mental health issues, with survey data showing 59% of new disability benefit claimants report multiple long-lasting health problems, and 35% reporting both mental and physical issues, according to the IFS.
Multiple health problems are more common amongst older claimants, with 72% of new disability benefit claimants over the age of 50 reporting more than one long-lasting health problem, and 40% reporting both mental and physical health problems.
Data also shows that musculoskeletal disorders (MSK), such as back pain, is another key reason for economic inactivity, and the primary reason among older people.
A report published in the European Journal of Public Health, titled Austerity and health: the impact in the UK and Europe, argued that austerity negatively impacted health by causing increased unemployment, poverty and homelessness and was associated with worsening mental health, resulting in an increased risk of suicide.
For these reasons, many campaigners have also blamed austerity for the UK’s rise in long-term sickness.
What is the government going to do?
Speaking to the Commons last Tuesday, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said health secretary Wes Streeting had already taken action to get people back to work “with extra support to drive down waiting lists in the 20 NHS trusts with the highest levels of economic inactivity”.
The so-called “crack teams”, which will embed surgical high-intensity theatre staff in hospitals to cut waiting lists, have been welcomed, but there are concerns they will not tackle the root causes.
Analysis by the King’s Fund shows that while there is “clearly a connection between waiting lists and employment”, surgery might “not be the solution” when people are out of work due to poor mental health and conditions such as back pain.
In its ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper, published on Tuesday, the government says unhealthy lifestyles are playing a role, with people who smoke, drink alcohol at high levels or have a body mass index (BMI) of over 40 more likely to be out of work.
The paper says preventive measures in this field include the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which it says will cut smoking and vaping.
Kendall said the government will deliver on its pledge to bring in 8,500 new mental health staff and will “expand individual placement support (IPS) to reach an additional 140,000 people with mental health problems” by 2028/29.
IPS is an employment support service integrated within community mental health teams for people who experience severe mental health conditions, aiming to help these people find and retain employment.
The white paper also sets out how the government will invest £125m in eight areas across England and Wales “to mobilise local work, health and skills support, so everyone who wants to work can get the joined-up support they need”.
Does the government have the right approach?
Asked by Yahoo News what he thinks of the government’s game-plan, James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said the white paper puts forward a “positive vision for employment” with “personalised and comprehensive” support.
“However, we still know there’s still a huge amount of anxiety about what changes the government is planning to make to the benefits system.
“Pressing ahead with the previous government’s planned cut to disability benefits will leave disabled people financially worse off and further from work.
“Over the years we have seen the repeated tightening of sanctions and conditionality ramp up misery, which has done little to improve the number of disabled people in work.”
Taylor said that data on PIP, the main disability benefit, shows “only about half of applications actually lead to an award and fraud is effectively zero”.
“At the same time, disabled people fear being forced into unsuitable jobs, or losing benefits if they engage with employment services. This lack of trust could seriously undermine the government’s plans to boost employment,” he added.
Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at Mind, said: “Our social security system should be there for all of us when we need it, including people with mental health problems. The benefits system is notoriously stressful and difficult to navigate.
“In our research, people told us the benefits assessment process can feel like ‘being put on trial’. And almost 7 in 10 people (66%) said that going through their benefits assessment made their mental health worse.”
