- It's simply not worth working in the UK
- People don't plan to look for work because of their mental health
- The authorities start to crack down on citizens who don't want to work
It's simply not worth working in the UK
The UK has a problem: around 2.8 million people have been out of work for a long time, and around 4,000 people turn to the authorities every day for sick leave. The best example of this problematic situation is the spa town of Clacton in the Essex area. It has a population of around 50,000 inhabitants, but as many as 47% of them are unemployed, compared with the national average of 21.7%.
Britons who are not in work say that it simply does not pay to work: even when they are not in work, the state pays their housing costs and gives them another £1 300 a month for miscellaneous expenses. But this leads to a disastrous situation where thousands of people choose benefits over work, and people's talent, skills, and human resources are wasted[1].
And the scale of the problem is only growing. The unemployment rate in the UK today is simply mind-boggling: 9.4 million people of working age are economically inactive, not in work, and not looking for work. Around 5.5 million of them are claiming benefits, and more than 2.8 million are on long-term sick leave.
This is costly for the state. The current £297 billion welfare bill is projected to rise to as much as £360 billion over the next five years, already 11% of the UK's economic output.
People don't plan to look for work because of their mental health
The number of 18-24-year-olds in the UK who are out of work because of mental health has more than doubled in the last decade, from 93,000 to 190,000.
Around 12% of 20-30-year-olds say they are unable to work because of their mental health. A fifth of Britons do not think work is important in their lives. This percentage is the highest of all 24 countries surveyed, including France, Sweden, the US, Nigeria, Japan, and China.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the majority of the 2.7 million people aged under 25 who are not in work are students. Most of them do not want to work. 3.5 million people over 50 have dropped out of the labor market due to illness and early retirement. Almost no-one who has retired early says they would like to return to work. Among 25-49-year-olds, 1.1 million people are out of work because of caring responsibilities, and almost one million people in this age group are out of work because of their illness. Less than a quarter of those who are ill say they would like to work[2].
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the UK had the second lowest rate of labor market inactivity among the G7 countries, lower only in Japan. But now the UK is fourth out of seven, ahead of Germany and Canada, but still behind the US, France and Italy.
The Office for Budget Responsibility says that since the pandemic, the UK has seen a fall in sickness absence as more people have started to complain of ill health. Against this backdrop, experts say it is vital to widen the range of people who are supported back into work, arguing that the government needs to increase employment support and invest in social infrastructure such as childcare, skills upgrading, and health.
The authorities start to crack down on citizens who don't want to work
And British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his team are already making plans to tackle the so-called 'sickness culture'. Sunak is calling for a move away from GPs assessing people's fitness to work to specialist work and health professionals.
"We need to change the culture of sick leave, not just the sickness certificate, so that it is clear what work you can do, not what you can't. We now spend £69 billion on benefits for people of working age who have a disability or health condition. That is more than our entire school's budget, more than our transport budget, more than our police budget. I am very worried that benefits will become a lifestyle choice," said Sunak.
However, this has already attracted criticism, with some aid and support organizations arguing that this action will target the most vulnerable.
Many charities and experts have warned that the Prime Minister's comments demonize the sick and do not address the root causes of people's unemployment.
Richard Kramer, head of a UK disability charity, said it was hard to watch the government continually attack disabled people, and the Prime Minister target the long-term sick. He said this rhetoric is incredibly damaging and unhelpful, portraying disabled people as evasive and unwilling to work[3].
For his part, Stephen Evans, Chief Executive of the Learning and Work Institute, pointed out that many disabled people want to work but do not get enough help to do so, either from employers or the government. According to Evans, only one in ten disabled people who are not in work each year receive help to find a job, while two in ten want to work.
Ben Harrison, Director of the Lancaster University Labour Foundation, says that rather than capping benefits, the Prime Minister should improve the quality of the work on offer and ensure job flexibility so that people with health problems can stay at work.
"The Prime Minister is right that more action is needed to support those who want to work. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people economically inactive due to long-term sickness has risen by more than 700,000, and this number could rise even further unless substantial action is taken. But making it harder to access health-related benefits and forcing people with physical and mental health problems to take up any kind of work by threatening to cut off their claims for benefits altogether will increase the pressures on these people and could worsen their condition even further," says B. Harrison.
