Introducing a maternity leave-style policy allowing staff to take time off to deal with health issues could be key to getting ill and disabled people back into work again, according to an expert.
Louise Murphy, an economist for independent think-tank The Resolution Foundation, said the process of getting people back into work must be boosted post-Covid, and it was all about taking the right approach.
The Government plan is to coax people to “unretire” in a bid to increase the shrinking workforce.
But Murphy, author of a recent report, says it should be targeting other groups. “Britain did a great job getting more people into work in the 2010s but some of that progress has been undone by the pandemic, with economic inactivity rising by 830,000 over the past three years,” she said.
“We need to reboot progress on getting people into work but we’re not going to achieve it by persuading the recent Covid cohort of older workers to ‘unretire’.
“Instead, we need to do more to encourage mothers in low-income families into work and help people who need to take periods of time off for ill-health stay attached to their jobs.”
Murphy’s research found the rise in people leaving work during the pandemic was driven by higher-than-normal retirements among higher-paid professionals. And it will be hard to persuade these people – two-thirds of whom own their own home outright and therefore have low living costs – back into work.
She says policy makers should, instead, focus on older workers, mothers and those with ill health or a disability.
Without action, Murphy warns the economic inactivity rate for 15 to 75-year-olds is set to rise from 29.5% up to 30.8% by 2030, the highest rate since the turn of the century.
“One of the trends we’re seeing is a rise in ill-health and disability in the population more generally,” she said, “and also among people who are out of work.
“That means we need to think about health response, boosting healthcare and public health so people don’t become sick in the first place. But, secondly, think about how we can support people in that situation, many of whom want to work and are able to work, but might need some support.
“We would recommend the Government looks at including a Right To Return policy, similar to Maternity Leave, so someone who has a long-term illness or disability and might need a few weeks or months off to deal with their health can do so, then return to a job that is left open for them. Similar schemes exist in countries including Spain and Canada. ”
Murphy added: “We recommend the governments focused on early intervention, since we know people out of work due to long-term sickness or disability are four times as likely to re-enter work after a few months of sickness leave than they are to re-enter work after a period of over two years out of work.”
A complex benefits system deters many people with health issues going back to work as they lose allowances and end up financially not much better off, according to Murphy.
And expensive childcare, as well as uncertainty over access to childcare support, could be limiting women in low-income families from taking up employment.
Murphy added: “We would urge the government to think about what amendments it wants to make that would actually boost employment and to look at the current complex benefits system and the consequences and impact taking up work could have on these.”
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