People with disabilities and ill health more likely to leave work, study finds – the DWP must fix this

Sick workers are four times more likely to leave a job if they have no flexibility at work, new research has found.

A record 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term sickness. Last week, the government unveiled its plan to ‘get Britain working’, pledging to end the “culture of blame” in the DWP and to empower the NHS to tackle root causes of inactivity.

But new research published today (5 December) has revealed a “critical challenge” to the government’s work agenda: inflexible bosses.

The Work Foundation at Lancaster University tracked the employment journeys of more than 9,000 UK workers from 2017/18 to 2021/22.

During the research period, 2,363 individuals experienced a health decline. Workers with a disability or health condition were 1.5 times more likely to become unemployed during the study period. This increased to 2.4 times for those with two disabilities or health conditions and increases to 5.6 times for those with three or more conditions.

By the end of the study, nearly one in 10 (9%) of people who had experienced a decline in health had left the labour market.

Overly strict conditions prevented them from coming back.

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Employees without any flexibility in their job roles were four times more likely to leave their jobs after a health decline, the researchers found, while those with low levels of control over their working hours, pace, tasks, order and work manner were 3.7 times more likely to leave.   

The government must work with employers to support employees within the workplace, said Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University.

“The UK Government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ agenda focuses on supporting those who have fallen out of the labour market to return – but if we do not consider the factors that drive people to leave in the first place, we risk treating the symptoms rather than the cause,” he said.

“The evidence is clear that once someone leaves work due to ill health, it becomes increasingly more challenging to help them back into employment. To achieve the Government’s ambition to boost the employment rate to 80%, we must take action to stem the flow of those leaving work due to sickness and find new ways to ensure they remain connected to the labour market.” 

What are your flexible working rights?

Flexible working is a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, for example having flexible start and finish times, or working from home.

Currently, all employees have the legal right to request flexible working.

Labour’s Employment Rights Bill – which will be subject to union and employer consultation next year – will strengthen this right, with employers expected to approve these requests “where practical” from a worker’s first day in a job.

But at present, too many employers deny these requests – a default position that takes a disproportionate toll on people suffering from ill health.

Currently, the Work Foundation say that there is ‘awareness to action gap’ among UK employers when it comes to addressing ill health at work.  Of the thousand employers surveyed by the foundation, two thirds (64%) said poor employee health had a detrimental effect on their organisation’s economic performance. But less than half (48%) of employers offered flexible working arrangements to their employees.  

Only around a third of businesses surveyed said they were introducing other measures to prevent ill health, such as assessing workplace mental health risks (36%) and implementing adjustments to manage workload, work pace and role clarity (37%).     

The government must support businesses to do make these vital adjustments, said professor Stavroula Leka from Lancaster University

“Unlike other nations such as Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, the UK Government does not provide adequate support to employers by coordinating the provision of preventative occupational health services,” she said.

“With the number of working age people living with major illnesses projected to grow, it’s clear the UK’s current systems need work. There is not enough focus on prevention and early intervention to support ill workers to stay in employment.” 

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