THE variety of individuals signed off work via long-term illness has hit a report of greater than 2.8million, figures present.
It is a rise of 700,000 over the previous three years.
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Total, there are actually 9.4million economically inactive individuals aged 16 to 64 who’re neither in, nor on the lookout for, work, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics says.
That’s the highest complete since 2012 — following the 2008 monetary crash.
Bosses are additionally failing to fill 916,000 job vacancies and Ben Harrison, of the Work Basis at Lancaster College, says the UK is going through unresolved structural points.
He added: “As we get nearer to a Common Election, supporting extra people who find themselves long-term sick into safe and sustained employment can be one of many central challenges of the subsequent authorities.”
Critics level to NHS ready occasions stopping some from returning to work.
Paul Nowak, boss of the Trades Union Congress, mentioned: “NHS ready lists are close to report ranges.
“However as an alternative of taking duty, the Tories are attacking people who find themselves too sick to work.”
The year-on-year rise in common earnings for the three months to February eased again to 6 per cent.
The unemployment price additionally jumped over the identical interval to 4.2 per cent — the best stage for six months.
However Welfare Secretary Mel Stride mentioned: “We’ve seen long-term, sickness-related inactivity rise because the pandemic. That’s why we launched our £2.5billion back-to-work plan to rework lives and develop the economic system.
“Our welfare reforms will lower the variety of individuals resulting from be positioned within the highest tier of incapacity advantages by over 370,000.
“As tens of millions are benefiting from this month’s large enhance to the nationwide minimal wage, it’s work, not welfare, that delivers one of the best monetary safety for households.”
