It's rare to hear a high-profile conservative politician tout the benefits of working from home.
But when Mel Stride announced plans to tackle Britain's long-term illness crisis, the Minister for Work and Pensions spoke of the «opportunity» that comes with «a huge shift in the world of work» after the pandemic.
The number of people receiving disability benefits without having to look for work has increased by 30% to 2.3 million compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Financial Research Institute says taxpayers face challenge This year alone, £26bn will be set aside to fund these benefits, £6bn more than before Covid, adjusted for inflation.
Stride hopes that by getting job centers to assess whether people with chronic illnesses who fall into this group can work remotely, he can reduce that figure.
In May, he said he would get 400,000 people who left their jobs during Covid to come back could help fund a 2p cut in the base income tax rate.
Working from home was touted as part of the solution.
But economists and statisticians suggest this will do little to reduce the number of people claiming benefits and may even be part of the problem.
Stephen Evans of the Institute for Training and Work describes the problem of inactivity in Britain as «a big problem» amid «a significant increase in the number of people receiving sickness and disability benefits, especially since the beginning of the pandemic.»
0609 economically inactive people
While about one in five people who are not required to look for work say they would like to try, Evans says asking the job center whether they are considering working from home is unlikely to be enough: who are sick or disabled, this health condition is often not the only reason they are unemployed,” he says.
“They may not have the confidence, work experience or skills for the job.”
The Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) says those unable to work due to long-term illness tend to be relatively low-skilled.
Three-quarters have no qualifications at all or the majority have an A-level.
Similarly, the largest increase in inactivity due to sickness is seen among people who worked in low-wage customer service industries – that is, before the pandemic, they worked at checkouts, cleaned offices, and provided caregivers.
On the other hand, those who work remotely tend to be more highly skilled and better paid, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Positions and skills may not match.
Evans adds that only one in 10 people with disabilities receive support in finding the right job, meaning many don't know what options are available to them.
Melanie Wilks of the Institute for Public Policy Studies agrees: «It's not the right course of action,» she says of Stride's measures.
“For many people in many industries, remote work is simply not an option. If you have experience in a sector such as hospitality, retail, logistics manufacturing, then suddenly moving to telecommuting in a sector where you do not have established skills or experience may not be an option.”
This comes amid a record 2.6 million working-age people left out of the workforce due to long-term illness.
That means an increase of more than 450,000 people compared to the pre-pandemic, which experts say reflects Britons getting sicker and living with more health problems.
ONS data shows that the largest increase since 2019 has been among people suffering from poor mental health and musculoskeletal disorders.
0609 Depression and anxiety are the most common
The latter is primarily caused by more people experiencing pain or problems with their legs or feet, as well as back and neck problems.
The ONS noted that working from home may even be responsible for the spike in such physical illnesses, meaning that people claiming benefits for this reason are unlikely to find Stride's measures particularly helpful.
Official data released last November showed that the number of people who are out of work due to back and neck pain has increased by 31% since 2019 to over 262,000. Experts say that poor posture and lack of movement and exercise can lead to musculoskeletal problems.
Hugh Strickland, senior ONS statistician, said at the time: «It is possible that the increase in work from home has led to these conditions.» money, this policy also does not live up to expectations.
The Department of Labor and Pensions (DWP) has acknowledged that these plans will only come into effect in 2025, and during that time the number of people receiving benefits is likely to continue to rise. Another government may also tear them up after the next election.
Stride explained that the protracted implementation was due to the training of IT systems and job center workers.
But a sweeping reform to get more people back to work, including removing the ability assessment and focusing more on what benefits applicants can get, won't happen before the end of the decade
, says Ray-Chaudhury, the reforms «will at best bring short-term savings before they become irrelevant.»
“Reforms over the past three decades to reduce the number of people transitioning to disability and disability benefits have often not worked. claimed savings,” he adds.
Evans of the Institute for Training and Work also warns that without actual targeted support, many applicants “will still be out of work and will simply claim other benefits instead.”
OBR also offered to do an assessment and even benefits. the system itself may be part of the problem.
Changes in the way applicants are assessed during Covid, when the so-called workability assessments, which determine how people fit to work, were carried out remotely.
According to the OBR, at some point this resulted in «about 100%» of those who applied for disability benefits being approved for benefits.
The budget watcher also suggested that the claimants were also actively seeking sickness benefits, which assess people as having a limited ability to work or work-related activities.
These benefits provide an additional £4,700 per annum on top of the standard £4,400 allowance — the same group that Stride is targeting today.
Andy King, former an OBR employee, said in July: «The legacy of a health care crisis in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis is likely to make people very careful about what they may be entitled to under the Social Security system.»
OBR also stressed that once people are confirmed to have the disease, “there is little to no regular interaction with them, either in terms of encouraging employment or in terms of reassessing their health.”
During Covid, follow-up examinations were suspended and «resumed only slowly,» the report adds.
Stride correctly diagnosed the problem, but the medication he prescribes may be more of a hindrance than a help . Britain has been sick for a long time.
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