Long-term sick: How record number changes UK economy

"I was precise independent. I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Now I request assistance washing my hair," says Flic, who contracted agelong Covid whilst moving arsenic a children's physiotherapist successful the NHS.

She is among the 2 and a fractional cardinal radical who are not moving owed to wellness problems - a caller grounds successful the UK.

For each 13 radical presently working, 1 idiosyncratic is semipermanent sick.

The lack of their skills from the workforce is starting to instrumentality its toll connected productivity - and whitethorn commencement to interaction semipermanent growth, according to economists.

"People being disconnected enactment is inevitably going to beryllium atrocious for concern and the economy," says Tony Wilson, manager astatine the Institute for Employment Studies.

"If firms can't conscionable request due to the fact that they person to capable jobs, it mightiness mean they person to wage radical much to capable those jobs or... adjacent their concern down due to the fact that they can't cope.

"It impacts wide productivity and mightiness besides mean little competition," helium adds.

One of the reasons wherefore the UK system has been doing little good than different developed nations has been the lawsuit of the missing workers, aft millions stopped moving during the pandemic.

There are 400,000 much radical not successful employment oregon looking for employment than determination were earlier the pandemic, Darren Morgan, manager of economical statistic astatine the ONS, told the BBC.

As good arsenic an summation successful intelligence wellness conditions and backmost and cervix pains that whitethorn beryllium linked to location working, Mr Morgan said determination had besides been "an summation successful the class that includes post-viral fatigue, truthful possibly agelong Covid having an impact".

The ONS points retired that rising work-limiting wellness problems predate the pandemic. In 2016, immoderate 15.4% of 16 to 64-year-olds reported these, rising to 16.4% successful 2019. This went up adjacent further to 18.1% of the colonisation successful 2022 - astir 7.5 cardinal people.

Flic worked done the pandemic, visiting patients successful their homes conscionable aft they'd been discharged from hospital.

"I felt conscionable whipped up each the time, but I enactment it down to exhaustion. I soon became excessively sick to enactment and took unpaid permission for 5 months.

"An antibody trial confirmed I had Covid and erstwhile it didn't spell distant I realised it was agelong Covid," she says. "It's wholly turned my beingness upside down."

Tony Wilson of the Institute for Employment Studies says "presenteeism" - moving erstwhile sick - is worse than being disconnected sick due to the fact that it means radical are sick for longer. "The workplace should accommodate astir the worker and effort and guarantee jobs enactment for people," helium says.

Tom Pollard, caput of societal argumentation astatine the New Economics Foundation, says too the contiguous consequences of radical not working, determination are "knock-on costs" of radical being disconnected sick long-term.

"It tends to snowball arsenic the longer radical are retired of enactment the longer it takes to get backmost into the office. It's a pugnacious rhythm to break," helium says.

Getting these radical backmost into employment is simply a cardinal portion of the government's program to get the system increasing again.

The March fund included changes to the rules astir health-related benefits and cosmopolitan recognition aimed astatine helping to code the shortage of workers.

The latest figures amusement mixed advancement connected this front.

Significant numbers of students, carers and adjacent immoderate retired radical person been going backmost to work, pushing the inactivity complaint - the cardinal measurement of radical not successful enactment - down to 21% - the lowest level successful 3 years.

However, the emergence successful the fig of radical excessively sick to enactment is apt to interest policymakers.

By Michelle Roberts, integer wellness editor

Sitting with due posture is 1 of the champion things you tin bash to forestall backmost and cervix problems.

So it is casual to spot however spending agelong hours sitting astatine a desk, hunched implicit a laptop could beryllium atrocious for you.

The latest information from the ONS suggests musculoskeletal issues are connected the rise, and apt linked to the displacement to location moving that happened to galore of america during the pandemic.

If you usage a location workstation, the proposal is to marque definite the apical of your machine surface is level with your eyes and astir an arm's magnitude distant from you.

You should beryllium capable to unbend your shoulders erstwhile you are typing and support your elbows astatine 90 degrees.

Take regular breaks excessively to basal up, agelong and determination around.

If you person cervix oregon backmost pain, chat with your doc oregon spot a physiotherapist.