Are we getting healthier, or too busy to be ill?

Anna Scott

The number of days lost to sickness absence in the UK has fallen by 27% in the last 20 years, the Office for National Statistics has reported.

In 2013, 131 million days’ work disappeared due to employees being off sick, down from 178 million in 1993, according to figures from the Labour Force Survey. These figures equate to 7.2 days lost per worker in 1993, compared with 4.4 days in 2013. The main decline in the figures has come about since 2003.

Why are we taking fewer sick days? Are we healthier than we were 20 years ago? Increasing numbers of people being vaccinated for flu may mean smaller numbers of us are struck down by the virus now. More health and safety legislation and greater understanding of musculoskeletal problems may have contributed to the decline, despite these kinds of disorders accounting for 31 million days lost in 2013.

Or are we more worried about losing our jobs? A common concern among employees during recessions seems to be that if they take too many sick days they may be top of their employer’s list if job cuts need to be made.

Equally, a more commercial and target-oriented workplace may have contributed to employees feeling unable to take days off sick. That the percentage of hours lost to sickness in the private sector stood at 1.8% in 2013, compared to 2.9% in the public sector, appears to back this up.

And there is a suggestion that people feel they can’t afford to take sick days now that they are more likely to get basic statutory sick pay for time off. The stats show that sickness absence was higher in larger companies last year – often those providing enhanced sick pay.

Equally the ONS’ figures show that self-employed people are less likely to take days off sick, again usually because they cannot afford it.

But in the last twenty years employers have also developed many more ways to police employees’ sickness, developing procedures and policies to manage or avoid absence, such as in-house counselling and return to work interviews.

The government’s new Health and Work Service is at the heart of its agenda to get people off sickness benefits and back to work.

But the real picture is a little more complicated than that. And as more people turn to self-employment – and SMEs continue to employ more people in the UK than large companies – can we expect fewer days lost to sickness absence in a decade’s time?