The huge spike in people being signed off work for mental health problems is a disaster for their individual wellbeing and for Britain’s economic prospects. Thankfully, the private sector is more than prepared to play its part, says Nick Tyrone

The latest employment figures make for stark reading. Data from the ONS this week tells us that all the indicators are going the wrong way – wages are down, growth is down, while unemployment is up. And the worst thing is, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. A much larger problem is looming.

There was a huge spike in people claiming long-term sickness benefit after the outbreak of Covid in early 2020. While that isn’t surprising, what is interesting is that the spike never died out. We’ve stayed at a high level of sickness benefit ever since. In terms of changes from 2019 through 2023, the number of people who were economically inactive for most physical disabilities rises a little over that four-year period, but where we see the most dramatic upturn is in the category “Depression, bad nerves or anxiety”. We see a jump from around 965,000 across the country in this category in 2019 to 1.35m in 2023.

Of course, there will be people........

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