Survey shows stress to be a common reason for sick leave
BY PURPLE CO
A Government survey has found that one in three absences from work are due to stress or anxiety.
A recent study of 58,700 GP fit notes discovered that 35% of those surveyed were given for "mild to moderate mental health disorders", such as depression, anxiety, and stress.
The Government's sick note scheme, renamed the fit note in April 2010, was designed to help employees return to work more quickly by suggesting things they could do at work.
Doctors are required to detail which duties their patients would be well enough to perform given their condition, rather than simply declare them unfit to work.
Annually, the UK loses around £15bn to annual sickness and adapted sick-note was designed to help reduce this, potentially saving around £240m over ten years.
The Government study looked at individual fir notes issued to patients between October 2011 and January 2013 and suggested that the results show that there is "some evidence that mild-to-moderate mental health disorders are a growing cause of sickness absence".
Figures show that half of the notes looked at allowed patients to take up to a month off, while a quarter were for between one month and three months.
According to the research, longer fit notes were generally issued for more severe disorders and illnesses, while just over one in ten of those surveyed were pronounced "may be fit to work" by their GPs.
In addition, it found that male patients are 72% more likely to be given a long term sick note lasting more than four weeks.
Despite many employers criticising the new fit note scheme as having no effect on helping sick employees back into work, the data shows that in the last five years, the proportion of employers with no sickness absentees increased from 40% to 51%.
However, employers have reported that longer-term absence is increasing because of surgery, back pain, stress and mental health.
This latest research comes off the back of a survey from the Engineering Employers Foundation (EEF), who earlier this month said that some employers were actually blaming the failure of the fit note scheme on GPs.
Its study found that only a quarter of 353 employers said that the fit note scheme had resulted in employees being returned to work, while GPs were highlighted as the second biggest barrier to helping somebody back to work, behind only the employees’ health condition.
Commenting, a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesman, said:
“Sickness absence is a burden to business, to the taxpayer and to the thousands of people who end up trapped on benefits when they could actually work.
“Supporting people with mental health problems to return to work more quickly will be an important part of the new independent health and work advisory service we are bringing in, which will save employers up to £160m a year in Statutory Sick Pay.”
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