Mental health sick days soar by 5m in just a year
Britons took an extra 5m sick days for mental health reasons last year after a surge in conditions including stress, anxiety and depression.
Staff took a record 20.5m days off because of mental health in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics, up from 14.8m in 2023.
This accounted for 13.7pc of all sick days taken in Britain, the highest proportion since 2019.
Jamie O'Halloran, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the figures reflect 'the tip of the iceberg' as many employees continue working even when they are unwell.
He said: 'We must do more to prevent avoidable ill health and create workplaces that support people with health conditions to get into – and stay in – work.
'The lack of progress on mental health is particularly alarming and must become a greater priority for both public health policy and employer strategy.'
Poor mental health appears to be more prevalent in the public sector, where it accounted for 16.4pc of absences last year – compared with 6.7pc in the private sector.
There has been a surge in diagnoses of mental health conditions such as anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Overall ill health is also more problematic in the public sector, where it accounts for an absence rate of 2.9pc compared with 1.8pc for private companies.
The latest figures also show that it is not only those in work taking time off because of sickness.
The number of people of working age who are economically inactive – neither in work nor looking for a job – because of ill health has surged to 2.8m, up from 2.1m before the Covid pandemic.
In total, workers took 149m sick days in 2024, which is down 10pc on the previous year.
The number of days taken for minor illnesses dropped by a third to 33m, while workers took 26.5m days for musculoskeletal problems, roughly the same as 2023.
The overall sickness rate, which charts absences as a share of all working hours, fell to 2pc. As a result the proportion of sick days is back to its pre-pandemic level.
Sam Atwell, at the Health Foundation, a charity, said sick employees must be supported to prevent them from dropping out of work altogether.
'Employers and government alike should be concerned by these findings as extended or repeated episodes of sickness absence can be a warning sign that an employee is at risk of leaving the workforce and becoming economically inactive,' he said.
'Employers have a key role to play in ensuring that workers are provided with adequate sick pay and are actively supported during sickness absence.
'Our analysis shows that the UK statutory sick pay rate is among the least generous across all OECD countries.
'Workers without occupational sick pay are at a greater risk of either working through illness or leaving work altogether.'
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