Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the causes of economic inactivity related to poor health.

There were 2.8m people who were economically inactive with long-term sickness as their main reason in the UK in April to June 2025.¹ This group accounts for 30.7% of the total inactive population and is the most common reason given for inactivity; this percentage has increased by 5.6 percentage points since December to February 2020 but had been increasing since before the pandemic. The largest absolute increases have been for women, people with a long-term mental health condition and proportionately for people aged 18 to 34.²

At present, there is no conclusive evidence on the causes of poor health related economic inactivity. A range of complex and interacting factors could be driving the rise in economic inactivity due to long-term sickness including NHS waiting lists^3,4, long COVID⁵ and changes in the demographics⁶ and health of the population^7,8,9.

¹ A01: Summary of labour market statistics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

² The employment of disabled people 2024 - GOV.UK

³ The impact of winter pressures on different population groups in Great Britain: NHS waiting lists - Office for National Statistics

⁴ How much could reducing the NHS waiting list contribute to falling inactivity in our upside scenario? - Office for Budget Responsibility

⁵ Self-reported long COVID and labour market outcomes, UK: 2022 - Office for National Statistics

⁶ Population changes and economic inactivity trends, UK: 2019 to 2026 - Office for National Statistics

⁷ Rising ill-health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK - Office for National Statistics

⁸ Half a million more people are out of the labour force because of long-term sickness - Office for National Statistics

⁹ What we know about the UK’s working-age health challenge - The Health Foundation