To be shocked that over half a million people under the age of 35 are out of work due to long-term sickness

[puncheur]

I had no idea. These numbers are extraordinary. 560k people between the ages of 16 and 34 economically inactive due to long term illness.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/24/500000-under-35s-out-of-work-long-term-illness-uk?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

i suspect it won’t be as small as you think it is, I was basically told to accept the news and accept that I’ll probably get worse from here on in. Cheery news

I'm disabled.

I use a wheelchair following an accident. Initially I couldn't walk at all but now I can walk short distances.

I've continued in my job since the accident.

The lift breaks on a regular basis. It's a 2 story building, loos are upstairs. If I stay downstairs I can't access a loo all day unless I crawl up the stairs. If I stay upstairs I have to crawl down the stairs to get to my car to go home.

Fortunately I have friends who carry my wheelchair down or up the stairs when the lift breaks.

But I really shouldn't have to rely on friends to get around the building I work in. And crawling up and down stairs is seriously demeaning no matter who you are.

For your son’s sake, I really hope he doesn’t develop a serious mental illness. Firstly, I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone. Secondly, with your attitude of how people are being “labelled” and “succumbing” he’ll have an even harder time in dealing with it.

It's a lot harder to manage a fluctuating condition and to work now. When I first started work over a couple of decades ago sick leave was a lot more lenient- nobody kept central records, or demanded doctor/hospital appointments were logged as sick leave, people seemed to take a lot of time off sick and it was never an issue. Temps would be provided to cover work.

Now work is a lot more pressured, we don't get temps in to cover any more, just have to struggle on with it. The Bradford Factor scores mean you're penalised if you manage to get both flu and a stomach bug in the same year, so more people are at work whilst ill spreading bugs around. All of that makes it s lot harder for someone with a fluctuating condition to manage at work without ending up with disciplinary action. Yes, employers are meant to make reasonable adjustments, but that is a lot harder when it's a fluctuating condition.

And a lot of the WFH or more flexible jobs are more senior so you have to get the experience to be able to get those jobs.

This is a really complex situation- on the one hand there really are some complete pisstakers and I don't get how it is easy it seems for some people to get this that and the other but nigh on impossible for many genuinely pretty disabled people.
I actually know a woman now in her mid to late 50s - who hadn't worked for 30 years or so - no kids, single. She is a bit odd but I wouldn't say incapable of work of some kind , more of a personality disorder- she genuinely doesn't seem fussed to work and would rather struggle-

Not all those 1 in 4 are born that way or have dodgy genetics. I know people who are disabled from accidents and other acquired health conditions. I for example, developed hearing loss in 2015 and have been told it's very likely down to the medication I was taking.

Tigerrag - what medication were you taking? So sorry you've suffered in this way.

I'd hazard a guess at a large amount.

I'm a bit above that age group but it started around 35. The treatment I've received has been absolutely appalling and has 100% contributed to me being significantly more disabled than I need to be. Waiting lists of three years just to get a phone call, discharged by consultants because the cheapest treatment didn't work, treatment in hospital leading to permanent injury, I'm now so phobic of the hospital that the only way I'm going in there is unconscious in an ambulance, and more. Not to mention having to leave my job because my employer refused to make one single adjustment for me whatsoever.

I don't dare try to claim PIP after hearing the horror stories. I just don't have it in me to go through that.

I do a bit of work but it's the odd few hours here and there in an artistic role. Maybe eight hours a month in a good month.

I genuinely don't know where I'd be if things had been different. Possibly still working in my old career. Possibly not bed bound a lot of the time. Possibly not in terrible pain all the time. I try not to think about it.

My husband's health spectacularly failed him at 46, and he has pip. He'd worked hard for 28 years up to this point. He also still lives in hope he'll get better and be able to work again.

For every four genuine pip claimants I know, then I know one faker.

The faker had an addict as a mum, and her teenage years in care. It's hard to explain but she knows how to work the system, and has never had anyone but her look out for herself. She's a single mum and her children love having her around. She does do ironing for people, and has a couple of cleaning jobs on top of pip.

Some people are labelled, and some people do succumb to it. 🤷‍♀️

I was on Topiramate which is used for certain types of epilepsy and migraine. I had to beg to come off it because of other side effects.

A lot of it is Long Covid, I'm one of those people. Well I'm in the US but I'm still not able to work because of it. I keep trying to tell people Covid is not just a cold. I don't find this shocking at all, it's my daily reality.

re age 16-34, this chart tells a story not same as what a lot of PP are suggesting. I don't see an obvious group for Long Covid, for instance, and the increase trend in musculo-skeletal is barely discernable.

MH increase has been steady rate since 2014, the trend is consistent for last 10 years.
The big covid-era jump was in allergy-hearing-sight-epilepsy-autism.

Did anyone else know that autism increased suddenly in 2020?

I can believe that. I spent my late twenties struggling with infertility, wearing nappies as I was bleeding so much and dosed up to the eyeballs on pain medication, I ended up with very few friends as my remaining strength went on working. I was always on the verge of getting sacked due my sickness record and I ended up with depression and anxiety due to my life. I used to have panic attacks as I was bleeding through my clothes at work. It took me 15 years to be diagnosed with endometriosis and 3 years on different NHS waiting list. I have severe anxiety and struggle to leave the house. I’m lucky I have my babies otherwise I would have killed myself.

They've lumped together a few things - do you know that most of the increases shown by that that line is autism?

Allergies could be long covid, as could certain newly developed sight and hearing conditions. But without knowing more detail, you can't really tell.

According to the Epilepsy Society, there is an increase (around 55%) on onset of epilepsy (in those who did not have the conditions before) in the first six months after covid (substantially more than after say flu). The overall numbers of those with epilepsy against the size of the total population are not large even after this increase however.

Long covid isn't always recognised and termed as such, because people don't always include it as the cause of eg the rise in immune system issues, muscular skeletal issues, debilitating brain fog etc. For this chart they've clearly used pre-covid definitions (so I expect the rise in muscular skeletal issues might be a long covid consequence.

I'd love to know the fuller story behind the autism/epilepsy/sight/hearing line !

Do people also get labelled with a broken leg or succumb to a fracture?

The number will be far more, all those supported by families who aren’t claiming benefits but are unable to work (and perhaps too unwell to make a claim would fail anyway 🙄)

I am not quite sure why you are surprised by this?

Being young does not automatically mean healthy.

Some people are born with disabilities, long term health conditions and so on which will limit their ability to work.

Add to that the fact that we have such long waiting time for assessment and treatment and also employers who are still reluctant to hire people with physical or/and mental health issues.

It can be so hard to get a proper diagnosis on the NHS for things like autism for example and conditions like dyslexia are still routinely missed so kids struggle at school without support which is going to impact their education and make it harder to find good employment.

Long Covid also affects younger people.

I hope you did not start this thread with the mindset that those are just 'lazy benefit scroungers' did you?...

It feels like this is the tainted fruit of austerity combined with the fallout from the pandemic.

It's horrifying. Not because of the economic implications but because so many people are having their young lives blighted.

We really need to improve people's diets and support their mental health. It would probably halve that number in the long term.

Stop cramming people into tiny spaces. Encourage fresh air and exercise (not necessarily competetive team sport). Ensure better access to green spaces. Rebuild communities.

And teach nutrition and basic food prep as part of the national curriculum.

My DS is 23. He has:
ADHD
Tourettes syndrome
visual snow syndrome
long Covid
He had to give up his job due to long Covid.
All if the above impacts his mental health
Its awful as a parent to watch your son struggle through life 😢

Hate away…but I think there are a great many lazy-arsed pisstakers. Enabled by a society that’s increasingly willing to find a name and a ‘treatment’ for anything, however minor.

I did offer an opinion. I said I was shocked at the numbers. It’s an indictment of a failure to take public health, especially mental health, seriously (and fund it properly) leading to over 4% of what should be the healthiest cohort to be so unwell as to be unable to work. Economic and societal changes, from the rise of automation to poor housing availability, to education systems which not only fail to keep up with the rate of change but actively seem to be regressing (thanks Gove) are contributing to the general sense of hopelessness among young people and these figures manifest that.

Mental illness is no different from physical illness.

I am labelled with a lung disease and I may well succumb to it one day. My parents never had an attitude and were never ever judgemental. They encouraged me to fulfil my dreams while accepting my life may be different. They were supportive of my mental health too because it can be hard being young and being unwell. I was given support from professionals to help with that side of things too.

Acting like mental illness is some sort of weakness doesn’t make you a very compassionate person. I am going to take your post with a pinch of salt and assume you’d mean you would encourage and support your son if he were to ever develop a mental illness, even if it limits his employment and life opportunities. We all want the best for our kids and I am sure you are the same. Nobody wants unwell children but if they do become unwell, they need support not judgment.

@Octavia64 Please can you explain why hasimoto's would cause you to be in a wheelchair? I have it and am managed on Thyroxine, as are most people, so this is interesting