Workers' experience of Long Covid

The impact of Long Covid on employment and the economy

With prevalence of Long Covid being highest in 35-69 year olds and in social care, health and education sectors, the potential impact on the economy is significant.

Our 2021 report on workers’ experiences of Long Covid found that one in 20 (5 per cent) respondents had been forced out of their jobs because they had Long Covid and over half of respondents (52 per cent) said they had experienced one or more of the types of unfair treatment at work, including one in six who were concerned that having Long Covid had affected their chance of a promotion and one in 25 who said they had been forced to take additional unpaid leave as a result of having Long Covid. This indicates the impact that Long Covid is having on people’s ability to progress, work enough hours and stay in work altogether.

We are also seeing these trends worldwide; an international study reported that 42.5 per cent of people with Long Covid had to reduce their work schedule compared to the period before having symptoms and 22.3 per cent were not working due to various reasons such as sick leave, dismissal or resignation.68

In total, there are 440,000 more people who are economically inactive in the UK now than before the Covid-19 pandemic began; that is, they are neither in work nor looking for work. This increase was primarily the result of an increase in the number of people who are out of work because of long-term ill health.

The number of people who are out of work and not looking for work because of poor health, although just below the peak reached in the third quarter of 2022 remains significantly higher than it was going into the pandemic, rising from 2.1 million in the first quarter of 2020 to 2.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 (as shown in Graph I).69 This has been linked to older workers’ ill-health,70 NHS waiting lists, a rise in mental distress and Long Covid.71

Figure I: Number of people economically inactive due to long-term sickness (16-64)

ONS data published in December 2022 72  highlighted that economic inactivity is rising ten times faster amongst people with self-reported Long Covid. Between July 2021 and July 2022, the inactivity rate amongst working-age people with Long Covid grew by 3.8 percentage points compared to 0.4 percentage points for working-age people without Long Covid. The ONS conclude that working-age people are less likely to be in the labour market after developing Long Covid than before catching Covid-19 and that Long Covid is likely to be one of the factors contributing to the declining levels of labour market participation.

The data also finds that people with self-reported Long Covid 18 to 29 weeks after a Covid-19 infection were more likely to experience long term absence compared with the time before they caught Covid-19.

There is a growing body of evidence on the impact of Long Covid on the labour market. For example, research in July 2022 73  estimated that current levels of Long Covid could be causing 110,000 workers to be missing from the labour market, and thus amounting to lost earnings of £1.5bn per year.

ONS data shows that the sectors most impacted are health, social care and education. However, the impact on other sectors should not be underestimated. Data shows the next sectors with the highest numbers of people with self-reported Long Covid are the civil service/local government, transport and retail.74

The evidence that Long Covid is contributing to people needing to take long periods of time off work or leaving the labour market altogether emphasises the need for government action to support people with Long Covid so they can stay in work should they wish to and be able to. This is vital should the government want to address rising economic inactivity, keep experienced staff in our public services and ensure that people are able to support themselves and loved ones. In addition, support for people who are no longer able to work is essential. There are structural and personal barriers to gaining employment and government support must recognise this to ensure people who can no longer work due to Long Covid live well.

The Public Sector Equality Duty means public authorities must have due regard to the need to achieve the objectives set out in the Equality Act 2010 to:

1. eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010
2. advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
3. foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

This applies to the government’s actions to tackle economic inactivity, especially given that certain groups such as women and disabled people are more likely to experience Long Covid.

Workplace transmission

There is growing data demonstrating exposure in the workplace has been a significant source of Covid-19 infection. There were 93,000 Covid-19 cases reported to enforcing authorities in 2020/21 which employers believed may have been caused by exposure at work with 64 per cent of all reports made by employers from the health and social care sector.

Since 1 April 2022 the only cases of Covid-19 which are reportable to HSE are due to either deliberately working with the virus (for example in a laboratory) or being incidentally exposed to the virus from working in environments where people are known to have Covid-19 (such as in health and social care). Cases due to general transmission (either worker-to-worker, or from contact with members of the public) are no longer reportable. Therefore, we no longer have accurate data on workplace transmission and due to under-reporting, acknowledged by the HSE, it is likely that thousands of cases of work-related Covid-19 have remained uncaptured.

However, available data does show that a correlation between certain occupations and Covid-19 exposure fatality. Data from the ONS indicates that workers in the food service sector, retail, health and transport are among those with the highest rates of death involving Covid-19.75  A recent study by the ONS76 points to jobs where social distancing and working from home were not possible as a factor to why infection rates were so high.

Due to high levels of workplace transmission the TUC and Long Covid Support have been calling for prescription of Covid-19 as an occupational disease. An occupational disease is an illness or a condition that can arise or be caused as the result of unsafe working conditions or exposure to certain substances in the workplace and if prescribed, individuals would be eligible for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB). Long Covid must also be included in any prescription of Covid-19 as an occupational disease.

The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC)77 has recommended prescription of a number of long-term symptoms associated with Covid-19; designating it an occupational disease for Health and Social Care Workers who have experienced five named complications.

We urge the government to accept the recommendation of the IIAC and in addition, to recognise Covid-19 as an occupational disease beyond health and social care and those five named complications. This would entitle more front-line workers to protection and compensation if they contracted the virus while working. We are also out of step with international practice; a report compiled by the International Labor Organization (ILO)78 detailed schemes by more than 50 states.

There has now been on case of a nurse successfully applying for IIDB after contracting Covid-19 from a patient as she was able to evidence that her Long Covid diagnoses was most likely the result of work-related activity.79  Having Covid as an occupational disease would reduce the burden on workers to take individual cases.

• 68 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00299-6/fulltext
• 69 https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/creating-healthy-labour-market
• 70 Ibid
• 71 https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2022/may/michael-saunders-speech-at-the-resolution-foundation-event and https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/articles/halfamillionmorepeopleareoutofthelabourforcebecauseoflongtermsickness/2022-11-10#:~:text=Source%3A%20Office%20for%20National%20Statistics%20%E2%80%93%20Labour%20Force%20Survey,-Embed%20code&text=However%2C%20between%202019%20and%202022,172%2C000%20increase%20seen%20among%20women 
• 72 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/selfreportedlongcovidandlabourmarketoutcomesuk2022/selfreportedlongcovidandlabourmarketoutcomesuk2022
• 73 https://ifs.org.uk/news/110000-workers-missing-work-result-long-covid-cost-ps15-billion-year-lost-earnings
• 74 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/datasets/alldatarelatingtoprevalenceofongoingsymptomsfollowingcoronaviruscovid19infectionintheuk  
• 75 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationbeforeandduringlockdownenglandandwales/deathsregisteredbetween9marchand30jun2020  
• 76 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19infectionsinthecommunityinengland/characteristicsofpeopletestingpositiveforcovid19inengland22february2021  
• 77 https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/ministers-must-not-abandon-workers-long-covid  
• 78 https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/documents/publication/wcms_741360.pdf
• 79 https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/Advice/2023/Jan/Long-COVID-benefits-support