Work:Life UK: Time to tackle long-term illness in the workplace

Despite people's fears over redundancy as the economy struggles to recover, long-term illness or injury appear more likely to affect UK staff. According to a recent ICM survey of more than 5,000 UK workers, commissioned by the Guardian in association with income protection provider Unum, 11% of employees surveyed have been off work for more than six months due to illness or injury. Is it time for the UK workplace to do more to address these risks?

Research by ICM, commissioned by the Guardian in association with Unum, finds that 11% of people have already been off work for longer than six months because of illness or injury. Photograph: GalleryStock

Ask people what they really think their chances are of winning the national lottery, and most will admit they're minuscule (it's 14 million to one, actually). And yet this slimmest-of-slim chances that it might "be them" is still sufficient to tempt players to buy a ticket each week.

The irony, however, is that while people believe they can defy what is actually one of the world's most unlikeliest of outcomes, many will simultaneously have an "it-won't-happen-to-me" outlook on something that is actually much more likely to happen – such as a serious accident, or having a long-term illness (of six months or more) that stops them working. In fact, when you look at the chances of being long-term ill, the statistics are much more sobering.
"Most people still believe serious illness simply won't happen to them," says Bill Carlin, cancer information nurse at Macmillan Cancer Support. "Contradictory evidence does not help – such as lots of dairy being linked to greater risk of breast cancer, while drinking a pint of milk a day cuts the chances of getting bowel cancer. As such, people tend to dispute what they read and make their own minds up."
The problem, though, is that research suggests that some long-term illnesses are on the increase. Cancer Research UK finds the risk of middle-aged workers getting cancer has risen by 20% in a single generation. "People need to accept this fact," Carlin adds. "Instead of people saying 'why me?' when they get ill, what they should really be asking themselves is 'why not me?'"
Research by ICM, commissioned by the Guardian in association with Unum, among a representative sample of more than 5,000 workers confirms that serious illness is more common than people probably realise. The survey finds that 11% of people have already been off work for longer than six months because of illness or injury – which means that the average employee is more likely to suffer long-term illness than be made redundant. According to ONS statistics, the average redundancy rate over the working lifetime is less than 10%.

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Gladeana McMahon, former GMTV life coach and co-author of Positive Psychology for Dummies, blames the "immortality principle" for clouding our thinking about health and illness. "Human nature tells us we'll live forever, and that illness is what happens to other people," she says. "Otherwise, we'd all be nervous wrecks, worrying about leaving the house. It's a survival mechanism. And it causes us to gravitate to wanting to feel lucky – such as winning the lottery, no matter how remote – and distance ourselves from being unlucky, such as getting ill, even though the latter is far more likely to happen."
McMahon says it's only when people experience illness first-hand, or via friends, that the normality of illness dawns. "It's a shock at first, especially to people who don't think they'll be a statistic."
With money tight and the prospect of illness or injury having a debilitating impact on people's capacity to earn, there are signs employees are thinking more about this. Some 41% of respondents to the survey say they worry about being off work long-term.
"People are working later in life, and the risks of illness increase dramatically with age, McMahon says. "Illness is something all of us need to face up to.