Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has indicated that Long Covid is costing UK workers a total of £1.5 billion a month in lost earnings, adding up to £1.5 billion in aggregate across the economy.
The research says that as the UK exits the most acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, attention has turned to ‘long Covid’, which is on the rise and becoming no less severe.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), almost 2 million people, or 3% of the population, had long Covid by the end of May 2022, of whom 72% were limited by the condition and 21% were limited ‘a lot’. These numbers have been rising steadily since the middle of 2021. The impact of long Covid is felt unequally. Existing work finds that sufferers are more likely to have a pre-existing health condition, be female and be middle aged. We show that they are also more likely to live in social housing, to have been claiming benefits before the pandemic, and possibly to be in poverty.
By examining how outcomes have changed since before the pandemic for long Covid sufferers and similar individuals without the condition, we estimate that one in ten people who develop long Covid stop working, with sufferers generally going on sick leave (rather than losing their jobs altogether). As a result, hours worked on average reduce by about 2½ hours per week and earnings by £65 per month (6%), or £1,100 per person who drops out of work. Our estimates suggest that while the prevalence and severity of Covid remain at current levels, the aggregate impact is equivalent to 110,000 workers being off sick.
At the individual level, long Covid shows some persistent labour market effects, with impacts being felt at least three months after infection. Further research would be required to precisely determine the duration of the impact.
Tom Wernham, a Research Economist at IFS and an author of the report, said “Though acute Covid is no longer the severe threat to public health and the economy that it once was, the impact of long Covid has continued to grow over time, with almost 2 million now suffering from the condition. Our research suggests that for a significant minority of long Covid sufferers, the condition has severe effects not only on their health but on their ability to do paid work. The rising rate of long Covid could therefore put additional strain on families during the cost of living crisis, especially as long Covic is more common among poorer families, as well as drag on a struggling economy – we estimate there are 110,000 workers missing from work as a result.”
