Attitudes to Health and Work

DWP research “attitudes to health and work amongst the working-age population” (2 August 2011 www.dwp.gov.uk).

There was wide agreement that work is good for both physical and mental health, 80% respondents agree, 90% would go to work with a short-term condition, 60% would go to work with longer-term physical and mental health conditions.

Respondents who were not in employment were less likely to agree that work was good for mental health whereas respondents who were in employment were more likely to say that they would go into work under all the hypothetical scenarios of being ill.

There was general support for the idea of employers taking steps to help employees with long-term health conditions so that they could carry on working. Over 80 per cent of respondents in employment said that they would be willing to ask their current employer to take steps so that they could carry on working.