Workplace sickness

The overwhelming majority of HIV positive people (90%) would consider an income protection (IP) or critical illness (CI) policy, up 29% from October.

Legal & General has revealed that mental health issues are the cause of nearly 20% of individual income protection (IP) claims it receives and is calling for government focus on mental health in the workplace.

The threshold for employers to foresee stress related illnesses in the workplace has been judged as a very high one.

Two thirds of employers plan to use the Fit for Work (FfW) service while 30% of HR managers are not aware of it, two surveys have found.

Among the employed population 9% report having a limiting long-standing illness or disability (LSI), figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have found.

There has been a second fall in the numbers of long term sick people between November 2014 and January 2015, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed.

Sickness absence rates have decreased for 40% of employers in the last 12 months, a survey for Group Risk Development (GRiD) has found.

The number of people who were off work with long-term sickness fell by 12,000 in the October-December period 2014 compared with a year earlier.

Group Risk Development (GRiD) has warned that ‘national sickie day' can be the start of longer term problems for some employees.

Cirencester Friendly paid £3.3m in sick pay benefit for its income protection customers in 2014, with 94% of eligible claims paid.