BBC employees took 20,000 sick days for psychological well being final yr, with stress, despair and nervousness rife on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
Some 20,884 days of labor on the public service have been misplaced for psychological causes within the yr to the top of March.
They accounted for a fifth of all illness absences within the interval, in response to figures obtained from a Freedom of Info (FOI) request by the Sunday Telegraph.
However worker psychological wellbeing on the Beeb could also be even worse than these numbers reveal.
It may properly be behind the greater than half of sick days for which no cause was given. Bodily sickness noticed employees out of the workplace for greater than 36,000 days.
Broadcast staff took a mean 6.7 sick days every throughout the yr – under the nationwide determine of 9.4.
The BBC figures, nonetheless, don’t embrace the organisation’s business division, which isn’t funded by licence payment funds from the general public.
It comes as sick depart surges to file ranges throughout the UK, with greater than three million jobless households throughout the nation.
Some 20,884 days of labor on the public service (pictured, file picture) have been misplaced for psychological causes within the yr to the top of March
Virtually 40 per cent of individuals residing in a home the place not a single grownup member of the family is employed are actually out of labor as a result of they’re sick or disabled.
In the meantime, the proportion of working-age adults not in a job as a result of they have been unemployed, retired early or as a result of they have been finding out full time fell final yr.
The proportion of individuals in a jobless family not working as a result of they’re sick or disabled has ballooned because the Covid pandemic.
It’s now at its highest stage since information started in 2006.
A BBC spokesperson mentioned: ‘Whereas this stage of absence broadly displays what we see occurring throughout the UK, the welfare of our employees is of paramount significance, and we’ve a variety of measures in place to help individuals who want it.’
New figures laying naked Britain’s worklessness disaster present the entire variety of jobless households elevated by 129,000 within the yr to December 2024.
Workless households elevated from 2,955,658 (13.9 per cent of all households) in 2023 to three,085,497 (14.4 per cent of all households) in 2024, in response to the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS).
That is the best determine for nearly a decade.
Within the yr to December 2024, a file 39.2 per cent of individuals in jobless households have been out of labor attributable to illness/incapacity.
That is up from 38 per cent within the yr to December 2023.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately mentioned the figures ought to set Britain’s ‘warning lights flashing purple’ as ‘the takers are starting to outweigh the makers’.
She mentioned: ‘Yr after yr [under the Conservatives] worklessness went down. As ever beneath Labour, the numbers are going within the unsuitable course.
‘And it isn’t simply stats – there is a human value behind the numbers.
‘Households depending on advantages, youngsters rising up with out the function mannequin of working mother and father, and ever larger taxes hitting the pockets of those that are in work to pay for these advantages.’
And public sector staff have been discovered to be 60 per cent extra prone to be off work attributable to sickness than workers within the personal sector.
The share of illness absences throughout the UK final yr amongst public sector workers was 2.9 per cent, in response to the ONS.
That is considerably larger than the personal sector’s 1.8 per cent.
The disaster has seen Labour attempt to slash £5billion from the nation’s welfare prices – which introduced on main infighting. Pictured: Demonstrator holds signal throughout protest in opposition to authorities plans to chop incapacity advantages in Parliament Sq., London, on June 30, 2025
It could possibly be defined by variations in forms of jobs within the sectors, the impartial statistics company mentioned.
Staff in state-funded jobs have been extra prone to be paid for being off than these in personal employment, it added.
However John O’Connell, chief govt of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, mentioned: ‘Taxpayers are fed up with footing the invoice for a public sector that is much more prone to be off sick.
‘It displays poor administration and weak accountability. Within the personal sector, this may increase critical questions – within the public sector, it is too typically ignored.
‘Ministers should set clearer expectations, higher oversight and guarantee taxpayers aren’t left footing the invoice for unchecked absenteeism.’
Sick charges have been larger within the public sector for yearly on file, the ONS mentioned. However in each instances, charges have been decrease final yr than in 2023.
The price of illness and incapacity advantages for working-age folks has ballooned by £20billion because the pandemic.
Projections present this is because of hit £100billion by 2029-30 – up from £65billion in 2023-24.
The disaster has seen Labour attempt to slash £5billion from the nation’s welfare prices – which introduced on main infighting.
The federal government gained a vote on its advantages invoice by simply 75 votes again in July, solely after providing last-minute concessions to rebels inside the occasion.
It had already diluted the plans by reversing some cuts to common credit score and defending present private independence fee (Pip) claimants from new stricter eligibility standards.
However some MPs nonetheless feared these new guidelines would are available earlier than suggestions from a assessment could possibly be put in place.
The issues noticed ministers make an additional U-turn, saying Pip standards would stay the identical till that they had thought-about the assessment’s conclusions.
It noticed the Common Credit score and Private Independence Cost Invoice lose its most vital measures – and Chancellor Rachel Reeves lose the vast majority of the much-needed financial savings.
The transfer additionally severely undermined the authority of Sir Keir Starmer, besieged by a sequence of U-turns since he got here into authorities final July.
The Prime Minister reversed his much-criticised resolution to take away the winter gasoline fee from tens of millions of pensioners to make financial savings of as much as £1.5billion a yr.
In more moderen instances, the Treasury has taken on youth unemployment with the Chancellor’s ‘youth assure’. Pictured: The Chancellor throughout her keynote speech on the Labour Occasion Convention on Monday
And the premier introduced there could be a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs, having beforehand mentioned it could not be needed.
In more moderen instances, the Treasury has taken on youth unemployment with the Chancellor’s ‘youth assure’.
The scheme will provide paid work to 18 to 21-year-olds who’ve been on common credit score for 18 months with out incomes or studying.
In the event that they refuse with out a good cause, they are going to be stripped of their advantages, Ms Reeves mentioned.
However hundreds of children on illness advantages is not going to be included within the scheme, the Treasury confirmed.
It means younger folks signed off work with nervousness or despair is not going to be compelled to attempt one of many government-backed jobs.
The Tories have warned the scheme dangers ‘incentivising’ those that ‘sport the system’.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately instructed the Day by day Mail: ‘Rachel Reeves’s so-called youth jobs assure is already unravelling.
‘By excluding younger folks on illness advantages, it dangers trapping many on welfare and even incentivising those that sport the system.
‘Worse nonetheless, Labour’s £25billion jobs tax and Unemployment Rights Invoice makes it more durable for companies to rent and for younger folks to get on.’
Ms Whately added: ‘If Labour have been critical about welfare reform, the Prime Minister would settle for Kemi Badenoch’s provide to assist him give you a financial savings plan to get the advantages invoice beneath management.’
Virtually one million 16 to 24-year-olds – equal to 1 in eight – will not be in schooling, employment or coaching, referred to as NEETs.
Imran Tahir, senior analysis economist on the thinktank the Institute for Fiscal Research (IFS), mentioned: ‘The important thing take a look at for this coverage might be whether or not it helps younger folks transfer into sustained jobs, somewhat than merely offering non permanent placements.
‘And for that to occur, the exact design of the coverage – and its skill to encourage employers to enroll to supply these placements – might be essential.’
