Work-related stress is the most common reason that leads employers to seek occupational health advice, an analysis of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics by Legal & General has shown.

An analysis of reasons for calling the government’s pilot Occupational Health Advice Lines found that stress, followed by back pain and depression, was the most common condition prompting enquiry.

The findings complement recent DWP research which found that only 17% of employers have any form of stress management advice and support in place, despite stress being a leading cause of workplace absence.

Reacting to the findings, Diane Buckley, Managing Director of Legal & General Group Protection, said:

“Stress is one of the leading causes of long-term absence so it is important employers seek advice in handling stress-related absence. Group Protection products can offer advisory services to clients to help them manage stress-related illness more effectively.

“Legal & General’s early notification programme, Workplace Recovery, utilises its exclusive partnership arrangement with CBT Services Ltd to help get people back to work. For example, employees who are absent from work because of stress can be offered up to 24 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) from this provider. Our success at helping employees back to work demonstrates the impact that specialist intervention can have, overall, seven out of ten stress claimants return to work.”

Stress is Britain’s leading cause of long term absence, according to a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) survey. Their absence management annual survey report recently highlighted that for non-manual workers, stress is the second biggest cause of short-term absence and the leading cause of long-term absence.

Credit: onrec.com