The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is backing plans that include using AI to monitor people's health and prevent them going onto sickness benefits. To reduce economic inactivity, it is investing £1.5 million in new occupational health initiatives.

These include a new warning system using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify signs of persistent ill-health at an early stage. The aim is to stop people from dropping out of the workforce and ending up on long-term incapacity payments.

Almost a third (31 per cent) of people on Universal Credit are unable to work and are claiming additional support of £416 a month on top of their regular payments, with many also getting the separate disability benefit PIP offering up to £737 a month. Others get similar support for poor health through ESA (Employment and Support Allowance).

According to the DWP, the number of economically inactive people in the UK has surged by 735,000 since the pandemic. Although it says levels remain below G7, EU and OECD averages, many are out of work due to long-term illnesses, largely driven by mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

READ MORE:

With long-term sickness the primary reason for working-age individuals being inactive, the DWP believes new occupational health services can be developed to intervene earlier so that people don't reach a stage where they quit the labour market. However, only 45 per cent of workers in Britain have access to some form of occupational health.

In light of this, the DWP and and Department for Health and Social Care have announced that five projects will share £1.5 million funding to boost occupational health services for small and medium-sized businesses. These will eventually be scaled up and made available to help more employees to stay in work.

Kinseed Limited is developing a "revolutionary cloud-based occupational health platform" to help maintain and improve employee wellbeing. Its new service MediWork uses AI to monitor individual health trends and identify early warning signs of ill-health as well as offering suggestions on what to do about it.

Pal Bhusate, chief executive officer at Kinseed Limited, added: "We're very excited to be working with cutting-edge technology in AI and Cloud systems to keep people healthy and safe at work - and this fund has been absolutely critical in helping us do precisely that.

"Supporting small and medium businesses in these areas is the only way that industries like ours can rapidly adapt to and get value from these incredible developments - and it's brilliant to see such positive and active support from government to encourage that agility and innovation."

Another organisation, Armour Labs Limited, is building a digital health hub for SMEs and the self-employed to reduce the cost of access to occupational health services. It will partner with digital healthcare providers and merge these services into health plans for UK employees which they can access through an online portal and mobile app.

Aleezay Malik, chief executive officer of Armour Labs Ltd, added: "Armour Labs is building the digital marketplace for employers to procure and deploy occupational health services that cater to their workforce's diverse and individual needs. Through the support of this fund, we are now in the process of testing and rolling out our solution in the market which we expect will make occupational health not only more accessible and affordable for businesses, but also reduce ill-health-related absenteeism by 30 per cent."

On top of this, the Government's £2.5 billion Back to Work Plan will support over a million people including those with mental health conditions to rejoin the workforce through the use of NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support, Restart and Universal Support programmes. For further details on DWP benefits and dealing with the cost of living, readers can subscribe to our Money Saving Newsletter.

Today's top DWP and money stories

Minister for Employment Jo Churchill said: "Time off work due to sickness costs British business £100 billion every year. The innovative solutions developed through this funding will benefit businesses as we harness AI and technology to support a healthier and more productive workforce.

"Delivering through our Back to Work Plan and Occupational Health Taskforce, we are driving down inactivity and helping people reach their potential both in work and their daily lives."

Minister for Health and Social Care Helen Whately said: "Every year many thousands of people take time off work - or leave work altogether - because of ill-health. But at the same time, there are millions of people who are working with health conditions, often supported by occupational health services.

"We want more people to be able to benefit from occupational health support, particularly people working in smaller businesses or those who are self-employed. That's why we're investing in these innovative approaches to occupational health.

"This sits alongside our plans for WorkWell which will help people access support to stay in work, and our fit note reforms. A healthy economy depends on a healthy workforce. Making sure people can be healthy and stay in work is crucial for individuals, businesses and our country as a whole."

Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp. Join our dedicated community to get the latest updates.