Half of people (50%) living with multiple sclerosis (MS) say they have left a job because of factors relating to their condition, including a lack of support from their employer and/or from government, research has found.

The poll of 1,125 people with MS by The Work Foundation think-tank at Lancaster University and the MS Society charity found half also felt forced to stay in a job that made their condition worse, and a third (31%) felt they were currently working below their skill level as a result.

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It is estimated around 150,000 people in the UK are living with MS. The disabling condition is unusual in that it is typically diagnosed when people are in their thirties or forties – so the prime of their working lives – and women are almost three times more likely to have MS than men.

The half (50%) who said they felt trapped in their current job pointed to a lack of support and financial pressures as the main reasons for them having no option but to stay in a role that compromised their health.

A quarter of those who had dropped out of the workplace (28%) said better government support – such as access to improved benefits – would have helped them to stay in work.

More than a quarter as well (26%) said better employee benefits, including occupational sick pay, would have supported them to stay in the workplace.

Nearly half (45%) of those who left work said that, if their employers had understood MS better, they could have stayed in work.

More than four out of 10 (41%) said proper implementation of reasonable workplace adjustments – such as working from home or allowing more frequent breaks – would have helped them to stay in work.

The same percentage of those with MS in work got PIP (personal independence payments), and often cited to the researchers how they used it to help them stay in work.

The Work Foundation highlighted that this illustrated how the government’s welfare cuts could risk making this picture worse, with more people dropping out of the workforce and more pressure being shifted on to the NHS.

Ross Barrett, policy manager for the MS Society, said: “This stark new research shows many people with MS are leaving work before they want or need to. Or they feel forced to compromise their health due to financial pressures. Everyone with MS deserves the opportunity to thrive at work and realise their full potential. But a lack of support from employers and the government is making this impossible.

“Living with MS can be debilitating, exhausting and unpredictable – not to mention expensive. But access to PIP allows people to meet their extra costs. Including visits from carers to help with things like washing, cooking and getting to work in the morning.

“We’re calling on the UK government to rethink and reverse their proposed welfare cuts. And focus on conducting a full review of PIP and the wider social security system. We need the system to better support people with MS in and out of work,” Barrett added.

The Work Foundation at Lancaster University and the MS Society are holding a one-hour webinar this afternoon (Tuesday 3 June) from 2pm to discuss the findings of the research and its wider ramifications for the workplace, for individuals with MS, and for benefits reform.

Registration for those interested in attending can be found here.

 

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