Barriers to getting back into employment The Committee heard of the barriers that people with long- term illness faced going back into work which included— • Mental health issues, which, in many cases, have been exacerbated by the pandemic • Individuals anxious of face-to-face contact following the pandemic and a fear of catching covid • The need to retrain as a number of manufacturing companies shut down as a result of the pandemic • Long term unemployed people lacking confidence feeling their skills are redundant • Concern that people will become financially worse off if they go back to work as they will lose their benefits • Fear their entry into the job market could be short lived if health issues made it impossible to continue to work and that they would return to Universal Credit...