As employers face growing pressure to reduce long-term sickness absence and keep more people economically active, new data from Aviva highlights the increasingly important role group income protection is playing in helping employees recover and return to work.
The insurer’s latest Group Protection Claims and Wellbeing Insight Report reveals that rehabilitation support is now extending across a broader range of health conditions, with long-term conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis and long Covid emerging as the second biggest area of support after mental health.
The findings reinforce a growing message across workplace health: early intervention and personalised rehabilitation are becoming critical to keeping Britain working.
Long-term conditions become a growing workplace challenge
For the first time, long-term conditions outside traditional rehabilitation pathways represented Aviva’s second largest area of intervention.
During 2025, Aviva’s rehabilitation team supported 489 employees living with conditions including:
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Arthritis
- Long Covid
Encouragingly, 76% returned to work during the year.
This reflects a broader shift in employer health priorities, as organisations increasingly grapple with complex and often fluctuating conditions that can be difficult to diagnose, manage and accommodate in the workplace.
These conditions often require far more than standard absence management processes.
Instead, successful return-to-work outcomes depend on tailored clinical support, flexible workplace adjustments and ongoing communication between employees, clinicians and employers.
Group income protection rehabilitation delivers strong return-to-work outcomes
Across its wider group income protection proposition, Aviva delivered clinical and vocational rehabilitation support to 2,656 employees across 350 UK employers in 2025.
The results point to the effectiveness of earlier, more personalised intervention.
Overall:
- 85% of employees receiving vocational rehabilitation returned to or remained in work
- 95% of employees receiving mental health support returned within their policy deferred period
- 83% of employees supported through the cancer pathway returned to or stayed in work
- 95% of musculoskeletal rehabilitation cases returned within the deferred period
These figures add weight to growing calls for employers to move beyond reactive absence management and towards more preventative, joined-up health support.
Mental health remains the biggest driver of early intervention
Mental health continued to account for the largest share of rehabilitation referrals, making up 46% of all cases.
Employees accessing services such as counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy saw particularly strong outcomes, with the vast majority returning to work before longer-term claims were triggered.
This underlines an increasingly well-established principle in workplace wellbeing: speed matters.
Accessing support earlier can significantly reduce both the duration of absence and the likelihood of conditions escalating into long-term worklessness.
Cancer and women’s health support in sharper focus
The report also highlights the growing need for specialist cancer rehabilitation.
Aviva supported 417 employees with cancer in 2025, the highest annual number to date.
Notably:
- 77% of new cancer cases were women
- 23% were aged under 40
- Cancer referrals increased significantly compared with previous years
Aviva’s structured cancer pathway includes emotional support, fatigue management, nutritional guidance and phased return-to-work planning.
The broader data also showed that women accounted for six in ten rehabilitation cases, underlining the role group income protection can play in supporting women’s health across the workforce.
Neurodiversity and neurological support continues to grow
One of the most notable trends was a 40% increase in employees supported through Aviva’s neurodiversity pathway.
The pathway offers:
- Specialist coaching
- Workplace adjustment support
- Manager training
- Tailored return-to-work guidance
Meanwhile, neurological referrals rose by 25%, reflecting increasing employer recognition of conditions that require more nuanced workplace support.
Why this matters for the Keep Britain Working agenda
The findings land at a significant moment for UK employers.
With the Government’s Keep Britain Working review placing greater emphasis on prevention, retention and reducing health-related economic inactivity, insurers are increasingly positioning group income protection as part of the solution.
Daren Boys, Protection Portfolio Distribution Director at Aviva, said the data demonstrates the value of tailored support for often misunderstood long-term conditions.
He noted that conditions such as long Covid and fibromyalgia can be unpredictable and require multidisciplinary support combining both clinical intervention and workplace adaptation.
A growing business case for early rehabilitation
For organisations looking to build healthier, more resilient workforces, the message is clear: effective rehabilitation is not simply about helping people return once they have reached crisis point. It is an increasingly important part of a broader preventative strategy — one that identifies issues earlier, intervenes faster and creates the conditions for employees to stay well and productive for longer.
As the focus on keeping Britain working intensifies, that makes group income protection not just a safety net, but potentially a proactive tool for prevention too.
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