A surge in workforce dropouts due to rising levels of long-term illness has turned the UK into the “literal sick man of Europe” and is costing the state 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) a year in lost tax receipts, according to new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank.
Around 900,000 more working-age Britons are now inactive - neither in work nor looking for a job - than at the start of Covid in 2020, with many falling onto costly disability benefits. If trends continue inactivity due to sickness will rise to 4.3 million from 2.8 million today, the IPPR’s cross-party Commission on Health and Prosperity found.
Addressing the problem could solve many of Britain’s most pressing economic challenges, including low growth and productivity. Better health would save the National Health Service 18 billion pounds a year by the mid-2030s, improve regional equality and boost pay, the IPPR said.
The commission concluded that solving the health crisis is “the most important medicine our economy needs for the faster growth.”
The findings echo similar analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility that better health would curtail a debt burden that is projected to reach 270% of GDP by the mid-2070s unless the government takes action.
Soaring levels of long-term sickness have been accompanied by rocketing disability benefit claims. The OBR earlier estimated that the combined impact of lost workers and a bigger benefit bill is costing the state around 15 billion pounds a year.
Inactivity has hit the UK harder than other Group of Seven countries, where participation rates at back above pre-Covid levels. In Britain, the working-age activity rate is around a percentage point lower than in 2019.
The IPPR said: “We lag our peers on health outcomes, the number of people with a long-term condition is rising and people are spending longer proportions of their live in ill health.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the conclusions of the report and said: “We won’t build a healthy economy without a healthy society.”
The report made a number of key recommendations built around the principle of moving to a preventative health-care system. The UK needs more community infrastructure, higher standards for health at work and more integrated health and employment support services, the IPPR said.
The IPPR commission was chaired by top surgeon Lord Ara Darzi, a member of Parliament’s upper chamber who recently published a separate report on the NHS for the government calling for 37 billion pounds of urgent investment, and Professor Dame Sally Davies, former chief medical officer for England.
The commissioners include Andy Burnham, Manchester mayor and a former health secretary, and Lord James Bethell, a former Conservative health minister.
