Ill health support for workers could save over £1 billion
Providing more support for people with ill health to remain in work could save £1 billion, a report has found. The report warns ministers against cutting benefits.
As chancellor Rachel Reeves looks to save ahead of the 26th March spring statement, the cross-sector Commission for Healthier Working Lives is calling for a new approach in supporting the 8 million Britons with a health condition that limits their ability to work.
A separate analysis from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that the amount of days lost to work-related ill health has risen by a third since 2010 to 34 million days. This is costing £400 million to the UK economy.
The trade union body said that it stressed how important it is that the government’s employment rights bill, which will return to parliament this week, improves the quality of work in the country.
“We need to turn the corner on Britain’s low-rights, low-pay economic model that has been tested to destruction over the last 14 years,” Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said. “Giving working people more control and predictability over their lives will help create a happier, healthier and more robust workforce.”
The expert panel of business leaders, trade unions, and health specialists on the Commission for Healthier Working Lives has said that additional support to help people would save more money than it would cost. Keeping people in a job, it said, was essential for economic growth.
“A narrow focus on short-term benefit savings and reducing headline NHS waiting lists risks repeating past policy failures and limiting impact,” the report said.
The Commission for Healthier Working Lives has called for a step-change in job support for those with health conditions. A more proactive approach, it said, could help at least 100,000 more people remain in a job within five years.
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