DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Get Britain out of its sick bed and into work trends now
View
comments
On the face of it, the UK's headline unemployment figure of 1.3million published yesterday makes encouraging reading.
It means just 3.9 per cent of the working-age population are looking for work and have been unable to find it. This compares with six per cent across the EU.
In the smaller print below the headline, however, lurks a much more ominous story. One that threatens to strangle growth and dash hopes of economic recovery.
A staggering 2.55million people aged 16 to 64 are long-term sick and apparently unable to work at all. Over a million are under 50, including 234,000 under 25. This is 400,000 more than before the pandemic and appears still to be rising. So why?
The parlous state of the NHS is likely to have had an effect. The difficulty in making GP appointments and 7.3million on treatment waiting lists may well have led to minor ailments becoming major.
3.9 per cent of the working-age population are looking for work and have been unable to find it
Home working has fuelled ill-health. Then there are the effects of furlough and lockdown on the nation's energy levels. It's no surprise that the result of paying millions of people to do no work for 18 months has been an alternative pandemic of idleness.
Sick leave is exceptionally generous – especially in the public sector. And ministers imposing the highest tax burden for 80 years reduces the incentive to work hard.
Whatever the reasons, it is a massive drain on the nation's resources, with fewer workers paying higher taxes to support ever rising numbers claiming sickness benefits. If even a fraction found work, it would slash the welfare bill, increase productivity and boost tax receipts.
Should sickness levels continue ticking up, however, we are in danger
