Employers have been told in a landmark government review that fixing Britain\u2019s health-related worklessness crisis will require them to spend \u00a36bn a year on support for their staff.<\/p>\n
In a major report before this month\u2019s budget, Charlie Mayfield warned that businesses needed to play a more central role in tackling a rising tide of ill-health that is pushing millions of people out of work.<\/p>\n
The former chair of John Lewis, who was appointed by ministers to lead the government\u2019s Keep Britain Working<\/a> review last year, said that a drastic expansion in occupational health was needed to help prevent hundreds of thousands of people from falling out of the workforce each year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to fix this,\u201d Mayfield told the Guardian. \u201cWhat we are proposing is a fundamental reset in terms of how health is handled in the workplace. We\u2019re saying we have to move from [a] situation where, for most people, health is for the individual and NHS \u2013 we have to move from that position to one where health becomes a true partnership between employers, employees and the health services generally.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not a small move, but a big move, and a fundamental shift.\u201d<\/p>\n Ministers have grown increasingly alarmed over a dramatic rise in the number of working-age adults falling out of the workforce due to health conditions over recent years, with young adults fuelling much of the increase.<\/p>\n As many as one in five working-age adults \u2013 more than 9 million in total \u2013 are now in a position termed by statisticians as \u201ceconomically inactive<\/a>\u201d, where they are neither in a job nor looking for one. For almost 3 million, the main reason is long-term sickness \u2013 the highest level on record.<\/p>\n In his highly anticipated report, Mayfield said the overall cost to the UK economy from this \u201cquiet but urgent crisis\u201d was as much as \u00a385bn a year, in a financial blow for the exchequer, businesses and individuals.<\/p>\n Ministers have been focused on cutting a sharp increase in the cost of providing health-related welfare support. The report said the cost from economic inactivity due to ill-health was \u201cunsustainable\u201d for the state, through lost output, increased spending on welfare, and additional burdens on the NHS.<\/p>\n However, the focus of Mayfield\u2019s report is to tackle the rise in costs by helping individuals to stay in a job with help from a drastically improved system of workplace support.<\/p>\n He said a new approach to health at work was required whereby the responsibility was shared between employers, employees and the government to help slash rates of sickness absence, improve return-to-work rates, and drive up the disability employment rate.<\/p>\n The report found a potential benefit of up to \u00a318bn a year for the economy and exchequer if the recommendations were applied across the workforce.<\/p>\n The government said more than 60 employers \u2013 including household names like British Airways, Nando\u2019s and Tesco \u2013 would take on Mayfield\u2019s recommendations in a vanguard programme over the next three years.<\/p>\n It said the scheme, which also involves regional mayors and dozens of small businesses from across the country, would act as early adopters to develop stronger approaches to workplace health.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Asking businesses to take on a more proactive approach could however prove contentious at a time when business groups have sounded the alarm that Labour\u2019s tax changes and employment policies have made it tougher to hire staff.<\/p>\n