Fixing Britain’s worklessness crisis will cost employers £6bn a year, report says
Employers have been told in a landmark government review that fixing Britain’s health-related worklessness crisis will require them to spend £6bn a year on support for their staff.In a major report before this month’s 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.The former chair of John Lewis, who was appointed by ministers to lead the government’s Keep Britain Working 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.“We need to fix this,” Mayfield told the Guardian.“What we are proposing is a fundamental reset in terms of how health is handled in the workplace.
We’re saying we have to move from [a] situation where, for most people, health is for the individual and NHS – we have to move from that position to one where health becomes a true partnership between employers, employees and the health services generally.“That is not a small move, but a big move, and a fundamental shift.”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.As many as one in five working-age adults – more than 9 million in total – are now in a position termed by statisticians as “economically inactive”, where they are neither in a job nor looking for one.For almost 3 million, the main reason is long-term sickness – the highest level on record.
In his highly anticipated report, Mayfield said the overall cost to the UK economy from this “quiet but urgent crisis” was as much as £85bn a year, in a financial blow for the exchequer, businesses and individuals.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 “unsustainable” for the state, through lost output, increased spending on welfare, and additional burdens on the NHS.However, the focus of Mayfield’s 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.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.
The report found a potential benefit of up to £18bn a year for the economy and exchequer if the recommendations were applied across the workforce.The government said more than 60 employers – including household names like British Airways, Nando’s and Tesco – would take on Mayfield’s recommendations in a vanguard programme over the next three years.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.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAsking businesses to take on a more proactive approach could however prove contentious at a time when business groups have sounded the alarm that Labour’s tax changes and employment policies have made it tougher to hire staff.Bosses have warned the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, against hitting firms with tax increases in her 26 November budget after her £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) last year.
Mayfield acknowledged businesses were facing a tough environment, but said companies could see the benefits from investing in employee health and that growing provisions further was a “win-win” for firms and the economy at large.“Employers must be in the lead.Some may resist that message amid tight margins and slow growth.But many already recognise they are carrying the cost of ill-health every day,” he said.His report recommended firms were likely to face a cost of £5-15 per employee per month to provide improved levels of occupational health – at an annual cost of about £6bn when spread across the economy at large.
For some firms, this would mark a sharp rise in spending,However, others, particularly larger employers, already spend significant sums on workplace health,Over time, Mayfield said he envisaged the workplace health schemes provided by employers becoming certified by the government, being integrated with the NHS app and reducing – or even replacing – the need for fit notes issued by healthcare professionals,Among other recommendations, Mayfield’s review also called on ministers to consider incentivising businesses to invest in workplace health through tax cuts and rebates for paying sick pay to employees,
Rise of the ‘porno-trolls’: how one porn platform made millions suing its viewers
When 73-year-old Tom Brown*, a retired police officer from Seattle, received a letter from Comcast, he might have mistaken it for a broadband bill. Instead, it was a subpoena. He had been sued in federal court for illegally downloading 80 movies. Some of the titles sounded cryptic – Do Not Worry, We Are Only Friends – or banal, like International Relations Part 2. Others were less subtle: He Loved My Big Ass, He Loved My Big Butt, and My Big Booty Loves Anal
Firms not supporting staff through IVF could lose £217m in hidden costs, study shows
UK employers who do not formally support staff undergoing fertility treatments could be losing £217.3m a year in sick leave, lost productivity and resignations, research estimates.Companies without fertility leave pay £35,317 per affected employee, compared with a cost of £388 for 10 days’ paid leave when a clear fertility policy is in place, the campaign group Fertility Matters at Work estimated.“Employees currently have no legal right to take paid time off work for fertility treatment,” said Alice Macdonald, the Labour MP for Norwich North, who will raise the findings in a 10-minute rule bill in parliament on Tuesday, in which she will put forward introducing a statutory right to paid time off for fertility appointments.She added: “A change in the law is not just a moral imperative but an economic one
Tell us: are you a UK centenarian or do you know one?
The number of centenarians (aged 100 years and over) in the UK has doubled from 8,300 in 2004 to 16,600 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.Between 2004 and 2024, the number of male centenarians has tripled from 910 to 3,100. During the same period, the number of female centenarians almost doubled from 7,400 to 13,600.We would like to hear from centenarians, their family or friends, about what it has been like to bear witness to the past century’s seismic events and changes.Looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self? What is your secret to a long life? Let us know
Women must be warned of home birth risks and have access to skilled midwives, experts say
Women must be given clearer warnings on the potentially fatal dangers of giving birth at home and should only be aided by experienced midwives, experts have said.Maternity services worldwide are dealing with an increase in the number of women with more complex pregnancies. Many are choosing to have their baby in a familiar environment, in the comfort and privacy of their own home. Some choose a home birth because having their first baby in hospital was “deeply traumatic” and they are reluctant to repeat the experience.But access to safe, reliable and unrestricted home birth services is patchy, and varies enormously depending on where you live, experts say
Phillipson calls for ‘less public debate’ from EHRC on gender recognition rules
Bridget Phillipson has urged the equalities watchdog to focus more on helping ministers do their jobs and less on having public debates as a row continues about how long it will take to implement new rules on gender recognition.The comments by Phillipson, who is the equalities minister as well as the education secretary, come after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the unusual step of urging the government to “act with speed” in approving its statutory guidance on responding to a landmark supreme court ruling on transgender rights.In a decision that delighted gender-critical activists, the UK supreme court ruled in April that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex.The EHRC compiled statutory guidance on how organisations should interpret the ruling and sent it to ministers for approval. But government officials have said it will take time to properly assess the 300-plus-page document and blamed the watchdog for delays in providing necessary information, including an equalities impact assessment
Pornography depicting strangulation to become criminal offence in the UK
Porn featuring strangulation or suffocation – often referred to as “choking” – is due to be criminalised, with a legal requirement placed on tech platforms to prevent UK users from seeing such material.Possessing or publishing porn featuring choking will become a criminal offence under amendments to the Crime and Policing bill tabled in parliament on Monday.In a separate amendment, victims of intimate image abuse will also have longer to come forward, with the time limit to prosecute extended from six months to three years.The government said this would help break down unnecessary barriers victims face when reporting a crime, “improving access to justice for those who need it the most”.The choking ban comes after a recommendation from a government review into pornography which found it has contributed to establishing strangulation as a “sexual norm”
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