More than 250 of the UK's biggest employers, including British Airways, Tesco, Royal Mail, and several government departments, have signed up to a taskforce aimed at tackling unemployment linked to long-term illness – a problem that Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former John Lewis chair, says is costing the country £212bn a year and represents “growth hiding in plain sight”.
The Get Britain Working taskforce, which also includes Sainsbury's, EDF Energy, Currys, and ten mayoral authorities such as London and Manchester, will require members to track sickness absence, return-to-work outcomes, and disability participation. The government said this would make workplace health performance visible for the first time.
“Sir Charlie Mayfield's taskforce of 250+ employers aims to cut £212bn cost of work-related ill-health.”
Sir Charlie said his plans could help cut the UK's welfare bill, which is forecast to be 23.6% of total government spending in the 2025-26 financial year. His comments come as pressure grows on Andy Burnham, widely expected to become prime minister later this month, to reduce welfare spending and free up money elsewhere.
“I can't tell you how many people I've met who said: 'I was signed off work for three months, or six months, and I never had any contact with my employer at all,'” Sir Charlie told the BBC. “That's not because the employer is a bad person. It's because we've got a situation at the minute where people don't talk to each other when they really need to.”
He stressed the initiative is not about forcing ill people into work – a concern some employers and campaigners have raised. “This is not a zero-sum game. It's not a question of employers win and employees lose and vice versa. Everybody can win.”
Sir Charlie said getting people who are currently not working due to ill-health back into employment would boost the workforce without requiring new housing, immigration, or waiting for a new cohort of young people. “Fixing these problems at the fundamental level could make a really big contribution to getting this economy working better – for employers, for employees, for the taxpayer, for all of us.”
He suggested Burnham would back the plans. “I can't see any reason why he wouldn't because of what Andy has said about good growth. If this isn't good growth, I'm not sure what is, quite frankly.”
However, some employers have previously said that tax rises mean many firms cannot afford to invest in workplace health, while others have warned against pushing ill people into work. The taskforce's success may depend on whether the next prime minister shares Sir Charlie's conviction that this is the hidden key to economic growth.