Tackling unemployment linked to long-term illness will unlock economic growth that is "hiding in plain sight", former John Lewis chair Sir Charlie Mayfield has said – as more than 250 of the UK's biggest employers signed up to his new Get Britain Working taskforce.
Official figures show the issue costs the UK £212bn a year. The companies signed up, including British Airways, Tesco, Royal Mail, Sainsbury's, EDF Energy, and Currys, as well as several government departments and 10 mayoral authorities including London and Manchester, will 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 signs up 250+ major employers to tackle £212bn cost of long-term illness.”
Sir Charlie told the BBC: "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.' 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."
His comments come as pressure grows on Andy Burnham, who is widely expected to take over as prime minister later this month, to reduce the UK's welfare bill. According to government figures, total welfare spending in Great Britain is forecast to be 23.6% of the total amount the government spends in the 2025 to 2026 financial year. Sir Charlie said his plans could help cut that bill. "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 added: "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 suggested Burnham would back his 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."
He said getting people back into work who are currently not working due to ill-health would be a simple way of boosting the workforce. "You wouldn't have had to build a single house, open a new channel of immigration, you wouldn't have to wait for a cohort of young people to join the workplace. This is basically growth hiding in plain sight."