Rethink urged over £100bn annual cost of sick leave

Rethink urged over £100bn annual cost of sick leave

Work-related ill-health is costing Britain more than £100bn a year and throwing generations of families into poverty and social exclusion, according to a major report published yesterday.

Dame Carol Black, the national director for health and work and former president of the Royal College of Physicians, called in her report for an urgent and fundamental shift in attitudes to recognise that work is beneficial to health - and that people do not need to be 100% fit to be employed.

One of her key recommendations was that the sick note should be replaced by a "fitness note", in which the GP would outline what the employee is able to do, rather than what he or she cannot do.

Dame Carol found an alarming knock-on effect down the generations. "When parents are prevented from working because of a health condition the risk is not just that their children may end up in poverty, but that those children may experience worse health outcomes and face an increased likelihood that they themselves will be workless in the future."

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Young people should be encouraged to understand the benefits of a life in work, she said. "For most people, their work is a key factor in their self-worth, family esteem and identity. So if they become sick and are not helped quickly enough they can all too easily find themselves on a downward spiral into long-term sickness and a life on benefits ... their children suffer financially, emotionally and it can affect their long-term futures."

The cost of sickness absence and worklessness linked to ill-health, estimated at £100bn, was more than the entire NHS budget or the entire GDP of Portugal every year, the report said. Some 2.2 million people attribute their ill-health to work.

Acting early on when an employee is sick is crucial, the report said. "Early, regular and sensitive contact with employees during sickness absence can be a key factor in enabling an early return. Yet as many as 40% of organisations have no sickness absence management policy at all."

Tackling stigma around ill-health and disability - and in particular mental ill-health, where employers fail to appreciate what their employee is capable of - is key to allowing people to find and stay in work. GPs tend to underestimate a patient's abilities, without recognising the benefits that work has on health.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health said it hoped the report would signal a change in attitudes towards preventing long-term ill-health.

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Danny Alexander, called for the government to get help to people sooner. "This report highlights once more the human and economic cost of mental health which the government has ignored," he said. Ministers are to study the report.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008