To get Britain working we need to get Britain healthy

In the UK, 2.8 million people are economically inactive and in receipt of health related welfare benefits.1 Almost a million young people aged 18-24 years are not in education, employment, or training, and one in five of those receives health related benefits, largely for mental health conditions.2 Following a decade of austerity, and exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic, ill health and health inequalities have worsened in the UK such that it is the “sick (wo)man of Europe.”3

The UK has far higher rates of health related worklessness than most other comparable economies (including Germany, Sweden, and France).4 It faces a serious economic challenge because of stagnating growth and widening inequalities in productivity, which contribute to rising rates of poverty and further inequalities in health.5

Health related worklessness became a problem for the UK in the 1980s when rapid deindustrialisation led to mass unemployment, particularly in the north of England, Scotland, and Wales.1 Between the late 1970s and …