British workers are getting "poorer and sicker" at a cost of £43bn a year as millions are unable to get help from the crumbling NHS, a new report warns today.
The IPPR think-tank said long NHS waiting lists and the UK's shrinking workforce showed urgent action was needed to reverse the trend of ill-health and prevent a life-changing impact on earnings for those affected.
It came as separate data showed the total number of days lost to sickness by UK workers jumped to a record high last year.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said about 185.6 million working days were lost owing to sickness or injury during the year, the highest since records began in 1995.
Minor illnesses, including coughs, colds, flu and diarrhoea, were the most common reason given for absences in 2022 (29.3 per cent), overtaking the “other” category which includes Covid-19.
The IPPR said that the number of people suffering from chronic health conditions had already started to rise sharply even before Covid hit, with two million more people reporting a mental health condition between 2016 and 2019. This cost workers who were affected an average of £2,200 in lost earnings because many were forced to give up their jobs or cut back their hours as a result.
The IPPR said while the loss in earnings was sharper before the pandemic, lockdowns then resulted in family members having to give up work themselves due to caring responsibilities.
Economists said these lost earnings had a significant impact on the economy, equivalent to 2pc of GDP or £43bn of output.
It added: "This is just one route by which health impacts on the economy.
"Lower business spend on overheads, business costs from sick days, lower production and the impact of short-term illness could be significant additions to this figure."
The research said poor health was to blame for more than half of the 3.3m people who left paid employment in the five years running up to the pandemic, with women and the low-paid most affected.
IPPR analysts said: "This suggests that the impact of poor health on earnings is not just a trend associated with the pandemic, but rather part of longer, unstudied trend of health’s impact on individual prosperity."
Almost a third of working age Britons said they suffered from some form of long-term illness, with the biggest increases recorded in cancer, diabetes and depression over the past decade.
The latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that five million people will be receiving welfare payments because of a health condition within five years.