| Note: | 8.2 million working-age people report having a long-term health condition that limits their ability to work. While employment rates for this group have improved in recent decades, only half are in work today. Each year, over 300,000 people leave their jobs and end up out of the workforce entirely with work-limiting health conditions.
This has resulted in substantial costs for individuals, employers and the wider economy, and risks deepening existing inequalities. The cost of inaction is high and only likely to grow.
The final report from the Commission for Healthier Working Lives makes recommendations for a bold long-term vision for a new approach, setting out practical steps to shift policy and action towards preventing people from having to leave the workforce. Reform should be guided by the following aims:
- prevention through best practice
- capacity for early, joined-up support
- incentives to support preventative action. |