Bogus sick days cost firms £1.75bn

RECORD numbers of workers are taking unwarranted days off as Britain's 'sicknote culture' reaches epidemic proportions. The total number of sick days rose last year for the first time in five years to 176m, or 7.2 days per employee, a study found.

It is estimated that 15% of these are 'sickies', with many workers going missing on Mondays and Fridays to give themselves a long weekend.

The total cost of sick leave to business is £11.6bn a year, amounting to £475 per employee, with public sector workers the worst offenders.

Around 25m sick days were regarded as suspicious, costing an estimated £ 1.75bn in wages and the cost of cover.

The figures come just days after several supermarkets, including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, announced a crackdown on 'sickies' by limiting paid sick leave.

A separate survey recently revealed that 2.5m people are claiming long-term sickness benefits, four times as many as 20 years ago. That study suggests the Government is hiding the true number of jobless by putting millions on incapacity benefit.

Researchers for the Confederation of British Industry and Axa Insurance polled 500 companies about workers taking days off sick. More than three-quarters suspected staff of taking unwarranted days off.

The average number of sick days had remained steady since 1998, but rose by 10m last year.

Public sector employees took two more days off than those working for private firms, nine days compared with 6.9 days. With more than seven million workers in the public sector, the total number of days lost is 64m, at a cost of £4bn.

John Cridland, deputy director-general of the CBI, said the cost of workplace absence had become 'worryingly high', placing an 'enormous' burden on industry.

'Absence is a serious and expensive concern that is on the increase,' he said. 'Unwarranted long weekends and staff pulling sickies are taking their toll on the UK's ability to absorb the enormous cost of absence.

'With employees pulling sickies adding £1.75bn to last year's absence bill, companies will be concerned about staff awarding themselves days off during this summer's Euro 2004 football tournament.'

Researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have published a damning report suggesting that more than a million people who are able to work have been put on long-term incapacity benefit so they do not show up in unemployment statistics.

One of its authors, Professor Stephen Fothergill, said the total number had grown from 570,000 in 1981 to 2.1m last year. A further 400,000 claimed severe disability allowance.

The researchers estimate that 1,130,000 people have been diverted from unemployment benefits to sickness benefits. The official number of unemployed stands at 900,000.

'This suggests that Britain has more hidden unemployed among sickness claimants than visible unemployed on the claimant count,' said Fothergill. 'The true extent of unemployment is much greater than official figures indicate.'

Tory work and pensions spokesman David Willetts said: 'We are now in the absurd position that there are three times more people on sickness benefits than on unemployment benefit. Tony Blair is clearly letting people down.'

Cash benefits

BOSSES have no legal obligation to pay staff for the occasional days they take off sick, although most allow salaried workers a certain number of days absent without loss of pay.

Any employee off sick for four or more days at a time, who earns at least £79 per week, is entitled to statutory sick pay - currently £66.15 per week.

Employers must pay this for a maximum of 28 weeks. Some can claim a percentage of this back from the State.

Anyone who is off for more than seven days must provide a sick note from a GP.

At the end of the 28-week period, if the employee is still unfit for work, the employer is no longer obliged to pay sick pay and most workers will be put on incapacity benefit, which has a starting rate of £71.15 (£78.95 for under-45s) and goes up to £74.15 (£89.70 for under-45s) after a year, when it is classed as long-term incapacity benefit.

Critics say this discourages claimants from trying to recover and find work.

In 1997, Labour promised to cut the tax burden of benefit payouts and Chancellor Gordon Brown announced strict medical checks.

Since then, however, the numbers claiming incapacity benefits have risen.