Is Britain a nation of malingerers? Going by some of the newspaper stories of the last few months the answer must be “yes”. The story has a number of elements, each of which from time to time is the focus of attention, but which hang together:

• British workers take too much time off sick, especially in the public sector,
• Often they claim to have conditions like ‘stress’ that shouldn’t be taken seriously,
• The number of people who get Incapacity Benefit is rocketing - most of them should be looking for work, and
• The Government is hiding the true level of unemployment by not counting them as jobless.

In fact, all these claims are misconceived in one way or another, and this short report takes a careful look at them in turn. We argue:

• British workers do not take a lot of sick leave by international standards;
• Employers recognise that most sickness absence is genuine;
• In fact, many workers go to work when they are too ill;
• If we want to cut sickness absence we should turn our attention to creating better jobs – jobs that are more family friendly and less stressful;
• Sickness absence may be higher than it need be because of Britain’s extreme level of inequality;
• The public sector has a lower level of short-term sick leave than private sector, and the higher level of long-term absence is linked to public sector workers’ stressful jobs;
• Stress is a serious problem, and there is ample evidence that it has a significant effect on health;
• Despite all the attacks on Incapacity Benefit, the number who get IB is falling not rising - the growth in ‘incapacity benefits’ is due to rising numbers of disabled people receiving means-tested Income Support, a much harder benefit to cut;
• Fraud among people receiving IB is uncommon, and the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries face genuine health or impairment-related barriers to employment;
• In the 1980s and 90s IB was used to hide the true level of unemployment, but the current Government is not guilty of this;
• Nonetheless, a strategy to cut economic inactivity must include an active regional policy, aiming to provide jobs in parts of the country hit over the past 25 years by the collapse of traditional industries;
• A positive alternative will also include better health and safety management, active labour market programmes and benefit reforms that aim to help (but not coerce) people back into jobs, a sustained attack on inequality and a strategy to improve the quality of jobs.

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