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The number of workers in hospital with long-term illnesses has blown a £3bn black hole into Jeremy Hunt’s budget, according to a study commissioned by the Liberal Democrats.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, each person who loses their job due to long-term illness costs an average of £5,200 in tax revenue.
A House of Commons Library analysis examines the costs of a record number of people becoming economically incapacitated due to long-term illness.
According to the latest statistics, the number of people who lost their jobs due to poor health from October to December 2023 reached a record high of 2.8 million, an increase of approximately 625,000 people compared to the start of the current legislative session in 2019. This means that an increase in long-term illnesses under this administration is to blame. The Liberal Democrats say around £3 billion in tax revenue will be lost between 2023 and 2024.
NHS waiting lists for routine treatment in England have increased by nearly 400,000 to 7.6 million people since Rishi Sunak promised to cut them last year. The Prime Minister later admitted that he had failed to keep his promise.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio York, Mr Sunak said: still.
“Are we making progress? Yes, the plan is working. I know things will get better if we keep at it.”
Liberal Democrats are calling on the Chancellor to scrap plans to cut NHS spending by £1.3 billion in real terms from 2024 to 2025, calling it “woefully short-sighted” to cut health costs for so many people. ” he added. People are taking long sick leave.
To ease some of the pressure on the health service and speed up test results, Mr Hunt announced an £800m technology reform package in Wednesday’s budget.
Some of the funding will also be used for police operations, with artificial intelligence (AI) being introduced to cut scan times by a third.
The department said the changes, which are expected to be included in the Budget, could deliver gains worth £1.8bn to public sector productivity by 2029.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “Rishi Sunak’s failure to reduce NHS waiting lists is damaging the economy and burning a hole in public finances.” Millions of people are struggling to see a GP, are in pain and waiting months for hospital treatment, and are taking record numbers of long-term sick leave.
“The chronic neglect of health services by successive Conservative cabinet ministers is hurting our economy and preventing us from realizing our great country’s full potential.
“Jeremy Hunt needs to put health at the heart of the Budget and reverse the woefully short-sighted NHS spending cuts. He needs to solve the health crisis, tackle the NHS backlog and get people back to work. Without support, we cannot get our economy fully up and running again.”
We have asked the government for comment.
Meanwhile, recent polls have revealed that Mr Hunt’s new seat of Godalming and Ash – the brick part of the ‘Blue Wall’ – is now under attack from the Liberal Democrats.
According to a Survation poll commissioned by campaign group 38 Degrees, the Liberal Democrats currently have 35% of the vote, the Conservatives 29% and Labor 22%. This suggests Mr Hunt is likely to become the first sitting prime minister in modern times to lose his seat in the House of Commons.
The findings also suggest that his own voters prioritize NHS issues above all else. When asked to identify the issue that would determine their vote in an election, ‘health and the NHS’ came out on top, followed by the cost of living and the economy in general. Only 4% said taxes were the main issue in the election.
Around 59% of local voters said they had experienced difficulty getting a GP appointment for a close friend or family member, and almost half said they had struggled to get an appointment themselves.