Edward Davies at the Centre for Social Justice told peers that the degree of Britain’s ill-health crisis is a particularly dire threat to the public purse.
“At a very fundamental level, the financial cost to the Exchequer of the benefits bill now is getting very very serious,” he said.
“From the beginning to the end of the decade, you are seeing a doubling towards £76bn for incapacity [and] health benefits. How do we afford to keep going on with the status quo?
“You have so many people who are now falling out of work through ill health – they are not contributors, they are net detractors from the economy. They are not paying taxes, they are not earning an income, so that is a major problem.”
Particularly worrying is the rise in sickness among under-25s.
While musculoskeletal problems are pushing older Britons out of work, for the younger generation it is mental health that is posing a particular scourge.
According to the Resolution Foundation’s Murphy, real-terms spending on children’s disability benefits has more than doubled in the past decade.
“Some of the increases among young adults, and in fact, among children are really striking,” she told the Lords’ committee.
“The strange phenomenon going on at the minute is the number of younger people dropping out of work,” Davies added. “That has a very long-term scarring impact, both on them and the economy.
“Seeing young people coming straight out of university and jumping onto benefits means they are not just costing something now – if they are out for six, 12 months, they might be costing [the economy] for the rest of their lives.
“There is a financial cost for the Exchequer, and a huge scarring effect on that individual, a loss of potential for the country.”