Sir Charlie Mayfield who is leading the government’s Keep Britain Working Review has highlighted that private medical insurance (PMI) and group income protection (GIP) have a role to play in tackling the UK’s labour inactivity crisis.
However he emphasised the review would be “agnostic” about the products and a plurality of solutions was required as there is no silver bullet to addressing the national issue.
Last November, Sir Charlie, the former chairman of John Lewis, was charged by the government with leading the Keep Britain Working Review, an independent review focusing on what more employers can do to tackle economic inactivity due to ill-health and disability.
It is expected that the government will release Sir Charlie’s findings later in the autumn.
Over the summer, there has been industry speculation that group income protection could become more mainstream following the review.
Sir Charlie (pictured centre right), was participating in a panel debate at the launch of Bupa’s 2025 edition of its Wellbeing Index.
‘Agnostic’ but both have a role
When asked specifically by Health & Protection about the role of PMI and GIP in solving the country’s labour inactivity issues, Sir Charlie revealed that the review is “agnostic” about the role of both products.
But Sir Charlie was clear that both have a role to play.
“The purpose of the review is not to promote one or the other at the expense of other things,” Sir Charlie explained.
“One of the things we found in our travels around the country is that there’s an enormous variation in terms of provision,” he continued,
“Our infrastructure is rich. You go to Manchester. You go to Glasgow. You go to Northern Ireland. You find people in different forms in different organisations – some private, some public, some public, some hybrid, all trying to tackle this issue.”
‘Great folly’
Sir Charlie added it would be a “great folly” to pick any one group and conclude they had all of the answers.
“Instead, what we need to do is enable and empower the many people who are already in this space to do more to support people to stay in work and again, that is one of the principles we’ve explored within the review,” Sir Charlie added.
“All provisions can help. All of those things you mentioned have a role to play, but I would not see any one thing as a silver bullet or answer to this one problem.
“The solutions have fundamentally got to be plural.”
