Webinar: Healthy People, Prosperous Lives

The UK is getting poorer and sicker as a nation. The central thesis of the IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity is that these are not unrelated trends. This event will explore this idea further, drawing on an interim report of the commission.

That report - which using seven years of panel data, explores what happens to people following the onset of a long-term physical or mental illness, all else being equal - will show that the onset of poor health precedes:

• A substantial fall in labour income, impacting millions of working age people
• A much higher risk of leaving work, with illness implicated in over half of employment exits between 2014 and 2019.
• Lower job satisfaction and barriers to productive work
• Weaker GDP and labour market outcomes
• A more unfair and unbalanced economic model.

In a moment defined by multiple, long-standing economic challenges, our report shows that health is the medicine the UK economy needs.

At this event we heard from:

• Dame Sally Davies, Co-chair of the IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity and former Chief Medical Officer for England
• The Rt Hon Sir Oliver Letwin, former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and former Shadow Chancellor
• Professor Clare Bambra, Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University
• Chris Thomas, Head of the Commission on Health and Prosperity at IPPR

You can watch the recording of the event below.