/ 04 The numbers [ 04 ]

What is ill health costing your business each year?

Most businesses know their absence rate. Very few have costed it, and almost none have costed the days people spend at work unwell. Change the three figures and the estimate updates as you type.

A department, a site or the whole workforce. Places are allocated by you.
£
UK median for full time employees, April 2025 (ONS). Use your payroll average if you have it.
£
Essential£132 Advanced£231 Optimal Health£317 Beyond£725
Type any figure. The highlighted example is the corporate panel closest to your price. Every programme is priced per head to your brief, so other panels and combinations are quoted on request.

Ill health, per employee, per year

£2,497

£124,869 across 50 employees

Our programme, per employee, all in

£251

£12,540 in total: £231 per head plus £990 for on site sessions

The programme pays for itself if it removes 10% of that cost, which is the same as preventing 1.7 sick days per employee per year. of that cost, which is the same as preventing 1.3 sick days per employee per year. of that cost, which is the same as preventing 1.3 sick days per employee per year. of that cost, which is the same as preventing 1.3 sick days per employee per year.

Put another way: 84 working days recovered across the whole workforce (about 17 weeks); 2 people staying who would otherwise have left because of ill health; or 17 employees each taking one week less off.

Choose your own outcome. The slider controls one thing: how much of the annual cost of ill health shown above you believe the programme could remove in a year. Drag it to a percentage you think is realistic and the saving, the net return and the return on every £1 update against the investment. We do not choose this number for you, because it depends on what your people do with what they learn.

10%
0%Break even 10%
Annual saving£12,487
Net of the investment−£53
Back for every £1£1.00
Where the cost comes from

Cost of ill health

Sickness absence9.4 days each at £150 a day
£70,571
Working while unwell6.5 productive days lost each
£48,799
Replacing people lost to ill health1% of 50 at £11,000 each
£5,500
Annual cost
£124,869

Programme investment

Screening places50 at £231 per head
£11,550
On site practitioner sessions2 full days
£990
Total investment
£12,540

One day of an employee's time is valued at salary divided by working days. Nothing is added for employer National Insurance, pension or cover, so the daily figure is deliberately low.

Change the assumptions
All sectors average, CIPD 2025. Private sector 9.1; public sector 13.3. The ONS self reported figure is 4.4.
Keep Britain Working (2025) puts this at four to nine days per person. Default is the midpoint.
Around 300,000 people a year leave work for health reasons out of roughly 33 million in work. Not your total turnover.
£
Recruitment, onboarding and lost capacity. Keep Britain Working (2025) puts it above £11,000.
260 ignores holiday, which keeps the daily cost conservative.
What every place includes, and the tax position
Results explained in plain English Consultation with a GP Anonymised workforce health report for the board Delivered at your workplace by a qualified practitioner

One health screening assessment per employee per tax year is exempt from income tax and Class 1A National Insurance, so there is no P11D entry for your people and no 15% employer charge for you (HMRC Employment Income Manual, EIM21765). The cost is deductible against taxable profits in the normal way. The exemption does not apply if the benefit is offered through salary sacrifice. Confirm your own position with your accountant.

How this is calculated, and where the figures come from

The calculation

  • Daily cost of an employee = average salary divided by working days per year.
  • Sickness absence = employees × sick days × daily cost.
  • Working while unwell = employees × productive days lost × daily cost.
  • Replacing people lost to ill health = employees × leaver rate × replacement cost.
  • Investment = employees × price per head, plus practitioner sessions: up to 15 people is a half day, 16 to 30 a full day, and each further 30 another full day.
  • Break even = investment divided by the annual cost of ill health, shown also as sick days per employee.
  • The scenario applies the percentage you choose to the annual cost. It is your assumption, not our promise.

Sources

  • Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2025). Health and wellbeing at work 2025. London: CIPD in partnership with Simplyhealth.
  • Office for National Statistics. (2025). Employee earnings in the UK: 2025. Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
  • Office for National Statistics. (2025). Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2024.
  • Mayfield, C. (2025). Keep Britain Working review: Final report. London: Department for Work and Pensions.
  • O'Halloran, J., & Thomas, C. (2024). Healthy industry, prosperous economy. London: Institute for Public Policy Research. Estimates 44 days lost per employee; shown for transparency, not used as a default.
  • Llamas, P., & Martín Estévez, M. I. (2026). Return on investment in workplace health prevention and promotion: A systematic review (2003 to 2024). BMC Public Health.
  • HM Revenue & Customs. (n.d.). Employment Income Manual EIM21765. Section 320B ITEPA 2003.
  • HM Revenue & Customs. (2026). Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027.

These figures are estimates built from published national data and the assumptions shown. They describe the scale of the cost, not your accounts. Your own absence, salary and turnover figures will always give a better answer than the defaults, which is why every assumption can be changed.

Ask us for a per head quote

Your figures go into the email so we can quote from them. No minimum contract. Or book a call.