900,000 Britons are too fat to work

That’s 5 times official figure, says academic

ALMOST 900,000 people in Britain are too fat to work, an expert has warned.

While the official number of those claiming sickness benefits for obesity is 160,000, the true figure is likely to be more than five times higher at around 880,000, Professor Dame Carol Black said.

Dame Carol, a former consultant rheumatologist who moved into academic research and is now principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, compiled a report for the Department for Work and Pensions last year looking at how obesity affects people’s ability to work.

Yesterday she said the Government data was not accurate because of the way claimants have to fill out forms. The former president of the Royal College of Physicians explained that those claiming benefits if they are too sick to work can only put down one pri- mary illness. This means hundreds of thousands who are obese may list other conditions linked to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes and heart problems, who are then not included in the figures of those who cannot work because of obesity.

Speaking about her report at the Hay Festival of Arts and Literature, Dame Carol, 77, said: ‘I was asked if obesity influences your ability to work and for those recorded as obese, can we get them back into work. Well the first thing is that there are only 160,000 people recorded in the benefits system as being obese – we know that cannot be true.

‘You’re only allowed to go into the benefits system with one primary leading diagnosis so you can’t say on your form, diabetes, obesity, arthritis. It doesn’t make any sense.

‘The analysts and the economists on [our] team think that if you look at the benefits system, diabetes, heart disease... the number is closer to 880,000.’ Around 2.3 million receive Employment and Support Allowance, a key benefit for illness and disability.

Dame Carol’s independent review said obese people on benefits should be forced to see a health advisor, in order to get more claimants back to work.

It added that job centres should refer those with a weight problem to slimming classes. But Dame Carol warned that people referred for non- surgical treatment only ever lose an average of 22lb.

She said she would like public opinion to turn against obesity as it turned against smoking.

‘I want it to be socially unacceptable,’ she said. ‘It seems the public doesn’t mind it. I’ve seen no feeling that it would be a good thing that we all try to be a more normal weight. It hasn’t caught on.’

Dame Carol added that doctors could no longer call their patients fat for fear of being politically incorrect or offending patients. She said: ‘If I were discussing with a patient their size I would now have to use very careful words.

‘You could always talk to someone about smoking. You always felt like you could have a sensible conversation. I couldn’t sit in front of them and ever use the word fat.’

Dame Carol was a government advisor on health and work from 2006 to 2016, and in 2013 was included in the Woman’s Hour Power List of 100 leading women.