Worklessness due to long-term sickness has risen seven-fold in parts of the country since Covid, according to startling figures laying bare the crisis Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to tackle.

The Government estimates that around 2.8million people are currently off work with a continuing illness. This is up by around 700,000 on before the pandemic.

Dire forecasts warn this could exceed 4million by 2030, with much of the explosion down to an increase in benefits for mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Declaring war on benefits Britain to try to tame the £137billion welfare bill, the Prime Minister promised ‘sweeping changes’ in an article written for the Mail on Sunday.

He said this would include a blitz on cheats and those who ‘game the system’.

Currently 9.25million Britons are neither in a job or looking for one, equating to more than a fifth of the working-age population. It includes a near-record figure for those signed off with long-term sickness.

MailOnline analysis shows 18.7 per cent of Dover’s working-age population are now economically inactive due to a long-term illness.

This is the equivalent of 12,800 out of the 68,400 residents aged 16-64.

For comparison, the figure stood at just 2.6 per cent in 2019.

South Staffordshire logged the second-largest rise in sickness-related worklessness, according to MailOnline’s audit of ONS figures.

Rates jumped from 2.7 to 13.3 per cent between 2019 and 2024.

According to the figures, 35 local authorities – roughly one in ten – have seen health-related economic inactivity double since the pandemic.

The figures are estimates, based on self-reported cases of long-term illness.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will this week announce new legislation to ‘get Britain working’.

Labour’s plans include giving the NHS a role in getting people back to work, such as employing tens of thousands of people who are economically inactive for health reasons in non-clinical roles.

Ms Kendall’s White Paper is also expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics.

The number of people claiming incapacity benefits is forecast to rise from 3.2m last year to 4.2m in 2029 – costing Britain £35.5bn by the end of the decade.

In 2019, there were 2.5m people claiming these benefits, at a cost of £17bn.

These numbers are higher than the total out of work due to long-term sickness, as some who receive disability benefits such as personal independence payments (PIP) are in work.

A significant proportion of this rise is due to claims for mental health conditions and learning disabilities, which are a third of all disability claims.

The amount spent by taxpayers on ADHD claims alone has shot up from £700,000 a year in 2013 to £292m today, a rise of more than 41,000 per cent.

Millions more are out of work across the country for other reasons, such as studying at university, being retired or looking after their family.

Being a student used to be the leading cause of economic inactivity – but long-term sickness overtook it in late 2021.

Nearly 30 per cent of economically inactive people are so because of ill-health – up from 25 per cent before the pandemic.

Across England, Scotland and Wales the number of people out of work because of a long-term illness rose by nearly 20 per cent between 2019 and 2024.

Of those economically inactive due to long-term illness, depression, bad nerves or anxiety has consistently been the most common primary or secondary cause.

The numbers rose by nearly 390,000 or 40 per cent, from around 965,000 in 2019 to around 1.35million in 2023, ONS figures show. This is the greatest total rise of all reported conditions.