'SHOCKING' TOLL OF 500,000 SICK DAYS AT TAX OFFICES

MPs warn yearly HMRC staff absences costing millions are 'unfair on taxpayers'

- Steph Spyro

CIVIL servants in tax offices took more than 500,000 sick days in each of the last three years, new figures show.

The Tories blasted a "sickness culture" the public sector as the "unfair" absences cost in taxpayers millions of pounds when the UK "can least afford it".

Shadow cabinet minister Helen Whately said: "These statistics are shocking far too many days are being lost to sick leave.

She stressed: “This is unfair on taxpayers and damaging to productivity. People should only be signed off if they are genuinely too ill to work. Too many sick notes are handed out without proper care or consideration for what’s best for patients, employers and taxpayers.”

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Whately, below, said: “This broken system is keeping people out of work and holding the country back from growth. The last Conservative Government began the reforms needed to fix the sick note system and help people back into work but Labour scrapped them. Instead, their watered-down Welfare Bill will push more people out of work while Britain is already struggling under Labour's economic mismanagement.

“Only the Conservatives have a serious plan to cut the welfare bill, restore productivity and get Britain working again.” A Freedom of Information request disclosed that the total of sick days declared by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs between August 2024 and July 2025 was 551,064 down slightly from the 565,244 taken the previous year, but up on the 540,052 recorded from August 2022 to July 2023. It amounts to more than 1.6 million days over three years. With around 65,000 staff that equates to about eight sick days per HMRC employee per year.