Civ-ill Service

Government workers took more days off sick than the private sector every year since 1995

- Martyn Brown

CIVIL Servants have taken more sick days than the private sector every year since 1995, analysis shows.

The cost of bureaucrat ill-health absence was more than £459million in 2023 alone, said the Taxpayers Alliance.

Research by the pressure group found that the public sector sickness rate was 3.6% in 2022 compared with 2.3% in the private sector.

The last time the disparity between the public and private sectors was this large was in 2009.

TPA number-crunchers also found senior civil servants lost an average of 2.3 days a year to sickness in 2023.