The Resolution Foundation warns that the benefits system, Universal Credit, is ill-equipped to deal with rising long-term sickness levels, as the number of people signed off without having to look for work hits 2.3 million.
The think tank highlights the challenges facing the next government as Universal Credit begins a full roll-out to seven million families.
The number of benefit claimants out of work from ill health has nearly doubled since Universal Credit was introduced in 2013 to 2.3 million.
Unemployment has plunged from 8.5pc in 2011 to only 3.8pc last year, and there are 35,000 couples with children in Britain where one or both parents are out of work.
The benefits system will need to change to reflect this, as the final stage of the biggest benefit reform in a generation is due to end with a system covering seven million families by 2029.
The Office for National Statistics estimates there are about 2.7 million people not in work or looking for a job because of health problems, about 600,000 more than before Covid.
