Number of long-term sick hits record high of 2.6 million
The level of illness among the UK population is costing lives and harming the economy, a report has warned – after the number of people off work due to long-term sickness hit another record high.
More than 2.6 million people now do not have jobs because of their health, according to latest employment data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The all-time high comes after an additional 491,433 adults were added to the official total in the three months from May to July, figures released on Tuesday revealed.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said in a report on Wednesday that the issue had become a “serious fiscal threat” to the UK – and to individuals’ health.
The think tank blamed long NHS waiting lists and other problems faced by the public in accessing treatment, and said reform was urgently needed to avert “killer” costs while also ending second-rate care.
It comes after the number of patients in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment topped a record high of 7.6 million.
People aged between 16 and 64 who are not in employment due to long-term sickness are officially classed as “economically inactive”, rather than unemployed, because they are either not looking for a job or are unable to work.
Overall economic inactivity – including students in the age range and those not seeking employment for other reasons – rose by 0.1 percentage points during the period to 21.1%, according to the official figures.
The ONS said that while the rate had generally been falling in recent decades, it increased during COVID and is currently still above pre-pandemic levels.
The IPPR pointed the finger at what it said was a decline in the quality of health care – and said the UK was increasingly “spending more to get less”.
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Call for more help to get millions of long-term sick back into employment
One in five adults in England will be living with major diseases by 2040
“The number of deaths that could have been avoided with timely healthcare or public health interventions is much higher in the UK than in all other comparable European nations,” the report said.
“We estimate that if the UK had an avoidable mortality rate similar to those in comparable European countries, around 240,000 fewer people would have died in the decade from 2010.”
It added: “On the post-pandemic trajectory, new modelling commissioned for this report finds government healthcare spending in England is on course to rise from 9% of GDP [gross domestic product] to 11.2% of GDP by 2033/34.
“This is much faster than the rate at which we expect the economy to grow, suggesting cuts for other public services or rationing of health and social care services.”
The think tank said reforms, such as better integrated services in neighbourhood “health hubs” and improvements to social care, along with better pay and rights for healthcare workers, could save taxpayers up to £205bn over a decade.
Lord Bethell, former health minister and commissioner, said: “Sick Britain is costing us our lives, our livelihoods and harming the UK economy.”
He added: “We must start taking action to reduce demand and need for healthcare, through prevention.”
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One in five to have major illness by 2040
Downing Street acknowledged on Tuesday that improvements were needed in tackling long-term sickness.
The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “We recognise there is more to do to help get people back into work or into the workforce more generally.”
He added: “We are introducing a package of measures worth £3.5bn to remove barriers to the labour market, to support people who would like to work including those with disabilities or health conditions.”
But Nicola Smith, head of economics and rights at the TUC, said: “This is yet another example to add to the government’s catalogue of economic failures with rapidly rising unemployment alongside record numbers of people unable to find work because of ill health.”
The government recently unveiled proposals to shake up disability benefit assessments as part of efforts to encourage economically inactive people to enter the workforce.
But concerns have been raised that the reforms could force people into jobs when they are not well enough and make them more ill.
Hannah Slaughter, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, described the rising number of people who are too sick to work as a “worrying trend”.
She added: “Addressing this issue will require more than just reforms to benefit assessments, it will need to mean more support for those in work too.”
Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has pushed back against a report in The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “hit piece” filled with inaccuracies and negative assumptions.
In an X post, Zhao criticized the publication’s portrayal of his alleged involvement with World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project backed by a business entity affiliated with US President Donald Trump. Trump’s sons — Eric and Donald Jr. —are involved in the management of the company.
Zhao said the WSJ article portrayed him as acting as a “fixer” for the WLF team and its co-founder Zach Witkoff during foreign trips.
The article suggested Zhao facilitated introductions and meetings for WLF leaders during foreign trips, including a visit to Pakistan that reportedly resulted in a memorandum of understanding with a local official.
“I am not a fixer for anyone,” Zhao said, firmly denying that he connected Pakistani official “Mr. Saqib” with WLF or organized any engagements abroad. “They had known each other way back, whereas I only met with Mr. Saqib for the first time in Pakistan.”
WSJ reports on Steve and Zach Witkoff
Zhao’s response follows a WSJ investigation highlighting a complex string of diplomatic and business interests involving WLF.
The report raised concerns about the blurred lines between public duties and private interests and focused on diplomatic and business dealings involving WLF co-founders Steve Witkoff and his son, Zach Witkoff. Steve Witkoff serves as the US Special Envoy to the Middle East under the Trump administration, while Zach Witkoff has been involved in securing a reported $2 billion crypto deal.
The report raised questions about whether diplomatic efforts overlapped with private crypto ventures, and implied Zhao may have been attempting to curry favor with the Trump administration
On May 6, Zhao confirmed that he is seeking a pardon from the Trump administration for his earlier money laundering conviction.
The report also highlighted that WLFI, which raised over $600 million in token sales, does not disclose the names of all its investors aside from some publicly known ones like Tron founder Justin Sun, who attended Trump’s memecoin dinner on May 22.
Trump hosted the dinner for the largest investors of his Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin. Sun, Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu and BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia were among attendees and shared photos of the event.
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Zhao claims the WSJ report is an “attack” on crypto
Zhao claimed the WSJ submitted a list of questions containing what he described as “wrong and negative assumptions.” He and his public relations team responded by pointing out several factual inaccuracies, he said, but concluded that the article was “built on a flawed narrative.”
Zhao slammed the WSJ, calling it a “mouthpiece” for anti-crypto forces in the United States. He said the forces behind the publication want to hinder efforts to make the US a crypto capital.
“They want to attack crypto, global crypto leaders and the pro-crypto administration,” CZ claimed, saying the article is part of a broader effort to stifle the industry’s growth in the US.
This is not the first time Zhao has clapped back at the WSJ recently. In an April 11 report, the publication cited anonymous sources alleging that Zhao agreed to testify against Tron founder Justin Sun as he settled with US prosecutors.
CZ dismissed the report, saying that people who become government witnesses don’t go to prison and are protected. CZ also claimed that someone paid WSJ employees to smear his name.
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Cetus is offering a $6 million white hat bounty in an effort to recover $220 million in stolen digital assets, while emergency responses from the Sui Network have raised concerns about decentralization.
Sui-native decentralized exchange (DEX) Cetus was exploited for over $220 million worth of cryptocurrency on May 22. However, Cetus managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds shortly after.
Cetus has since offered a white hat bounty of up to $6 million for the exploiter for returning the stolen 20,920 Ether (ETH), worth over $55 million, along with the rest of the stolen funds currently frozen on the Sui blockchain.
“In exchange, you can keep 2,324 ETH ($6M) as a bounty, and we will consider the matter closed and will not pursue any further legal, intelligence, or public action,” Cetus wrote in a message embedded in a blockchain transaction on May 22.
However, Cetus will “escalate with full legal and intelligence resources” if these assets are off-ramped or sent to cryptocurrency mixers and not returned promptly.
A white hat bounty is offered to ethical hackers who seek protocol vulnerabilities to prevent future exploits.
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Cryptocurrency hacks soared to $90 million across 15 incidents in April, a 124% increase from March when hackers stole $41 million worth of digital assets.
Meanwhile, the industry is still recovering from the largest crypto hack, which saw Bybit exchange lose over $1.4 billion on Feb. 21, 2025.
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SUI considers emergency white list function to override transactions
Meanwhile, GitHub activity shows the Sui team has considered implementing an emergency whitelist function that would allow certain transactions to bypass security checks, potentially to recover funds linked to the hack.
“It appears that the Sui team asked every validator to deploy patched code so they could take away @CetusProtocol hacker’s $160 million via an unsigned tx,” said Chaofan Shou, a software engineer at Solayer Labs.
However, an unnamed Sui engineer told Shou that “validators held off deploying this and currently they are only denying tx that involves hacker’s objects,” he said in a May 22 X post.
The move has sparked criticism among decentralization advocates, who argue that the ability to override transactions contradicts the principles of a decentralized permissionless network.
Despite widespread criticism in the crypto community, some saw the rapid response as a sign of progress, not centralization.
“This is what real world decentralization looks like. Not just powerless, but responsive and aligned with the community,” said pseudonymous crypto sleuth Matteo, adding that decentralization “isn’t about standing by while people get hurt, it’s about the power to act together, without needing permission.”
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Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange operating on its own layer-1 blockchain, has submitted formal comments on 24/7 derivatives trading to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In a May 23 X post, Hyperliquid Labs announced that it has “submitted two comment letters to the [CFTC] in response to its recent Requests for Comment on perpetual derivatives and 24/7 trading.” The team behind the decentralized exchange (DEX) added:
“We commend the CFTC for its proactive engagement on these topics, understanding of which is fundamental to the evolution of global markets.”
Hyperliquid stated that it is committed to the advancement of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. The team also claimed that its implementation “exemplifies how core DeFi principles can be put into practice to enhance market efficiency, market integrity, and user protection.”
Related: CFTC exodus: Fourth commissioner to depart ‘later this year’
CFTC’s 24/7 derivatives plans
Hyperliquid’s remarks follow CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger recently saying that crypto perpetual futures contracts could receive regulatory approval in the US “very soon.” Perpetual crypto futures “can come to market now,” she said.
“We’re seeing some applications, and I believe we’ll see some of those products trading live very soon,” Mersinger said. She also added that it would be “great to get that trading back onshore in the United States.”
Perpetual futures contracts are a type of derivative that allows traders to speculate on the price of a crypto asset without owning it, similar to traditional futures, but with no expiration date. Such contracts remain open indefinitely and are kept in line with the spot market price using a funding rate mechanism, where payments are exchanged between long and short positions at regular intervals.
Related: CFTC commissioner will step down to become Blockchain Association CEO
Crypto derivatives are a busy area
The crypto derivatives market has recently been swarming with announcements of product launches, acquisitions and regulatory developments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently said the exchange will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.
Armstrong’s remarks followed Coinbase’s agreement to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms. Europe is seeing just as much hustle in the crypto derivatives industry as the Americas are.
Major crypto exchange Gemini has also recently received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe. Elsewhere, DeFi platform Synthetix will also venture further into crypto derivatives, with plans to re-acquire the crypto options platform Derive.
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