It might seem hard to believe when the country faces such stark shortages of skilled workers to do vital jobs, but nationwide there are 2.5 million people out of work due to long-term ill-health, with the estimated cost to the taxpayer running into the billions.
And there's a regional angle too, as workers in the North West are much more likely to be forced out of the labour market by sickness as people in the South East.
But a consensus is growing that the current system for getting people off benefits and into work - driven by Whitehall officials in central London and based on assessments that many fear encourages people to prove they are too ill to work - isn't working.
And as Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Salford-born Jonathan Ashworth, tells The Northern Agenda podcast today, a large part of the answer is giving local areas more control than they currently have over how local employment schemes will work.
Listen to the whole interview on the podcast here:
There's already an example of successful schemes being designed locally in the North.
In Greater Manchester, where unemployment has been a problem for decades, the Working Well scheme which emerged from the region's 2014 devolution deal has helped thousands of people back into work.
And in its current 'trailblazer' talks with Ministers over getting new devolved powers, Greater Manchester officials want all future employment support programmes to be co-designed with, and co-commissioned by them.
"Because they as part of their devolution deal have been given a bit of money to do this, which is great," says Mr Ashworth, who grew up in Greater Manchester.
"But we should have more of this not here and there where government ministers have agreed to do it as part of a devolution deal. It should be the norm across our regions."
His vision is that the budgets for skills policy and also control of health funding should be handed to metro mayors like Andy Burnham and Oliver Coppard in South Yorkshire.
This way local officials who know their patches can design the schemes to get people back into employment but also tackle the health problems that stop millions from working.
Describing the current system, he says: "Ministers sit in Whitehall and they look at the map and they try and decide what they think is needed. And the Department for Work and Pensions nationally commissions a contract. And some of the big outsourcing firms win these contracts and impose these national programs across the country.
"And somebody goes to the Job Centre in Bury, where I spent some of my childhood or in Manchester or Cheetham Hill, where I also spent some of my childhood, you sign on a bit like you'd sign on in the old dole office and get sanctioned if you don't do all the requirements that they want.
"And if they think you need some extra help, they just refer you to one of these nationally commissioned programs. And nobody thinks that they're giving people the proper help, and support and coaching that is needed."
Mr Burnham described Working Well as "one of Greater Manchester’s devolution success stories" and said it had helped tens of thousands of people into employment – "many of whom would have struggled to get or stay in a job without specialist support."
Describing the scheme, he said: "We’ve been able to use our local knowledge to create employment support programmes that work for people here, with one-to-one personalised support at their heart.
"We’ve also been able to integrate these programmes with other local services, like health and care, to get people the tailored support they need in a joined-up way.
“Now that we’ve proven we can make this work – it is time to go further. We’re currently negotiating a new trailblazer devolution deal with the Government. As part of that we have been clear that, at the least, we want all future employment support programmes to be co-designed with, and co-commissioned by leaders in Greater Manchester.
"This would help us support even more people, using our local knowledge and integrated services to create programmes that work for people here and support Greater Manchester’s economy.”
Handing control of this vital policy over to the people who know their areas best isn't just a Labour idea.
Writing in The Times yesterday Tory MP Ben Bradley and Adam Hawksbee of the Onward think-tank said mayors and councils "are uniquely positioned to design and commission services that respond to local challenges".
"They employ teams who live and grew up in the local area. They can experiment and innovate with smaller contracts and nimbler providers. And they have real skin in the game, given their long-term commitment to their place."
The Conservative government is also looking at reforming the system. The Times reports this week that Ministers are considering allowing people to keep claiming sickness benefits after returning to work and offering them tax breaks for getting jobs.
A reform of disability benefits is likely to scrap a “perverse” assessment system, which ministers think encourages people to prove they are too ill to work, in an effort to reverse a rise in the number of people not looking for jobs.
Other metro mayors in the North are keen to get more powers to tackle the pressing issues in their patches.
Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire’s Mayor, said his local Working Win scheme had helped more than 10,000 people to stay in, or return to, work.
He added: “Devolution of powers from Whitehall to regionally elected and locally accountable Mayors is based on the clearly positive premise that we know our communities; their challenges and ambitions, barriers and opportunities.
"I support that premise, and was elected on a platform to build a better economy, with communities at the heart of the decisions we make, so that power is closer to those people are impacted by those decisions.
“This means we need to devolve the tools and decision-making that also drive that economic prosperity, especially where they reflect needs that are different from region to region."
And in the Tees Valley Tory metro mayor Ben Houchen said: “I would also like to see a commitment to a furthering and deepening of English Devolution and have raised this with the Government.
"We have seen across the country how the devolution of powers to regional Mayors has delivered tangible change to our nation and this relationship needs to be looked at again and expanded if we are genuinely serious about improving the lives of local people.
“Moreover, where English devolution deals are already in place, we must go further and commit to deepening the powers of Mayor’s around post-16 education.
"This is vital in allowing us to skill local people and enable them to take good quality jobs in their local communities without feeling like they need to ‘move away’ to build a life, a career and a family, which has seen a brain drain from areas across the country that need levelling up."
