Worklessness is a “disease”, Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said this weekend, condemning people to “a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope”.

Announcing a new youth unemployment review , he predicted that the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training will pass a million “in the next couple of months”.

The review’s chief, Alan Milburn, set his sights on “failures in employment support, education, skills, health and welfare”.

The last two of those failures are notable. While unemployment is rising, beyond that headline is a surge in people of working age leaving the workforce altogether as health problems turn into lasting reliance on (or imprisonment within) the welfare system.

Last week, the Mayfield Review found

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