Three-quarters of UK employers have heard of the Keep Britain Working Review, the independent review led by Sir Charlie Mayfield aimed at tackling rising economic inactivity, according to new research from GRiD, the industry body for the group risk sector.
The findings land alongside a longstanding adviser concern: the double taxation of premiums and benefits on salary-sacrifice top-up schemes, which Swiss Re has flagged as a barrier to broader take-up just as the review pushes employers toward closer engagement with workplace health support.
Awareness is strong among larger organisations with more than 250 employees, at 86%, but declines notably as business size decreases. Among micro businesses with one to 10 employees, fewer than half, just 45%, report having heard of the review, highlighting a significant awareness gap across smaller employers.
Of those employers aware of the review, 18% said they know proposals have been made but do not know the details, 16% are aware of the proposals but are awaiting further government guidance, 16% are aware but intend to research the detail themselves, and 11% do not intend to take any action until measures become mandatory.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, said: "The Keep Britain Working Review will play a vital role in supporting employers and the wider economy in addressing the challenge of reducing the 2.8 million people who are economically inactive due to health conditions, by improving employee retention and returns to work. It is very encouraging to see that awareness of the review is already relatively high at this stage."
The Keep Britain Working Review, published by Sir Charlie Mayfield in late 2025, was commissioned to examine employers' role in tackling ill-health-driven economic inactivity, which the review's own cost estimate puts at £212 billion a year through lost productivity, higher welfare spending and pressure on the NHS.
More than 250 employers, 10 mayoral authorities and all three devolved administrations are now working with the review's Vanguard phase, a three-year programme testing workplace health interventions such as structured stay-in-work and return-to-work plans, alongside a new Workplace Health Intelligence Unit intended to standardise sickness absence and return-to-work data across employers for the first time.
Group risk benefits, meaning employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness cover, already play a significant role in helping employees stay in work and return to it, according to GRiD. The products typically include early interventions for physical and mental health, such as access to online GP services, Employee Assistance Programmes and nurse-led services.
GRiD's own 2025 claims data supports that view. UK group risk insurers paid out a record £2.69 billion in claims, up £96.7 million on 2024, and 68% of newly absent employees were supported back into work during the year. Group life assurance accounted for £1.8 billion of the total, group income protection £670.7 million, and group critical illness £190.8 million.
A separate report, Swiss Re's Group Watch 2026, tracks market size rather than claims outcomes. It found the market grew 3.5% to around 16.2 million lives covered, with growth increasingly driven by smaller employers: more than 90% of in-force policies now cover fewer than 250 staff, and these schemes account for around 60% of total premiums.
The SME awareness gap identified by GRiD sits alongside Swiss Re's finding that smaller employers are now the market's main growth engine. That combination suggests many micro and small businesses may already be buying group risk products without connecting that provision to the wider Keep Britain Working agenda.
Ron Wheatcroft, technical manager at Swiss Re UKI, has said the review "represents a significant chance for the sector" to reframe group risk as workforce health infrastructure rather than a standard insurance line.
As the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit begins collecting standardised data, advisers who connect smaller clients' existing group risk cover to the review's aims, and who keep pressing government on the salary-sacrifice tax anomaly, are likely best placed to support employers through the transition.
That is the gap Moxham's own closing message is aimed at. She concluded: "Employers get the most value from their employee benefits, including group risk, when they actively engage with the products, advisers and providers, and make sure their employees understand and use the full range of built-in support designed to keep them physically and mentally fit for work.
"The Keep Britain Working Review has already generated strong awareness, which is encouraging. We would urge employers who are not yet engaged to get up to speed, rather than waiting for mandatory measures to be potentially introduced further down the line. A happier, healthier and more productive workforce is something every organisation should be striving for, and the sooner the better, and support is available to help achieve this."
