The £235bn benefits map of Britain that shows why sicknote culture must end

The vast sum drained from the nation by those who claim they are too ill to work is revealed in a report commissioned by the Government.

It demanded an "urgent and comprehensive" shake-up of a "failing" system that allowed 2.7billion claimants to rake in Incapacity Benefit.

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And it warned that a generation of children - growing up in families where parents and grandparents had never held jobs - faced being devastated 'financially and emotionally' for life.

Dame Carol Black, the national health and work czar, outlined her "vision of a healthier Britain" as she published radical plans to prise people off long-term sickness benefits and get them into work.

She also unveiled ambitious measures aimed at boosting the health of those in employment and preventing those with minor ailments joining the sick list.

Her report comes a day after the Tories revealed that there are some 20,000 families claiming more than £25,000, roughly the average wage.

The Tory research also reveals the benefits hotspots around the country - the local authority wards with the highest percentage of claimants. They are highlighted on the map on the right.

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Dame Carol's recommendations in her 125-page report, called Working For A Healthier Future, included:

Replacing sick notes with 'fit notes' spelling out what work someone who is unwell can do;

Tailored 'Fit For Work' programmes for those in the early stages of sickness, which could include exercise and therapy;

Firms helping staff to stay healthy by offering cut-price gym membership and encouraging walking or cycling to work;

Businesses offering flexible working, such as shorter working weeks, so staff recover quicker;

Caseworkers based in doctors' surgeries to advise on debt, stress and childcare;

Information campaigns to teach the young the health benefits of being in work.

Some 175million working days are year are lost to sickness and disability.

About 2.7million people - or 7 per cent - are on incapacity benefit. Rates have trebled since the 1970s. Another three per cent of people are off work through ill health.

Sickness and disability cost the economy £63billion in lost production, £10billion in payments for sickness absence, £45billion in care from family and friends, and £ 11billion in extra healthcare.

It also cost the public purse up to £ 76billion in benefits, lost taxes and extra work for doctors and nurses and another £ 30billion in lost productivity from those who are poorly, for instance suffering from depression or stress, but do not take time off work. The total cost is £235billion.

But Dame Carol, the former president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the financial cost was dwarfed by the "cost to human life which is immeasurably larger."

Evidence showed when people were too sick to work "they can all too easily find themselves on a downward spiral into long-term sickness and a life on benefits.

"This is not only devastating for them, but also for their families."

She said the inter-generational cycle of worklessness which can plague communities must be broken.

The report said about 600,000 Britons moved on to Incapacity Benefit each year, and 1.5million had been on it for more than five years.

"For many this will stretch into decades."

It added: "Children who grow up in low-income or workless households are also more likely to suffer worse health themselves, be workless and live in poverty when they become adults."

Ministers last week announced that from 2010 all those claiming incapacity benefit would have to have tests prove they were unfit.

Ministers pledged to study the report and look at the best way of implementing some of the recommendations.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said: "The report marks a radical shift in our approach to dealing with health in the workplace, focusing on prevention rather than cure."