Employees fritter away more than 40 minutes each day in non-work related activities including gossiping, emailing and texting friends, according to new research.

This equates to more than 14 hours every month or around an average five and a half days of the working year.

According to AXA, the research authors, it's not just socialising that is a productivity drain but online shopping, booking holidays and even gambling.

The research found that workers in the capital are most guilty of spending time in what the researchers dub "social not-working". Employees in the north west topped the charts for gossiping expending 13 minutes a day compared to people in the south east and east anglia who spend less than 10 minutes a day chatting to colleagues.

Scots spend the most time texting, and those in the Midlands are most likely to indulge in online shopping while at work.

The findings come ahead of the launch of AXA's My Budget Day being held on 21 November, a national programme designed to encourage all UK adults to commit one hour a month to sorting out their finances. AXA is asking employers to help their employees kick start the programme by giving them the first hour while they are at work to address money matters.

Pat Brady of AXA said: "A lack of motivation to deal with financial matters is arguably at the heart of our country’s enormous personal debt problem. If employers can help people to recognise the value of spending time reviewing their finances it could go some way to addressing this."

One in three people don't do anything about their finances at all, whilst the average person spends only 22 minutes per month considering their finances, according to the research.