Rishi Sunak is set to call for an end to the “sick note culture” in a major speech on social security reform – while also warning against the “excessive medicalisation of everyday challenges and life’s concerns”.
The Prime Minister wants to shift the focus to “what people can do with the right support, rather than what they can’t do”.
Sunak also wants medical certificates to be issued for “skilled work and health professionals” rather than GPs in order to reduce workload.
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The plans, on which the government must now consult, are part of the The government’s objective is to cut spending on benefits in an attempt to reduce spending and increase employment.
Mr Sunak is set to say: “We should see it as a sign of progress that people can talk openly about mental health conditions in a way that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable, and I will never dismiss or minimize the illnesses that people have.”
“But just as it would be wrong to reject this growing trend, it would also be wrong to simply sit back and accept it because it is too difficult; or too controversial; or for fear of causing offence.
“To do so would disappoint many of the people our social welfare system was designed to help.”
He will say there is a “growing body of evidence that good work can actually improve physical and mental health”.
“We need to be more ambitious about helping people get back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising life’s daily challenges and worries,” Sunak will add.
The Prime Minister will say: “We don’t just need to change the doctor’s note, we need to change the culture of the doctor’s note so that the standard is what work you can do – not what you can’t.”
“Building on the pilots we have already started, we will design a new system where people have quick and easy access to skilled work and healthcare support to help them get back to work from the first Fit Note conversation,” he will add. .
“We will also trial moving responsibility for assessment away from GPs and handing it over to specialist work and healthcare professionals who have dedicated time to provide an objective assessment of someone’s ability to work and the personalized support they need to achieve to do”.
It comes after Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was criticized a month ago for suggesting in an interview that there was “a real risk” that “the normal ups and downs of human life” were being labeled as medical conditions that then kept people coming home from work.
And launching the government’s “back to work plan”, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt warned that “anyone who chooses to support the hard work of taxpayers will lose their benefits”.
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Since 2020, the number of people unemployed due to long-term illnesses has risen sharply to a record high of 2.8 million people in February this year, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
A large proportion of them report suffering from depression, nervousness or anxiety.
The government said National Health Service data shows that almost 11 million fitness notes were issued last year – with 94% stating that someone was “not fit to work”.
“A large proportion of these are repeated notes that are issued without any advice, resulting in a missed opportunity to help people get the right support they need to stay in work,” Downing Street said.
Adequate grades are often required by employers when someone takes more than seven days off work due to illness.
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Disability equality charity Scope said it would question whether Sunak’s ads are being “driven by cost-cutting rather than how we support disabled people”.
James Taylor, the charity’s strategy director, said: “We have had decades of disabled people being let down by failing health and work assessments; and a broken welfare system designed to be much stickier than carrots.
“Much of the current record levels of inactivity are due to the fact that our public services are crumbling, the quality of jobs is poor and the poverty rate among families with disabilities is rising.”
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Alison McGovern, Labour’s acting shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “A healthy nation is critical to a healthy economy, but the Conservatives have completely failed at both.
“We have had 14 Conservative years, five Conservative prime ministers, seven Conservative chancellors, and the result is record numbers of people unable to work because they are sick – at a terrible cost to them, to businesses and to the taxpayer who pays thousands of millions more in spiraling benefit accounts.
“Today’s announcement proves that this failed government has run out of ideas, announcing the same little toggle to fit notes that we’ve heard them try before. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s unfunded £46bn fiscal plan to abolish national insurance risks crashing the economy once again.”
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