The prime minister has outlined reforms which he said would help more people get back into work, warning the current situation was ‘economically unsustainable.’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to end the UK’s “sick note culture,” which saw 94 percent of the 11 million Fit Notes issued last year signed off as “not fit for work.”
Delivering a speech at the Centre for Social Justice think tank on Friday, Mr. Sunak outlined other reforms, including plans to support more people on disability benefits to return to the workforce.
Mr. Sunak said, “We don’t just need to change the sick note—we need to change the sick note culture so the default becomes what work you can do—not what you can’t.”
The prime minister said that failure to address the growing number of people who have become economically inactive would not only let down those who need help getting back into work, but create a “deep sense of unfairness amongst those whose taxes fund our social safety net.”
“We need to be more ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life,” the prime minister said.
“And of course, the situation as it is, is economically unsustainable,” the prime minister warned.
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The prime minister announced the reforms over his concerns that 850,000 more people have become economically inactive owing to long-term sickness since the COVID-19 lockdowns. Of those who are out of the workforce, “fully half” said they have anxiety or depression. The biggest proportion increase in Britons being out of work owing to long-term sickness has come from young people.
Removing Fit Notes From GPs
Under the proposals, the Fit Note system will be taken away from GPs and handed to specialist work and health professionals who, the government said in a briefing note published on Friday, would be able to “provide an objective assessment of someone’s ability to work and the tailored support they may need. ”
Other reforms include tightening up the Work Capacity Assessment, which is used to determine people’s potential for work. This would mean that hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with “less severe conditions” would be expected to go back to work “and be supported to do so.”
There will also be “higher expectations” of those who receive benefits and who can work to put in more hours in employment. Further, those who do not comply with conditions set by their work coach—such as accepting an available job—will, after one year, have their benefits removed.
Personal Independence Payments (PIPs)—allowances for people with disabilities who struggle with everyday activities—will also be reformed so they provide more tailored support to people’s individual needs and conditions.
The government will also do more to target benefit fraudsters.
The reforms would occur in the next Parliament, if the Conservatives win the general election.
Current Situation ‘Not Sustainable’
Mr. Sunak told attendees at the Centre for Social Justice that the UK spends £69 billion on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition. “That’s more than our entire schools budget; more than our transport budget; more than our policing,” Mr. Sunak said.
He added that spending alone on PIPs is forecast to increase by more than 50 percent over the next four years.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak giving his speech on welfare reform, where he called for an end to the "sick note culture" and warned against "over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life," in central London on April 19, 2024. (Yui Mok/PA Wire)“That’s not right; it’s not sustainable and it’s not fair on the taxpayers who fund it,” he said.
“We can’t afford such a spiralling increase in the welfare bill and the irresponsible burden that would place on this and future generations of taxpayers,” he added.
‘Assault on Disabled People’
Scope, a charity which campaigns for the fair and equal treatment of those with disabilities, called the proposals “an assault on disabled people.”
The group posted to social media platform X: “We are in a cost-of-living crisis. Government looking to slash disabled people’s income by hitting personal independence payment (PIP) is a horrific proposal. It’s dangerous and risks leaving disabled people destitute.”
The charity said that “much of the current record levels of inactivity are because our public services are crumbling. The quality of jobs is poor. And the rate of poverty amongst disabled households is growing.”
“Our impairments and conditions are not a ‘lifestyle choice,'” Scope said.
‘Hostile Rhetoric’
Dr. Katie Bramall-Stainer, chairwoman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Council in England (GPC England), criticised the “hostile rhetoric” of “sick note culture.”
Dr. Bramall-Stainer said that Fit Notes are “carefully considered” by GPs before they are written. She said doctors understand the health benefits of work and that most people do want to work, “but when they are unwell, people need access to prompt care.”
The GPC England chairwoman continued: “With a waiting list of 7.5 million—not including for mental health problems—delays to diagnostics, and resulting pressures on GP practices, patients cannot get the treatment they need to be able to return to work.
“So rather than pushing a hostile rhetoric on ‘sicknote culture,’ perhaps the prime minister should focus on removing what is stopping patients from receiving the physical and mental health care they need, which in turn prevents them from going back to work.”
Universal Credit Facing Challenge of Long-Term Sick
This week, the Resolution Foundation think tank warned that the Universal Credit benefits system would have to change how it operates because its design did not anticipate the “steep rise” in the number of people with ill health or disabilities.
The Resolution Foundation said that since the benefits system was reformed, unemployment had fallen from 8.5 percent in 2011 to 3.8 percent in 2023. But 2.3 million claimants are now out of work because of ill health, almost double the figure when Universal Credit was introduced in 2013.
Last month, the Department for Work and Pensions published statistics showing that in Britain, 874,000 assessments carried out between January 2022 to November 2023 recorded mental and behavioural disorders in Universal Credit Work Capacity Assessment decisions.
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