Almost anyone fired for feeling “a bit depressed” will be classified as unfit for work, according to a senior minister, as Rishi Sunak prepares to announce a new push to get sick people back to work.
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said on Friday morning that 94% of people signed off by their GP with minor mental health problems were listed as unable to work, adding to what the Prime Minister will say is a ‘sick letter culture’. ”.
Sunak will give a speech on Friday morning in which he will argue that too many people are unemployed due to long-term illness, partly because doctors risk ‘over-medicalising’ normal concerns by diagnosing them as mental illnesses.
Stride told Sky News: “If you go to the GP and say you’re feeling a bit depressed, and you’re signed off, in 94% of cases a box will be ticked that says you’re not able to work at all.
“What we want to do is change the system so that that person is referred to – the government is setting up something called Work Well – where they not only get the healthcare support they need, but also a work coach involved will be either helping them stay in work if they have work, or helping them stay in work if they don’t.”
Ministers have become concerned in recent months about the rising number of people who have become ill for a long time.
The number of people who are economically inactive for health reasons has risen from around 2 million before the pandemic to 2.8 million now, while more than 10% of people in their 20s and early 30s say they are disabled because of their mental health.
Experts blame the rise in mental health problems on a range of factors, including the trauma of the pandemic, the increase in social media use among young children and underfunded mental health services. However, ministers believe that doctors are part of the problem because they tend to label minor ailments as serious diseases.
Stride has previously come under fire claim that doctors overmedicalize conditions that in the past would have been seen as part of the “ups and downs of life.”
Sunak will say on Friday: “We don’t just need to change the sick note, we need to change the sick note culture, so that the standard becomes what work you can do – and not what you can’t do.”
The Prime Minister will change the ‘fit notes’ system introduced by Labor in 2010 to reduce reliance on GPs to issue the notes. He will say he wants to see notes issued by “specialist work and healthcare professionals who have the time to provide an objective assessment of a person’s ability to work”.
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Ministers amended the law last year to allow any doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist or occupational therapist to issue a suitability certificate, in addition to GPs, who traditionally oversee the system.
No. 10 declined to clarify on Thursday evening whether the government planned to further expand the criteria so that non-medical professionals can also issue or change eligibility slips.
“Building on the pilots we have already started, we will design a new system that will give people easy and quick access to specialist work and health support to help them return to work from the very first conversation about their fitness,” Sunak will say doing. participation.