Rishi Sunak wants to end ‘sick note culture’ and get Britain back to work 

Rishi Sunak wants to end the “sick note culture” and get Britain back to work.

The Prime Minister is set to make a major speech on welfare reform this morning in which he will warn against “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life”.

Sunak will call today for the focus to shift to what work people might be able to do, amid government concerns some are being unnecessarily written off and “parked on welfare”.

It comes after work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said in an interview that there was “a real risk the normal ups and downs of human life” were being labelled as medical conditions.

Sunak – in his “new welfare settlement for Britain” – is expected to pledge not to dismiss or downplay illness, but to call for a “more ambitious” approach to helping people back to work.

He is due to say: “We should see it as a sign of progress that people can talk openly about mental health conditions in a way that only a few years ago would’ve been unthinkable.

“But just as it would be wrong to dismiss this growing trend, so it would be wrong merely to sit back and accept it because it’s too hard; or controversial; or for fear of causing offence. 

“Doing so, would let down many of the people our welfare system was designed to help.”

He will say there is a “growing body of evidence that good work can actually improve mental and physical health”.

Sunak will add: “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 government said recent NHS data showed almost 11m fit notes were issued last year, and said many are repeat fit notes “issued without any advice, resulting in a missed opportunity to help people get the appropriate support they may need to remain in work”.

Sunak is expected to announce a review of the fit note system, suggesting specialist work and health professionals should be responsible for issuing them instead of GPs.

Responses from healthcare professionals, employers and people with experience with sick notes will be sought in a call for evidence launched on Friday.

Sunak is expected to refer to challenges presented since the pandemic, with the government saying a “significant number of working-aged people have become inactive due to long-term sickness which has in large part been driven by mental health conditions”.

He is expected to say: “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.”

Since 2020, the number of people out of work due to long-term sickness has risen significantly, reaching a record high of 2.8 million people as of February 2024, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

A large proportion of those report suffering from depression, bad nerves or anxiety, although most of those report these as secondary conditions rather than the main reason.

Disability equality charity Scope has said it would question whether Sunak’s announcements are being “driven by bringing costs down rather than how we support disabled people”.

Alison McGovern, Labour’s acting shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “A healthy nation is critical to a healthy economy, but the Tories have completely failed on both.

“The result is a record number of people locked out of work because they are sick, at terrible cost to them, to business and to the taxpayer paying billions more in spiralling benefits bills.

“Today’s announcement proves that this failed government has run out of ideas, announcing the same minor alteration to fit notes that we’ve heard them try before.”