Rishi Sunak To Reform ‘Sick Note Culture’ In UK Saying Work Is Good For Depression

During a speech on welfare reform, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an end to the “sick note culture” of Britain which is commonly known as “fit notes”. While delivering speech at the Centre for Social Justice in London, the Prime Minister said there is a “growing number of people who’ve become economically inactive”. He cited the figure which have risen to 850,000 since the pandemic due to the long term sickness.

According to Sunak, “fully half” of the individuals are claiming they have depression and anxiety. He called his plan to reform the welfare system a “moral mission”. According to Office for National Statistics, a record high of 2.8 million people are not working as of February 2024. As per NHS, nearly 11 million fit notes were issued in England in 2023, among which 94 percentage of those signed are marked as “not fit for work”.

Rishi Sunak said he will “never dismiss or downplay the illnesses people have”, and also added that it would be wrong to accept the “growing trend” of using the sick leave. Sunak said he believe that “good work” will improve mental and physical health and warned about the risk of “over medicalising” the everyday hardship.

During his speech, he said that if the Conservative party is re-elected during the election which will take place in January 2025, they will be “more ambitious” in assessing people’s potential to work and will ensure the employers make reasonable adjustments for employees. He added that the government will trial out a system where “specialist work and health professionals” will look into if a person need a fit note, rather than the doctors. He also added that the government will also crackdown on the frauds in the welfare system and will adopt a “more objective and rigorous approach” to the Personal Independent Payments for the ones with mental ill health.

The proposal invited criticism from medical bodies and professionals. James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity scope called the British Prime Minister’s speech as “a full scale assault on disabled people”. In a series of post shared on X (formerly twitter), he said, “Welfare is not ‘lifestyle’ choice. Supporting people who are long-term sick or [have a] disability financially, removing the threat of sanctions, and investing in public services is a choice. Think today the government is making the wrong choice”.

In an interview with Sky News, Labour party’s Matthew Pennycook accused Sunak of seeking “cheap headline” with his speech on sick note culture. He said, “this announcement screams to me a government that, after 14 years, are out of ideas and out of time…We’ve got to bring NHS waiting lists down. We got to do more on mental health support. We’ve also got to reform social security. We’ve got to make job centers work, provide people with real support, and make work pay”.