The full scale of Britain's "sick note culture" has been revealed as the largest review ever conducted into the problem shows that illness and disability cost Britain more than £100 billion a year. Under new proposals doctors, social services and counsellors will be brought in to try to get long-term absentees back to work. At the same time, measures will be introduced to prevent people with minor conditions from joining the long-term sick. Last week, the Government announced that from 2010 all those claiming incapacity benefits, currently 2.6 million, would have to undergo tests to prove that they are unfit. The Government's welfare reform adviser, David Freud, believes 1.9 million are claiming the benefit unnecessarily. The report will also recommend that health and well-being should be reported in company accounts and that "case managers" should work in GPs' surgeries to help patients deal with other problems such as debts, stress and childcare.
The Guardian