Disabled People Against Cuts and Winvisible taking direct action against never-ending scapegoating by politicians (photo: Disability News Service)
Statement by Doctors in Unite in response to Sunak’s speech attacking sickness benefits *
Doctors in Unite condemns the latest attempt by the Tory government to blame people who are unfit for work and their GPs for the woeful state of the economy.
Growing numbers of people unfit for work reflects lengthening NHS waiting lists, cuts to health services (especially in mental health), privatisation of services and lack of support from employers for workers with disabilities and long-term health conditions. It is the government’s catastrophic handling of the Covid pandemic which has led to hundreds of thousands of workers contracting Long Covid and being unable to work. It is the government’s gig economy, low wage and cost of living crisis policies which have materially worsened the living conditions of people in Britain, leading to greater long-term ill-health.
GPs are not responsible for these problems, neither are people with ill-health and disabilities
The Tories’ plan for ‘specialist Work Health Professionals’ to take over issuing Fit Notes is outrageous and dangerous, and undermines the doctor-patient relationship. Who and where are these ‘specialists’? It takes four years minimum to qualify as an occupational health nurse and eleven years to become a specialist occupational health doctor.
Behind this plan is the growing use of NHS staff with less training and experience, like Physician Associates, who are used as cheaper substitutes for fully qualified professionals. We have seen this with the privatisation of disability benefit assessments for work capability (ESA and Universal Credit) and PIP — Personal Independence Payments carried out by Atos, Capita, Maximus and now, Serco. It has been a disaster for sick and disabled people, whose conditions are routinely dismissed by unqualified people instructed to meet DWP targets for refusal and company targets for time taken to complete the assessment. –Typically a physiotherapist can be assessing severe mental illness. All this is contrary to professional ethics.
Completing a Fit Note needs full knowledge of the worker’s health and a basic understanding of their work – not just the immediate issue affecting their fitness for work. “Work is good for health” says Tory minister, Mel Stride – but he ignores the many employers refusing adjustments to work that would enable those with health problems or disabilities to return, and the pay gap for disabled workers, especially women. In fact, work is being used as a pretext to deny people the much- needed benefits they are entitled to. Why else would they be closing down the Health and Work programme at the same time as piloting this ‘sick note’ plan?.
He also ignores widespread poor working conditions that damage health, both physical and mental, resulting in people needing benefits sooner.
There is also long-term pressure towards outsourcing and privatisation throughout the NHS, backed by all the main political parties.
Labour’s shadow minister Liz Kendall has already said, “Under our changed Labour Party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits.”
No-one wants a ‘life on benefits’ at poverty levels, but the choice of decent work with good conditions, suitable hours and reasonable pay is often unavailable. We reject the notion that people want to live a “life on benefits”, and the discriminatory view that sick and disabled people are surplus, and a burden to society. We also reject the government’s other proposals attacking disability benefits, including the tightening of the Work Capability Assessment and “substantial risk to health” regulations, and proposals to abolish the Work Capability Assessment then give Jobcentre work coaches the power to decide work capability.
Our experience as doctors is that overwhelmingly our patients want to return to work if/when they are able to. And cutting the benefits of parents, especially mothers, affects the income of the whole family, impoverishing children and those who care for them.
We note that Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, agreed that working could be beneficial to health but said fit-note decisions should be focused on a patient’s health, “not meeting government targets for keeping people in work”. (Times, 19 April 2024)
We call on the Unions to defend patient welfare and the cash benefit rights of patients unambiguously.
If this plan goes ahead it will lead to the destitution and death of thousands of people.
Strong trade unions are needed to fight for decent conditions at work so that those who can work can return to jobs that meet their needs.
Doctors in Unite calls on a future Labour government to make clear it will reverse attacks on the sick and disabled. Benefits, including statutory sick pay, should be at levels that don’t push claimants into poverty.
A future Labour government should ensure the NHS is properly funded to provide timely diagnosis and treatment by fully qualified staff. It should be publicly owned and provided, and all profiteering by private companies ended.
* Please sign these petitions calling for the government to abandon these very damaging proposals:
https://www.change.org/m/changes-to-sick-notes-and-universal-credit
https://act.38degrees.org.uk/act/sunak-sick-notes-petition
Doctors in Unite 