Should GPs determine whether people on long-term sick leave are
too ill to work? Perhaps not, according to the draft copy of a government-commissioned review into sickness absence. It proposes setting up a
new, separate and independent body to assess those on long-term sick leave, on the grounds that doctors have no incentive — nor, perhaps, the specific knowledge — to prod and coax them
back towards employment. The new service, it is said, would advise sick leavers, and their employers, about just what they can and can’t manage.
If the government does introduce this, it will be another sign of their intent to untangle the problems with sickness benefits. I’ve written about this sort of thing a few times before, so suffice to say that, since the Thatcher years, politicians have ignored the path that led people from sickness absence to Incapacity Benefit; most likely because IB claimaints didn’t show up on the official unemployment rolls. As David Freud put it on the radio earlier, the system became ‘an incubator for lifelong idleness for far too many people’. But now, starting with the reforms introduced by James Purnell, the general trend is towards making those who can work work. It is one of the current government’s bravest policies, not least because of the controversies that surround more rigorous assessment regimes.
But as well as the morality of the situation, there is a clear economic dimension: returning people to work not only means a more vibrant economy, but it will also reduce the Exchequer’s swollen benefits bill. This new review has other ideas for achiveing those aims, including tax breaks for companies and more help to find appropriate work for the sick. I’d expect George Osborne to look upon most of this kindly.
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