GPs will stop issuing sick notes to patients across the country as the government announces a new trial to reduce the number of people out of work due to health issues.
The trial will initially be set out in four locations, affecting hundreds of thousands of workers. It will see claimants referred to support services which will create personalised “return to work” plans for them.
Announcing the commencement of the trial, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it will overhaul the current “broken” fit note system, which is often a “tick-box exercise”.
It points to statistics that find 11 million fit notes are issued every year, with nine in ten declaring the recipient not fit for work.
Work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, said: “Fit notes are too often a dead end – a piece of paper that tells people they can’t work but does nothing to help them get better.