Does the UK have a ‘sick note culture’?
Monday 11 November 2024
At 3pm on Tuesday 12 November, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, as part of its short inquiry on the relationship between the welfare system and long-term sickness, will hear evidence from:
- Dr Sean Phillips, Head of Health and Social Care, at the Policy Exchange
- Edward Davies, Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice.
This evidence session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live and on demand on Parliament TV.
Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:
- What has been driving the increase in long-term sickness rates?
- How has changing conditionality in the benefits system impacted individuals’ incentives to work?
- What is the most accurate way of gauging the number of benefit claimants?
- How can the benefits system be changed in order to get people back to work?
- What is a realistic timeframe for any plan to bring about improvements in long-term sickness related inactivity?
More about the Economic inactivity: welfare and long-term sickness inquiry
As a follow up to its 2022 inquiry into economic inactivity, the committee is carrying out a short inquiry on the relationship between the welfare system and long-term sickness in Great Britain.
Rates of economic inactivity – measured as a proportion of people of working age – fell steadily from 2012, reaching an all-time low of 20.7 per cent in early 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a sudden and dramatic reversal of this trend with rates of long-term sickness becoming an increasingly important factor as the pandemic wore on.
The committee is seeking to understand the impact, if any, that changes in the benefits system have had on trends in long-term sickness and inactivity. It will hear views on what is being done in this area, and what should be done, to mitigate elevated levels of long-term sickness-related inactivity and the associated rising costs of welfare.
