Nine Areas To Be Affected By DWP Change

Job Centre staff will be stationed in GP surgeries and physiotherapy clinics in an effort to get sick patients off benefits and back to work.

The careers advisors will encourage unemployed patients to return to the workforce and assist them in finding suitable work.

Beginning early next year, the NHS and the government will test the program in regions where there is a high rate of economic inactivity as a result of poor health.

It will then be rolled out nationwide if it is proven to promote wellbeing and tackle the nation’s sick note culture.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said last night: ‘By tackling a rise in health-related economic inactivity and by helping people stay in work or get back to work, the NHS can be a key driver for economic growth in England.’

One in ten people of working age – equal to 3.9 million adults – now receive health-related benefits in England and Wales.

This is up 38 per cent from 2.8 million people in just four years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Over this period, real-terms spending on incapacity or disability handouts has increased by a third, from £36 billion to £48 billion and is predicted to hit £63 billion by 2028.

Backed by £45 million from the autumn Budget, the trial will see the NHS create ‘Health and Growth Accelerators’ in South Yorkshire, North East and North Cumbria, and West Yorkshire.

The three sectors will try to increase people’s health alongside combating the problems that most impair people’s capacity to work, including heart disease, diabetes, back pain and poor mental health.

By assisting patients in managing their conditions and encouraging them to alter their lifestyles, staff will step up efforts to avoid the illnesses that cause people to miss work.

The accelerators, which were revealed at the NHS England board meeting last week, will also investigate the usage of websites and phone apps to assist with musculoskeletal pain and mental health therapy sessions.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has previously promised to improve the health service so it is more effective at getting sick people back to work.

Speaking at an Institute for Public Policy Research event in September, he highlighted how a drop in productivity due to ill health ‘has cost our economy £25 billion since 2018’ and how 900,000 more people are off work than would have been on pre-pandemic trends.

‘That’s more people than Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda employ put together,’ Mr Streeting said.

‘Fail to act and by the end of this parliament, 4.3 million people could be off work sick. Millions of people left behind, the welfare bill will balloon, and growth will be hampered.’

Alongside the accelerators, NHS England is working with the Office for National Statistics to assess the economic benefits of several health interventions, including talking therapies, bariatric surgery, treatment for endometriosis, and the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Programme.

In order to support the government’s and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s work on labour market consequences, the analysis will look at how waiting times, employment rates, and earnings are affected.

A pilot scheme in the North East and North Cumbria, led by the integrated care board and the Department for Work and Pensions, has already helped nearly 2,000 people back to work through one-to-one support in County Durham and the Tees Valley.

Samantha Allen, chief executive at North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said, ‘Our GPs often see patients who want to be at work, but need practical, non-medical help as well as what a doctor can offer.

‘Having a job, a steady income and feeling useful make a big difference to people’s health – and so far almost one-third of patients seeing an advisor have successfully got back to working life.’

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘We know that in general, working can be beneficial for our patients’ health, so ensuring they get the support they need to get back to work, when it is safe for them to do so, is a good thing.

‘However, it’s important we don’t push patients into work or back to work before they’re ready, as this could have a detrimental impact on their health.’

Parth Patel, associate director at the IPPR, said: ‘Most of those who are unwell would like to get back to work if they could be better supported to do so.

‘This pilot brings together local health and employment services in a way recommended by our commission report, backed by evidence, to help raise health, wellbeing and growth across the nation.’

Seeing as it’s impossible to get a doctor’s appointment, numerous patients won’t attend the doctor’s surgery in person. Most is done by eConsult now, and generally a doctor will ring you and diagnose you over the phone, including sick notes.

This change will hardly halt Parkinson’s Disease or MS.

If they even have the gall to say that epilepsy isn’t a disability, that would just make me so furious. Medication doesn’t always work, and it’s the most challenging to control.

How might the Job Centre advisor determine which patients are on extended sick leave so they could provide them with advice? Without access to patients’ medical information, they wouldn’t be aware, which is against the law and unethical.

What is our government saying? That these advisers, many of whom are narcissistic, have more medical knowledge than their doctors, who can read MRIs and X-ray reports.

I’m sure there are a lot of con artists out there, but there are loads that are not.

I had a friend who is epileptic and was sent on a job by the Jobcentre in a kitchen, with knives no less, and he had a fit while he was there, but of course these advisers know best – of course, they are above God!