What will measures to counter a “sick note culture” mean for EAPs?

What will measures to counter a “sick note culture” mean for EAPs?

Controversial new reforms have been announced by PM Rush Sunak to keep more people in work, including making “sick notes” harder to obtain. Sick pay has become “a lifestyle choice” he argues, particularly among a generation of younger people: with everyday forms of anxiety being given as reasons for long-term absence.

As part of a series of Government announcements criticising the UK’s “sick note culture” and an increasing reliance on benefit payments, the PM has now proposed new legislation. This would include some people suffering from anxiety and depression losing their disability payments; and GPs no longer allowed to sign people off work for certain conditions.

Objective assessments

In response, disability charities are angry that cost-savings are being made a priority over care and support, and that the Government’s statements are stigmatising people with disabilities.

Calls are being made for more professional, objective assessments by specialists to deal with “subjective and unverifiable” claims about mental health. The British Medical Association, in turn, has criticised the lack of access to mental health services to provide those assessments.

Who decides?

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “It’s fair to say that work plays a very positive role in people’s lives, in terms of rewards and purpose and social contact. The core issue in the current debates is who decides who should be given disability support and benefits because of their mental health condition, and who might be better suited to staying in work? Where are the specialist resources of mental health professionals to make these critical, life-changing decisions?

“Without this clarity, more pressure is going to be put onto employees, fearful of being stigmatised; on employers in trying to deal with complex cases and situations involving mental health; and EAPs, already facing huge levels of demand. How might expectations change around what an EAP can deliver in terms of clinical outcomes and clinical decisions on who should be given disability payments?”