Johnson targets 'sick note culture'

Health Secretary Alan Johnson is setting out plans to change Britain's "sick note culture" into a "well note culture".

In a speech at the British Heart Foundation, Mr Johnson is expected to discuss plans to get people on incapacity benefit back into work.

Department of Health figures show that people who are on incapacity benefit for one year are likely to stay there for eight. Once they have been there for two years or more, they are more likely to die or retire than work again.

He is expected to say: "Incapacity benefit should not be a one-way street that starts in the GP's surgery and stops at the dead end of a lifetime on benefits.

"The evidence shows that far from being bad for health, work is generally good for people's health. In fact staying in work or returning to work is often in a patient's best interests. We want to explore what else GPs can do to change our sick note culture into a well note culture.

"I know that the medical community are already working with the Government on this very issue. It is also something that Dame Carol Black will be making recommendations about as part of her review. James Purnell and I will be considering these recommendations very carefully."

The CBI estimates that 175 million working days are lost to ill health every year. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that 36 million of these days are lost because of occupational ill health, with a total cost of up to £13 billion a year.

Back pain alone costs employers £600 million a year, with sufferers of persistent back problems taking on average 17 days off sick per year.

Only half of those with back problems who are signed off for six months or more return to work. Only a quarter of those signed off for a year or more will return.

Official figures say nine out of 10 of those who come on to incapacity benefit want to come back to work. Many complain of conditions such as back and neck pain, depression or heart and circulatory problems, which the Government believes do not make long-term unemployment inevitable.