Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will call for an end to the UK’s “sick note culture” in a speech on welfare reform.
Mr Sunak is considering moving responsibility for assessing fitness to work away from GPs to “specialist work and health professionals” in England.
A record high of 2.8m people are out of work as of February 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Labour says the government has “run out of ideas” and has failed to deliver a healthy nation or economy.
In a speech announcing plans to overhaul the benefits system on Friday, the prime minister is expected to say the focus must shift away from what people cannot do to what work people might be able to do.
“We don’t just need to change the sick note, we need to change the sick note culture so the default becomes what work you can do – not what you can’t,” Mr Sunak is expected to say.
