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Sick notes to be overhauled in back-to-work drive, Liz Kendall reveals (inews.co.uk)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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Taking the ability of GPs to write sick notes away will be massively counter productive. For one thing, sick notes actually preserve many people's jobs, giving them the time and energy to recuperate. Pushing sick people down a bureaucratic nightmare when they're already sick is going to be counterproductive, not to mention the taxpayer money that will be thrown away to a private operator to administrate this. This will end up with people's careers being terminated for things that the current system lets you recover from.

The ideology around this is clear when you consider the government's focus on getting people with long term mental health conditions into work, apparently without doing anything to improve mental health support. They state they want business to "support mental health" and we all know what that looks like: an e-learning module nobody will pay attention, some nice posters to and maybe a mental health support line with no power to actually support you in anything.

But that's not to forget the real root cause of these issues: young people falling into despair as they realise that even if they do spend most of their waking lives working, they will still not be able to afford their own housing and bills. They will still end up chased by debt collectors. They will still live miserably.

Many of the profits collected by the companies people in the UK will work for, today, will end up going into the hands of the companies of fascist America. Too many roles are frivolous profit making activities or serving shallow whims. There is no pride to be had in many of the working opportunities in the UK.

Any honest review into this situation will reveal this reality as the key driver behind the situation.

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[–] CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I think the main driver is neoliberal austerity doing what it does. The wing of the party in charge are basically Thatcherites. They want to the market to decide who gets access to basic necessities and bureaucracy to decide anything else.

In general I think neoliberals are becoming embarrassed by the fact that evidence based medicine is increasingly at odds with capitalistic ideals around how workforces should comply with the rich. So they want to introduce an apparently technocratic (which will inevitably be as low skilled tickbox bureaucratic as you like) body to replace actually qualified people - doctors- in this area.

I think it's also a bit of a reaction to changes in the geopolitical scene. They're hoping that in the event of further war in Europe that desperate but physically able people will be coerced into the military. By taking the ability to decide who is sick out of the hands of doctors and into the state they make this a lot easier. Similarly, more money for manpower and munitions by not paying out in benefits.