Labour Will Get Long-Term Sick Into Work, Says Health Secretary

Health Secretary Wes Streeting leaving Downing Street, London, after a Cabinet meeting on July 9, 2024. Lucy North/PA Wire

The health secretary indicated that Labour will focus on getting the long-term sick into work as part of the government’s plan to drive down the welfare bill.

Wes Streeting told the Labour party conference on its final morning in Liverpool that teams of “top” doctors would be deployed to the areas with the highest number of people signed off work on the sick.

Streeting said that nearly three million people are currently not in work due to sickness, adding: “But as well as getting staff back to work, we need to get them working at the top of their game.

“We’re sending crack teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to roll out reforms—developed by surgeons—to treat more patients and cut waiting lists.

“And I can announce today that the first twenty hospitals targeted by these teams will be in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick.”

The health secretary repeated his message that the NHS is “broken”—although he stressed that it is not beyond repair— and added: “Because our reforms are focused not only on delivering our health mission but also moving the dial on our growth mission too.

“We will take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, get sick Brits back to health and back to work.”

Although full details of the policy are yet to be announced, it is intended that the teams of doctors will mean people who are not in work due to sickness can be treated more quickly.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech during the Labour Party Conference, at the ACC Liverpool in England on Sept. 24, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

‘Four Times Faster’

The clinicians have been selected due to their pace of delivery, with some having developed “new ways of working” that allow them to carry out “four times more operations than normal,” the government said.

Around 2.8 million people are out of work due to ill-health—half a million more than in 2019—according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soar by £30 billion in the next five years, based on current trends.

The health secretary’s pledge follows on from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s conference speech yesterday, in which he said the government would get the benefits bill down in order to plug a “black hole” of £22 billion in public finances which he said was revealed to him only after Labour won the July general election.

Starmer vowed there would be “no return to Tory austerity,” but said: “We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and support people back to work. We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders.”

The prime minister, who as a newly elected backbench MP voted in support of Conservative welfare cuts in 2015, told the conference: “If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud. Do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”

Starmer said in an interview after his speech that support will be in place to help people get jobs, but that those claiming sickness benefits should not be except from having to look for work.

‘Hard Cases’

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme, the prime minister said: “I think the basic proposition that you should look for work is right.

“Obviously there will be hard cases, but the way I would do it is to say yes, that’s the basic proposition, but we also want to support that so that more people can get into work.”

He said it was important there were schemes in place for those who had been on the sick and out of work for years, “Because quite often I think what lies behind this is a fear for someone who’s been on long-term sickness, that can they get back into the workplace? Are they going to be able to cope? Is it all going to go hopelessly wrong?

“Yes they need to be back in the workplace where they can, but I do think that if we can put the right support in place, which I’ve seen pilots of, they work pretty well, and we want to see more of those across the country.”

A report earlier this month from the NHS Confederation and the Boston Consulting Group showed two age groups are the main drivers of the rise in long-term sickness coupled with economic inactivity.

These are 18 to 24-year-olds and 50 to 64-year-olds, with the older group accounting for 55 percent of all inactive long-term sick people.

Mental Health Conditions

In both groups, there has been a “rapid rise” in people reporting multiple health conditions, with over 40 percent of those aged 50 to 64 saying they have five or more conditions, the study found.

Musculoskeletal and mental health issues account for around half of all conditions reported by people who are long-term sick and economically inactive.

The report called for a root and branch government approach to tackling the multiple causes of ill health, including poor living or working conditions, and said the steady rise in the number of people claiming benefits due to ill health had begun before the COVID-19 era began.

The disability charity Scope responded to the prime minister’s comments on social media platform X, saying: “The jobs market is already stacked against disabled people. And nobody should be forced into work if they are unable to.

“This narrative of ‘getting the welfare bill down’ demonises disabled people who genuinely need support with the extra costs they face.”

Disability charities and campaigners have warned that proposed changes to the assessment process for benefits including the Personal Independence Payment could plunge vulnerable sick and disabled people further into poverty.

The previous conservative government was much criticised after a number of people committed suicide after being found “fit for work” by the Atos-run assessment schemes, with successful legal action launched by some claimants against the providers and the government.