FORTY thousand “fit notes” have been handed out by GPs and health professionals every day over the past year, analysis show.
An estimated eleven million were issued as critics say the system is acting as a “conveyor belt to worklessness” rather than a route back to work.
Fit notes replaced ‘sick notes’ back in 2010 — aimed to keep connections to workplaces or a phased returnCredit: Getty
Economic inactivity due to ill health is costing the UK £212billion in lost output a year.
replaced “sick notes” back in 2010 — aimed to keep connections to workplaces or a phased return.
But Shadow Welfare Secretary Helen Whately said the stats expose “a welfare system that is failing both taxpayers and those who want to work”.
It comes as Ministers failed to bring down the ballooning bill with £5billion in savings following a rebellion by Labour MPs last summer.
The Centre for Social Justice, the think tank behind the research, said: “Thousands being nudged every day along a conveyor belt to worklessness is a scandal — but overstretched are being asked to manage a crisis they are not equipped to solve.”
It called for a dedicated Work and Health Service to be launched to manage it.
Whitehall figures reveal of the 11.2million fit notes issued between June 2024 and July 2025, 93 per cent were given out as “not fit to work”.
Also 90 per cent of the notes issued electronically in 2024 were done by doctors.
A government spokesman said it would be “misleading” to claim 40,000 individuals were being signed off daily — as people could get more than one note in the same sickness period.
They acknowledged the system “has not been working effectively” for many years.
The spokesman said: “That’s why we’re trialling new ways to provide better support for people signed off — getting them back to work when they’re ready while reducing pressure on GPs.”
Probe on Saturday jobs fall
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LABOUR grandee Alan Milburn will investigate why fewer teenagers have Saturday jobs as part of a youth inactivity review.
The social mobility expert is looking at concerns that youth minimum wage rises are pricing teens out of jobs.
One in five people aged 16-17 are in work now, compared to nearly half 25 years ago.
Mr Milburn, 67, told The Sun “basically everybody had a Saturday job” among his generation.
He previously warned that “uncomfortable truths” must be faced by the government. Nearly a million people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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