People who claim long-term sickness benefits should be made to look for work if they are able to, the Prime Minister has said.
Sir Keir Starmer said support will be in place to help people get jobs, as the Government looks to reduce the number of claimants.
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 had earlier said: “I’ve gone out and looked at schemes where businesses are supporting people back into work from long-term sickness.
“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.”
Some 2.8 million people are out of work due to ill-health, 500,000 more than in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics.
A report by the BCG and NHS Confederation earlier this month found 85% of those are long-term sick.
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soar by £30 billion in the next five years, on current trajectories.
Mr Starmer’s comments came before Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s speech to the Labour Party conference.
Mr Streeting said “a crack team” of senior doctors will be brought in to implement reforms aimed at getting patients treated faster and help people get back to work to reduce waiting lists, unemployment and economic inactivity.
Mr Streeting told the conference in Liverpool: “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.
“I can announce today that the first 20 hospitals targeted by these teams will be in areas with the highest numbers of people off work sick.
“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.”
He had earlier told Sky News: “Where people are off ill and they are unable to work, the social security system is available, and it’s up to us to make sure that we get them back to health and back to work quickly.
“Where people are fraudulently claiming benefits, that’s a different kettle of fish, and people shouldn’t be doing that, and we’re not going to tolerate it, which is why, in her speech and through her work as the Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall will be clear, as has the Prime Minister, that we’ve got to reduce the benefits bill.
“Part of that is also about recognising that the failure of the previous government means that the NHS hasn’t always been there for people when they need it, we owe it to them to get them back to health and back to work, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
He added: “It’s good for the nation’s health, but also good for the nation’s economy as well, because a healthy nation is a healthy economy, and a healthy economy helps to drive a healthy nation.”
The report earlier this month from the NHS Confederation and BCG showed two main age groups are driving 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% of all inactive long-term sick people.
In both groups, there has been a “rapid rise” in people reporting multiple health conditions, with over 40% of those aged 50 to 64 in this group saying they have five or more conditions, the study found.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) and mental health issues account for around 50% of all conditions reported by people who are long-term sick and economically inactive.
“Data shows that growth in mental health conditions in this population extends beyond the pandemic impact, steadily rising since 2017/18 and remaining the most reported condition among 16 to 24 and 25 to 49-year-olds,” the report said.
“The previously steady downward trend in MSK conditions reversed to growth post-Covid 19, particularly driven by 50 to 64-year-olds.”
The report called for a whole government approach to tackling the root causes of ill health, including poor living or working conditions.
It suggested that tackling NHS waiting lists was good but “when it comes to economic inactivity driven by long-term sickness, the issue goes wider than just immediate clinical care”.
It said: “Our analysis has underlined the importance of wider social determinants of health, such as economic and working conditions and crime, on overall population health.”
National disability charity Sense said the Prime Minister’s comments “ignore the enormous and deeply unfair barriers that far too many disabled people face when it comes to job hunting”.
Harriet Edwards, the organisation’s head of policy, said while many “desperately want to work”, the current system “blocks them from doing so”, citing the charity’s research that half of jobseekers with complex disabilities do not feel they have the support and equipment they need to look for a job.
Around 31% want assistive technology such as text-to-speech screen readers, dictation software and braille displays to help them communicate and find jobs, Sense said but added its research suggested “zero job centres across the country have this available”.
Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said: “Lifting and dropping initiatives that work in one area – such as high intensity (surgical) theatres – into another, very different area comes with some major challenges, not least because the reasons people are economically inactive long-term are not just confined to waits for surgery.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund, welcomed Government action but said “in reality we know that musculoskeletal and mental health conditions are some of the major drivers of ill health leading to people falling out of the workforce.
“To get fit for work, a significant majority of these people will need counselling or physiotherapy rather than robot-assisted surgery in a hospital operating theatre.”
