A lack of engagement with sickness absence by GPs is proving a major barrier to roll out of the government’s new Fit for Work service, its director Mario Dunn told attendees at last week’s Corporate Adviser Group Risk & Healthcare Forum.
In his keynote address What are the early signs from Fit for Work? Dunn said: “What research there is shows that good work is good for the individual and good for their health and wealth and their family and community. The problem is that there is still a tendency, and certainly for general practitioners, to consider a prolonged period of watching daytime TV as a better solution to your problems than actually an attempt to resolve what your problems are and get you back to work.
“There needs to be a bigger, wider and more impassioned debate in this country about the value of work, and unfortunately I don’t see too much of it out there. I would like GPs to have more conversations with clients about the benefits of work, although they obviously suffer from time constraints, and we need more of a culture that extolls the virtues of work to improve your health.”
Dunn stressed that 11 million people in the UK take sickness absence each year and that around 900,000 of these take it for four weeks or more. The total cost of sickness absence to the UK is believed to be in the region of £20 billion. He estimated that the Fit for Work service could cut sick pay costs for businesses by between £80 million and £160 million a year and increase economic output by up to £900 million a year.
“That’s not a massive cut in terms of the overall cost of sick pay,” he continued, “but it’s a good start and we hope that the figures will grow and that we will start chipping away at that £20 billion a year.”
Adviser communication of Fit for Work to their clients is currently low, however. When asked how many of their current clients they had told about the new Fit for Work service a poll of adviser delegates at the event found just 86 per cent had mentioned it to between between 0 and 25 per cent of their employer clients.
Furthermore, in her talk Opportunities for advisers in the group risk arena, Grid spokesperson Katharine Moxham revealed that 2015 Grid employer research had found that only 15 per cent of employers are prepared to pay for treatments recommended by the Fit for Work service. But, on a positive note, she emphasised that this could mean that people appreciate group income protection like never before.