There aren't any jobs for them anyway so they will just go onto unemployment benefit instead of sickness benefit.

The other problem Sally is who's going to employ me? I've been out of work since 2004, my arthritis has got progressivly worse, it will never get better. I can keep it under control but still prone to flare ups and severe fatigue which can put me on the sofa for days. How fair is it of me to my bosses and colleagues to be off sick more than I will probably be in work. Work was causing my constant flare ups and fatigue. I was in a vicious circle. I'd work, get more ill, have time off and get better then within a few weeks of being back at work I was back to square one.

JSA is considerably less than ESA too. I don't care what anyone in government says; this is a cost cutting excersise. My health and well being has nothing to do with it so why they are carrying on with the pretence when just about the whole of the country now can see it is beyond me.

steph i replied to you on a DP thread. hope no more ops for you.(think it was the dogs and scooters thread)
hope you well.

So the Government thinks that GP's are capable of handling 90 billion pounds in NHS budget, but they aren't qualified to write a sick note? You simply could not make this up.
What is all this guff about patient power, letting GP's take responsibility for treating their patients not beurocrats etc, etc, etc, etc.

What is amusing, or would be if it wasn't so tragic, is the number of people I've seen or heard comment along the lines of: "if I'd know this <insert any one of many policies> was going to happen, I'd never have voted for them".

Put it down to bloody-mindedness, blindness, stupidity or whatever. Many who voted will never have known a previous conservative administration, others voted LibDem and suddenly find that their nice incumbent MP has morphed into a Tebbit attack-dog and still others obviously really believed what Cameron was telling them.

I do think a benevolent dictatorship would be far preferrable to the sham of democracy we currently enjoy.

"University degree courses should be sliced in half to 18 months because, for most students, there is too much time wasted"
ie he doesn't know much of the tiime is in research and studying: lectures are only one form of how a subject is learned.
Also many of our competitors state that out degrees are not worth as much as we do not give the student enough years: compare the time to get a degree in Germany with that in the UK.

"His own research, he says, shows that at least 20 per cent of the working population would like to work part-time, or be more flexible"
I live in a town where the mean wage is £16000 (according to all research I have read) : the unemployment is high because there is no work. Even the McDonalds have left. Employers cannot offer more than basic wage for warehouse work. I think 20% of the working population would like work.

As for sick notes: interesting we pay GPs huge salaries and expect them to train for 6+ years but they cannot say someone is sick!

Anyone who has not already done so, may I suggest that you read the conservativehealth and conservativehome links that CM provided in his OP, they're a real hoot. Two right-wing GPs who appear to want money throwing at them for nowt.

I've been on the other side of the sick note experience quite often and whilst I've been exposed to what people would probably refer to as "people who take the mickey" pretty much all situations are manageable from a company point of view. At times though I have experienced notes and reports from doctors that are wishy washy to say the least which isn't really good enough for somebody who is paid £90k a year (if that's supposed to be part of their role which at the moment it is).

I would guess the bigger problem is in the public sector where all sorts of problems can reduce the effectiveness of managing absence e.g. inexperienced personnel, managers dodging the subject and of course employees who have no interest in working.

Having somebody independent to carry out medical assessments is what most big companies will be doing anyway i.e. they should have their own processes and occupational health providers to do this sort of thing. So it does go on already in the private sector, although an employer currently still requires a GP to sign an employee back if the independent report states the employee is fine for a return to work.

Perhaps the sick notes/reports are "wishy-washy" to protect patient confidentiality.

I was in one company's office when an employee, who had been on sick for some time came in with his latest sick-note. He handed it over to his boss and was shocked when he was welcomed back to work and told to get his overalls on. "But I've got a sick note", he said. It was then suggested that he read what the doctor had written under "nature of illness" - "Industrial debility" - basically "tired of work". He got his ovvies on and cracked on with it