Wes Streeting says sick people just need to go to the gym and work more

Health minister and right-wing lickspittle cunt Wes Streeting has said sick people don’t actually need time off work. What they need instead is to just go to the gym and work themselves to death more. Yes, the Minister for Health has said we need to look after our health less.

Speaking to the Mirror, Streeting was spaffing lyrical about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) WorkWell scheme.

From November, the scheme will see job coaches embedded in GP surgeries. Instead of giving fit notes to those too unwell to work, GPs will be encouraged to ‘prescribe’ exercise. Sick and disabled people will be forced to interact with work coaches and forced back into work instead of getting the support and rest they actually need.

Streeting hell-bent on pushing disabled people into work

Streeting told the Mirror:

A piece of paper that closes doors is no substitute for a proper plan. That’s why we are moving away from a system that just treats illness, but also tackles the factors that stop people living fuller, healthier lives at their root. Through our WorkWell initiative, which has just been extended nationwide, people who receive a fit note are being linked up with real, practical support – including physiotherapy, mental health services and advice on workplace adjustments

While the mental health and physiotherapy support is welcomed, it shouldn’t just come as a means to get people back into the workforce. These treatment options also seem a lot like trying to cure long-term, incurable conditions.

Labour, hell-bent on forcing sick and disabled people back to work, is keen to share that the number of fit notes issued jumped from 5.2 million in 2015/16 to over 11 million in 2025. However, in the final quarter of 2025, the number fell by over 14,935.

So fewer fit notes are already being issued, but there’s no telling how many of these people were actually fit for work.

Streeting continued:

 After a decade in which fit notes more than doubled, it is encouraging to see these early signs of change. But far too many people are still being quickly signed off without addressing the cause of the absence in the first place or offering any support when they’re ready to come back to work.

It’s almost like people are sick and need the time off instead of being pushed back into work, isn’t it Wesley?

The snivelling Health Secretary finished:

Good work is good for people’s health, reduces pressure on the NHS, and is essential for a strong economy. Under our 10 Year Health Plan, the NHS will play its full part in delivering that change.

While Streeting says this will reduce pressure on the NHS, what it will actually do is make people lose trust in their GPs and be scared to go to them with serious issues. It will also mean, in the long run, more pressure on emergency services and hospital wards as people work themselves to breaking point.

WorkWell doesn’t work at all

And of course Streeting is going to blame disabled people for the problems with the NHS. He is after all running reviews into whether mental health and neurodivergent conditions are overdiagnosed, putting particular emphasis on the pressure they have on the NHS.

This, as predicted, isn’t going well for him. Not only did 132 ADHD experts come out to call him on his bullshit, but the review’s interim report also says there’s no proof of overdiagnosis. But anything to cover up what’s really destroying the NHS, Streeting’s private donors.

The main problem is that WorkWell doesn’t actually work at all. When WorkWell was fully rolled out across the country, DWP published stats on it’s success, but they didn’t give us a yardstick for the success.

As I wrote in the Canary at the time:

Despite the DWP bragging that 25,000 people have been “supported” into work, it doesn’t say how many this is out of. Is this 25,000 out of 26,000 or out of 250,000? Is the success rate 90% or 10%?

We also have no idea of the fields they entered and whether they had a choice of which job they chose.  We also didn’t get any proof that they were supported to stay in work.

DWP just want disabled people dead

Despite all of this, its clearly an absolutely hollow promise from the DWP and DHSC that they’re supporting disabled people back into work. Not only is the DWP cutting Access to Work, but they have no provision for the uptick in support needs the back-to-work push will cause.

A fit note doesn’t just entitle someone to time off work; when applying for means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit, you need one to prove you’re unfit to be pushed into work.

This means long-term sick and disabled people won’t be able to prove they can’t work and won’t be eligible for extra support. This comes alongside the DWP cutting UC health payments in half for new claimants.

All these schemes will result in an uptick in disabled people’s deaths, as they have to choose between working themselves to death or having their support stripped.

To put it simply, the DWP and DHSC already know the people they want to force into work are too sick or disabled to do so. They just don’t care.

Featured image via the Canary