I think this is good news for anyone who is worried about going back to work and being expected to be back to normal straightaway.
This new Fit Note allows the GP or other doctor to state that you may be fit for work if certain allowances or modifications to your working conditions can be made - such as phased return, altered hours, change in duties etc. The doctor can then add more detail about suggested changes and the impact of your condition. The employer doesn’t have to comply, in which case the Fit Note automatically acts as the old sick note for SSP purposes, but if they can accommodate the suggestions, it gives you the option of going back earlier with more support.
There is a lot more information at the DP website dwp.gov.uk/fitnote/ - worth a read for any of you who will be getting your sick notes extended in the near future.
This looks like an excellent development. It seems to regularize the existing position where the employee is signed off (or actually the sick note runs out) and they have to return to work when they are not able to carry on as before and end up having to fight for the things they are entitled to under the DDA. (But see my third para below.)
My wife, Janet, is currently in this position having returned to work about 4 weeks ago, so I tried to find out whether there is any advice relating to the new “Statement of Fitness for Work” for people who have recently returned to work. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any, so if anyone sees such advice, please could you let us know.
I have one big reservation about this change, though. At the moment, the employer is (I believe) obliged to accept the employee back to work when the sickness note runs out and then must make reasonable adjustments under the DDA. Could this change effectively give them the option of saying no to the reasonable adjustments and having the employee stay off work on half- or even zero-pay?
(Sorry for the negative aspect here; I have started to find myself becoming an amateur employment lawyer since Janet went back to work.)
I think the danger is that this new Fit Note may cause some confusion to employers while people get used to it, but the Employer’s Guide on the DWP website clearly states that an employer’s obligations under the DDA have not changed - here is the answer to one of the FAQs at the end of the guide:
‘If your employee has a condition covered under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), your obligations under the law have not changed. See dwp.gov.uk/employer/ disabilitydiscriminationact/
for more information on the DDA and your responsibilities.’
I would say this means that an employer would have to have very compelling reasons for refusing to make the adjustments suggested by a doctor. It will be interesting to see how it gets tested in practice. My employer is already of the frame of mind that they will accommodate my needs like a phased return and flexible hours etc so I’m hoping this will just help to formalise it and make it easier to stick to than a casual arrangement would be.
If your research turns up anything else, it would be good to know as this could be quite a change for everyone.
This sounds like a fab idea. You are suposed to have a phased retrun to work if you have a good employer but this will help a lot of people. Wish this had been around when i had returned to work both times it would have made my life soooo much easier.
Thanks elsk and saffronseed for the replies. what you have explained fits with my understanding, and thanks to saffronseed for the detailed examples and elsk for drawing attention to the statement about this not changing the obligations.
My concerns, though, are that:
The existence of this statement could be taken by employers to mean that in the absence of such a statement no adjustments need to be made. If that were the case, the employee would have to continue getting a “Fit Note” for as long as reasonable adjustments need to be made, which could be forever.
The bit that says to employers: “While you won’t have to act on the doctor’s advice in a ‘may be fit for work’ statement …” implies that an employer could keep someone off sick for longer than they want by “not acting on” the doctor’s advice. The situation before the change was that a person would be considered fit for work (not just “maybe”), and the employer would have to take them back with reasonable adjustments made under the DDA.
I think the intention is that reasonable adjustments are still required irrespective of whether there is a statement from the GP, but that raises the question of what, in practice, is the difference between getting a “may be fit for work” statement, or getting a “fit for work statement”, or having no statement at all (the current position). In all these cases, the DDA would indicate that if the employee returns to work, then the employer must make reasonable adjustments. The only differences seems to be the get-out clause for the employer in the “may be fit” statement, and the implication that no adjustments need to be made in the case of the “fit for work” statement.
As Elsk says, at the least it could create confusion among employers and actually increase the stress on the employee. However, again as elsk says, we probably need to wait and see.
This is very interesting but I wish they’d also look at self employed people too. I went self-employed in 2006. I’d been employed for over 20 years during which time I barely had any time off sick but then went self employed and had my diagnosis last year. I have had to claim employment support allowance - a big drop in income. I can’t do a staged return to work, it’s all or nothing as I work on my own and have to fulfil any contract I take on if I don’t want to put my reputation down the pan.
ESA don’t care about that. I’ve been told by Macmillan they are only interested in whether you are fit enough to do something. This means that I could in theory be switched to job seekers allowance. That would mean going to interviews to ‘help me back to work’ even though I have a business to return to. My oncologist, GP, and breast care nurse and physio all think that it’s too soon for me to return to work but apparantly that won’t make any difference.
I can see myself living totally off my savings for a couple of months if they do this.
The whole system seems ridiculous. I worked extremely hard to get myself going as self employed. I’m keen to return to work, for financial reasons as well as to get some identity back but need to feel more well than I do right now. We’ll see what happens as I’ve just sent in my medical review form …
I really feel for you. Last year, a few months before I was dx, I was seriously contemplating buying into a franchise business, but I also had a job offer and decided to take that instead. Just over 2 months after I started I was dx and one of my very early reactions to it (after the shock) was ‘thank goodness I didn’t go self-employed and spend money on a business that I would then be neglecting!’ I hope you start to feel better soon and are able to pick up your business again.
One other grey area in the Fit Note for employed people is the question of SSP and/or pay for part-time hours worked during a phased return. I am now on SSP and my GP is suggesting I might soon be up to going back for a couple of hours on a couple of days per week initially, but I can’t find any guidance for employers on how to process that in terms of pay versus SSP. I think there will be quite a bit of confusion before this settles down into a workable system.
Hello Elinda,
I too am currently claiming ESA,brief history;when I was diagnosed in
Nov.08 and found out that I would undergoing almost a year of treatment,I sold my "blue rinse"salon to the girl who worked for me.
I know that because of how the removal of my nodes has affected my arm,shoulder and the nerve pain that I have all the time,I could never do my own job again,and I simply dont have a job to return to. I have been summoned for a medical next month,its really stressing me out,hand on heart,I cant think of any job that I could do that wouldnt cause me pain,and the thought of a strange doctor not believing me is already upsetting me. Given that Im almost 58,if they decide that I am not deserving of ESA,what can they realistically expect me to do,go for interviews for work that I couldnt do if I got the job?
I really sympathise with you,Elinda,being self-employed is no picnic
when you get ill,cant you "hide" some of your savings making it possible for you to claim some money under another method,e.g.maybe income support,I know lots of elderly folk who put their dosh in sons & daughters names so they can do the above. I hope I dont get struck off the site for suggesting something illegal.
Good luck, Mags x
Thanks Mags and E. I had all my lymph nodes removed too and it’s exacerbated a shoulder problem I already had. The thing is that I have a good range of movement so according to ESA form I’d be okay as they don’t actually ask about pain particularly with anything repetative. I’ve been told by my physio to limit my time on the computer to 30 minutes per day - a bit difficult to go back to my self employed with that.
Mags it might be worth you ringing Macmillan and speaking to one of their benefits advisors. They can talk you through step by step what to expect and what to say at the interview. I had help from them filling out my ESA form and they said to ring back for help with any medical interviews.
It is the level of anxiety that all of this causes whether self employed or employed that is so awful. It’s a time in our lives when we need support not more form filling, stress, doubts about our integrity etc.
Here’s a link to Macmillan cancer support, the webpage you will be directed to contains information and advice about financial help and benefits available. As elinda mentioned they have benefits advisors and have a helpline, which you can call for more advice. You can access the number via this link too:
Employment is a really complicated and unsatisfactory situation for -all of us. Most employers, including my own (now ex-employer, Glasgow’slargest local authority) are such focused on general “absence management” that they fail, illegally to take into account that our absences are due to disability (cancer) and should be treated separately from other types of absence. My own ex employer, who should know better and be a benchsetter for non-public organizations, have failed in their implementation of any suggesstion of any section of the DDA.
I was sacked- under very questionably practice and reason and won an appeal to be reinstated for these reasons. However, 3 months later they used the “breach of contract” excuse to say I’d been absent too long in “their” opnion.
I fought it one time round and didnt have the energy or resource to fight Scotland’s largest employer, Glasgow Cit Council over their antequated practices. Having taken advice from the Human Right Commission, they agree that big employers and the many smaller ones are failing us in that they do not implement the aspects that the DDA was intented to give protection against.
If you get cancer its a case of: get back to work by … deadline set by the employer, regardless of the type of cancer and treatment plan you undergo. It’s time for someone to support us who are not only the cancer victims, but the unfair employment attitude, who say, so you’ve not finished treatment yet, you dont feel well enough yet… thats tough, we’ve decided how long you’re job will be kept open for.