Happy New (Financial) Year! April 6th marks the new fiscal year as well as the start of the long-awaited General Election. It also marks the first of the two semi-annual dates on which the government introduces new legislation and alters allowances; which Herbert Smith call “Red Tape” day. I’ve already written about the most high-profile new measure coming into force: the new “fit note” system. Melanie Hatton at the “Law Donut” blog comments that it is too early to say whether fit notes will benefit employers or not, but makes the very useful point that employers should keep written records of reasons for those occasions when they don’t follow the G.Ps recommendations.
On the 6th April next month[1], the government’s new medical certification scheme comes into force replacing the current “Med3” sick note system. It was decided to do away with the scheme because it focussed too much on what employees could not do and not enough on what they could. In other words, a person was either too sick to work, or they were well and it ignored any, temporary or rehabilitative options that there might be to allow the person to remain in work. For instance a person with back ache might be fit to work provided they did no heavy lifting or were allowed to get up and walk about every hour to ease discomfort whilst sitting. With a Med3 that person can’t go to work despite the fact that they could do light duties. The government’s aim, of course, is to reduce the number of days lost to sickness and the number of people from claiming benefit. The government has long been exercised by how to reduce the number of people on long-term sick leave, suffering from chronic conditions and the new “fitness to work” certificate tries to remedy that.
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