Government Announcement on Health & Work Service

A new Health & Work Service is likely to be launched in late 2014 which introduces an independent sickness assessment aimed at cutting sick pay costs and reducing sickness absence levels.

The Government has now announced that the service will be delivered by Health Management Limited and the service will work initially by providing employees with an occupational health assessment when they reach, or are expected to reach, more than four weeks of sickness absence. A referral is likely to be made by the employee’s GP who will take receipt of information provided by the Occupational Health Therapist in addition to the employer.

It is estimated that each year nearly a million employees take absence for a least a four week period. The system aims to cut sick pay costs by £80m and will target the estimated 300,000 people who fall out of work and into the welfare system as a result of health problems.

In addition to the initial assessment, a plan will be developed in conjunction with the GP and the employer to hopefully achieve a return to work. To support this, the case manager will support each employee and a tax exemption of up to £500 a year will be applied on medical treatments which will otherwise be treated as a benefit in kind.

A full implementation date is likely to be announced shortly which will no doubt provide employers with more certainty and clarification on the extent of the new service.