Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday the government would seek to tighten rules on long-term sick leave in a bid to reverse a rise in the number of Britons permanently withdrawing from the labor market.

Labor force participation among the UK’s working-age population is at its lowest level since 2015, largely due to a rise in long-term illness and rising student numbers, while other large, wealthy countries have seen increases since 2020.

With his sights firmly set on a national election later this year, which polls show he is expected to lose, Rishi Sunak has sought to win over the government by warning that the current welfare bill is financially unsustainable and arguing that tensions surrounding mental health issues have increased. “Sick Day Culture” to appeal to core Conservative voters. Health needs to be under control.

“We need to be more ambitious about helping people get back into work and more honest about the risks of over-medicating everyday challenges and life worries,” he said in a speech in London.

Rishi Sunak has said that if re-elected he would further push for welfare reforms, including empowering authorities to treat welfare fraud like tax fraud.

According to official figures, around 9.4 million Britons aged 16 to 64 (22% of that age group) are neither in work nor unemployed, compared with 8.55 million before the outbreak. Of these, 2.8 million are chronically ill and 206,000 are temporarily ill.

The opposition Labor Party, which leads by double digits in opinion polls, says the Conservatives have failed to create a healthy country or a healthy economy and its policies will address the root causes by reducing health care waiting lists.

Last year, the UK’s budget watchdog said a quarter of people out of work due to long-term illness were waiting for treatment, although it added that shortening waiting lists to their 2015 lengths might only see 25,000 people return to work.

More than half of those with long-term conditions reported suffering from “depression, neurasthenia or anxiety”, although many said this was a secondary condition to their main health problem.

Rishi Sunak said medics were too willing to issue repeated notices approving extended sick leave rather than advising people on how to return to work.

Rishi Sunak said he wanted healthcare staff rather than GPs to “make an objective assessment of someone’s ability to work and provide them with the tailored support they need to do their job”.

“Not only do we need to change sick notes, we need to change the sick note culture, so the default job is the job you can do, not the job you can’t do,” he said.

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