Government jobs tsar calls ADHD sick notes 'insane' and risk to young workers

A government adviser has described the current approach to ADHD sick notes as "insane" and warned it is trapping young people on welfare, according to reports across multiple outlets today.

The Sun reports that the jobs tsar - whose role is to reduce welfare dependency - argues the practice is "ruining young people's lives" by locking them into long-term benefit claims rather than supporting them into work. Former England manager Gareth Southgate, speaking separately, criticised what he called a "lazy" work-from-home culture and warned that Labour's tax rises pose dangers to young workers entering the labour market.

The intervention arrives as the government attempts to reconcile two competing pressures: managing the welfare bill while avoiding the charge that it is dismissing genuine diagnoses. ADHD diagnoses among working-age adults have risen sharply in recent years - the question is whether the system is identifying a previously overlooked condition or creating a category that excuses withdrawal from the labour market. The tsar appears to believe the latter.

The objection is economic, not medical. A sick note removes someone from the labour force and places them on benefits; the longer they remain out, the harder re-entry becomes. The government's calculation: if the current trajectory continues, a generation of young people will age into permanent welfare dependency at a cost the Treasury cannot bear.

Watch the employment figures at the next ONS release and whether ministers move to tighten the sick note rules. If the rhetoric does not produce policy, it was only rhetoric.