If you have a sick note/fit note from your GP, or are going to ask for one, come February 2016 you will need to explicitly tell your GP you refuse consent for them to pass your ‘fit note’ records onto the Department of Works & Pensions (DWP).

In a measure that a doctor has described as ‘state snooping’ – as reported in Pulse magazine –  the government has told GPs that they must pass on their patients’ fit note records to the DWP, and that although GPs must inform patients this is happening, the only way they – and you – can stop it happening is for patients to explicitly refuse their consent. Continue reading →