I got TWO sick notes for 'stress' in under two hours without ever speaking to a ... trends now
BARNEY CALMAN: After the Prime Minister announced yesterday a crackdown on sick-note culture that has seen numbers of Britons off work due to ill health balloon to 2.8million, MailOnline discovered firms selling the official documents for as little as £25, with 'no appointments necessary'
It was disturbingly easy.
After the Prime Minister announced yesterday a crackdown on sick-note culture that has seen numbers of Britons off work due to ill health balloon to 2.8million, MailOnline discovered firms selling the official documents for as little as £25, with 'no appointments necessary'.
We put their services to the test, and in under two hours I managed to purchase two sick notes, rubber-stamped by medical professionals, signing me off work for a month, barely any questions asked.
All I had to do was say, vaguely, that I was stressed and needed time off, and hand over my credit card details.
While I have no doubt that many people use these services for perfectly legitimate reasons, our simple investigation exposes a system all to easy to abuse.
A quick Google for the term 'buy a sick note' throws up two adverts for London-based companies that promise to provide the relevant papers.
The first, home2lab.co.uk offers, among its numerous services, 'Workplace Medical Sickness Certificate/Note', same day service, a snip at just £44, or £66 if you want a 'priority service'.
I tap in a few personal details, such as my name, address and date of birth and list my symptoms. I type in a single word: 'stress'.
I pay (home2labs accepts all major credit and debit cards along with Apple and Google Pay) and within moments there's an email in my inbox requesting I upload two things to Dropbox: a short video of between 30 seconds and one minute describing my 'symptoms' and a photo ID.
One of the sick notes that Barney received, signing him off until May 19
Another sick note given to Barney stated: 'I respectfully request that you take his health and medical symptoms into account'
Using my phone camera, I film myself saying something along the lines of 'I think I am suffering from stress and I would like to request a sick note.' And that's it, really.
Initially, I'd asked to be signed off for three months and get a follow-up email from the company (not from a doctor) saying: 'As per our policy, sick notes are initially issued for a duration of two weeks, subject to doctor review and extension if deemed appropriate.
'Upon reviewing your provided
