CEOs and workers groups call for Government to address 'unsafe' levels of statutory sick pay
Calls for Employment Bill to address 'unsafe' levels of statutory sick pay
18 leading charities, experts and workers' groups, including the Chief Executives of Macmillan Cancer Support, Mind, Young Lives vs Cancer, Antony Nolan have joined the Safe Sick Pay campaign in writing an open letter to Keir Starmer, asking his Government to make changes to the employment bill to address concerns that the rate of statutory sick pay (SSP).
The call was backed by a growing group of organisations, including Citizens Advice, Maggie's, abdrn Financial Fairness Trust and Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice. The letter welcomed the day-one sick pay plans from the Government but express concern that no provisions have been made in the employment bill to consult on the amount SSP is paid for all workers who claim it. Hundreds of thousands of working people each year are diagnosed with infectious diseases, cancer, mental health conditions, or injuries. They often find themselves without adequate financial support to pay essential bills like food, rent and heating.
The letter called for the Government to include an amendment to the employment bill to make provision for ministers to increase sick pay, noting "our Statutory Sick Pay system is the least generous in the OECD and is compounding the UK's twin problems of presenteeism and worsening health amongst working age people. This situation risks holding back the Government's laudable mission to grow the economy and bolster our NHS."
Despite it being a significant source of financial hardship for working people recovering from illness, consultations on the employment bill do not currently include increasing the rate SSP is paid to all workers who receive the employer benefit. SSP, paid by employers, is presently uprated each year with inflation and is £116.75 a week. The Government is expected to include a consultation on the rate of the estimated 1 million lowest earners who receive no sick pay as they are paid under £123 from their main employment.
Support for addressing the rate sick pay is paid in Parliament is growing, with over 100 MPs from across the House of Commons, including 25 Labour MPs, supportive of the case for a sick pay increase, alongside two measures already in the bill, day one sick pay and scrapping the lower earnings limit.
Previous work by the campaign, including leading health coalition National Voices, and cancer charities Leukaemia Care, Cancer 52 and Salivary Gland Cancer found that many cancer patients were deeply affected by the income losses caused by the inadequate rate of SSP, finding themselves in prolonged periods of treatment without adequate SSP and in many causes no, or slow, access to benefits. Some reported this caused them to exit their job and become economically inactive when they could have returned to work. Others reported returning to work far too soon, jeopardising their health.
Amanda Walters from the Centre for Progressive Change, who recently met the Labour growth group of MPs to brief them on the case for sick pay reform, said, "Most of us try to battle on when we're sick, but sometimes we know that going to work will only make things worse, we'll end up sicker and less productive. The Government must seize the opportunity to address the rate of statutory sick pay now and ensure workers aren't trapped in a vicious catch-22, risking their health for want of a decent sick pay system."
Richard Quigley, MP Isle of Wight West ran an SME for 20 years before becoming an MP in July; he said: "Labour's plan to Make Work Pay is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lift workers rights. There is also an opportunity here for us to address the rate SSP is paid at, which is such a small fraction of usual earnings. Paying decent sick pay makes a tangible difference to people's lives; I know this from 20 years running an SME, where we saw the benefits of ensuring workers could take time off when they needed it. One colleague got knocked down by a car on a zebra crossing; she was worried about paying her rent. We paid her well in excess of the SSP and have been rewarded in kind by her long service. She has had a baby, and returned to work for us after her maternity leave."