Statutory Sick Pay: New briefing lifts the lid on the financial difficulty working people face when their sick pay doesn’t pay the bills. 

 

A new analysis of the UK’s statutory sick pay arrangements has prompted calls from cancer and health charity CEOs for political parties to back improvements to statutory sick pay; as an estimated 250,000 workers* living with cancer have been left without sufficient income to cover essential bills like rent and heating.

 

We are spearheading a joint effort by cancer and health charities to tackle the UK’s currently inadequate ‘Statutory Sick Pay’ arrangement, as a new policy briefing sheds light on the severe impact thousands of people only eligible for SSP face if they are unlucky enough to fall ill.

The call comes as workers with a cancer diagnosis shared stories of the impact of surviving on the UK’s very low legal minimum and the personal difficulties they had faced, they included:

 

• Clare, a hodgkin's lymphoma survivor who reported working from her hospital bed in between rounds of in-patient chemotherapy
• Tony, who has leukaemia, declared bankruptcy due to sick pay being insufficient to cover the bills.
• Alan, a Bowel Cancer patient who received just SSP after 40 years of working and paying taxes, who was unable to provide for his family and had to rely on help from family and friends 

 

Read the briefing

 

The briefing estimates that of 127,000 people of working age diagnosed with cancer each year, 38,000 face a disastrous hit to their income, with the total number living with cancer who have been impacted estimated as at least 250,000 people*. They are able to access just £116.75 a week statutory sick pay, or no sick pay at all if they work multiple jobs below the £130 a week earnings threshold. 

 

 

The Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University calculated that the income loss for people taking time off for cancer treatment in SSP could rise to tens of thousands of pounds in the worst case scenario. 

 

This would put a financially comfortable couple on two median salaries* into significant financial difficulty, far below the minimum income standard (MIS) needed for a decent quality of life. 

 

Amanda Walters, Director of the Safe Sick Pay campaign said “Government reforms to ensure employers pay a higher rate of sick pay from day one wouldn't just be an act of compassion, it is good economic sense.”

 

These reforms have a wider benefit beyond cancer patients - safe sick pay will provide financial security that ensures many people with other types of long term conditions aside from cancer, can safely and securely return to work.

 

Work last year by WPI Economics found that these reforms to SSP could be achieved at a £4.2 billion annual net benefit to businesses, the exchequer and wider economy through improved health, reduced presenteeism and productivity gains.

 

What you can do:

The Safe Sick Pay campaign is encouraging people to write to their MPs.

Anyone interested in finding out how they could join like minded people interested in meeting their MP can sign up to enquire how to do so here: 

 

 Bills Stock photos by Vecteezy