[UK] Sick pay rate among lowest in Europe

Nearly two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic began, the UK still gives one of the lowest rates of sick pay in Europe, The New Statesman reports.

Employees and agency workers are entitled to just £96.35 a week in statutory sick pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks. The rate is equivalent to around 20 per cent of the average wage

Only people earning at least £120 a week qualify for the legal minimum benefit, unlike other major European countries. Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) revealed that this excludes some two million low-paid workers, the majority of them women. 

Campaigners have been calling for reform of the UK’s sick pay system for some time. A survey released on December 14 by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that 62 per cent of employers support a rise in UK statutory sick pay. The CIPD has called on the UK Government to increase sick pay payments to the level of the National Minimum Wage and to remove the lower earnings limit. 

By contrast with the UK, countries such as Germany and Norway allow employees an entitlement to sickness benefits equivalent to their average earnings (subject to certain caps). Analysis by the OECD in 2020 found that the UK employees ill with COVID-19 received the lowest rate of mandatory sick pay among member states. 

Ireland currently has no legal minimum entitlement but the country recently approved plans to introduce mandatory sick pay from 2022. At present only those isolating for COVID-19 receive an illness benefit.

Nearly two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic began, the UK still gives one of the lowest rates of sick pay in Europe, The New Statesman reports.

Employees and agency workers are entitled to just £96.35 a week in statutory sick pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks. The rate is equivalent to around 20 per cent of the average wage

Only people earning at least £120 a week qualify for the legal minimum benefit, unlike other major European countries. Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) revealed that this excludes some two million low-paid workers, the majority of them women. 

Campaigners have been calling for reform of the UK’s sick pay system for some time. A survey released on December 14 by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that 62 per cent of employers support a rise in UK statutory sick pay. The CIPD has called on the UK Government to increase sick pay payments to the level of the National Minimum Wage and to remove the lower earnings limit. 

By contrast with the UK, countries such as Germany and Norway allow employees an entitlement to sickness benefits equivalent to their average earnings (subject to certain caps). Analysis by the OECD in 2020 found that the UK employees ill with COVID-19 received the lowest rate of mandatory sick pay among member states. 

Ireland currently has no legal minimum entitlement but the country recently approved plans to introduce mandatory sick pay from 2022. At present only those isolating for COVID-19 receive an illness benefit.